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Robert De Niro : The King of Comedy & Joker


It’s fascinating to see that even after 75 years, Robert De Niro is still playing his part to the fullest. But what is so similar between these two films? 

To put it in a sentence, it would be “Better to be a king for a night....than a schmuck for a lifetime”. Both the films explore the journey of a nobody into somebody. The relationship between Rupert Pupkin(De Niro) and Jerry Langford(Jerry Lewis) in The King of Comedy is very similar to the relationship between Arthur Fleck(Joaquin Phoenix) and Murray Franklin(De Niro) in the Joker.

 

Both Rupert and Arthur have serious issues with reality testing, which is drawing the line between outer objective and inner subjective reality, a theme thoroughly explored in The Taxidriver (1976), another one of Scorsese’s classics.


While Rupert attempts to shoot to fame by kidnapping the very successful Langford, Arthur decides to literally just…shoot to fame. And at the end of the day, it works out just fine. What’s amazing is that after 36 years Rupert Pupkin gets to finally gets to live his dream through Murray Franklin, a perfect mix of tributes to the batshit crazy schmuck that he once was and the condescending prick that Langford is.


Although I would love to write a praise or two about Joaquin's performance in the film, this post is only a paean for De Niro, an acting great and a living legend today and forever.


May the Phorce be with you
Adil

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