Plot: What’s it about?
At the beginning of the eighties, Martin Scorsese was riding high after his critical and commercial success with Raging Bull. Three years later, at the insistance of his occasional co-star Robert DeNiro, Scorsese would return behind the camera to tell a story about fame, fortune, and how far someone will go to have a spot on a late night talk show, even if they resorted to possible homicidal tendencies. May I call upon you the viewers to witness the crowning of The King of Comedy.
Rupert Pupkin (Robert DeNiro) is a wanna-be comedian who worships the ground Jerry Langford (Jerry Lewis) walks on. He has all his records. He even has cardboard cutouts of Jerry, his guests and the audience in his apartment. He imagines himself as a guest on Jerry’s show. One night he plants himself, amongst the fan ridden crowd, into Jerry’s car to pitch about his appearance on his show. Jerry shrugs it off as a fan’s fantasy and doesn’t think much of it seriously. After that chance meeting, Rupert goes to his office and is met with a lot of waiting and a lot of vague answers that lead to rejection. At the same time, Masha (Sandra Bernhard) is following Jerry around for a different reason. With no place else to go and no other options, Masha and Rupert team together to take matters into their own hands with the one host they obsess over to settle their differences whichever they may be which can lead to consequences or confidence.
Not a box office hit in 1983, The King of Comedy is one of the most underrated Scorsese films. It has the word “comedy” in it’s title and there are some chuckles in it occasionally, but it is comedy of a dark kind and the picture is more of a character driven piece that for audiences at that time is always a hard sell. It is those kinds of films that many more years down the line get praised more so then when it was first released as was the case for many other movies of the early eighties.
As Rupert, Robert DeNiro brings a sense of the loner with a personality along with a sense of desperation and dertermination to do whatever it takes to make it onto Jerry’s show. He becomes a lost soul in his own world wanting to make it a reality so bad that he’ll do anything including passing the point of no return. It is a wonderful performance that is still one of the great overlooked performances of the last two decades. The same can be said for Jerry Lewis and Sandra Bernhard. Even though Jerry has admitted that the performance was more him being himself than not, he brings a more serious side Lewis fans aren’t used to seeing him in and it’s that unexpected dramatic flair along with reflecting of his own career playing himself that brings credibility to a role that was offered to many (Johnny Carson, Sammy Davis, Jr. , Dean Martin) before getting to him. Bernhard’s Masha is obsessed with Jerry and feels a connection with Jerry, yet everytime she wants to express her feelings for Jerry, they’re met with unfortunate circumstances.
With all that, plus a great script with plenty of quotable dialogue (which soundbites gets used many times on a popular morning radio talk show grabbing many headlines lately) and the direction of Scorsese showing that less is more, The King of Comedy may not be one of the funniest movies ever, but it is one of the finest films Scorsese has made in his entire career proving that it’s better to be king for a day than a schmuck for a lifetime.
Video: How does it look?
The King of Comedy is back in the hands of Fox and given it’s very first anamorphic widescreen transfer in the 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The results of this first time effort are good but not great. The picture quality is sharp and the print is inconsistant at times. The first half is decent and a little bit light but at times can get dark and grainy. This is an improvement over the VHS transfers of the past but the second half has more of the dark and grainy but at times can get light but not too light. The flaws are apparent and the early eighties haze is there but not too much and the transfer overall stays positive.
Audio: How does it sound?
The audio on the King of Comedy is an English Dolby 2.0 Surround track and the sound is a little more muted than other titles. The dialogue comes out sharply as well as the effects but the score is marginally acceptable but nothing to demonstrate the home theater out for in clarity and in top of the line sound effects. This is not the kind of movie that audio is a key to it’s presentation but the track is ordinary and not too distracting and overall it’s acceptable but not groundbreaking. This disc also has an English Mono, French Mono and a Spanish Mono track along with English and Spanish subtitles.
Supplements: What are the extras?
The King of Comedy is showered with a few nicely made extras. The first of which is a cubed menu setup going into each of the four sides when making a selection as well as soundbites from the movie playing alongside it.
After that, there is an eighteen minute featurette called A Shot At the Top: The Making of The King of Comedy. In it, the making of the film is described by a few anecdotes from director Martin Scorsese and actress Sandra Bernhard. The other two stars are discussed much and it is wonderfully informative and makes for an interesting watch as both participants are entertaining to listen to and always not short on discussing the project. If only they discussed the talk show linking cameos made in the movie by other celebrities both real and cardboard.
After that, there are two deleted scenes. The first is an extension of Jerry walking down the street and a couple making a confession about his talk show. It runs 37 seconds and is amusing. The other is a little more than five minutes and is an extension of the beginning, on video, showing Jerry’s monologue in it’s entirety. There are a few puns and some amusing interaction between Jerry and the other show members along with the audience.
They’re both interesting additions and I can swear that there are a few more judging from the next feature which is the still gallery showing some amusing publicity shots of the film (my personal favorite: Jerry and Rupert’s drawn caricatures) as well as possible cut scenes from the film, which unfortunately are not discussed on the featurette.
Last, we have a Canadian TV spot as well as a theatrical trailer that is one of my favorites showing that less is more and that sometimes a good trailer can lose an audience or can intrigue them years later more so now than then.
The King of Comedy is not king of all DVDs, but it is very well represented in DVD form and it comes well recommended.
