The King of Comedy (1982)- Robert De Niro (5) * {Top 250}

Director: Martin Scorsese

Stars: Robert DeNiro, Jerry Lewis & Diahnne Abbott

Genre: comedy/drama/crime

Rating: PG (mild violence, adult situations and language)

Running time: 109 minutes

Tagline "No one knows Rupert Pupkin, but after1130 tonight no one will ever forget him”

Synopsis:

{According to IMDB}

"Aspiring comic Rupert Pupkin wants to achieve success in showbiz, by resorting to stalking his idol, a late night talk show host who craves his own privacy. "

Discussion

Wow! Where do I begin to explain how amazing this movie was? First of all I was surprised to find out this was directed by Martin Scorsese (Taxi Driver, The Departed) this is definitely a different route for the crime director. Even if this movie is billed as a comedy, it felt more like a crime/drama with some awkward humor in between. Don't get me wrong this formula works perfectly for this movie. In recent interviews Scorsese has mentioned that he thinks he should have never made the movie, due to the difficulties in production and low box office take.  The movie was not a hit in its initial theatrical release, but during the passing years it has achieved a cult following; primarily due to how marvelous and original it is. Even if Scorsese does feel a sense of failure, he shouldn’t, this one is guaranteed classic, one of a kind.

Robert DeNiro plays Rupert Pupkin. No one can remember his name, nor pronounce it right. No one likes him; he is annoying, irritating and overly obsessive with his idol Jerry Langford (Jerry Lewis) he keeps telling people that he will make it big on showbiz. Keeps emphasizing that all he needs is a big break. However, he lives most of his life in a fantasy. He is 34 living with his mom, spends most of his time recording and pretending he has an audience who are actually watching his show. Ofcourse this is all in his head; the audience gets the opportunity to actually see it being played the way he sees it in his imagination. Scenarios involving Langford desperately asking advice and spare time for Pupkin to take over his show while he is out.

Without ruining much, Pupkin spends most of the film stalking and going to extreme measures to be and have the success that his idol has. Curiously this is what makes the movie hilarious. Now, the humor in this movie, it’s funny, but it's a humor of embarrassment. The embarrassment mainly focused on the misfortunes and absurdities of Pupkin.  I have to say that all those embarrassments make this film really work, I was really impressed with it, and DeNiro should have been at least nominated for the role he gave in this picture. Through the film his performance kept me uncomfortable. We were seining a character that at first sight we might feel sympathetic.. But later realize he is pretty psychotic! Which reminds me, the ending I still feel mixed about the ending. It leaves you wondering, like in Taxi Driver, Is the ending is actually taking place or is just pumpkins imagination? That is up to the viewer to decide. Personally I think, unlike Taxi Driver, it's actually taking place. It would make sense, because it would coincide with the title and Tagline of the film. That by the end of the film he will be the actual “King of Comedy”. It's just how he becomes that “King” that makes the whole thing so funny and odd at the same time.

DVD

From what I heard this movie took awhile to be actually released on DVD. This is strange, because this is such a good movie! The same thing happened with another DeNiro movie "A Bronx Tale" it wasn't released in DVD until just last year. But anyways, this DVD is merely a bare bones DVD. I wont get into the audio or video, I didnt see this one in my HDTV.

Theatrical trailer