The Jerk (1979)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Carl Reiner

Writers:

Steve Martin (story) &
Carl Gottlieb (story) ...

Release Date:

14 December 1979 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Music

Tagline:

From rags to riches... to rags.

Plot:

A complete imbecile struggles to make it through life on his own, until a strange invention makes him unbelievably wealthy.

Plot Keywords:

Dancing | Gas Station | Cult Favorite | Riches To Rags | Grab Ass

Cast

Steve Martin	...	Navin R. Johnson / Cat Juggler / Pig Eye Jackson / Engineer Fred (also as Pig Eye Jackson)
Bernadette Peters	...	Marie Kimble Johnson
Catlin Adams	...	Patty Bernstein
Mabel King	...	Mother
Richard Ward	...	Father
Dick Anthony Williams	...	Taj Jonson
Bill Macy	...	Stan Fox
M. Emmet Walsh	...	Madman
Dick O'Neill	...	Frosty
Maurice Evans	...	Hobart
Helena Carroll	...	Hester
Ren Woods	...	Elvira Jonson (as Ren Wood)
Pepe Serna	...	Punk #1 in Blue Chevy
Sonny Terry	...	Blues Singer
Brownie McGhee	...	Blues Singer (as Brownie McGee)

Also Known As:

Easy Money (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

94 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:L | Finland:K-16 (cut) (1980) | Portugal:M/12 | Australia:M | Norway:12 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:R | West Germany:12 | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Devonshire Downs - Devonshire Street at Zelzah Avenue, Northridge, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Aspen Film Society

Trivia:

Premiere voted this movie as one of "The 50 Greatest Comedies Of All Time" in 2006.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Navin fills up the tank of the lowrider's car, he leaves the hose in the car and leaves. When he returns, the hose has been replaced back on the gas pump.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Navin R. Johnson: Huh? I am not a bum. I'm a jerk. I once had wealth, power, and the love of a beautiful woman. Now I only have two things: my friends and... uh... my thermos. Huh? My story? Okay. It was never easy for me. I was born a poor black child. I remember the days, sittin' on the porch with my family, singin' and dancin' down in Mississippi.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Make 'Em Laugh: The Funny Business of America: Would Ya Hit a Guy with Glasses?: Nerds, Jerks & Oddballs (#1.1)" (2009)

Soundtrack:

You Belong To Me

Overwhelmingly and brilliantly funny with genius throwaways.

To enter the realm inhabited by Martin's blissfully original caricatures, you must first be tested for wit, intellect and an innocent revelry in life itself. If you qualify, you will be led on to a rollercoaster of oxygen-sapping gags, stupendously clever motifs, brilliant performances and an absolutely fabulous script. There are gags here so new and surprising that to try and emulate them could only court failure. The joy of true love accompanied by him on the ukelele and on the last stanza by her on the........ trumpet: and a beautiful little song. Is it the humour or the innocence brings a tear to your eye? Don't call the dog "life saver", call him "s***head" - and for evermore, he is. The white man who is distraught to discover that he is not black. The goodbye note and Martin reading bits of words as they are washed away. The seminal "all I need" scene which is milked to the point of asphixia. The Jerk is simply the funniest most understatedly clever movie ever produced. There has simply never been anything this good, nor will there ever be. The message is simple and is a very old one: the buffoon as saint. From Bottom in Shakespeare, to Tristram Shandy, to Chaplin, to the genius understatement of Cary Grant, to Norman Wisdom: they have all touched on and come tantalisingly close, but they have all lacked one ingredient, an ingrediant calledSteve Martin. Like Orson Welles and Kane or Frederick Forsyth and the Jackal or Men at Work and Land Down Under, Martin has played his best shot first, unfettered, undisciplined, unconstrained genius. Let us all be better, brighter, cleverer and genuinely funnier by being the jerk. And if that's too frightening, just watch it.