Lenny

UPC: 027616874863

Studio: MGM

MPAA Rating: R   Contains:[Nudity, Adult Situations, Not For Children, Profanity, Sexual Situations]

Summary: 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. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Category: Drama

Awards: Most Promising Newcomer – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Director – Directors Guild of America Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama – null Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama – null Best Director – null Best Actor – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Actress – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Adapted Screenplay – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Cinematography – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Director – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Picture – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Actress – Cannes Film Festival Best Picture – National Board of Review Best Supporting Actress – National Board of Review Best Supporting Actress – New York Film Critics Circle Best Director – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama – Hollywood Foreign Press Association

Features: Original theatrical trailer
English: mono
French: mono
English, French & Spanish language subtitles

Lenny

Format: Digital Video Disc (DVD)

Release Date: 04/16/2002

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Theatre Wide-Screen, 1.33:1 Pre-1954 Standard

Audio: 5.1 Dolby Digital 5.1, 1 USA & territories, Canada

Runtime: 111 Minutes

Sides: 2

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) English,French

Subtitles: English,French,Spanish

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Chapters: Side #1 -- Widescreen
1. Main Title/Clap Trap [3:24]
2. "Hot Honey Harlow" [3:26]
3. Making an Impression [11:05]
4. Entertaining In-Laws [6:34]
5. A Very Bad Act [7:34]
6. There Are No Accidents [7:20]
7. In With the Wrong Crowd [7:41]
8. And Baby Makes Three [5:20]
9. A Call for Help [5:15]
10. Pointing Out Prejudice [8:57]
11. Arresting Material [9:13]
12. "You're Full of Blah!" [4:07]
13. "Words as Weapons" [6:42]
14. "I'm Not Funny!" [14:32]
15. Held in Contempt [6:13]
16. Suicide or Overdose? [3:44]
Side #2 -- Standard
1. Main Title/Clap Trap [:07]
2. "Hot Honey Harlow" [3:24]
3. Making an Impression [3:25]
4. Entertaining In-Laws [11:06]
5. A Very Bad Act [6:34]
6. There Are No Accidents [7:34]
7. In With the Wrong Crowd [7:20]
8. And Baby Makes Three [7:41]
9. A Call for Help [5:20]
10. Pointing Out Prejudice [5:15]
11. Arresting Material [8:57]
12. "You're Full of Blah!" [9:13]
13. "Words as Weapons" [4:07]
14. "I'm Not Funny!" [6:42]
15. Held in Contempt [14:32]
16. Suicide or Overdose? [6:13]

Lucia Bozzola

His first non-musical film, Bob Fosse's biopic Lenny (1974) confirmed the breadth of the former hoofer's -- and his star Dustin Hoffman's -- protean talents. Detailing socially conscious pottymouth comic Lenny Bruce's trailblazing rise and self-immolating fall in a series of flashbacks, Fosse and screenwriter Julian Barry inject grim drama into an unsentimental portrait of the artist as a highly flawed man. Along with re-staging pieces of the straight-talking routines that made Bruce famous, Fosse and Hoffman relentlessly reveal his demise as a performer in an unwavering long take of Bruce's drug-addled on-stage meltdown after his obscenity trials. Bruce Surtees' rich black-and-white photography lends a note of documentary authenticity as well as an appropriately somber nocturnal atmosphere. Oscar nominee and critics' prize-winner Valerie Perrine hit her career peak as Bruce's stripper-turned-junkie wife, Honey. Hoffman's embodiment of the comic illuminates Bruce's own destructive role in his free speech martyrdom. Praised by the critics and well appreciated by a culturally savvy 1974 audience that didn't mind cinematic downers, Lenny went on to receive six Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Fosse's second nod for Best Director, and Best Actor. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Don Newsome  Actor 
Martin Begley  Actor 
Ric O'Feldman  Actor 
Glenn Wilder  Actor 
Allison Goldstein  Actor 
George de Witt  Actor 
Phil Philbin  Actor 
Robert Parsons  Actor 
Ted Sorrell  Actor 
Lee Sandman  Actor 
Monroe Myers  Actor 
Mike Murphy  Actor 
Clarence Thomas  Actor 
Susan Malnick  Actor 
Guy Rennie  Actor 
Bruce McLaughlin  Actor 
Bob Collins  Actor 
Jack Nagle  Actor 
Mark Harris  Actor 
John DiSanti  Actor 
Frank Orsatti  Actor 
Bridghid Glass  Actor 
Ralph Burns  Composer (Music Score) 
Bob Fosse  Director 
Robert Greenhut  Producer 
David V. Picker  Executive Producer 
Marvin Worth  Producer 
Julian Barry  Screenwriter 
Dustin Hoffman  Actor 
Valerie Perrine  Actor 
Jan Miner  Actor 
Stanley Beck  Actor 
Gary Morton  Actor 
Rashel Novikoff  Actor 

Country: USA