"The King of Comedy" (1983)

Better to be king for a night, than a schmuck for a lifetime…

In 1976, after the release of Taxi Driver, John Hinckley Jr. became obsessed with Jodie Foster. He unsuccessfully tried to stalk her at the Yale University. After that, he decided that a murder of the US President would properly impress Jodie Foster. So, on the 30^th of March, 1981, there was an assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan.

Such extraordinary stories go way out of the normal boundaries and they become a subject of the wildest discussions. There are a lot of «normal» events, like the celebrities being stalked by obsessed autograph hounds, would-be lovers and would-be celebrities.

A 34 years old Rupert Pupkin is a classic loser. He is courier, who lives in some New York slum and nobody ever pays any serious attention to him. In his other life, Rupert is an avid autograph hound and the King of Comedy. One day, he is able to impose himself on the famous Jerry Langford and Rupert hopes, that his success is within the reach. When the reality disappoints him a bit, he decides to take some radical actions…

The 1970s in the US was an era of the harshest economical-moral crisis caused by, among other, by the Vietnam war defeat and Watergate. In the US, there were a lot of veterans, as Travis Bickle, who were willing to perform their own justice. That is why, Ronald Reagan said in his first inaugural address that «we are too great a nation to limit ourselves to small dreams» and pledged, that he would do anything to fight the crisis of the 1970s.

In the 1980s, Americans were again persuaded that they could anyone they want to be. The TV was full of glamorous soap operas, comedy shows and success stories of some inner-city kid. Cinema also took a U-turn – instead of depressing dramas, stepped out action movies with tough guys.

A lot of inspired people, took out loan on luxury things and unaffordable fancy homes, but nobody would give a loan to Rupert Pupkin. Despite that, Rupert never wanted a Mercedes, he always wanted to be together with Lisa Minnelli and Jerry Langford.

In his dreams, he and Jerry are old buddies, and he would get married with Rita right on the show. Rupert doesn’t care about differences between reality and fantasy and he really believes, that they will mix together. When he is a bit wrong, Rupert would do anything to mix it together.

Sounds a bit familiar, eh? All of you wanted to be famous in order to snub your childhood bullies and haters? All of you wanted to smile sinisterly to those, who always said that you will not achieve anything and nobody will never look at you? Well, we consider ourselves an adequate people and we are trying to achieve our goals by a rather traditional means.

Despite that, there is an old fact that the most bullied man is the most dangerous, because no one can predict his moves, especially when he is psychologically unstable. And as one critic have rightly pointed out, that the main danger of Rupert is that ordinary viewer could easily identify himself with the hero.

Happily, the state has not taught Rupert to handle weapons and murder people, but there are other ways to reach your «fifteen minutes of glory» and, maybe, become a celebrity afterwards. In closing, let me say that Martin Scorsese made a good film about negative aspects of a «celebrity culture». You could even say, that a hero of the 1970s was Travis Bickle and a hero of the 1980s was Rupert Pupkin.