Lenny (film)
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Lenny is a 1974 American biographical drama film about the comedian Lenny Bruce, starring Dustin Hoffman and directed by Bob Fosse. The screenplay by Julian Barry is based on his play of the same name.
Plot
The film jumps between various sections of Lenny Bruce's life, including scenes of when he was 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. 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 that fuels both his comedy genius and his talent for self-destruction. Worn out by a lifetime of tilting at establishment windmills, Lenny Bruce dies of a morphine overdose in 1966.
Cast
- Dustin Hoffman as Lenny Bruce
- Valerie Perrine as Honey Bruce
- Jan Miner as Sally Marr
- Stanley Beck as Artie Silver
- Rashel Novikoff as Aunt Mema
- Gary Morton as Sherman Hart
- Guy Rennie as Jack Goldman
- Aldo Demeo as Bailiff
Production
The part of Honey Bruce was originally offered to Lynda Day George, who turned it down because she was uncomfortable with the nudity and harsh subject matter.[1]
Release
Lenny opened at Cinema I in New York City on November 10, 1974, and grossed a house record $14,981 in its first day.[2]
Reception
Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 88% based on 32 reviews. The critical consensus reads: "Dustin Hoffman inhabits Lenny Bruce with nervy energy in Bob Fosse's richly stylized telling of the pioneering comedian's career and downfall."[3] On Metacritic, it has a score of 61 out of 100, based on 9 critic reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[4]
Pauline Kael for The New Yorker wrote that the film was "for audiences who want to believe that Lenny Bruce was a saintly gadfly who was martyred for having lived before their time" and mentions it's "well made" but complains that it takes itself so "insufferably seriously." Kael finishes with the acknowledgement that the movie is "black and white earnest" and that the "youth-culture saintliness laid on Lenny Bruce are the ultimate in modern showbiz sentimentality."[5]
One of the less enthusiastic reviews came from Roger Ebert, stating, "Unless we go in convinced that Lenny Bruce was an important performer, the movie doesn't convince us."[6]
In 2012, British film critic Mark Kermode put Hoffman's performance as Lenny Bruce at number eight in a top-ten video of Hoffman's best performances.[7]
Accolades
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Home media
Lenny was released on DVD by MGM Home Video April 1, 2003, in a Region 1 widescreen format, and by Twilight Time (under license from MGM and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment) as a Region 1 widescreen Blu-ray February 10, 2015.
See also
References
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External links
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- 1974 American films
- 1970s English-language films
- 1970s biographical drama films
- 1974 drama films
- 1974 films
- 1974 LGBTQ-related films
- American biographical drama films
- American black-and-white films
- American films based on plays
- American LGBTQ-related films
- Biographical films about entertainers
- Cultural depictions of Lenny Bruce
- English-language biographical drama films
- Films about censorship
- Films about comedians
- Films about freedom of expression
- Films directed by Bob Fosse
- Films scored by Ralph Burns
- Films set in the 1950s
- Films set in the 1960s
- United Artists films