The Jerk
Many people might not realize this, but Steve Martin in the 1970s had essentially become one of the most famous individuals in the country based solely on his reputation as a stand up comedian, with his only national media outlet being frequent guest hosting appearances alongside the legendary Not Ready For Prime Time Players on Saturday Night Live (of which those hosting gigs were so often that many believed him to actually be a regular cast member when he really was not). Martinâs stand up shows were said to be the stuff of legend with tickets being just as hard to obtain as any top billed rock concert which in turn made Martin himself a rock star amongst stand up comedians. His schtick was something else entirely, an existential take on human stupidity that can best be summed up as âI am an idiot therefore I am.â, up to and including his infamous bit of wearing an arrow going through his head. The deeper meaning of Martinâs persona was even more fascinating, that of the ultimate clueless white guy complete with a preternaturally white head of hair for such an obviously young man (something Martin was all too aware of) which translated into channeling that cluelessness into a structured perspective of the world itself. After years of stand up and near non stop SNL appearances, Martin was finally given a chance in 1979 at having the opportunity to star in his own major movie. Whether a stipulation of the offer was to have him directly bring his stand up persona to the big screen is not known, but with a comedy legend like Carl Reiner directing and Martin himself given the chance to write and develop the actual story, what came out of this was not only Martinâs way of finally retiring his clueless white guy stand up character (since he never acted that way in any of his movies ever again after this), he also hedged his bets by going down the same path of comedic political incorrectness forged only once before by Mel Brooks in Blazing Saddles and came up a winner, resulting in a box office smash and even more ironically becoming the favorite comedy ever of no less an authority than one Stanley Kubrick. Martin plays Navin Johnson, and the immediate comedic risk at play here is in portraying him as the (adopted) son of poor black sharecroppers in rural Mississippi, with black parents, black siblings and a black grandma as well. The early scenes are hilarious solely for the sight of Martin being shown as a member of this black family and constantly sticking out like a sore thumb as a result. One day, the family decides to tell him the truth (since he obviously never figured it out for himself) and once he realizes that his skin is going to stay that color, he decides to leave home and head on out into the world in order to find his true destiny. His first stop is a hotel where he meets a dog who winds up being his companion for most of the rest of the movie. What makes the dog great is not only the name that he is given (Shithead) but also the fact that if one watches the film carefully, Shithead only seems to appear whenever it is necessary for him to be onscreen and interact with Martin while during other scenes he is nowhere to be seen because quite simply he is not needed, a strong contrast to other movies where the dog is in virtually every scene and is also the subject of constant closeups, plus every time Martin addresses the dog by his given name of Shithead is guaranteed for a laugh. From there, Martin makes his way to his first job working at a gas station owned by Jackie Mason (considered by many to be a misunderstood comedy genius in his own right who was never able to properly transition himself into either a movie or TV career) and upon his name being put into a phone book for the first time finds himself targeted by a crazed sniper gunman (M. Emmett Walsh) not to mention an almost indescribable bit where a low rider vehicle winds up dragging a church behind them. From there Martin makes his way to the carnival circuit where he catches the attention of the female daredevil motorcycle rider (Catlin Adams) while he stakes his own claim as the weight guesser for the rubes. The thing that becomes clear through much of this is that since Martinâs Navin was obviously extensively sheltered growing up by his sharecropper family, he goes through the world with such a wide eyed, childlike wonder that epitomizes his name (Navin) in the way that he is just so, well, naĂŻve. This becomes obvious when the daredevil motorcycle rider (a hard, butchy woman with cropped purple hair) becomes his first âconquestâ by practically raping him as he discovers the meaning of his âspecial purposeâ (as taught to him by his black mother as to the meaning of his having a penis) all while he happily writes letters back home talking about discovering the joys of sex. If all of this sounds almost too sad to be funny, thatâs because much of it is save for Martinâs refusal to play himself off as anything other than a goofball idiot and the appearance of Shithead The Dog every once in a while doesnât hurt either (even as it is implied that Shithead is always around even if he is not on camera constantly). Eventually, Martin meets the true love of his life as played by Bernadette Peters (whom Martin was having a real life relationship with at the time of filming) and after she punches out the motorcycle girl to win his affections (even though she appears quite delicate), the film develops their romance before she decides to leave him because her (never seen) mother pressures her to find somebody successful. Then an unexpected development occurs when Martin invents something completely useless and pointless (large hooks attached to glasses that keep them from slipping down a personâs nose) that suddenly makes him a millionaire overnight, compelling him to win back Peters and then marry her all while moving into a large mansion and taking on the jetset lifestyle (the mansion includes a disco room with paid dancers there 24/7). Through it all, Martin maintains the character of a socially awkward schmuck without ever quite crossing over onto the level of a disturbingly realistic portrayal that would be less likely to draw as many laughs and chuckles from any viewers. The fact that this remains an almost singular comedic creation is one that is not lost on those perceptive moviegoers as while comic misfits are pretty common in movies, the idea that Martin is the type whom despite all his problems would never hurt a fly is what keeps one invested in his character as well as caring about his fate. The film does well enough to throw in some unexpected random bits such as having the now wealthy Martin keep matching watercoolers on his property that serves both red and white wine and a slightly uncomfortable moment where when meeting with some shady potential investors who let loose with some racist remarks around him (assuming that he is okay with it because of his own whiteness), he whips off his robe and goes into kung fu mode to beat up the racists who have insulted the honor of himself and his family. Finally it takes a very funny cameo from director Reiner himself to give us a final crisis situation and an almost tacked on happy ending, not to mention a controversial final scene simply because it can be interpreted as being a racist joke in and of itself at the expense of African Americans which ensures that this type of film could probably never be made today, but in 1979 it was considered a rousing success that successfully launched Martin onto the A list even if much of his output (especially in the 1980s) was a bit more esoteric than the other comedy superstars of his era, although Martin should be commended for thoroughly reinventing himself over the years as someone other than the painfully awkward, unhip white guy that he built his initial stardom on (although him trying to take on the character of Peter Sellersâ Inspector Clouseau was taking things a little bit too far). But here in what would be the âfarewell appearanceâ for his superdork persona (not to mention his first starring role), he actually acquits himself quite well, allowing his charisma to not wear out his welcome and finding able support from a game supporting cast and one of the best movie dogs in history in the one and only ShitheadâŚ
8/10