The King of Comedy (1982)
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The King of Comedy Movie Review
The King of Comedy is a 1982 black comedy drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Robert De Niro, Jerry Lewis and Sandra Bernhard. It’s a solid, but overrated film.
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“Better to be king for a night than schmuck for a lifetime“
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Rupert Pupkin is a passionate yet unsuccessful comic who craves nothing more than to be in the spotlight and to achieve this, he stalks and kidnaps his idol to take the spotlight for himself. When this film was released, it wasn’t praised at all. In fact, most critics were disappointed with this tonal departure from Scorsese. These days however, it is regarded as a masterpiece.
As for my take on it, I land in the middle as is often the case for me. While I do find it solid and its merits are evident, the film is still rather overrated to me because it’s tonally imbalanced to the point that it became frustrating to watch. First of all, this is not a comedy, not by a long shot. It has its black humor throughout, but for the most part I would call it a dramedy or even a pure drama.
With this in mind, you can appreciate this story more, but if you expect a comedy, you will be highly disappointed. There is not a moment here that is genuinely funny. Well, the final sequence is funny in some lines, but I will talk about the ending later. Most of the movie veers from dramatic to uncomfortable to downright tragic. It’s a tragedy really, but it would have been much more effective at that had it chosen one tone and stuck with it throughout.
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The movie deals with the dangers of celebrity worship and failed expectations. But its portrayal of American media is rather dated for today, though it must have been more relevant back then. A lot has changed since the eighties in media, so many things here aren’t as relatable anymore.
There is also a problem with the protagonist. The movie never quite decides if it wants to vilify or sympathize with the guy, so you as the audience cannot decide either. Robert De Niro is phenomenal in the main role and it’s one of his better performances, but I did find the guy rather unlikable, so I could not feel for him in the end.
Jerry Lewis is well cast and pretty good, but his role is minor. It is Sandra Bernhard who actually really surprised me here as she was very strong as this very well written character. Some of her scenes were quite moving. Others are all forgettable figures in a film that has way too many characters to properly make use of them all.
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Getting back to that ending, it’s brilliant. This is the only moment in The King of Comedy that genuinely impressed me. It’s unexpectedly dark and just so tragic. It was a perfect way to end the movie that before that point never really found its footing. The editing and pacing are all over the place and Scorsese’s directing is only solid. The score and cinematography are fine, but the movie isn’t technically all that memorable. The dialogue is among the highlights and the script has its obvious strengths, but the tone was an issue that remained throughout.
Martin Scorsese’s The King of Comedy was a different movie for the director in terms of subject matter and tone. While the ending is simply brilliant and quite emotionally effective, the rest of the film was tonally indecisive and it only really found its footing in that third act. The performances are strong and the movie is well written in dialogue and script, but it needed a more sympathetic protagonist and a better balanced tone.
My Rating – 3.5
