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      Lenny Bruce: Swear to Tell the Truth

      Released Oct 21, 1998 1h 33m Documentary List
      Reviews 89% Fewer than 50 Ratings Audience Score Comedian Lenny Bruce struck a subversive chord in an era of change in America. After getting his start as a conventional stand-up comic, Bruce's increasingly iconoclastic act transformed him into a leading figure of the 1960s counterculture. In smoky strip clubs and burlesque theaters, Bruce tackled controversial material that other comedians wouldn't touch. But, as a career-killing obscenity trial proved, Bruce's creative freedom and influence didn't come without a cost. Read More Read Less

      Audience Reviews

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      Audience Member excellent documentary - I want to watch it again but now impossible to find streaming or dvd ? Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/20/23 Full Review Audience Member [b][size=5]“The [color=Yellow][i]what should be[/i][/color] never did exist, but people keep trying to live up to it. There is no [i][color=Yellow]what should be[/color][/i], there is only [color=Yellow][i]what is[/i][/color].”[/size][/b] [center][img]http://recollectionbooks.com/bleed/Encyclopedia/BruceLenny/lenny_bruce.jpg[/img] [/center] [size=4] [/size] [QUOTE]Stand-up comics can say pretty much anything these days -- no matter how obscene or offensive their material - thanks in no small part to Lenny Bruce. In the late 1950s and early '60s, the iconoclastic comedian often found himself in trouble with the law for saying whatever was on his mind. "There really are very, very few topics or very, very few ways of speaking about those topics that comedians are not allowed to do today in the private comedy club, and that's thanks to Lenny," says David M. Skover, co-author of The Trials of Lenny Bruce, The Fall and Rise of an American Icon. Bruce faced prosecutors in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. Skover says that while Bruce's cases never went to the Supreme Court, the comedian played a key role in the free-speech movement. "His obscenity story changed the First Amendment environment... in a very practical way." After Bruce's death of a morphine overdose in 1966, "the very idea of prosecuting a comedian for off-color language ended," Skover says. "Thus, it's really Lenny's legacy that he opened up the comedy club as the greatest free speech zone in America." Bruce was a tireless defender of free speech and the First Amendment, Collins says. Bruce also was also an amateur lawyer who tried to defend himself in court and paid heavily for defying authority. Skover says Bruce dared to "speak the unspeakable" about race, religion, sexuality and politics. "He was lampooning the establishment by revealing hypocrisies at every turn and, as Lenny's bit proved, he considered hypocrisy to be the greatest of sins. He never held back in what he said or how he said it. And that's really why he was prosecuted."[/QUOTE] Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/14/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      Critics Reviews

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      Jeffrey M. Anderson Combustible Celluloid Utterly timeless and essential viewing today. May 26, 2006 Full Review James Brundage Filmcritic.com Rated: 4/5 Nov 13, 2001 Full Review Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews This documentary, taking 12 years to complete, is a moving tribute to a biting, satirical comedian who became an American icon ... Rated: B Jan 1, 2000 Full Review Read all reviews

      Movie Info

      Synopsis Comedian Lenny Bruce struck a subversive chord in an era of change in America. After getting his start as a conventional stand-up comic, Bruce's increasingly iconoclastic act transformed him into a leading figure of the 1960s counterculture. In smoky strip clubs and burlesque theaters, Bruce tackled controversial material that other comedians wouldn't touch. But, as a career-killing obscenity trial proved, Bruce's creative freedom and influence didn't come without a cost.
      Director
      Robert B. Weide
      Producer
      Sheila Nevins
      Screenwriter
      Robert B. Weide
      Distributor
      Home Box Office Home Video, Home Box Office (HBO) [us]
      Genre
      Documentary
      Original Language
      English
      Release Date (Theaters)
      Oct 21, 1998, Original
      Runtime
      1h 33m
      Sound Mix
      Stereo