Justin here. Continuing The Movie Advocate's look at movies that dealt with censorship (which coincidentally falls on banned books week), I present 1974's Lenny Bruce biopic, Lenny.
The unfortunate fact about biopics is that they typically aren't remembered as well as they should be. Several years after they come out, biopics are forgotten. I'll chock this up to two things: the majority of biopics (especially now days) are Oscar bait; and biopics are made for the fickle crowd of people that like movies that are based on a true story. Maybe I'm being a little harsh here, but take Lenny for instance. Here is a movie starring one of the greatest actors of our time about (arguably) the greatest comedian who ever lived and directed by the visionary who made Cabaret – yet this movie has only the most basic DVD release and virtually no following. Lenny is a modern forgotten gem that tells a story too important to be lost or brushed off as not relevant.
Lenny tells the warts and all story of Lenny Bruce. Without getting too much into it, Bruce is widely considered the father of modern stand-up comedy. In his day, he pushed against the strict standards of the unjust obscenity laws with his material which while edgy with regard to race, sexuality, and religion exposed the ugly truths and hypocrisies of America in the 1950s and early 1960s. He gained relatively wide spread attention through his records and later through his antics appearing before courts arguing for his first amendment rights. Ultimately the line between Bruce's stand up and legal troubles blurred as performances disintegrated into Bruce reading his own court transcripts as comedy. He unfortunately died well before his time at the age of 40 after the mental and emotional exhaustion of his final years and a nasty heroin habit.
The movie does an expert job sorting through the various facts in Bruce's life. Bruce published a very entertaining autobiography, How to Talk Dirty and Influence People, but it is light on facts. Quite a bit of that book was culled from his routines, or lies. Julian Barry's screenplay based on his own stage play is tight and balances performance footage with the melodrama and facts with lies. We watch as Bruce struggles to find his own voice and begins telling the jokes that he wants to hear. We see Bruce struggle with a toxic relationship born of his insecurities and mother issues. But we also see an incredibly faithful recreation of a life at war with itself. The parts where Hoffman recreates Bruce's act are all revealing to the internal drama of this complex man. Those scenes punctuate the melodrama of his life providing a contrast between the effortless cool onstage and the drug addled shambles that Bruce's life turns into.
Bob Fosse shot the movie in black and white which is a good fit to show the character and the ugliness of the venues Lenny Bruce worked in. Where the movie really shines though is through the performances by Dustin Hoffman and Valerie Perrine. Hoffman's Bruce is full of the manic energy and moody darkness that permeated his stand-up. Perrine is fantastic as Lenny's stripper wife, Honey Bruce. The scenes where Hoffman struggles against her for control of their daughter are powerful and sad.
Biopics of controversial characters are invariably colored by the perceptions of the film makers. For example, I'm a huge Notorious B.I.G fan, but while I was watching the movie Notorious, I really didn't buy the depiction of Sean P. Diddy Combs as the voice of reason trying to keep Biggie from feuding with Tupac. I know that Diddy is the most shameless promoter this side of Stan Lee. When the credits rolled of course, Diddy was one of the executive producers. It's clear that Bob Fosse and company have enormous respect for Lenny Bruce and want to showcase what was so great about him. But they never shy away from the ugly parts of his life. It doesn't come off as exploitative though, it comes off as feeling true.
The reason why so many people have been able to connect with Lenny Bruce is because he used obscenity and vulgarity to get to the truth about America with all of its contradictions. The fact that he was unfairly targeted by government, I think, is less of a reflection of square America, and more of a testament to how powerful Bruce's message was. Of course that message cannot be adequately expressed in a couple of hours. Lenny is a great introduction to this complicated and fascinating man. Hoffman is a dead ringer for Bruce and is as faithful to the man and the message as possible. I'll leave you with a little taste of one of the best routines from the movie. As you can imagine, its audio is NSFW depending on where you work.