Scenes We Love: Lenny
Filed under: Drama, Trailers and Clips, Scenes We Love
You might have noticed that Cinematical is digging into Oscar winners this week, but I've got to break the rules a little bit and go for a film that won no Oscars, even though it was nominated for six: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Cinematography. I think a nod in every major category, in a year that also gave us The Godfather: Part II, Chinatown, The Conversation, Murder on the Orient Express, and Blazing Saddles, makes the film more than worthy. That film would be Lenny.
As someone who loves wordplay, and can sit for hours listening to interesting conversations, Lenny is a word fiesta wrapped in a black and white bow. The 1974 film stars Dustin Hoffman as Lenny Bruce, and it outlines his career as a comic -- how it evolved from gigs in the Catskills to endless arrests on obscenity charges, before ending with an accidental overdose in 1966.
Pretty much any scene where Hoffman is onstage and channeling Bruce is worthy of attention, but this clip is one of the best. After getting arrested for using the word "c---------g," he gets back on stage and strives to perform a really obscene show, without using any obscene words. This is, of course, the perfect example of what he strived to teach audiences in the '60s -- the word is not the power, not the obscenity.
Trivia from IMDb: Neil Diamond was originally selected to play Bruce. Neil Frakking Diamond!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-19-2009 @ 7:46PM
Nick said...
This sentence doesn't seem to make too much sense:
"...the word is not the power, not the obscenity."
What are you trying to say?
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2-19-2009 @ 8:25PM
Monika said...
Lenny's big thing was that words are not what's obscene, and that we shouldn't give power to them to make them that way. So, the word is not the power (the power fuelling the obscenity), and not the obscenity itself (what's obscene about certain conversations, etc). So, he has an "obscene" conversation using no obscene words -- criticizing that to have a non-obscene conversation with words considered obscene is considered wrong, but an obscene conversation with acceptable words isn't.
I hope that helps..
2-19-2009 @ 8:28PM
Nick said...
Thanks so much! I guess I was just expecting a "not this, but this." sort of construction :S
Anyhow, I get it now, thank you!
2-20-2009 @ 11:42AM
Paul said...
I'd think you wouldn't shy away from writing the word. Cocksucking. There it is. Or were you quoting Bruce?
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2-20-2009 @ 9:09PM
Monika said...
It's killing two birds with one stone -- I could quote Bruce in a relevant way, while not ruffling the feathers of the word-sensitive. :)
3-09-2009 @ 5:42PM
Upendra said...
I just can't believe this article was written by u ,Monika.. It's like u got into my mind and stole it. I'd rate this movie as an all time best.. Dustin Hoffman is the Best actor...
That scene was amazing and not jus that , the entire movie deserves more.... Noone else , not Al Pacino or Marlon Brando or Duvall could have pulled of the role with the style and panache of Dustin Hoffman.
Watch , Straight Time , Mad City , All the President's Men , Kramer Vs Kramer , Ishtar , Rain Man, Last Chance Harvey etc etc- the Versatality is astounding..
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