Man on the Moon

Yesterday I watched 'Man on the Moon', the dramatized bio-pic of Andy Kaufman starring Jim Carrey and Danny Devito.

HUGE SPOILER ALERT! If you are interested in watching this movie you may not want to read this review, as I'm sure to reveal things that may lessen the impact of the viewing. On the other hand, it is based on biographical facts, so after reading this you may just want to watch the movie more (or not). At any rate, be warned.

I was both excited and apprehensive about watching this film. Truth is, I owned this for two years before watching it. Now, I'm both happy and disappointed that I waited so long. In some places it is a tough movie to watch for the empathic person - this is testament to the power of Andy's comedy to this day. On the other hand, I REALLY liked this movie.

If you are my age, or maybe a few years younger, you remember Andy Kaufman. You remember Saturday Night Live, you remember Taxi, you remember inter-gender wrestling. You remember how despised he became.

Jim Carrey really nailed Andy in his portrayal - I don't know anyone else who could have done it, period. Really great direction and acting all around - including a whole slough of cameos from people playing themselves as they actually worked with Kaufman! Danny Devito as George Shapiro was inspired - he had actually worked closely with Andy on Taxi. Danny is another actor I very much admire.

I bring this review here to SF because of the many things I learned from the film. For example, all of his outrageous and vilifying stunts were staged for our amusements! The whole wrestling mayhem, the interviews and scenes that came to blows, all of it, was just Andy working to 'engage' the audience. Of course Andy's continual nose-tweaking eventually caused the audience to turn on him, but that comes later.

One thing I did not know about Andy was that he was a big meditator. He sought out spiritual teachers and was a big believer in alternative and homeopathic medicines. In one scene he asks a guru if there is a secret to being funny. "Yes", says the enlightened one - "Silence". Cut to the scene where he performs the 'Mighty Mouse' skit on Saturday Night Live, where he leaves the audience howling with laughter having hardly spoken a word.

His comedy was all about fooling the audience, which caused him no end of trouble. He famously said "I never told a joke", and it is true. The joke was most often on the audience, which some appreciated more than others. Towards the end of the movie, when he was dying of cancer, he flew to the Philippines in hopes a psychic surgeon could cure him. As he lay on the table and the surgeon prepared to work, Andy saw that the surgery was fake - and he laughed. This scene to me defined the movie and the man. He realized that the joke was on him, and even though it meant his death, he saw humor in that. He truly walked the walk that he talked.

When his career began to nose dive there is a scene where he is at a transcendental meditation retreat and the administrators come to him and tell him he is no longer wanted at the retreat, that his recent actions reflect badly on the institution - that he should go. he protested, saying, "But I do believe it is all an illusion". They would not be swayed. A starker testament to the difficulty for Andy to live in the material world I could not think of.

Even though his life and career was marked by conflict and misunderstanding, at his funeral he has played a film he made, in which he has everyone sing along to a song about how joyous the world is. Even from the grave, he rubs our noses in the limits of our own pre-conceptions.

Now that I have seen the movie, I feel cheated that Andy died so young. I feel certain that had he survived, he would have easily turned his career around and given us many other insights of ourselves that we could not otherwise easily have found. I feel his vision and genius - and am grateful for the legacy that he did leave.

[Silver]

I'm glad you did this review ~ There aren't many people, in this case commediens that I had a negative response to, and he is one of them and Sandler is the other. It's one of those Idk responses that seems to come from the gut, but I really don't understand my reactions to them. He was one of those people who seemed destined to have been misunderstood, sadly. I'd like to see the movie, even if just for the actors involved, it sounds great. I'm glad to know that I seemingly misjudged him/his character. I loved taxi and his character to me seemed like something sorta unnecessary tacked on(?)

Oh yes. I grew to dislike him as well. Another thing Andy always said was he was NOT a comedian - and it is true, his work was very much more a performance art than just joking around. In this way I think he was very much ahead of his time.

And funny thing, he HATED doing Taxi!

[Silver]

Originally Posted by Humm

Oh yes. I grew to dislike him as well. Another thing Andy always said was he was NOT a comedian - and it is true, his work was very much more a performance art than just joking around. In this way I think he was very much ahead of his time.

And funny thing, he HATED doing Taxi!

I take it you read a book about his life to find out he hated doing taxi? Omg! I guess he needs bread on the table too~ It's really too bad he didn't find the proper niche for himself. Understanding this new information, I realize he was cool.

No, it was in the movie. Lots in the movie I did not mention.

I highly recommend watching the movie. ;)

[Silver]

I'll see if I can find it. When I first saw the title of the movie/thread, the first thing that came to mind was Dan Akroyd for some reason.

Bear in mind the film had to make some concessions to make a coherent movie.

Details at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_on_the_Moon_%28film%29

Such a brilliant movie.