Premise: The story of Lenny Bruce's rise and tragic fall.
What's tough about telling the Lenny Bruce story is that his story toward the end isn't actually that interesting. Mostly, it's just sad. He got famous for his stand-up that challenged decency laws, but by the end, he was a junkie complaining about his legal problems. Even his rise wasn't particularly interesting. At least, this movie doesn't crack the code to make it that interesting. Basically, he was a middling comedian who started going blue. That got him notoriety and infamy, but it was soon followed by drug and legal problems.
That's what's kind of ironic about Lenny Bruce. I'm not sure that he was ever that funny. I've heard a few clips here and there, and he always seemed more shocking than clever. Compared to what other stand ups were doing at the time, he's lightyears ahead in terms of content, not writing. Still, I don't debate anyone that calls him one of the greatest stand ups, because he really did walk so everyone else could run. Bruce died in 1966. By the time this film came out in 1974 (after what I believe was a pretty lengthy post-production), his material was already pretty average. Things caught up that fast. A generation of comedians, even contemporaries of his, were inspired enough by what he did, that the whole profession pushed the boundaries enough to break past the decency laws.
Or, maybe Lenny Bruce was just born a couple years too early. 1966 was right as the counter-culture revolution got going. A Lenny Bruce that hadn't been beaten down by years of legal troubles certainly would've shown up at a Woodstock, right? 1967 was the year the New Hollywood showed up with Bonnie and Clyde and The Graduate. He certainly would've found his way into some movies. It becomes a chicken and egg argument, because people like Bruce pushed the boundaries to allow the Summer of Love, but a certain amount sure feels like it was bound to happen anyway. Had he been a few years younger, would society have been much more inviting of his boundary pushing? Granted, in that scenario, a different comedian probably would've filled the Lenny Bruce role.
I should probably talk about the film though. It's OK. Dustin Hoffman does a good job picking up Bruce's mannerisms, although he never really disappeared into the role for me. Bob Fosse's direction is very active and lively. I liked Valerie Perrine too, as Lenny's equally troubled wife. The big problem with the movie I had is something pointed out by Roger Ebert in his review. If I didn't already know that Lenny Bruce was important, I wouldn't come away from this movie knowing that he mattered. This does little to sell me on him as one of the greats. Most of the stand-up material is ranty and disjointed. Some of that, like the excellent extended fixed camera scene of a really disastrous Chicago set toward the end, is meant to show his decline. But, even the "victory" clips of his stand up are more thought provoking than funny. And it makes a point that his stuff before he went blue wasn't very good. That touches on one of the great things for the legend of Lenny Bruce and one of the worst things for trying to memorialize him in film: there aren't a lot of recordings of him. There are hundreds of hours of George Carlin or Richard Pryor to use. There are only a few recordings of Bruce, and most of it is later in his career.
This movie probably came out about a decade too soon. Bob Fosse's Cabaret fame still got this a lot of Oscar nomination love, but I think the better film would've had a few more years to reckon with Bruce's legacy. I mean, George Carlin's Class Clown with his "7 Dirty Words" set only came out in 1972, and his landmark Supreme Court case and win happened four years after this film was released. That has direct ties to Lenny Bruce and would've made an excellent coda to the film. Just a thought.
Verdict: Weakly Don't Recommend
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