Un vrai schnock

After watching the recent Martin & Short net released performance I felt it was time to revisit Martin's first foray into film, The Jerk. At the time The Jerk first dropped Martin was on a roll. The film continued that. A unique piece of celluloid humor whose audience was, shall we say, generous. It is somewhat hard to imagine the time now, but Martin plugged into it. This is a comedy that actually did well in the mainstream at the time and went on to become a bit of cultish type thing. That is to say it doesn't really age well in many ways, but there's Martin at the center. Then and now he makes it a movie to watch. He's completely unique and absolutely irreverent for any time. Watching him is like watching a one-off talent. He put many of his already successful stand-up gags plus delved deeper. The supporting cast was just as edgy with a nice fit. This is one stupid movie making absolutely no apologies. If you in for a cent, you're in for a pound...meaning if in the first ten minutes if you get it then you're going to be watching to the end with those little belly laughs that drop like rain. So, in the end, this many years later this is a film for those with the broadest sense of humor. Those who celebrate crazed stupidity as a form of brilliance. I'd say it was somewhat important as it paved the way for more modern comedies like the Farrrely Brothers later made. Not a film for the masses anymore, if you're a fan of obtuse comedy it definitely warrants another watch.

I'm glad that I didn't see this in the theatre, because when I watched it the first time on video, I needed to pause the movie several times just to catch my breath from laughing so hard! Wait a minute...was that the first time, or the tenth time? Playing Navin R. Johnson, the white son of a black family, Steve Martin leaves home to find "his special purpose." By the end of the movie, we all know what that was...to entertain his fans the way he has! As for Navin's special purpose, if you haven't already seen the movie, you aren't going to get any more information than what's here. It takes intelligence to play a complete idiot, and Steve Martin does the job extremely well. Also take note of Martin's costar Bernadette Peters, and the cameo appearances by Jackie Mason and Carl Reiner. Whoever wrote that people who watch "The Jerk" will be quoting its jokes for years after was absolutely right. This was the funniest of Steve Martin's movies!

Watching Steve Martin in The Jerk, I cannot help but be amazed. Martin has undoubtedly created THE dumbest character ever to appear in a movie. As Navin R. Johnson, he is dense enough to not realize that he's adopted- even though his whole family is black! He's the kind of guy who will gladly accept a ride to the end of the fence, and considers making $1.10 an hour as a gas station attendant to be a dream come true. He's too stupid to understand that a girl who will tattoo your name on her butt after the first date isn't exactly a high class woman.

OK. So he's dumb. So dumb in fact that he could never exist in real life. Anyone who takes the actions he takes, and goes through the experiences that he goes through, can only be a fictional construct. Usually this is fatal for a movie, because audiences cannot suspend their disbelief. This is especially true when the film has no real plot, but is merely a series a series of loosely connected scenes, as this movie is. Such are the trademarks of a box office bomb.

But here, with Martin in lead, it works. The Jerk is so over the top, and Martin plays dumb so successfully, that it's hilarious, believable or not. The entire film is on the level of a middle school production, and it's something of a one joke movie, but it's just plain funny from beginning to end.

I love his movie, and I laughed every minute, but I'm at something of a loss to explain its success. I guess if you play dumb enough, there's no telling what you can accomplish.

Navin Johnson (Steve Martin) is down and out. He tells the story of his life. He grew up as a poor black boy with his black family. He's a clueless naive manic idiot who goes to the big city St. Louis. He gets a job at the gas station from Harry Hartounian (Jackie Mason). It's a random series of crazy events. He invents a way to support glasses and salesman Stan Fox (Bill Macy) goes 50-50 with him. A madman (M. Emmet Walsh) is after him for no good reason. He escapes to join the carnival as Guess Your Weight. He's taken by rough stunt bike rider Patty Bernstein (Catlin Adams) but he falls for sweet Marie (Bernadette Peters). Marie runs away and he ends up in L.A. That's where he reconnects with Stan Fox and finds out he's wildly rich.

It's ridiculous and it's even funny. Steve Martin is putting all his skills of performance and writing to work in his first feature starring role. It's like half of 'Dumb and Dumber'. That's really my only wish. I wish he had another comedian to play off of. It would be even better if he was a comedy duo. He's funniest when Bernadette Peters is with him. This is completely ridiculous and stupid. That's where most of the humor comes from.

You've gotta love the 70's. That is a decade that produced some of the greatest comedies, dramas, war films, art films, etc etc. If it's a classic and it was released in the second half of the 20th century, chances are it was the 70's. The Jerk is just another of those classic screwball comedies that we all know and love. It's no Airplane! but it is a lot of fun and has plenty of that same goofy, quirky, and all around bizarre humor. Steve Martin plays Navin Andrews, a man who was raised by a black family in Missouri. On his birthday one year, Navin finally learns that this family of kindly black southerners aren't his real family and so Navin decides to set out and make something of his life by traveling to St. Louis. The film opens with Navin sitting under a staircase next to a movie theater, drinking whiskey with two of his hobo buddies. He introduces himself to the audience saying that he isn't a bum, just a jerk. He then proceeds to tell us of his life and the story goes from there, taking off into all sorts of weird and wacky places with strange characters and events, where hilarity always ensues.

Steve Martin is what makes this movie without a doubt. He is absolutely hysterical and delivers the best lines of the film. The character of Navin is an absolute idiot who can't comprehend the real world to save his life. Thus we see him getting into all sorts of hilarious situations that any normal person would have just found a simplistic way out of. But Navin delivers all the laughs as Steve Martin bumbles around as one of the most entertaining characters I've ever seen in one of these screwball comedies. Great comedy comes from great improv, something this film allegedly has a lot of. And I'll believe it because there are some moments where I could never have seen that put on paper. Moments that could only be conceived by the spontaneous mind of a comedic genius like Steve Martin. I'm talking about those moments when Martin will do something so absurd and so unexpected that you can even see the actors he is with begin to break down. Everyone has fun with this movie, and it makes it all the more enjoyable.

As fun as this movie is, you still have to remember that it is just a screwball comedy. It isn't trying to accomplish anything major, and it just wants to elicit a good laugh. And it definitely did that for me. There are plenty of dumb things about this movie and moments that aren't as funny as others. I can't help but compare this movie to Airplane and its farcical nature. Airplane definitely does a better job than The Jerk and it has a more consistently hilarious spoof tone to it. The Jerk is funny from start to finish and definitely never tries to take itself seriously, but it is really a film you have to put yourself in a much lighter and less intellectual state of mind to watch and enjoy. There's nothing inherently wrong with this brand of comedy, but it is pretty simple. Yet, when done right, you get great results, and I can't deny that The Jerk does it right.

Films like these I can only enjoy to a certain extent, and that is solely based off of personal opinion. The Jerk is a hilarious film and is actually really well made for what it's worth. There is never a dull moment and Steve Martin is hysterical. This film is nothing more than a screwball comedy, and you will know it about fifteen minutes in. As far as comedies go, this one is great, and there is a lot of fun to be had with it.