Expanding the Horizons of Cinematic Narrative
17
crossroads: either spend her life as a powerless victim or seize back power by
turning the hunters into the hunted.
King o f New York and Bad Lieutenant
Two of Ferrara’s crime films, King o f New York (1990) and Bad
Lieutenant (1992), are also infused with Nietzschean themes and imagery. In
King o f New York, Christopher Walken plays a gangster who is released from
prison and immediately wants to take over the drug trade in New York City. In a
futile attempt at redemption, the gangster uses the “dirty” money to build a
hospital in East Harlem, gives hotel rooms to the homeless, and feeds the poor.
These acts of charity are juxtaposed with the gangster’s merciless violence used
to regain control of his criminal empire.
King o f New York's Nietzschean interpretation hinges on the
philosopher’s idea that Christian concepts of good and evil are fraudulent and
meaningless. For Nietzsche, all that results from weakness is bad; only the
fullest extent of happiness can be found in the feeling that power increases.
According to Nietzsche, Christian notions of good and evil are anti-natural
because they suppress man’s true condition, which is predicated on heightening
the feeling of power and achieving the will to power (Nietzsche, 1885;
Nietzsche, 1886; Nietzsche, 1895). In Ferrara’s film, the gangster rejects the
Christian view of good and evil, and instead embarks on a path designed to
simultaneously heal the wounds of his troubled psyche (via the hospital project
and helping the poor) and seize control of what was once his—the drug trade
taken over by other forces while he was in prison. This is a character who
embraces the Nietzschean perspective in that both attempts on the gangster’s
part are natural because they involve the heightening of power; in this case, both
internal and external power. Applying Nietzsche’s philosophy to King o f New
York, Christian concepts of good and evil would have compelled the gangster to
seek redemption in ways that weaken the will to power—that is, through seeking
mercy from a higher spiritual source rather than employing a course of action
that is “of the world” and locates the “power itself in man.”
Meanwhile, Ferrara’s Bad Lieutenant stars Harvey Keitel as a corrupt
cop who deals drugs, uses heroin, drinks heavily, humiliates women, and
increasingly sinks into a world of filth and degradation. As the lieutenant’s
behavior careens out of control, he eventually realizes that his badge won’t
protect him anymore. In the midst of losing what’s left of his integrity, the
lieutenant investigates the blasphemous and brutal rape of a nun inside a
Catholic church by two hoods. Although the nun knows who they are, he is
outraged that she won’t reveal their identities. When the policeman accidentally
encounters the two rapists, he lets them go instead of killing them. This
represents an act of redemption for the lieutenant, inspired by the mercy
illustrated by the nun’s silence. However, it proves too late for redemption when
the lieutenant is shot to death by his enemies (Bad Lieutenant, 1992).