The King of Comedy
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Actor: Jerry Lewis, Lou Brown (III), Robert De Niro, Sandra Bernhard, Vinnie GonzalesBrand: Fox
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 109 minutes
Published: 2002-12-01
DVD Release Date: 2002-12-17
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: 20th Century Fox
DVD Reviews of The King of Comedy
DVD Review: squirm...
Summary: 5 Stars
"The King of Comedy" is the complementary "bookend" of another Scorsese masterpiece, "Taxi Driver", with Robert DeNiro playing asocial, near-psychotic fame-obsessed characters in both. Both films play strongly against audience expectation -- "King" even more than "Taxi".
In "The King of Comedy", DeNiro's character, Rupert Pupkin -- a seemingly untalented standup-comic wannabe -- is played for very black non-laughs. Rupert is so cut off from normal social interaction that he's unable to make any progress towards becoming the great stand-up comic he knows he's destined to be. When an encounter with his late-night idol Jerry Langford (Jerry Lewis) finally opens the possibility of appearing on television, he completely blows the chance, throwing him into the anguish that provokes increasingly demented assaults on his idol.
On your first viewing -- and likely your third and tenth -- you'll be so violently embarrassed by Pupkin's self-destructive behavior that your toes will spastically curl down -- and stay there. You'll squirm so much you'll think you've mutated into a graboid. Rumor has it the actors _themselves_ were so embarrassed that scenes which should have taken hours to film took _days_.
This acute discomfort explains the film's box-office failure (not to mention its "sitting in the can" for nearly two years) -- the average viewer isn't interested in a protagonist devoid of any sympathetic or redeeming characteristics -- until the end.
The ending wholly upsets our expectations. Though we've been lead to believe Rupert lacks any mirth-provoking skills, he shows himself quite able to get an audience to laugh. His routine might not be brilliant, but he's no less funny than most comedians guesting on late-night talk shows.
Significantly, Pupkin's routine isn't a series of jokes, but a more or less literal recitation of his miserable childhood. What the audience finds funny is actually Rupert's personal tragedy. We finally begin to understand why he's so screwed up. (I disagree with Roger Ebert that the film has no "payoff" and the ending is "cynical and unsatisfying".)
Tthough "Taxi Driver" and "The King of Comedy" are fundamentally similar, the latter inverts two important elements of the former...
>> Despite its gritty look, "Taxi Driver" is fundamentally romantic, while "King of Comedy" treats the material in a semi-documentary style. Scorsese never "tells" us how we're supposed to react to the characters.
>> We're initially annoyed (to say the least!) by Rupert Pupkin, then ultimately sympathize with him. Travis Bickle is at first the sympathetic loner, until we realize he's a psycho -- underscored (pun intended) by Bernard Herrmann's re-use of the three-note "mad house" theme at the end.
Which brings us to the films' use of music. The "Taxi Driver" score came from the greatest film composer yet to have set pen to paper, while "King of Comedy" has _no_ score. Why?
Bernard Herrmann felt music was needed to make the emotional connection between the screen and the audience. This ain't necessarily so -- you can fully convey the most-profound emotions in a scoreless film (eg, "The Execution of Private Slovick").
Music's ability to enhance emotion is _so_ strong it can override the director's intentions. This is probably why Hitchcock initially told Herrmann _not_ to score Janet Leigh's shower. Without music, the scene is indescribably brutal. With Herrmann's music, its Expressionistic elements are raised to the Nth power. Is it any wonder Hitchcock was thrilled and let the music stand?
Scorsese must have recognized this, and realized that any musical "comment" on Rupert Pupkin's behavior would only soften and sentimentalize the audience's reaction to him. When Pupkin makes an utter fool of himself, the audience has to experience it directly -- gurgling bassoons can't be telling the viewer they're not supposed to take it seriously. Similarly, when we finally begin to understand Rupert at the end, Scorsese doesn't want to sentimentalize the moment.
If you have any lingering doubts about seeing "The King of Comedy", there's _one_ thing in it (ignoring even DeNiro's incredibly perfect "should have won an Oscar" performance -- he _is_ Rupert Pupkin) that fully justifies a view: After kidnapping Langford, Pupkin and Masha tie him to a chair, then duct-tape his mouth.
The sight of "Mr. Greasy-Hair No-Talent" himself, Jerry Lewis, with his mouth taped shut (Oh, joy! Oh, rapture!), is worth the price of admission, many, many times over. If all Martin Scorsese's work were destroyed, excpet for this one scene, it would be enough to sanctify his work as a movie maker. I grovel at Scorsese's feet, for (at least symbolically) putting the French toast of intellectuals in his place. It's doubly pleasing, because Lewis's turn as Langford is, consciously or not, strinkingly self-satirizing.
If you have Microsoft Cinemania, look up the Ebert and Kael reviews. Ebert's shows why he is one of the finest critics around -- whether or not you agree with him, you come away with a better understanding of a film. (It's also worthwhile reading Ebert's review of "Taxi Driver" to see how much of what he says about that film can be applied to "The King of Comedy.") Kael's review shows that the only insight she has into anything is her own self-serving attitude. There was never a "serious" movie critic who brought _less_ -- intellectually or emotionally -- to the reviewing process than Pauline Kael (qv, her review of "2001").
Is "The King of Comedy" a truly great film? I don't know. But it _is_ a terrific piece of totally uncompromising film making. Anyone who claims to love movies should see it.
Description of The King of Comedy
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