Steambath


            In an interview, Honey Harlow Bruce (Valerie Perrine), ex-wife of stand-up comic Lenny Bruce (Dustin Hoffman), recalls her life with him:In 1964, Lenny shocks his audience by stating that Eleanor Roosevelt gave Lou Gehrig "the clap," but then says the real point he wants to make is about the suppression of words. Venereal disease he says, is an epidemic because people will not talk about it.Honey then recalls seeing Lenny for the first time in Baltimore, when he was a comic impersonator:In the early 1950s, Honey, a stripper known as Hot Honey Harlow, is eating in a cafeteria when she sees Lenny watching her from across the room. The next time Lenny and Honey see each other, they go off together to have sex. Afterward, the smitten Lenny calls Honey his "shiksa goddess" and follows her to Miami.In another interview, Artie Silver (Stanley Beck), Lenny's manager, discusses the delicate balance of involving himself in both Lenny's professional and personal life:Shortly after Lenny and Honey meet, Artie warns Lenny that Honey, who had done jail time as a teenager, would be trouble. Despite Artie's misgivings, Lenny marries Honey, then takes her to meet his mother, Sally Marr (Jan Miner), and her sister Aunt Mema (Rashel Novikoff). Later, Lenny, who is uncomfortable with Honey's stripping, adds her to his act. They are hired to perform in the Catskills, where, during a show, Lenny makes an impulsive, crude joke to the band that is overheard by the audience. After this incidence, Sherman Hart (Gary Morton), an established comic, advises Lenny not to use "dirt" in his routines, but, at his next performance, Lenny intentionally insults his audience, thus losing career opportunities.In a 1960s performance, Lenny asks his audience, "What is dirty?" He says he would rather his child watch a stag movie than 'The King of Kings' , because nobody gets hurt in porn.In a flashback to 1950s, Honey is seriously injured and, while in the hospital, guesses that Lenny has an affair with her nurse. This incident becomes the source of a routine Lenny performs a decade later, in which Lenny advises men to deny their indiscretions at all costs, even if their wives catch them in the act. Explaining the difference between men and women, Lenny says that a woman is physical with someone she likes, but a man will seek out anything, even on a desert island.In the 1950s, the couple moves to Los Angeles, Honey returns to stripping, Lenny to small gigs and they become involved in the show business drug culture. Lenny pushes to experiment sexually, but then accuses Honey of enjoying the other woman in their ménage a trois "too much." In her interview, Honey recalls that after their daughter, Kitty, was born, she and Lenny parted.During his stand-up act in the 1960s, Lenny says that "divorce is great at first, but then you realize the women you meet are also divorced and burdened with children or poodles". He claims the only satisfaction is the revenge of gaining child custody, but then you are responsible for getting up in the morning to raise the child.In her interview, Honey at first accuses Lenny of stealing Kitty, but then admits she had a problem with drug abuse:In the late 1950s, Honey, an emotional wreck from loneliness and drugs, calls Lenny collect from Hawaii, where she has been arrested for possession of marijuana.In a 1960s performance, Lenny explains that the problem is that we live in a "happy ending" culture instead of a "what is" culture. He thinks that true human responses are denied and lied about, causing people to feel guilty when they act in a natural way.In an interview, Sally says that she moved to California to help with Kitty, and that Lenny had by then given up impersonation and begun to improvise:In the late 1950s, Lenny works in strip clubs, content that no one censors his act. Eventually, Artie and Sally convince him to take engagements at college and political venues, where his irreverence soon becomes trendy. During a performance, Lenny risks audience alienation by boldly referring to individuals using racial epithets. Then, explaining that suppression gives words power, he advocates using offensive words until they can no longer cause pain. When a Time magazine reporter suggests that Lenny's act has social impact, Lenny denies it, saying he likes attention and wants to "make a buck." Now, Artie commands high fees for Lenny's appearances.During one performance, Lenny says that he has been accused of making "sick jokes," but that a true sick joke is that Zsa Zsa Gabor earns $60,000 a week in Las Vegas and a Nevada school teacher's top pay is $6,000 a year. After wisecracking about masturbation and integration, Lenny says his financial success is based on violence, segregation, disease, despair and injustice, and if the world suddenly became pure, he would be unemployed. When he visits Honey in prison, he shows her an album cover of a recording of some of his performances.At an appearance in San Francisco, Lenny protests the dismissal of homosexual teachers, saying the men were considered good at their jobs and their actions occurred far from school grounds. Because of one of his crudely worded comments, Lenny is arrested and charged with the use of an obscene word in a public place.During his interview, Artie recalls that Lenny became obsessed with his legal battles and would read court transcripts to his audience:At Lenny's trial without jury in San Francisco, the judge orders a continuance and cautions Lenny not to repeat any of "those words."At Lenny's next performance, after pointing out to the audience several uniformed and plainclothes policemen posted around the room, Lenny talks about his arrest, substituting the sounds, "blah blah blah," for provocative words. When the trial resumes, the humorless judge finds Lenny guilty, after which his counsel requests a jury trial.In his interview, Artie states that Lenny began to study law books and record his trials:During the appeal trial, his lawyer forces the arresting policeman to admit that one of the words that Lenny is being charged for saying in public is often used at the police station, which also is a public place. Then his lawyer suggests that Lenny's work is found in the social satire of Aristophanes and Jonathan Swift. A professor of religion testifies that Lenny's routines convey a sincere message that exposes hypocrisy. A recording of a performance is played, one in which Lenny riffs on the phrase, "to come," and arranges his words into a kind of beat poem. Although the judge is offended, the jury votes for acquittal. Lenny, however, is dissatisfied, feeling that he won because of the jury's idiosyncrasies rather than the acknowledgment of First Amendment rights.According to Artie's later recollection, Lenny, who added jokes about the Pope and other religious leaders to his routines, developed a following, although some people attended shows just to see if he got arrested. After Honey is released from prison, she and Lenny spend time together taking drugs. Artie and Sally try to cancel Lenny's Chicago performance, but when the manager refuses, the drug-addled, coughing Lenny goes onstage. After an attempt at coherence, he apologizes, admitting he is not funny. Backstage, the police arrest him.In the present, Honey recalls that Lenny was arrested a total of 13 times, and Sally states that he suffered from pleurisy. Artie says Lenny dealt with depression, and was going broke from lawyer and doctor bills. In a performance at the height of his career, Lenny tells the audience that there has been an "obscenity circus" for years, starring the district attorney and the lower and Supreme Courts, and that he is the "schmuck" who fell off the high wire into the ring. As he wonders aloud why it is permissible to show photographs of maimed breasts injured in war, but not the beautiful breasts of a lovely woman in the audience, a policeman rises to arrest him.At the trial, words Lenny has spoken are presented out of context and a gesture he used is incorrectly stated to signify masturbation. Increasingly frustrated, Lenny speaks out, asking to talk to the judge and jury as human to human, but his interruptions anger the judge. Expecting a guilty verdict, his defense team plans to appeal to a higher court, but Lenny, no longer thinking clearly, is uncooperative. He tries defending himself, but the judge declares him in contempt of court. Lenny states that he has no money left and his cabaret card, which allows him to perform, has been confiscated. As he is removed from the courtroom, Lenny claims he hurts no one and pleads that they do not take away his words.In her interview, Sally says the New York court found Lenny guilty, but an appeal was being planned by his defense team. When the interviewer suggests the possibility of suicide, Sally denies it. Honey describes Lenny as funny, and Artie, pleased that Lenny's records are selling again, states that he is negotiating a film about his life. Intrigued, the interviewer mentions that Lenny's speeches are now-after less than a decade-considered harmless.Back in 1966, when Lenny is found dead in his apartment, naked, with drug paraphernalia nearby, the police allow news photographers to film his death scene.
    

Lenny


            
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Silver Skies


            At a christening ceremony in a Mexican church, the walls shake and the building collapses when a sudden earthquake strikes. While men clear the rubble, one of the survivors, a 19-year-old Mexican girl named Maria (Elpidia Carrillo), carries her baby and follows her younger brother, Juan (Manuel Viescars), through the wreckage.Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, California, immigration Officer Charlie Smith (Jack Nicholson) arbitrarily arrests two Mexican workers from a factory. Later, Charlie returns to his run-down trailer home where his wife, Marcy (Valerie Perrine), tells him that she wishes to buy a duplex in El Paso, Texas, next door to her friend, Savannah (Shannon Wilcox). Charlie muses over the idea of changing careers and working with park services, but Marcy believes it would be a mistake.As Charlie and Marcy move to El Paso, Maria, Juan, and the baby reach the U.S.-Mexico border. Charlie and Marcy meet Savannah, her husband, Cat (Harvey Keitel), and their young son Timmy (Jay Thurman) at the house. Inside, Savannah and Marcy laugh remembering their days as high school cheerleaders. After Cat has Charlie outfitted for his uniform as a border patrolman, Charlie's new partner, Hawker (Alan Fudge), drives him around the three-mile-long "Tortilla Curtain" border fence, where they encounter a group of young Mexicans sneaking across. Because Hawker identifies them as day workers sneaking into the U.S. for the workday before returning to Mexico at night, he lets them get away.That night, Hawker and Charlie respond to an urgent call, and Hawker is shot and killed by an armed illegal immigrant. The next day at border patrol headquarters, Charlie meets Red (Warren Oates), the patrol supervisor, and attends Hawker's funeral. Later, Charlie walks along the Rio Grande River and becomes transfixed when he spots Maria holding her baby. Charlie returns home to find that, to his annoyance, Marcy purchased a waterbed and opened a charge account at the local mall.In the desert, Cat and Charlie arrest a Mexican man smuggling cocaine and load a group of immigrants into a van to drive them back across the border. Among them, Charlie recognizes Maria, but when he approaches her, she spits in his face. After Charlie locks the drug smuggler in a cell at patrol headquarters, Cat sends the patrol's Mexican contact, Manuel (Mike Gomez), to speak with the criminal.Later, Cat suggests that Charlie participate in his and Red's scheme; smuggling immigrants for extra money, but Charlie refuses. At home, Marcy tells her husband that she wants to work on television and he discovers that she installed a swimming pool. At the Rio Grande river border, Charlie calls out to a woman he believes to be Maria, but is mistaken. He crosses the water into Mexico and walks through a poor village, where he finds the drug smuggling boy with his throat slit.Back in Texas at Red's birthday party, Charlie tells Cat and Red about the body, suspecting Manuel of suspicious dealings. Cat dismisses the idea and Red banishes Charlie from crossing the border again. One night, Charlie and Cat attempt to stop a group of Mexicans, including Maria and her brother, from hopping onto a freight train. When Juan falls under the train, Charlie jumps under the train to protect him.While detained in an outdoor holding cell, a woman offers to hold Maria's child and scuttles off to hand the baby to Manuel. Maria realizes the baby is gone and begins to cry, prompting an uprising from the other detainees, who break out of their cage. The patrolmen use tear gas to control the crowd and load the detainees on a bus to drive them back to Mexico.That night, Cat confronts Manuel about the stolen baby and Manuel reveals that he sold the child to a wealthy Caucasian family. As they talk, they see El Scorcho, a man with a burned face who traffics Mexicans in competition with their own arrangement. Charlie wakes up the next morning to the sounds of Marcy moving more furniture into the house. Fed up with her excessive spending to build him the perfect "dream house," he slaps her. Charlie and Cat visit J. J. (Jeff Morris), whose house acts as a delivery station for smuggled immigrants. As Charlie waits outside, J. J. hands Cat a stack of money.During a pool party at the Smiths' house, Savannah drunkenly starts a food fight, prompting Marcy to scream. Amidst the chaos, Charlie dumps a grill full of burning meat into the pool.One afternoon, Charlie catches El Scorcho with a truckload of Mexicans. Cat suddenly arrives and takes El Scorcho back toward the station, but Jack hears two gunshots from the direction in which Cat drove away. At the station, Charlie yells at Cat that he does not want to get involved with murder. Marcy gets her hair done at the salon and worriedly tells Savannah that she does not know how to make Charlie happy.Outside a bar another night later, Charlie pays Juan $5 to take him to Maria and finds her in a strip club, where she works as a dancer for Manuel. When he tries to lead her away, two men beat Charlie up and throw him outside.The next day, Manuel warns Cat that Charlie will get them into trouble. As Charlie chases a driver through the desert, he fails to notice two Mexicans who are being transported. Cat watches the incident from a distance. When the driver confesses to transporting two men, Charlie returns to the site to check again. Inside the driver's vehicle, he finds their bloody bodies, which he swears had not been there before. Cat insists he will cover for Charlie and they sink the car in a nearby pond. Charlie again asks Juan to take him to see Maria and informs them that he will help smuggle them across the border the next day. He insists that she does not owe him anything, and that helping them would allow him to feel good about something in his life.The next night, Charlie watches as Maria, Juan, and a group of others safely cross the Rio Grande. Outside J. J.'s house, Maria's group boards a truck and Charlie and Cat take their payment for the delivery. However, Juan is shot for attempting to smuggle drugs, and he runs away. Two patrolmen notice the truck on the highway and follow in pursuit. Charlie hears the call on his patrol radio and, concerned about Maria, drives to catch up with them. Gaining speed, the truck loses control and crashes on a hillside. Charlie takes Maria home and asks Marcy to tend to the girl while he returns to J. J.'s house to look for Juan. Once there, he overhears Red talking with J. J., explaining how the heist went wrong. Charlie returns home to take Maria back to Mexico, but Marcy believes he is leaving her. Although he and Maria find Juan, bloody and feverish, he dies shortly after. As Maria prays over her brother's body, Manuel and J. J. prowl outside and Charlie shoots J. J. in the face. Charlie finds Manuel at a bar and demands he return the baby, who has not yet been sold, to Maria.At the house where the baby is hidden, Charlie finds the infant buried in a laundry basket, and Manuel calls the patrolmen. On the road, Cat and a few other officers shoot at Charlie as he drives by. Charlie gets out of his vehicle and fires at the officers, exploding their car, and Cat hides under a bulldozer. Charlie shoots the tire, which deflates and causes the oversize vehicle to crush Cat to death. Charlie returns to the Rio Grande crossing and delivers the baby to Maria, who thanks him through her tears.
    

The Border

The Electric Horseman


            Elroy "Junior" Jackson (Jeff Bridges) speeds through the backwoods of rural North Carolina in his Mustang, arriving home to help his father Elroy, Sr. (Art Lund) and brother Wayne (Gary Busey) put their moonshine whiskey into bottles. When the boys joke about a policeman named Collins, their father admonishes them to treat the man with respect. On that night's delivery run, Junior evades arrest by listening to the police on his CB radio and eventually running a roadblock which forces Collins to jump into a watery ditch. The next day, Collins retaliates by blowing up Mr. Jackson's whiskey distillery and arresting him.When Wayne informs Junior that his humiliation of Collins has put their father in prison, Junior goes to the jail with a lawyer, attempting to take responsibility for the incident, but his father stoically accepts his fate. The lawyer advises Mr. Jackson to renounce bootlegging in court to lessen his sentence, but Mr. Jackson refuses on principal, arguing that everyone at city hall drinks his whiskey.The next day, Junior talks to a racing promoter named Hackel (Ned Beatty) about entering the local demolition derby in order to raise money for his father's legal defense. Hackel ridicules the backwoods boy, but Junior persists and is allowed to compete. Junior's brother and friends help him prepare an old car for derby day with a spike to project from the grill so that he can ram his competitors' vehicles, an innovation that excites the crowd and wins him $200.Invited to the next derby, Junior replies that he will enter the stock car race instead and again Hackel scoffs at him. To prove his skill, Junior times himself on the track that night and is so fast that he is allowed to enter. During the race, Junior amazes the crowd with his fearless driving and wins first prize. Afterward, Junior drives to city hall to attend his father's trial, but discovers that the trial has already ended and his father has been sentenced to a year in prison for refusing to denounce moonshine.Unaware that his mother (Geraldine Fitzgerald) is in attendance, Junior wins his eighth race on Hackel's track, which ends with another driver attacking Junior over his aggressive maneuvers. After the fight, Hackel brands Junior a troublemaker and orders him never to return, to which Junior retorts that he is a star and will race at the more prestigious Hickory racetrack.That night, worried about Junior's safety, Wayne and his mother urge him to take a job as a garage mechanic, which he angrily refuses due to the low pay. During Junior's next visit to the jail, when his father tells him that "one man's foolishness is the breath of life to another," Junior realizes that only his father understands him and gives him his trophy.Needing money for a faster car, Junior continues delivering moonshine, now in a truck with a tank that he and Wayne have equipped with a release valve that dumps the whiskey onto the road if the police get too close. However, when the sons proudly tell their father about the invention, he chastises them for antagonizing the police.Junior arrives at the Hickory racetrack to announce to the owner Morley (Gregory Walcott) and racing star Kyle Kingman (William Smith) that he will win the next race, but Morley, who knows Junior's reputation, replies that he has declined Junior's entry. In response, Junior surprises Morley by producing a pit pass and a rule book that states he has a right to qualify.After successfully completing his trial run, Junior goes into the office where he meets Morley's friendly assistant and secretary, Marge Dennison (Valerie Perrine), and thanks her for sending him the pass and rule book. As Junior signs the entry papers, Marge tells him about his motel accommodations and puts his name on the list for the buffet, adding that he can bring a guest. When Junior invites Marge to dinner and she replies that she has a date, he grins and says he does not discourage easily.That evening, when Junior checks into the motel he finds that Marge has gotten him a discount on his room and has flowers delivered to her. As he is getting out of the shower, Junior, wearing only a towel, is flustered when Marge knocks and enters, thanking him for the flowers and flirting while he dresses for dinner.At the buffet and party, Marge dances with Kingman while Junior sees driver Rick Penny (Lane Smith) arguing with his manager, Burton Colt (Ed Lauter). When Penny complains to Junior afterward, Junior disdainfully suggests he work for himself and as Junior drives Marge home, he derides the other drivers as hired jockeys.After dropping Marge off, Junior goes into a recording booth where he makes record for his family, telling them about Hickory and finally apologizing to his father, saying that he loves him, but throws the record in the trash as he leaves. Back in his room, Junior calls Marge and is shocked when Kingman answers, but is later cheered when his friends show him their new team jackets emblazoned with his name.On the day of the race, Junior sees Marge waving from the stands and sadly realizes that she is waving at Kingman. The race begins and Junior pulls ahead with his friends cheering him on, while Penny falls behind as his manager bullies him over a radio. When Junior's car catches fire he is unhurt, but is unable to complete the race, which Kingman wins. Impressed with Junior's driving, Colt takes advantage of the destruction of his car by offering to make him one of his drivers, but Junior refuses to be bought, vowing to get a new car and beat Colt and everyone else.While celebrating Kingman's victory with him, Marge meets his wife, Trina (Erica Hagen), who makes it clear that Marge should end the affair with her husband. Calmly accepting this, Marge turns to Junior and they proceed to her apartment where they have sex for the first time. They are startled when their post-sex romantic conversation is interrupted by Kingman unlocking the door, but Kingman smiles and tosses his key to Junior for future use.Later back home, Mr. Jackson returns from jail after being paroled early for good behavior, but when his sons show him their new underground still, he angrily destroys it, saying he does not want Junior to risk his racing career by bootlegging. When Junior retorts that he needs money for a new car, his father slaps him, saying that Elroy Jackson, Jr. will find a way.Seeing no alternative, Junior offers to drive for Colt in exchange for 50% of the prize money. Colt inflexibly counters with his terms of 30% and demands that Junior wear his uniform, drive his car and use his crew. Junior eventually accepts and begins the Hickory 500 race with Colt coaching him through an earpiece, which Junior soon discards and proceeds to race his own way.Junior and Kingman compete for the lead throughout the grueling contest until Junior finally triumphs. In the winner's circle, Junior is joined by his friends and Colt. As they are celebrating, Marge congratulates Junior and although he is relieved that she is no longer with Kingman, he sadly watches her leave with another driver. When Colt threatens to dock half of Junior's $3,000 prize money for insubordination, Junior grabs the trophy, saying that his racing talent gives him the power in their relationship. Junior then informs Colt that he will continue racing for him only if he can retain 60% of future prize money and use his own car and crew. Colt reluctantly accepts the deal.In the final scene, as his brother and friends enjoy skipping stones at a local pond, Junior walks alone into a press conference as flashbulbs pop and he is asked by the reporters where he, Junior Jackson, is going to race next.
    

Valerie Perrine

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