Is the Price Right?
Have you ever seen a movie where you wish the ending was different? Have you ever thought, if I had done it, I would have done it differently? Maybe Ilsa ends up with Rick in someone's version; maybe Neil McCauley does not end up dead at the hands of Lt. Vincent Hanna. It is this sinking feeling that infuses my thoughts each time I listen to "Stan" by Eminem. I wish Stan would treat his doting girlfriend ("your picture on my wall, it reminds me, that it's not so bad") better and stop wishing that he and his idol should "be together". Dido sings a haunting melody and I feel a sense of dread (even though I have listened to the song many times) and the car crash at the end of the third verse brings a melancholic feeling no matter how cheerful I was prior to listening to the song. How far would our obsession with the celebrities take us? Do we really want to worship the celebrities and be like them so much that our identities end up disappearing? What was Stan missing in his life?
Stan, who never knew his father (who used to always cheat on his mom and beat her), may have been looking for someone to look up to and idolise and that someone happened to be Slim Shady. When Slim Shady does not reply to Stan's letters, Stan takes downers and combined with a "fifth of vodka" drives over a bridge killing him and his pregnant girlfriend in the process. Stan's unhealthy obsession is mirrored in that of Mark Chapman who killed John Lennon because Chapman believed (according to a psychiatrist) that he was John Lennon and the real John Lennon was an imposter.
I watched "The King of Comedy" which may not have been Scorsese's or De Niro's best film but rates high up in my charts. In the movie, Rupert Pupkin (Robert De Niro) an autograph hound, wishes to break into stardom and after a chance encounter with Jerry Langford (Jerry Lewis), a famous talk show host, Pupkin believes his fifteen minutes has finally arrived. As he gets repeatedly rebuffed by Langford, Pupkin kidnaps Langford with the assistance of Masha (Sandra Bernhard), a crazed fan who stalks Langford and as ransom Pupkin demands the opening slot in the Jerry Langford talk show. Pupkin impresses the audience with his jokes and he closes his witty monologue by confessing to the audience that he had kidnapped Langford and when the audience laughs, he responds "tomorrow you'll know I wasn't kidding and you'll think I was crazy. But, look, I figure it this way. Better to be king for a night than schmuck for a lifetime". The movie ends up showing Pupkin as a celebrity (with his autobiography "King for a Night") waiting in the wings of a studio as the TV show host enthusiastically introduces him.
Even though I read somewhere that Scorsese has failed in the attempt at a comedy, I like to believe "The King of Comedy" was a more a satirical shot in the arm at the celebrity obsessed culture than a plain-comedy (I use this term because I have evidenced a lot of them in my short life-time) and the movie (released in 1983) was ahead of its time and should be looked upon as essential viewing. Even though De Niro did not lose/gain any weight, he still brings a creepy nature to Pupkin, a slimy (yet for some unknown reason, loveable) celeb obsessed wannabe who lives in the basement at his mother's house. It is this Scorsese-De Niro collaboration that I miss and I await the day when "The Irishman" would be released (for more on the Irishman, see I Heard You Paint Houses).
Stan, who never knew his father (who used to always cheat on his mom and beat her), may have been looking for someone to look up to and idolise and that someone happened to be Slim Shady. When Slim Shady does not reply to Stan's letters, Stan takes downers and combined with a "fifth of vodka" drives over a bridge killing him and his pregnant girlfriend in the process. Stan's unhealthy obsession is mirrored in that of Mark Chapman who killed John Lennon because Chapman believed (according to a psychiatrist) that he was John Lennon and the real John Lennon was an imposter.I watched "The King of Comedy" which may not have been Scorsese's or De Niro's best film but rates high up in my charts. In the movie, Rupert Pupkin (Robert De Niro) an autograph hound, wishes to break into stardom and after a chance encounter with Jerry Langford (Jerry Lewis), a famous talk show host, Pupkin believes his fifteen minutes has finally arrived. As he gets repeatedly rebuffed by Langford, Pupkin kidnaps Langford with the assistance of Masha (Sandra Bernhard), a crazed fan who stalks Langford and as ransom Pupkin demands the opening slot in the Jerry Langford talk show. Pupkin impresses the audience with his jokes and he closes his witty monologue by confessing to the audience that he had kidnapped Langford and when the audience laughs, he responds "tomorrow you'll know I wasn't kidding and you'll think I was crazy. But, look, I figure it this way. Better to be king for a night than schmuck for a lifetime". The movie ends up showing Pupkin as a celebrity (with his autobiography "King for a Night") waiting in the wings of a studio as the TV show host enthusiastically introduces him.
Even though I read somewhere that Scorsese has failed in the attempt at a comedy, I like to believe "The King of Comedy" was a more a satirical shot in the arm at the celebrity obsessed culture than a plain-comedy (I use this term because I have evidenced a lot of them in my short life-time) and the movie (released in 1983) was ahead of its time and should be looked upon as essential viewing. Even though De Niro did not lose/gain any weight, he still brings a creepy nature to Pupkin, a slimy (yet for some unknown reason, loveable) celeb obsessed wannabe who lives in the basement at his mother's house. It is this Scorsese-De Niro collaboration that I miss and I await the day when "The Irishman" would be released (for more on the Irishman, see I Heard You Paint Houses).
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