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United Kingdom released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: LANGUAGES: English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 ), French ( Dolby Digital 2.0 ), German ( Dolby Digital 2.0 ), Italian ( Dolby Digital 2.0 ), Spanish ( Dolby Digital 2.0 ), Danish ( Subtitles ), Dutch ( Subtitles ), English ( Subtitles ), Finnish ( Subtitles ), French ( Subtitles ), German ( Subtitles ), Greek ( Subtitles ), Hungarian ( Subtitles ), Italian ( Subtitles ), Norwegian ( Subtitles ), Portuguese ( Subtitles ), Spanish ( Subtitles ), Swedish ( Subtitles ), WIDESCREEN (1.78:1), SPECIAL FEATURES: Black & White, Interactive Menu, Scene Access, Trailer(s), SYNOPSIS: 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. SCREENED/AWARDED AT: BAFTA Awards, Cannes Film Festival, Golden Globes, Oscar Academy Awards, ...Lenny
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape
Lenny Bruce was a complex and troubled individual. In many ways he symbolised the paradoxes of the sixties. He longed for freedom but wound up addicted to substances, he wanted sexual liberation yet he was mysoginistic and immature in his attitudes to women, he spoke his mind, but in the land of the free, was constantly in trouble with the law for the things he said.
Lenny's words still have the power to shock in this masterful biopic and Dustin Hoffman shows again why he is one of the most versatile and well-loved character actors of our time. Though he may not be the great comendic talent that Bruce was, this grossly under-rated film is not just about stand-up and Hoffman's understanding of the real Lenny Bruce on and off-stage make 'Lenny' a fascinating look into the life and times of the ground-breaking comic.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
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.
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.
Format:DVD
"Lenny", played by Dustin Hoffman, with Valerie Perrine and directed by Bob Fosse, is the story of Leonard Alfred Schneider (1925-1966), better known by his stage name Lenny Bruce, a Jewish-American comedian, social critic and satirist. His 1964 conviction in an obscenity trial was followed by a posthumous pardon, the first in New York state history.
The film/DVD will undoubtedly still shock people as the original Lenny Bruce did and some may even question the film's rating of fifteen for the same reasons.
It is, undoubtedly, a sad tale, a comedian with the ability successfully to entertain audiences with that typically Jewish humour we know from Mel Brooks, Woody Allen, Shecky Greene, Red Buttons, Milton Berle and many others but he was not content with that. He pushed his humour far into foul-mouthed satire and social criticism of an extreme variety (as he saw it) and fell foul of the authorities. Unable to prevent himself, determined to assert the right to perform, misguided, in an alcoholic and drug induced haze or just pig-headed (and the film presents all of these, and other motivations at times) he pursues a path that until "One last four-letter word for Lenny: Dead. At forty. That's obscene."
Hoffman played him to perfection and, despite his unattractive features (Bruce not Hoffman), managed to elicit sympathy; the character was ideal for Hoffman, the determined and driven underdog, and he shows why he is now one of the cinemas most respected actors.
The 1974 black-and-white film obviously drew the crowds to the tune of an $11 million gross. It was screened or awarded at the BAFTA Awards, Cannes Film Festival, Golden Globes and Oscar Academy Awards. The b/w made remastering it easier and the DVD quality is very good; somehow, the b/w seems to set it clearly in its time and reinforce its age.
Not everyone's evening's entertainment and certainly NOT family viewing, it will present thinking adults with a great deal to consider, e.g. changing styles of humour, "rights" of comedians, social commentators and satarists to stretch the boundaries of acceptability, authorities' duties to determine a socially acceptable line and maintain it, what drives individuals like Bruce to use/misuse/abuse lives in the way he did and others do and so on. Many comedians, in public performances, still stretch the boundaries, e.g. Billy Connolly has always sworn copiously in live performances, although he avoids it on television and even the popular and mild-manner Michael Macintyre changes his deliveries for live audiences. However, Bruce was in another "linguistic and observation league" altogether, as the film shows clearly.
The film/DVD will undoubtedly still shock people as the original Lenny Bruce did and some may even question the film's rating of fifteen for the same reasons.
It is, undoubtedly, a sad tale, a comedian with the ability successfully to entertain audiences with that typically Jewish humour we know from Mel Brooks, Woody Allen, Shecky Greene, Red Buttons, Milton Berle and many others but he was not content with that. He pushed his humour far into foul-mouthed satire and social criticism of an extreme variety (as he saw it) and fell foul of the authorities. Unable to prevent himself, determined to assert the right to perform, misguided, in an alcoholic and drug induced haze or just pig-headed (and the film presents all of these, and other motivations at times) he pursues a path that until "One last four-letter word for Lenny: Dead. At forty. That's obscene."
Hoffman played him to perfection and, despite his unattractive features (Bruce not Hoffman), managed to elicit sympathy; the character was ideal for Hoffman, the determined and driven underdog, and he shows why he is now one of the cinemas most respected actors.
The 1974 black-and-white film obviously drew the crowds to the tune of an $11 million gross. It was screened or awarded at the BAFTA Awards, Cannes Film Festival, Golden Globes and Oscar Academy Awards. The b/w made remastering it easier and the DVD quality is very good; somehow, the b/w seems to set it clearly in its time and reinforce its age.
Not everyone's evening's entertainment and certainly NOT family viewing, it will present thinking adults with a great deal to consider, e.g. changing styles of humour, "rights" of comedians, social commentators and satarists to stretch the boundaries of acceptability, authorities' duties to determine a socially acceptable line and maintain it, what drives individuals like Bruce to use/misuse/abuse lives in the way he did and others do and so on. Many comedians, in public performances, still stretch the boundaries, e.g. Billy Connolly has always sworn copiously in live performances, although he avoids it on television and even the popular and mild-manner Michael Macintyre changes his deliveries for live audiences. However, Bruce was in another "linguistic and observation league" altogether, as the film shows clearly.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
worthy but somewhat boring
I don't find Lenny Bruce funny. There, I said it. He was necessary and important and all sorts of other words, and I'm glad he came along, and I'm sorry he had such a tough time... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Biffer Spice
lenny
very good. good to see modern black and white film. Hoffman is great as lenny. I have seen a dvd about lenny bruce and this is a good companion piece
Published 4 months ago by Aaron Jdoherty
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