Customer Reviews

Lenny Bruce Without Tears

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Lenny Bruce is a name that I've heard all of my life, but I've never known much about him, which is why I saw this film. I grant that there are better works out there concerning him, but this one definitely provides an introduction to what the man stood for and why he was persecuted. It would be hard today to see Bruce as anything but the martyr that he was. There was absolutely no reason why the government had to dance all over his head and sentence him to four months in the notorious Rikers Island over obscenity charges. If you ask me, there's nothing more obscene than equating personal taste with criminality. The director, in Bruce's death scene, reveals a certain artfulness. I felt for him as he lay sprawled out in the bathroom with inspectors crawling all over his house. He was a fragile guy, and one longs to protect him-but it's far too late.

In the live segments, it is abundantly clear as to how much this man influenced future comedians. I would not be surprised if he were the first comic to make use of the "imagine so and so as a four-year-old..." motif; whereby, Bruce got to use his many impressions and caricatures in the course of his stand-up. His innovation, even if fans don't think much of the film technically, is fully on display here. Some luminous experts are brought in to discuss Lenny, such as Kenneth Tynan and Malcolm Muggeridge who were two of the most powerful cultural influences of the second half of the twentieth century. Frankly, I was taken aback that they knew him so well. Overall, I'd say that this is a valuable snapshot of the man even though its quality is far below the level we expect from documentary today.

This was the very first pre-recorded video I ever purchased way back in 1979. At that point in time, video stores did not even exist and I had to purchase it through the mail via a long-defunct company called, The Videotape Network. They also sold The Best of Ernie Kovacs and The Beatles Live in Tokyo. At the time I was thrilled to have actual moving images of Lenny Bruce who, due to the nature of his material, was not often in front of the camera - film, television or otherwise. In hindsight the film leaves a little bit to be desired because of the fact that Fred Baker, a good filmmaker, uses alot of unrelated material to illustrate Lenny's recorded bits - not that he had any other choice. Since then, a far superior film has been made that was shown briefly in New York City and on HBO about five or six years ago, Lenny Bruce: Swear To Tell The Truth. For some reason that film has yet to be released on DVD or VHS. Untill that happens this film is your best bet. You won't be disappointed.
Tom Degan
Goshen, NY

Lenny Bruce was way ahead of his time and like Bill Hicks who followed him he died way too young.This movie made in the early 70's is done by a friend of Lenny's and because of that assumes its audience knows too much.The whole thing is quite sad really I note with interest that he came to Australia and our government kicked him out as well.You know what would've been great if they had included as an extra on this DVD 'The Lenny Bruce Performance film' which was made shortly before he died so it could be played I gather at his next court appearance.You know something I have so many great recordings of 'Lenny Bruce' on record ,so many great live shows why don't you do yourself a favour and track these down instead then you will get value for money.It's your call but overall I was bit disappointed 'Lenny Bruce' deserves better.

As a Lenny Bruce fan, I know why someone should see it. Owning it, however, is a somewhat empty gesture. Most of the action consists of random b.s. film clips playing while a Bruce voice over plays. Like seeing random movie cowboys talk to a horse or a guy on a beach while listening to "Religions, Inc."? Then go for it. When the footage is of Bruce, it's worth seeing. It's too bad that sequences featuring Bruce are few, far between, and oftentimes too brief. I would rather have an unedited tape of whatever Lenny footage one could scrounge up, laid on a VHS tape than to own this. I own it, though, and am glad I do. It's the best that can be done. There are some bits on here that I haven't heard elsewhere, and it is nice to see Lenny Bruce in action. It's just too bad there aren't quality products on the market that can accomplish this. I wish they would make a Lenny Bruce best of tape that is somewhat sensical. This thing is more like a lame head-shop film.

Getting a video copy of Lenny Bruce Without Tears was a big deal in my youth - not only were retail videos in their infancy but aside from The Lenny Bruce Performance Film (which showcases Bruce at his doped-up self-indulgent worst), there really was no other way of seeing any footage of the man himself. Even in this 72-minute documentary it's at a premium, although it does feature some of his best routines, including his two appearances on the Steve Allen Show, an extract from his busted TV pilot and a horrifyingly depressing interview shortly before his death with Nat Hentoff when he's clearly stoned out of his skull, slurring his speech and generally acting like a truly pathetic burnt-out junkie that's just incredibly painful to watch and which leads all too naturally into footage of his dead body being photographed by the police.

Mostly the gold is the audio extracts from his bits when his mind was still sharp, accompanied by snippets of stock footage from old movies and TV shows of varying relevance. Unfortunately, the film hasn't aged that well and leaves a lot of gaps, but it's still a good primer and does offer brief interviews with friends and supporters (Mort Sahl, Nat Hentoff, Kenneth Tynan, Malcolm Muggeridge), opponents (Jean Shepherd), his last lawyer and even the D.A. who prosecuted him, who admits he was too tied up in getting a result to see how pointless and unnecessary the case really was at the time.

Sadly, the DVD is horribly out of synch throughout, so if you've got the deleted video, hold onto it.

Okay, the average black male kid on the average ghetto city block knows, and knows without blinking, and knows from some seemingly unspoken source deep within his genetic structure that the cards are stacked against. That the cops, the courts, or some other part of the "justice" system will, eventually, come knocking at the door or grab him off the street for something, usually dope. The average Latino male kid on the average barrio city now knows pretty much knows that same thing, again usually on some bogus drug charge. And nowadays even young black and Latina women are getting that same message coded into their psyches. What is not encoded is for a white, Jewish comic guy who has an off-beat sense of humor and has something to say, sometimes something profound to say to face that same music, anytime. That, my friends, is the Lenny Bruce story in a nutshell and forms the theme for this commentary.

Really, I could leave the headline, taken from something Lenny Bruce said when he was in deep and surreal legal trouble back in the 1960s, and that would tell the tale here. Nevertheless the case of one off -beat comic who tried to "go outside the envelope" of confines of safe, secure, no waves, post-World World II cultural expression is an object lesson for the rest of us. Being a little bit uppity, being a little too black or brown, or being a little too red will get you in more trouble than you can shake a stick at then, and now.

On viewing this documentary my first impression was "what is all the fuss about?" At the vantage point, forty or fifty years after the events, it is hard to see what the so-called moral police of the day got in a dither over in Bruce's work. On any given day you can hear more lewdness, lunacy, and sheer vulgarity on "talk" radio or television than Lenny ever uttered. That, however, is the point. Lenny was the point man, the trenchant social critic cum comedian who was honored after the fact, but not while the heat was on.

One of the highlights of this documentary is Lenny Bruce performing in various venues interspersed with "talking head" commentary by those who knew or interviewed him. The most interesting one is with jazz critic and social activist, Nat Hentoff, when Lenny is deep in trouble and has physically been ravished by his struggle. Kenneth Tynan, of 1950s San Francisco poetic fame, and Malcolm Muggeridge add their somewhat bizarre two cents worth. As does Bruce fellow social critic, Mort Sahl.

Throwing out the above names and discussing the time frame of Bruce's troubles brings one final point. Was Lenny, like Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs and Tynan, part of the 1950s "beat" generation? Certainly he was part of the avant guarde back door jazz scene and miles in front of any one else in the Milton Berle/Sid Caesar 1950s comedy world. One of the commentators noted that Bruce was primarily an entertainer, a man trying to make a living at what he did best. That seems right. But whether he was "beat" or not, he certainly pushed the envelop. And that is part of his legacy, and worthy of honor by us.