1. Bad Lieutenant (1992)
Harvey Keitel as the titular Lieutenant goes on wanton binges of self destruction throughout this movie leading, inevitably to his death. There is a litany of self-destructive acts in the film starting with the lieutenant snorting coke before he goes to work and then pretending to chase drug dealers so that he can take their crack for his own personal use. He indulges in a threesome with two women after his crack binge. Gambling also proves to be a problem for our friend the lieutenant and he gets himself into serious financial trouble by placing dud bets on football games. As he becomes more enmeshed with drugs, his behaviour deteriorates. He lifts the drugs from a crime scene and to everyone's shock, they fall out of his pocket. His betting goes even more haywire and he pulls over to two young prostitutes and gets them to simulate oral sex while he masturbates. While investigating the rape of a nun, he has an emotional breakdown and hurls himself at a statue of Jesus confessing his sins and begging him for forgiveness. In the end, his self destruction leads to his own demise as he is shot and killed. Keitel's performance is central to the film. He manages to be both monstrous but extremely human at the same time. He must have major, major deep rooted psychological problems because hardly has a screen character self destructed with such gusto. Drink, drugs, gambling, infidelity, hookers, corruption. His self destruction truly is an embarrassment of riches. Ultimately questing for redemption and knowing that he has broken every rule of decency and humanity, the lieutenant dies as a result of his self destructive tendencies. Keitel acts his socks off to make this all believable.