Amazon.com video review:
Proving that he may be the most fearless actor of his or any
other generation, Harvey Keitel gives an amazing, no-holds-barred
performance in director Abel Ferrara's uncompromising 1992 film about
a New York cop on the edge of self-annihilation. The film's title is
meant to be taken literally: Keitel's character has no redeeming
values whatsoever, save for his desperate need for redemption. Leonard
Maltin's Movie & Video Guide is correct in calling this an
"over-the-top Catholic guilt movie," but it's been made with such
conviction that Ferrara and Keitel transcend the sheer unpleasantness
of the material to give it a kind of tragic divinity. Here's a
character so vile and corrupted that he consumes or re-sells the drugs
he confiscates, but when he's assigned to investigate the brutal rape
of a nun who refuses to press charges, he feels that this is his
opportunity to redeem his rotten soul. Deservedly rated NC-17 due to
its rough content and a frontal nude scene that even Keitel's most
loyal fans could do without, this film tends to divide viewers into
love-it-or-hate-it categories, but few could deny its raw power and
the deeply anguished humanity that Keitel brings to his role. Whatever
your reaction may be, few would deny this is an unforgettable
film. --Jeff Shannon
