excellent
Added 11/1/2009
This is a great film about a comic nammed Lenny Bruce, not the comic, Lenny Bruce.
Watch films of the real Lenny: he is a big framed man, a hipster with a streem of consiousness mind and a airplane gunners mouth. His humor is scattalogical and wonders through the complexities of his mind before subtley arriving on point.
Fossee and Hoffman distil the comady and make Lenny seem like a crusading intellectual. The humor here is tight and to the point--excellent stand up--just not Lenny.
Also, all accounts I read say by 1966, Lenny was broken by junk and waiting to die. True, he spent a lot of legal fights, but he spent more on heroin. Lenny, the film, makes it seem like he was broken more by his leagal battles than the drugs--that he was a crusading martyr ready to give all for the cause rather than a sad, broken victim of addiction.
Had Lenny lived into 1968 or 1969, he would have been in a whole new era, and a lot of his leagal issues would have taken care of themselves. Comics like Richard Pryor and George Carlin made Bruce seem tame by comparison, as did the counterculture about to explode when Lennt died.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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If you want a bio, it's informative, and as I understand it, honest, as Lenny Bruce was not considered by many as great, but his passion for free speech is commendable, I think. As a movie, it focuses too much on the couple, and at times, I needed to step back and breath.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Hot Honey Harlow
Added 5/10/2008
I think this movie is great! I have purchased a Baker's dozen for my friends. I married Honey Bruce in 1984, here in Honolulu (husband number two). I first had the pleasure of meeting Honey in 1974 in San Anselmo, California. That summer, I was playing the bass guitar in a rock n' roll band for a fellow by the name of MiddleJohn. Middle and I were living in a ranch house directly across the street from where Honey was making her home. I was sleeping in my 1971 Dodge Sportsman camper Van which I parked at the end of the street.
One lazy afternoon, I had set up my amplifier on the front porch of the house. Plugged in my bass guitar and was playing bass riffs. Honey was across the street doing her gardening. She came over and introduced herself to me and showed me a photo of her daughter Kitty in TIME magazine. Honey invired me over her house and into her livingroom. We became very good friends. Honey kept trying to get me to play bass along with a record of her's on her stereo - Alice Stuart.
I dragged my amplifier into her livingroom and played the bass away. I was pretty good. That was thirty-five years ago. As you can imagine I have many stories to share but time is limited. Please visit my website at [...] - The music says it all! Peace & Love, Jeffrey W. Friedman (Honolulu)
0 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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Lenny on videotape
Added 4/28/2008
Excellent condition, great price. Technology changes, great art doesn't. Bob Fosse and Dustin Hoffman for pennies -- videotape is better and cheaper than ever!
1 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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Lenny Bruce was not only first, but he was different.
Added 11/13/2007
For a film that's over 30 years old, this looks great. What helps matters is that it's black and white, which is easier to clean up in the post production process. Really though, it looks like it could have been filmed last year. Dustin Hoffman channels Lenny Bruce in a film directed by Bob Fosse. Yes it's a weird thing, there's no denying that. Bob Fosse, who was better known for his choreography (Chicago, Cabaret), turned to directing as another outlet of his creative forces. As for Hoffman, looking at his body of work makes this role in particular standout. I'm surprised that he chose to play Bruce, an outspoken, angry man. After all, Hoffman is usually more the weirdo or mealy-mouthed villain. Then again, what was Bruce if not a slightly weird guy, who ultimately was shy except when he inhabited the stage.
Lenny Bruce was the driving force behind making comedy into the socially challenging medium it is today. The structure is episodes of his life tied together with commentary from his agent, his wife (played by Valerie Perrine), and other important characters in his life. Lenny was one of the original dirty mouthed comedians, but with a point. He was taking on the establishment, and the hypocrisy of contemporary society. He was arrested and tried several times on obscenity charges, for things like using the word c**sucker during a public performance. He also had a problem with drug abuse, largely due to the influence of his addict wife. She was a headline stripper when they met, and he was a young comedian. Bruce died never really seeing the fruits of his passion.
Fosse was an accomplished director, managing to channel some mavericks of his own in the direction of this movie. With its loose cutting style and drifting camera, the film at points feels like a Cassavete's film and this style works perfectly with the subject matter. Because of this, Lenny has a pure authenticity that's impossible to shake. There never feels like a false moment and Hoffman is particularly great (he was nominated for this role.) All of Lenny's acts are performed nearly verbatim, and all the court and interview transcripts are pulled from his life. Given that Bruce was a man under constant surveillance while he performed, so that the recordings could be used against him in court, allowing these same words to redeem him is Lenny's greatest accomplishment. Even if he doesn't know it, Lenny was right all along. I honestly enjoyed this film and like to thank JoeyD. for recommend it to me.
3 out of 3 people found this helpful.
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excellent
Added 11/1/2009
This is a great film about a comic nammed Lenny Bruce, not the comic, Lenny Bruce.
Watch films of the real Lenny: he is a big framed man, a hipster with a streem of consiousness mind and a airplane gunners mouth. His humor is scattalogical and wonders through the complexities of his mind before subtley arriving on point.
Fossee and Hoffman distil the comady and make Lenny seem like a crusading intellectual. The humor here is tight and to the point--excellent stand up--just not Lenny.
Also, all accounts I read say by 1966, Lenny was broken by junk and waiting to die. True, he spent a lot of legal fights, but he spent more on heroin. Lenny, the film, makes it seem like he was broken more by his leagal battles than the drugs--that he was a crusading martyr ready to give all for the cause rather than a sad, broken victim of addiction.
Had Lenny lived into 1968 or 1969, he would have been in a whole new era, and a lot of his leagal issues would have taken care of themselves. Comics like Richard Pryor and George Carlin made Bruce seem tame by comparison, as did the counterculture about to explode when Lennt died.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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If you want a bio, it's informative, and as I understand it, honest, as Lenny Bruce was not considered by many as great, but his passion for free speech is commendable, I think. As a movie, it focuses too much on the couple, and at times, I needed to step back and breath.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Hot Honey Harlow
Added 5/10/2008
I think this movie is great! I have purchased a Baker's dozen for my friends. I married Honey Bruce in 1984, here in Honolulu (husband number two). I first had the pleasure of meeting Honey in 1974 in San Anselmo, California. That summer, I was playing the bass guitar in a rock n' roll band for a fellow by the name of MiddleJohn. Middle and I were living in a ranch house directly across the street from where Honey was making her home. I was sleeping in my 1971 Dodge Sportsman camper Van which I parked at the end of the street.
One lazy afternoon, I had set up my amplifier on the front porch of the house. Plugged in my bass guitar and was playing bass riffs. Honey was across the street doing her gardening. She came over and introduced herself to me and showed me a photo of her daughter Kitty in TIME magazine. Honey invired me over her house and into her livingroom. We became very good friends. Honey kept trying to get me to play bass along with a record of her's on her stereo - Alice Stuart.
I dragged my amplifier into her livingroom and played the bass away. I was pretty good. That was thirty-five years ago. As you can imagine I have many stories to share but time is limited. Please visit my website at [...] - The music says it all! Peace & Love, Jeffrey W. Friedman (Honolulu)
0 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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