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 30th 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.
