Even by the scuzzy standards of Abel Ferrara’s filmography, Bad Lieutenant is particularly filthy. The film follows the exploits of Harvey Keitel’s unnamed New York City police detective as he nominally investigates the rape of a nun (Frankie Thorn) but largely engages in a series of self-destructive acts involving drugs, alcohol, and abuses of powers. Despite being a Catholic himself, the lieutenant can scarcely show an ounce of sympathy for the nun to his colleagues. Upon hearing of a reward offered for the rapists’ arrest, he explodes, “Girls get raped every day. Now they’re gonna put up 50 Gs just ‘cause these girls wear fucking penguin suits?”

Just beneath this nihilistic surface, however, is a man barely able to tamp down the spiritual crisis that arises not merely from the crime but the victim’s response to it. Not long after the nun returns to her church, she...