Lenny

Bob Fosse's superb 1974 biography of Lenny Bruce stars Dustin Hoffman (in yet another outstanding performance) as the controversial stand-up comic who believed that to deny a man his words (in this case, the four-letter variety) was an automatic abridgement of free speech. Told through the cinematic device of interview flashbacks, the story chronicles Bruce's courtship of his stripper wife-to-be (Valerie Perrine), his rise to fame as a nightclub comic, his increasing skirmishes with the law, and finally, his death from a drug overdose. Filmed in b&w, the movie has a stark, gritty reality to it, which intensifies the pain and despair we see in the moving recreations of Bruce's last concerts (now ravaged by drugs, and nearly bankrupt from lawyer fees). Given the fact that the obscenity charges that Bruce faced in the beat generation days would pale beside the liner notes for most gangsta rap CDs, Lenny offers up a tragic and instructive tale that is as relevant today as it was a quarter century ago. Although otherwise extra-less, this handsomely mastered DVD transfer nicely showcases Bruce Surtees' expressive cinematography. Highly recommended. (R. Pitman)