A Shot at the Top: The Making of 'The King of Comedy'

This is one of those documentaries that insists on inserting more footage from the film than footage from the people who actually made it. More like an advertisement. And if you're watching it on a Blu-ray (like me) it's intolerable because it's just showing you things that are already fresh in your mind.

Would have much preferred an unedited interviews with Scorcese and Bernhard, with some occasional cut-aways to illustrate their points, rather than every single reference being shown.

Still, if you haven't seen the film in a while, it's probably enjoyable. I just wish we had more from Scorcese -- he always has so much to say, and we only get hints here. (It seems clear to me, reading between the lines, that this film was made as a favour to his friend, de Niro -- he even admits that he only understood the material as they were making it, not before. Would love have heard more about that -- he didn't work with de Niro again for 7 years.)

Shot at the Top, A: The Making of The King of Comedy (2002)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Martin Scorsese and Sandra Bernhard are on hand to discuss the 1983 film THE KING OF COMEDY, which some feel is the last real personal movie to come out of Hollywood before the industry changed (as the director also points out). If you're familiar with the film then you know it's lead character masterfully played by Robert DeNiro. Scorsese, as usual, is full of great stories and he starts off talking about how DeNiro originally brought him the screenplay after MEAN STREETS but the director felt he didn't know the subject matter well enough to direct it. DeNiro then brought the screenplay back to him after RAGING BULL and the director finally got what the picture was about. The director tells countless stories from working with Jerry Lewis to making sure that the city became a character on its own. The most fascinating aspect is when Scorsese talks about how personal and humiliating the character is because he actually never does a single good thing and everyone around him are just figures in his head of what reality should be like. Hearing Scorsese talk about how dangerous a person like this could be was quite interesting and especially when the subject turns to whether or not this guy was actually more dangerous than someone like Travis from TAXI DRIVER. Bernhard talks about scaring Jerry Lewis, working with DeNiro and why she felt Scorsese really let her play with the part, which is something no other director would have allowed. It's interesting to hear what she feels she had in common with the character and hearing about the sequence where Lewis wanted a major beat down thrown her way and how the director got the actor to change his mind. At just 18-minutes there's plenty of room for improvement but those who were around when this DVD was released will remember that originally there was suppose to be an audio commentary with Scorsese but he was busy with GANGS OF NEW YORK so that got canceled and the studio rushed this onto the disc. With that in mind one can overlook the fact that DeNiro and Lewis aren't here but hopefully one day the studio will revisit the film and add them.

This "behind-the-scenes feature" is strictly a two-man show: Director Martin Scorcese and actress Sarah Bernhard. It could have been boring with only those two talking in separate interviews, but it was interesting. Both were insightful about the characters and actors in this bizarre movie.

Scorcese said he originally got the script from Paul Zimmerman in 1974 but, not being a famous actor or personality at the time, couldn't relate to it. After his success with the film "Raging Bull," he could.

Scorcese analyzes the main character "Rupert Pupkin," played so memorably by Robert De Niro (who doesn't like doing interviews so you don't see him much on these DVD features, if at all.).

The director emphasized that hostility was seen in "Pupkin" more than anything throughout the film and he shows some examples through footage in the film.

Bernhard commented she thought this was a "breakout role" for DeNiro who was always this macho kind of guy on film. They comment briefly about Lewis, who, like Bernard, played someone who was like that in real life. She said she was more intimidated working with Lewis than DeNiro, and I got the feeling Lewis is a little standoffish, but I could be wrong.

Bernhard said she did a lot of improvising because that whacked-out character in this film wasn't far off from who she was at the time. She added that this was the last "personal" movie of its kind. "They don't want to make personality-driven movies like this anymore," she added. "This marked kind of an end of an era."