Having finally rented "Man on the Moon", my first reaction is that filmmaker Milos Forman has done it again. However, having not seen any of his previous films, such as "The People Vs. Larry Flynt", I really don't know that he's done it *again*. But he certainly did it well this time, and, if his next film is any good, then expect me to tell you that he has, indeed, "done it again" next time.
'MotM' chronicles the life of a song and dance man popular during the mid-1970s to 1980s. Often mistaken for being solely a comedian, this man and his public performances went way beyond those simple categorizations.
By now, he really needs no introduction.
His name, as most everybody knows, was Randy Kaufman.
As the film opens, we see Randy singing along to childhood musical favorites, like "Cow Goes Moo", as a child and, later, to whimsical standards such as "Mighty Mouse Theme Song", in comedy clubs as an adult. Many people who grew up with Mighty Mouse in the late 1980s will recall the controversial opening montage that included a seconds-long clip of Mighty Mouse smelling a pile of dried flower petals, inhaling the crushed flora. Religious mucky-mucks protested, saying it glorified cocaine use. Even though the brightly-colored petals bore no resemblance to the white powdered drug. Eventually, the clip was removed from the opening credits.
It may surprise some to learn that Mighty Mouse had been around for decades prior to becoming addicted to chrysanthemums. In both color and black & white cartoons over the years. When Randy played the Mouse's theme on an old-fashioned turntable, with the music recorded on a circular piece of vinyl they used to call a "7-inch single" or "45", he lip-synched only the one sentence worth of words spoken by Mighty himself, singing "Here I come to save the day", and just stood there for minutes at a time as the rest of the "45" played.
The first time one sees it, being so unexpected, it is very amusing. It is a moment the film captures to great effect.
Article comments
1 - Tom Johnson
Pssst: it's Andy Kaufman, not Randy. :-)
2 - peter petrisko
Tom,
Well... duh! That was the Kaufmanesque put-on portion of the review. An 'homage' to Andy's style, if you will.
Andy would've been so proud of me. :-)
3 - Erin
I saw Man on the Moon in theaters, and it was my first real exposure to Kauffman or his style or his life. I don't know how much it's affected me as a comedian. My parents got concerned when I said I could relate to him, though.