The Jerk R
'Son, the thing you got ta remember
is this is **** (pointing to doggy do) and that is Shinola' (holding a bottle
of shoe shine). so begins the amiable bungling journey of a young prematurely
gray Steve Martin on his quest to become somebody. The single best Steve Martin
movie, Carl Reiner's The Jerk is a biting satire of race relations gone nutty.
Martin's dimwit character grows up believing he is a black boy raised among
black parents, and is sent out into the world. Continued on later in films like
'Trading Places' (white man and black man trade places for a day). This was set
little over a decade past the civil rights movement. It's the story of a young
man who goes from underdog gas station attendant to rich businessman and back
to rags again, in sketches that were for their time quite shocking. Martin is
one of the original Saturday Night Live prime time players and the goofy
bumpkin his trademark, so making him a 'poor black child' when he's glaring
white and having his family be making fun of old stereotypes of southern folk
is just truly fun. Somewhat dated today as this is no longer PC and really they
could not make this movie today. Review by Adam Browne
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