Eddie Murphy Raw (1987)

Director:

Robert Townsend

Writers:

Eddie Murphy (stand-up material)
Eddie Murphy (opening sketch) ...

Release Date:

18 December 1987 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

WARNING! You may be offended if you're black, white, male, female, rich or poor, Bill Cosby, Mr. T or Richard Pryor.

Plot:

Eddie Murphy in a stand-up performance recorded live. For an hour and a half he talks about his favourite subjects: sex and women.

Plot Keywords:

Janet Jackson | Bill Cosby | Madonna | Richard Pryor | Stand Up Comedy

Cast

Eddie Murphy	...	Himself
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Tatyana Ali	...	Eddie's sister (sketch)
Billie Allen	...	Eddie's aunt (sketch)
James Brown III	...	Thanksgiving Guest (sketch)
Eyde Byrde	...	Mrs. Butts (sketch) (as Edye Byrde)
Michelle Davison	...	Thanksgiving Guest (sketch)
Clebert Ford	...	Uncle Lester (sketch)
Geri Gibson	...	Card Player #2 (sketch)
Birdie M. Hale	...	Aunt Rose (sketch)
J.D. Hall	...	Party Guest (sketch)
Tiger Haynes	...	Card Player #3 (sketch)
Barbara Iley	...	Thanksgiving Guest (sketch)
Leonard Jackson	...	Uncle Gus (sketch)
Samuel L. Jackson	...	Eddie's uncle (sketch)
Jody Jones	...	Eddie's Cousin (sketch)
John Lafayette	...	Thanksgiving Guest (sketch)
Davenia McFadden	...	Eddie's Aunt (sketch)
Gwen McGee	...	Eddie's mother (sketch)
Lex Monson	...	Card Player #4 (sketch)
Warren Morris	...	Poetry Reader (sketch)
Deon Richmond	...	Little Eddie (sketch)
Basil Wallace	...	Eddie's Father (sketch)
Damien Dante Wayans	...	Child Running in the house (sketch) (as Damien Wayans)
Ellis Williams	...	Eddie's uncle (sketch)
Carol Woods	...	Eddie's Aunt (sketch)

Also Known As:

Raw (USA) (short title)
Raw: The Concert Movie (USA) (poster title)

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Australia:R | UK:15 (re-rating) | West Germany:18 | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:18A | Finland:K-16 | Ireland:15 | Norway:15 | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Felt Forum, Madison Square Garden - 4 Pennsylvania Plaza, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Eddie Murphy Productions

Trivia:

The only film to receive a 16 rating in Iceland due entirely to language.

Quotes:

Little Eddie: [demonstrating] Then he kicked him in the ding-ding.

Movie Connections:

References "The A-Team" (1983)

Soundtrack:

Raw

Alltime greats

This movie came out late 1987, and people were dying for a sequel to "Delirious" which was 1983. If you go back and watch Richard Pryor's "live in Concert" or "Here and Now" you see that Eddie used some of Pryor's stuff, but gave it its own shot of himself (In delirious, Murphy does the "bARBQ scene/story" and he describes his aunt falling down the steps. It is the exact same description Pryor does in "Live in Concert" when he describes black women at funerals.) RAW used all the things that made Eddie Murphy famous; his deadon imitations, and his gift for telling stories. I can't even watch Martin Lawrence, DL Hughely, Cedric the Entertainer and a few others without noticing Eddie Murphy's influences right away. People forget how big he was, and how good- wayyy before he started doing bad talking animal movies. There are some debates over which was better Raw or Delirious....they are both hilarious, but you can tell the mindset was much different only 4 years later. In RAW, Murphy compares himself to Johnny Carson, while in Delirious he was just the most popular guy on Saturday Night Live. RAW is one of the best and funniest concert comedies ever, and I dare someone not to laugh out loud when watching it......NOTE: This movie was reviewed in 1987 when it came out by Siskel and Ebert "AT The Movies", which was when they were getting really popular in syndication, and it spurred one of the best on-air disagreements between the two EVER. Siskel likened RAW, and Eddie Murphy overall, as being as funny (or funnier)and outrageous as Pryor, Carlin or Lenny Bruce. He loved the movie. Ebert despised it, and chastised Siskel for being "immature" and he also felt that Murphy's attitudes toward women were patronizing, damaging and even went so far as to call RAW a "pale imitation of a good comedienne". I thought Ebert was nuts at the time, and now that Siskel is dead, I can't find any review of RAW on Ebert's website. I've emailed him numerous times about it, trying to figure out why a movie that was so popular, and not even that long ago, would not be in his database. Does anyone else thinks that sounds fishy?