The Jerk
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Jerk is a 1979 American comedy film directed by Carl Reiner and written by Steve Martin, Carl Gottlieb, and Michael Elias. This was Martin's first starring role in a feature film. The film also features Bernadette Peters, M. Emmet Walsh, and Jackie Mason.
Plot
Navin R. Johnson is the white adopted son of black sharecroppers, who grows to adulthood naïvely unaware of his obvious adoption. He stands out in his family not just because of his skin color but because of his utter lack of rhythm when his adopted family plays spirited blues music. One night, he hears a champagne-style rendition of "Crazy Rhythm" on the radio and he spontaneously begins to dance; he excitedly sees this as a calling and decides to leave for St. Louis, from where the song was broadcast. On the way, he stops at a motel, where a dog wakes him up by barking at his door. Navin thinks the dog is trying to warn of a fire. He wakes up the other hotel guests to rescue them, telling the dog they will name him "Lifesaver." After everyone realizes it was a false alarm, one of the guests suggests naming the dog "Shithead." Navin takes the dog as his own, indeed naming it Shithead.
Navin gets a job and room at a gas station owned by Harry Hartounian. He is thrilled to find that he is listed in the local phone book, as his name is "in print" for the first time. Not long after, a gun-wielding lunatic randomly flips through the phone book and picks "Johnson, Navin R." as his next "random victim bastard." As the madman watches through his rifle scope, waiting for a clear shot, Navin fixes the slippery glasses of a customer, Stan Fox, by adding a handle and a nose brake. Fox offers to split the profits 50/50 with Navin if he can market the invention, then departs. Seizing his chance, the crazed sniper shoots but misses. The lunatic chases Navin to a traveling carnival, where Navin hides out, eventually getting a job with SJM Fiesta Shows as a weight guesser. While employed there, Navin meets an intimidating daredevil biker named Patty Bernstein and has a sexual relationship with her, finally realizing what his "special purpose" (his mother's euphemism for his penis) is for. He then meets a woman named Marie and arranges a date with her. Patty confronts them, but Marie knocks her out. While courting, Navin and Marie walk along the beach and sing "Tonight You Belong to Me"; Navin plays the ukulele and Marie the cornet. Navin and Marie fall in love, but Marie reluctantly leaves him because of his lack of financial security. She writes a note and slips out while Navin is in the bath. He becomes depressed telling Shithead to leave and find a better master, then changes his mind after the dog immediately tries to run off.
At an emotional and financial low, Navin is soon contacted by Stan Fox with exciting news: his glasses invention, now called the Opti-Grab, is selling big and he is entitled to half of the profits. Now extremely rich, he finds and marries Marie, and they buy an extravagant mansion. Their life becomes one of splendor and non-stop partying. However, "motion-picture director" Carl Reiner files a class action lawsuit against Navin and claims that the Opti-Grab caused his eyes to be crossed, and that his resulting poor vision caused the death of a stunt driver in the film he was directing. Over nine million other people with the same vision complaint (including the judge and jury foreman) are awarded a total of $10 million in damages; divided among all litigants, each gets $1.09. Bankrupt and yet again depressed, he yells at Marie for looking at him like he was "some kind of a jerk, or something" and walks out, abandoning his dog and Marie. He winds up homeless living on the streets. His story now told, he resigns himself to a life of misery and memories of Marie. But to his amazement and joy, she suddenly appears, along with Navin's family, bringing additional good news: having carefully invested the small sums of money Navin sent home throughout the film, his family have become wealthy themselves. They pick him up off the street, and he and Marie move back home into the Johnsons' new house—a bigger, yet nearly identical version of their old, small shack.
The story ends as the entire family dances on the porch and sings "Pick a Bale of Cotton"; Navin dances along, now having gained perfect rhythm.
Cast
- Steve Martin as Navin R. Johnson
- Martin also plays Cat Juggler, under the alias Pig Eye Jackson
- Bernadette Peters as Marie Kimble Johnson
- M. Emmet Walsh as Madman
- Jackie Mason as Harry Hartounian
- Dick O'Neill as Frosty
- Mabel King as Mother
- Richard Ward as Father
- Bill Macy as Stan Fox
- Catlin Adams as Patty Bernstein
- Maurice Evans as Hobart
- Helena Carroll as Hester
- Ren Woods as Elvira Jonson
- Carl Gottlieb as Iron Balls McGinty
- Frances E. Williams as Grandma Johnson
- Carl Reiner as himself
- Dick Anthony Williams as Taj
- Sharon Johansen as Mrs. Hartounian
- Rob Reiner (uncredited) as Truck driver picking up Navin
- Larry Hankin (uncredited) as Circus hand
