Lenny Bruce: Swear to Tell the Truth (1998)

User Rating:

8.3/10   

Director:

Robert B. Weide

Writer:

Robert B. Weide (writer)

Release Date:

21 October 1998 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary | Biography

Tagline:

In 1948, Lenny Bruce was just another comic who couldn't get arrested. By 1961, all that would change.

Plot Keywords:

Actor | Comedian | Character Name In Title

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Robert De Niro	...	Himself / Narrator (voice)
Steve Allen	...	Himself
Honey Bruce Friedman	...	Herself
Kitty Bruce	...	Herself
Lenny Bruce	...	Himself (archive footage)
JoJo D'Amore	...	Himself
John Dolan	...	Himself
Martin Garbus	...	Himself
Jackie Gayle	...	Himself
Nat Hentoff	...	Himself
Paul Krassner	...	Himself
Richard Kuh	...	Himself
Sally Marr	...	Herself
Frankie Ray	...	Himself
Maynard Sloate	...	Himself
Jack Sobel	...	Himself
Howard Solomon	...	Himself
Lotus Weinstock	...	Herself

Directed by
Robert B. Weide

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Robert B. Weide		writer

Produced by
Sheila Nevins	....	executive producer
Anthony Radziwill	....	supervising producer
Robert B. Weide	....	producer

Cinematography by
Biff Bracht

Film Editing by
Geof Bartz
Claire Scanlon		(recut)
Robert B. Weide

Production Management
Ruth Hawryluk	....	post-production supervisor
Cory Nahoum	....	post-production supervisor

Sound Department
Grant Maxwell	....	sound re-recording mixer
Tony Pipitone	....	sound editor

Music Department
Spring Aspers	....	music supervisor: Deluxe Entertainment

Production Companies

• HBO Documentary
• Whyaduck Productions

Distributors

• Home Box Office (HBO)

Other Companies

• Sync Sound  sound editorial and mixing facilities

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Company:

HBO Documentary

Trivia:

This Oscar-nominated documentary was 12 years in the making.

Movie Connections:

Features Dance Hall Racket (1953)

Soundtrack:

Theme from 'A Summer Place'

This film should be an episode of "American Masters" on PBS

if it isn't, already, and, along with the "Lenny Bruce Performance Film", may become known as the definitive video overview of the life and work of this iconic, visionary, controversial and seminal American artist, satirist and comedian.

Perhaps the one important event in Bruce's life, overlooked by, or perhaps deliberately excluded from, the film, is the near-fatal injury suffered by Bruce's wife, Honey, in a car accident.

It would have been good to see interviewed in the film, people that knew Bruce, that were heard in Larry Josephson's "Modern Times" radio documentary, "Lenny Bruce Remembered", such as Orin Keepnews, Sid Mark, Mort Sahl, Jean Shepherd, Albert Goldman, and Sherman Block, but I suppose one cannot have everything, and it IS Bob Weide's film, not Larry Josephson's. We DO hear from Bruce's mother, wife, and last girlfriend, Lotus Weinstock, in the film, as we do in the radio documentary.

It also would have been good to see and hear Bob Dylan talk about the real-life incident he mentions in his song "Lenny Bruce" :

"I rode with him, in a taxi once, only a mile and a half, seemed like it took a couple of months"

if indeed that did happen, but perhaps that was between the two of them only.

I will close by quoting from the end of Bruce's autobiography. I think the words are Dick Schaap's :

"Finally, one last four-letter word concerning Lenny Bruce : Dead. At forty. That's obscene."