Themes: Fighting the System, Tortured Genius, Rise and Fall Stories
Main Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Valerie Perrine, Jan Miner, Stanley Beck, Gary Morton
Release Year: 1974
Country: US
Run Time: 111 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Adapted by Julian Barry from his own Broadway play, Lenny manages to be both brutally frank and highly romanticized in detailing the short life and career of influential, controversial stand-up comedian Lenny Bruce. The chronology hops, skips and jumps between Lenny (Dustin Hoffman) in his prime and the burned-out, strung-out performer who, in the twilight of his life, used his nightclub act to pour out his personal frustrations at great, boring length. We watch as up-and-coming comic Bruce courts his "Shiksa goddess," a stripper named Honey (Valerie Perrine). With family responsibilities, Lenny is encouraged to do a "safe," conformist act, but he can't do it. Constantly in trouble for flouting obscenity laws, Lenny develops a near-messianic complex, which fuels both his comedy genius and his talent for self-destruction. Worn out by a lifetime of tilting at Establishment windmills, Lenny Bruce died of a drug overdose in 1966. Director Bob Fosse chose to film Lenny in black-and-white, giving the film the texture of a documentary. Though a film as verbally graphic as Lenny could not have been made when the real Lenny Bruce was alive, audiences in 1974 responded, to the tune of an $11 million gross. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
His first non-musical film, Bob Fosse's biopic Lenny (1974) confirmed the breadth of the former hoofer's -- and his star Dustin Hoffman's -- protean talents. Detailing socially conscious pottymouth comic Lenny Bruce's trailblazing rise and self-immolating fall in a series of flashbacks, Fosse and screenwriter Julian Barry inject grim drama into an unsentimental portrait of the artist as a highly flawed man. Along with re-staging pieces of the straight-talking routines that made Bruce famous, Fosse and Hoffman relentlessly reveal his demise as a performer in an unwavering long take of Bruce's drug-addled on-stage meltdown after his obscenity trials. Bruce Surtees' rich black-and-white photography lends a note of documentary authenticity as well as an appropriately somber nocturnal atmosphere. Oscar nominee and critics' prize-winner Valerie Perrine hit her career peak as Bruce's stripper-turned-junkie wife, Honey. Hoffman's embodiment of the comic illuminates Bruce's own destructive role in his free speech martyrdom. Praised by the critics and well appreciated by a culturally savvy 1974 audience that didn't mind cinematic downers, Lenny went on to receive six Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Fosse's second nod for Best Director, and Best Actor. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
Rashel Novikoff - Aunt Mema; George de Witt - Comic; Jack Nagle - Rev. Mooney; Don Newsome - Connection; Ric O'Feldman - Court Clerk; Phil Philbin - New York Cop; Guy Rennie - Jack Goldstein; Lee Sandman - Judge; Mark Harris - Defense Attorney; Frank Orsatti - Hunter; Glenn Wilder; Clarence Thomas - New York Attorney; Robert Parsons - Chicago Plainclothesman; Bruce McLaughlin - Judge; Monroe Myers - Judge; John DiSanti - John Santi; Martin Begley - San Francisco Judge; Bridghid Glass - Kitty at Age 2; Allison Goldstein - Kitty at Age 1; Susan Malnick - Kitty Bruce at Age 11; Ted Sorrell - Defense Attorney; Bob Collins - New York Assistant DA; Mike Murphy - District Attorney
Credit
Albert Wolsky - Costume Designer, Ted Zachary - First Assistant Director, Douglas Green - First Assistant Director, Bob Fosse - Director, Alan Heim - Editor, David V. Picker - Executive Producer, Ralph Burns - Composer (Music Score), Ralph Burns - Musical Direction/Supervision, Roland "Ozzie" Smith - Camera Operator, Joel Schiller - Production Designer, Bruce Surtees - Cinematographer, Robert Greenhut - Producer, Marvin Worth - Producer, Nicholas Romanac - Set Designer, Dennis L. Maitland - Sound/Sound Designer, Richard Vorisek - Sound/Sound Designer, Julian Barry - Screenwriter
Lenny is a 1974 film about the life of the comedian Lenny Bruce, starring Dustin Hoffman. Directed by Bob Fosse. The screenplay by Julian Barry is based on his play Lenny.
The chronology hops, skips and jumps between Lenny Bruce in his prime and the burned-out, strung-out performer who, in the twilight of his life, used his nightclub act to pour out his personal frustrations. We watch as up-and-coming Bruce courts his "Shiksa goddess", a stripper named Honey. With family responsibilities, Lenny is encouraged to do a "safe" act, but he cannot do it. Constantly in trouble for flouting obscenity laws, Lenny develops a near-messianic complex which fuels both his comedy genius and his talent for self-destruction. Worn out by a lifetime of tilting at Establishment windmills, Lenny Bruce died in 1966.
It was known that Hoffman would spend days listening and watching Bruce's routines and practice mimicking in front of a mirror to get the feel of the role.
In his memoir Private Parts (book), Howard Stern said that he saw Lenny as the first date with his now ex-wife, Alison; he called this a good sign of things to come as he would later be compared to Bruce and recognize his influence. The film adaptation of Private Parts would feature similar interview transitions.
