''Lenny'' is a 1974 American

biographical A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or c ...

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...

film about the comedian

Lenny Bruce Leonard Alfred Schneider (October 13, 1925 – August 3, 1966), known professionally as Lenny Bruce, was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, and satirist. He was renowned for his open, free-wheeling, and critical style of comedy which ...

, starring

Dustin Hoffman Dustin Lee Hoffman (born August 8, 1937) is an American actor and filmmaker. As one of the key actors in the formation of New Hollywood, Hoffman is known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and emotionally vulnerable characters. He is th ...

and directed by

Bob Fosse Robert Louis Fosse (; June 23, 1927 – September 23, 1987) was an American actor, choreographer, dancer, and film and stage director. He directed and choreographed musical works on stage and screen, including the stage musicals ''The Pajam ...

. The screenplay by

Julian Barry Julian Barry ( Julian Barry Mendelsohn; born December 24, 1930) is a retired American screenwriter and playwright, best-known for his Oscar-nominated script for the 1974 film ''Lenny'' about comedian Lenny Bruce. Barry adapted the script from his ...

is based on his play of the same name.

Plot

The film jumps between various sections of 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. We watch as 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 which 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 Morphine is a strong opiate that is found naturally in opium, a dark brown resin in poppies ('' Papaver somniferum''). It is mainly used as a pain medication, and is also commonly used recreationally, or to make other illicit opioids. T ...

overdose in 1966.

Cast

Valerie Perrine Valerie Ritchie Perrine (born September 3, 1943) is an American actress. For her role as Honey Bruce in the 1974 film ''Lenny'', she won the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles, the Cannes Film Festival Award for Bes ...

as Honey Bruce * Jan Miner as Sally Marr *

Stanley Beck Stanley Beck (born June 5, 1936) is an American film producer and actor of the stage, television, and film. As an actor, he is best known for his portrayal of Stanly in the 1969 film '' John and Mary'' and Artie Silver in the 1974 film '' Len ...

as Artie Silver * Rashel Novikoff as Aunt Mema *

Gary Morton Gary Morton (born Morton Goldaper; December 19, 1924 – March 30, 1999) was an American stand-up comedian whose primary venues were hotels and resorts of the Borscht Belt in upstate New York. He was born in New York City, the son of Morris Gol ...

as Sherman Hart * Guy Rennie as Jack Goldman * Aldo Demeo as Bailiff

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.

Reception

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, the film has an approval rating of 89% based on 27 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." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, it has a score of 61 out of 100, based on 9 critic reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". One of the less enthusiastic reviews came from

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

stating "Unless we go in convinced that Lenny Bruce was an important performer, the movie doesn't convince us." In 2012, British film critic

Mark Kermode Mark James Patrick Kermode (, ; ; born 2 July 1963) is an English film critic, musician, radio presenter, television presenter and podcaster. He is the chief film critic for ''The Observer'', contributes to the magazine '' Sight & Sound'', pr ...

put Hoffman's performance as Lenny Bruce at number eight in a top-ten video of Hoffman's best performances.Archived a
Ghostarchive
and th
Wayback Machine

Accolades

Home media

''Lenny'' was released to DVD by MGM Home Video on April 1, 2003, as a Region 1 widescreen DVD and by Twilight Time (under license from MGM and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment) as a Region 1 widescreen Blu-ray Disc on February 10, 2015.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lenny (Film) 1970s biographical drama films 1974 LGBT-related films 1974 films American biographical drama films American black-and-white films American films based on plays American LGBT-related films Biographical films about entertainers Films about comedians Films about freedom of expression Films directed by Bob Fosse Films set in the 1950s Films set in the 1960s Cultural depictions of Lenny Bruce United Artists films Films about censorship 1974 drama films 1970s English-language films 1970s American films