The King of Comedy

"4 out of 4 stars"

I don't know if it was the fact that I had low expectations from this movie before seeing it (although one of Scorsese's best but it is not as celebrated as say Raging Bull or Last Temptation of Christ) or if it was just brilliant, but I really enjoyed this movie.

Last week I watched Raging Bull (which I still consider to be his masterpiece) and Hugo (which is embarrassing to admitting to have seen it only recently!) and now I can't get enough of Scorsese! I think Goodfellas (which I'm planning on seeing soon) would be a nice complement for all the Marty-indulgence I've been treating myself to. Every time I see a new movie from him (new to me, not new per se!), I ask myself is this the best one I have seen so far? (Of course, by the end of this one, I came to the conclusion that still the best one, at least technical wise, must be Raging Bull. I am still yet to write about that one, just a reminder to myself. I need to write about his view towards techniques of movie making. So, kindly remind me if I miss it on that post!)

The witty story, written masterfully by Paul D. Zimmerman, revolves around the efforts of Rupert Pupkin (played by the man himself, DeNiro, in one of his exceptional collaborations with Scorsese) who is an aspiring comedian and tries to create himself "the shot" of shooting to stardom by bringing a famous TV talk-show host, Jerry Langford (played by Jerry Lewis), to agree on his appearance on the show.

They say that the staircase to success at what you want is to picture yourself in that position, when you've become successful, and I am not sure how it exactly works (probably by keeping you motivated and pushing you forward) and this is exactly what Pupkin was trying to do which reminded me (painfully) of myself. I must get an award for my daydreams! I keep picturing myself as the next Roger Ebert! Though harmless and even encouraging, it might drive you to the point where you can fall off the other edge of the ladder into depression if you can't get it. Actually I have had, quite a healthy relationship with my mind up until this morning which made me scared a bit over the fact that I might have set my mind loose for so long that it has started to develop a new character for itself! I'm serious! This morning it was referring to itself as a separate person than me, which was scary! I was thinking to myself that I had 2 beers last night, when my mind interrupted me and said "no, you only had one. I had the other one"! It made me jump right up! Of course, I think it had my interest at heart (?!), trying to justify the fact that I hadn't drunk that much!

Anywho, as I was saying, I really enjoyed this movie and especially DeNiro's performance. I had never been a DeNiro fan, and still don't count myself as a "fan" but I have come to admire his work over the course of watching Scorsese's movies. What a blast Scorsese must have been having while filming DeNiro! The fact that Scorsese enjoyed watching him act, is probably the reason why he cast him so often, aside from his obvious brilliance. He would just lose himself in the character, is what made him so amazing to watch.

I enjoyed this movie to the point where at times I would find myself with an open mouth, mesmerized at what I was seeing, or experiencing actually! This is movie making at its best. I now get why Ebert had such respect for Scorsese and even praised his work by writing a whole book titled "Scorsese"! I keep repeating it but it would never be enough...you have to indulge yourself in his work the way I have had over the past month and then you would catch yourself far off the coast of specializing in movies! It is unbelievable the spectrum of genres he's covered. And knowing that back at the time of making this movie, what he really wanted to make was The Last Temptation and movies like this one and Color of Money, were only the ones to keep himself busy while getting producers giving him the green light for Last Temptation, shows how dedicated he was to his work...how he put (and still does) his heart and soul into every production. And reminding yourself that this movie is 30 years old, makes you appreciate it even more when comparing it to its counterparts of the same era. (One thing that I noticed was the quality of the movie, which made me wonder if Scorsese, who is a very well-know pioneer of movie-restoration, has ever thought of doing the same thing for this movie. Or if the Amherst Cinema has simply gotten the suck-y version!)

The first thing I wrote based on my impression of the theme was that the length that Pupkin goes for his dreams is to show what it takes to survive or actually to start up in showbiz. You can only find a few who would be Bieber-like! The rest go through the hassle of finally finding their shot and proving their talent. Though it is still the case in many instances, but as we drew near the end of the movie I changed my mind about what its message was. I think it was about the same time this movie was released that people had started getting attention for things other than their talent. Although many begin their search for jobs like this with the best of intentions and to prove they are talented, but history has shown us that scandals can be as effective as being talented in this business!

The lowest point for this movie was the part where Pupkin goes on stage and performs. I really didn't find it that funny. My American friend, who I saw this movie with, told me that it must've been pretty funny back in its time and told me that unlike the stand-up comics of these days, whose jokes are mostly vulgar, back in those days the likes of Edie Murphy would have jokes like this. What I said was although I enjoy the works of the likes of Louis CK (mostly when he had only begun and wasn't that deep in the "inappropriate" zone), I agree that today they mostly try to make vulgar jokes which to a point surpasses the tolerable line and makes me uncomfortable and at times I don't even find them funny. But the work of the person I admire the most is that of Jerry Seinfeld's. He was the real comedian. And since he rose to fame around the same time that this movie was released, I give myself the permission to compare the jokes in the movie to his jokes back in the day. But what I came to realize soon after was that probably they made it that way on purpose. To show us that he actually was NOT that funny and they had every right to reject him and make us go back to the point that I made earlier, that a scandalous approach can be as effective in making you "successful".

But hey, "Better to be a king for a night, than a schmuck for a lifetime", right?