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Dustin Hoffman, Valerie Perrine, Jan Miner, Stanley Beck, Gary Morton ... see more see more... , Rashel Novikoff , George de Witt , Jack Nagle , Don Newsome , Ric O'Feldman , Phil Philbin , Guy Rennie , Lee Sandman , Mark Harris , Frank Orsatti , Glenn Wilder , Clarence Thomas , Robert Parsons , Bruce McLaughlin , Monroe Myers , John DiSanti , Martin Begley , Bridghid Glass , Allison Goldstein , Susan Malnick , Ted Sorrell , Bob Collins , Mike Murphy , Frankie Man

Adapted by Julian Barry from his own Broadway play, Lenny manages to be both brutally frank and highly romanticized in detailing the short life and career of influential, controversial stand-up comedi... read more read more...an Lenny Bruce. The chronology hops, skips and jumps between Lenny (Dustin Hoffman) 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 at great, boring length. We watch as up-and-coming comic Bruce courts his "Shiksa goddess," a stripper named Honey (Valerie Perrine). With family responsibilities, Lenny is encouraged to do a "safe," conformist act, but he can't 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 died of a drug overdose in 1966. Director Bob Fosse chose to film Lenny in black-and-white, giving the film the texture of a documentary. Though a film as verbally graphic as Lenny could not have been made when the real Lenny Bruce was alive, audiences in 1974 responded, to the tune of an $11 million gross. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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R, 1 hr. 51 min.

Directed by: Bob Fosse

Release Date: January 1, 1974

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DVD Release Date: April 16, 2002

Stats: 347 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (347)

  • blkbomb
    November 15, 2011
    blkbomb
    Lenny Bruce: Did you know that Eleanor Roosevelt gave Lou Gehrig the clap? 

    "Lenny's Time Has Finally Come."

    Lenny is a decent biopic of an interesting man. It has its problems though. It is extremely fragmented and poorly paced. Overall it is still well worth a watch though, b... read moreecause of an amazing performance from Dustin Hoffman. He plays the controversial comic with great power. 

    I think I would have liked this movie much more had I not seen Star 80 first. Star 80 and Lenny are pretty much identical structurally, but Star 80 is more involving and more entertaining. Both are made in fragments, with interviews in the middle of scenes to make it feel like a documentary. Both also take a not so glamourous look at a form of media or show business and both end in tragedy. 

    Lenny is interesting because we get fragments of Lenny's life intermixed with actors playing people he knew giving interviews, and also Lenny doing his stand up routine when he was young and old. As he is old, he stops telling jokes and more or less tells the plot of the movie. He tells about how he got arrested all the time for saying obscene jokes and making obscene gestures. He reads police reports and says why everything he has gotten arrested for is stupid. 

    Today Lenny doesn't seem all that controversial. If you watch the comics of today side by side Lenny; he would be considered the cleaner comic. This film isn't great, but it is still an interesting look at an interesting man. Fosse would take this structure and make an even better movie later in his career.
  • tolkienfan101
    September 27, 2011
    tolkienfan101
    Dustin Hoffman teams up with one of the most tragic figures in modern moviemaking, Bob Fosse, to bring us a biopic of one of the greatest, most influential and most controversial stand-up comedians of our age, Lenny Bruce. First and foremost, Hoffman as Bruce was one of the great... read moreest casting decisions of this film. He plays his part with cunning, energy, cynicism and reality, truly taking the trials and tribulations of Bruce to razor-edge effect but also including in great detail and care in appropriately displaying the extent of Bruce's darkness as a person and his many foul actions toward others in his life (friend, foe, and family). Fosse's direction is not perfect, however it is conducted with such an objective point of view in such a documentary style that it is hard to be sucked in by the realism of the film. Julian Barry's screenplay based off his own play is sharp, quick-witted and as honest as the material given. Though the screenplay shirks on much of the material needed to explain the overall controversy of Bruce's career and lifestyle, it makes up in drama and human connection of all others associated with Bruce's life and eventual tragic death. You feel with Bruce as these things happen, but at the same time find many reasons why Bruce is so hard to like (his frequent adultery, excess and harsh drug abuse that dragged many of his family down into the drain with him). A fabulous film that deserves far more recognition than it is given it in contemporary America. Along with George Carlin and Richard Pryor, who would emerge about a decade later observing the same language and hypocrisies of the American attitude and mass media in the world of censorship (large or small), Lenny Bruce is one of the most important influences of the rights of free speech and the American culture as a whole, and this film does him the justice he deserves, though it still could have pushed the envelope even more.
  • FrizzDrop
    March 21, 2011
    FrizzDrop
    The lines between fact and fiction blurred again and again, making a point to show Bruce's extreme drug use, profanity, and Bruce's life, as some tawdry jaunt into a life of drugs and court dates, his act the backdrop. Bruce was more than his act, and this is exemplified by his e... read moremotional scenes with his druggie, stripper wife Honey, and his care and concern for his daughter, Kitty. Throughout the film snippets of Bruce's act are thrown in (performed by Hoffman) to show the influences of his life on his act, speaking out against racism, sexism, and censorship in the 60's, coming off trials on Communism and the X-rating of Midnight Cowboy. Though the performances of Hoffman and Perrine were genuine, heartfelt, and laced with a brand of humor that is realistic and a true portrayal, at times there was frivolity that could have been hampered. Bruce comes off as complex, and that is what he was, so to Hoffman I give considerable kudos.
  • SirPant
    October 1, 2009
    SirPant
    A stylish biopic of the mighty Lenny Bruce. Fantastically directed by Fosse and brilliantly portrayed by Hoffman. Valerie Perrine's performance is also fantastic but whenever I see her I just want to shout "MISS TESCHMACHER". Fantastic film!
  • pier007
    August 21, 2009
    pier007
    Biopic of the notorious comedian Lenny Bruce, a man who wasn't afraid of using a coarse vocabulary to raise conciousness over a hypocritical society, and who was sentenced to silence in the most unfair ways.
    Dustin Hoffman never ceases to amaze me, his versatility and the ability... read more to get beneath every layer and reach the soul of the character.

    A wonderful film that moved me and genuinely conveyed all the agony and impotence that this honest, outspoken and tremendously talented man must have felt with every infamy and clash he had with justice and life in general.

    Shot in beautiful black and white.
  • mjgildea
    February 10, 2009
    mjgildea
    Lenny is a biopic that feels more like a documentary but seems to dwell on feelings instead of fact. If that makes any sense. The black and white photography is fantastic as is Bob Fosse's direction. Dustin Hoffman and Valerie Perrine were also great even if the story couldn't si... read moret still. I thought it ended kind of abruptly but Bruce left us that way. Definitely essential viewing for any fan of Lenny Bruce's.
  • FilmFanatik
    August 17, 2008
    FilmFanatik
    Another fantastic performance from Dustin Hoffman.
  • drago25
    May 14, 2008
    drago25
    I wish I was more familiar with Lenny Bruce before seeing this. For the completely uninitiated, Lenny Bruce is probably the most famous stand-up comic of all time, because he opened the doors for pretty much every comic to come after him. He started doing edgy, risk-taking comedy... read more while nobody else was doing anything remotely unconventional. Uncompromising as he was, he was even arrested several times for things said in his act. 1974's Lenny is a really cleverly constructed biopic starring Dustin Hoffman as Bruce. The film is clever for a number of reasons. For one thing, it's done in black & white and I think that enhances the picture, which uses some really cool lighting tricks and some evocative imagery. But the most interesting thing about it is that it is structured like a documentary. We have the narrative of Lenny's life as he rises in the comedy world and his trials, romances, etc, then we have his stand-up routine (which seems to be a spot-on job done by Hoffman), and then there are interviews with major characters/people in Lenny's life which run throughout. All that business has the potential to become a mess, but because the film is structured exactly as if it was a documentary, it's a clever device that works to great effect. Seeing this made me realize how strong Dustin Hoffman started out his career. Before appearing in Lenny, he had put in brilliant performances in classic films such as The Graduate, Midnight Cowboy, and Straw Dogs - and his work in this film only carries on that string of great performances. As well, Valerine Perrine, playing Lenny's wife Honey, was astoundingly good, and heartbreaking. For any fan of either Hoffman or stand-up comedy in general, this is not a film to miss.
  • jjnxn
    March 27, 2008
    jjnxn
    Gritty and grim but magnificiently acted by Hoffman and Valerie Perrine, its a shame she didn't make the major league of stars, a wonderfully insightful actress.
  • shortcartoonist
    June 29, 2007
    shortcartoonist
    With a raw authenticity and a striking establishment of a forgotten icon, Lenny is a film that holds true to it's source and the tonal qualities that were pressed and needed to be presented. Bob Fosse, with a short directorial career, has crafted a gem of a film that has become s... read moreadly misplaced in the years, but his work here outshines even the very monoliths of 1974 that had beat this film into submission.

    Structurally, Lenny is a very rare piece. The film tends to hold an undergarment of a docudrama, through it's usage of direct interviews and lack of musical composition. For most projects, this aspect could have drearily downgraded the film by severely stilting the pacing. Here though, it tends to accompany the soft yet unyielding nature of the visual qualities. At the same time, the film tends to overlay those fabrics with the facade of being a biographical picture that aims to strike with the same maneuvers as it's leading man, a comedian who seemingly ushered in a new age of public acceptance towards the "obscene" and the fight against censorship.

    Lenny is a film that holds many truisms to it as we listen with an understanding of the comedian's stance on his material. The public of this era sees only provocative obscenities, but the audiences of the later years are able to see the reality in what Lenny Bruce is saying. His harsh comments speak with an integrity and truth that identifies the flaws in the defenses of prejudice's and social acceptances. And through Hoffman's brilliant performance, we are able to see layers to a man who was destined to reach his self-destruction along his followed path; a man who morphed his life with the morphing of his material and critiquing of society and it's people.

    Through a fine screenplay, Lenny is a film that brings a high volume of laughs, but allows itself to be balanced with a care for the progression of these character's. Hoffman gives inflictions of a true character of ambivalence from the audience. There are many points to question the man's morals, yet his stance is ever so powerful that a strange fade comes into focus between his life and his comedy. We laugh at his jokes, but the personal qualities behind the microphone provoke questions. Valerie Perrine gives the performance of her career as the wife of confusion and need. The real star, however, is director Bob Fosse, who has focused his attention on select film departments to get the most out of this film.

    A rare feat for the film is that it succeeds in portraying the look, feel, and details of a 1950's America, slowly coming to terms with a generational gap that will shake the societal evolution like never before. The film is picturesque in it's tone - it is serious, but holds an overbearing cynicism and wry smirk that it shares with it's laughter hound. But the cinematography is able to take a further leap through the execution of some astonishing editing, where a vast amount of shots are compiled to add that final layer of visual complexity to an already meaningful film.

    Tragic and moving, Lenny is a picture that will stay with you for quite a while. Have the patience to stick with it, and the rewards will be reaped. The only downpoint is that at times the film tends to bring some subtle contradictions to the table. Otherwise, this is perfect filmmaking.

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Critic Reviews

Emanuel Levy
March 19, 2009
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com

As helmed by Fosse and interpreted by Dustin Hoffman, Lenny is too fragmented and episodic to illuminate the controversial comedian but it's a personal, prophetic film, offering insights into the real... Full Review

Mark Bourne
April 6, 2006
Mark Bourne, DVDJournal.com

His performance may feel too Actors Studio at times, but he radiates his broad-spectrum intensity until Lenny becomes something of a Dustin Hoffman film festival in miniature. Full Review

Ken Hanke
February 11, 2004
Ken Hanke, Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

Well done, but somehow lifeless biopic.

Bob Bloom
January 7, 2004
Bob Bloom, Journal and Courier (Lafayette, IN)

A bravura turn by Hoffman, plus Fosse's kinetic direction make this an unforgettable biography.

Moira Sullivan
April 23, 2003
Moira Sullivan, FilmFestivals.com

Dustin Hoffman succesfully transmits to screen some of the rage of Lenny Bruce, a hard role to digest and project.

Jeffrey M. Anderson
January 17, 2003
Jeffrey M. Anderson, San Francisco Examiner

A sturdy biopic with a fine Dustin Hoffman performance.

Bill Chambers
April 13, 2002
Bill Chambers, Film Freak Central

A movie that trades on the word "hip," Lenny has a lot to show for itself twenty-eight years later. Full Review

Matt Wolf
March 6, 2009
Matt Wolf, Variety

Click to read the article Full Review

Vincent Canby
May 9, 2005
Vincent Canby, New York Times

Click to read the article Full Review

Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
February 29, 2008
Michael W. Phillips, Jr., Goatdog's Movies

No review available.

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    • Lenny Bruce: l'm not anti-Christ or anti-religion, l just think it's encouraging that people are leaving the Church and going back to God.
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