8mm Forum: The Jerk (Universal 8)

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Posted by Andy Ward (Member # 3328) on October 28, 2012, 07:28 PM:

Hi, thanks to all you reviewers out there, you have helped me greatly. Here is my 2nd review...

The Jerk - 2x400 (spliced onto 1x600) Universal 8
Start with Navin (Steve Martin) as a tramp in an alley talking to the camera about having been born a poor black boy in Mississippi. Cut to Navin & the family singing and dancing out front of the house, Navin all uncoordinated & out of time.
Cut to the middle of the night, Navin has discovered some 'white' music on the radio that touches his soul & wakes up the family to tell them. Navin decides he has to go off into the world to find out what else it out there.
We get the scene where Dad explains to Navin the difference between sh@t & shinola, and warns to 'never trust whitey', they all say farewell & leave him at the gate where he sticks out his thumb. (The joke of him standing there for days is a bit lost with the limited time of a digest).
A few shots of Navin hitchhiking, and cut to motel where a dog is barking outside Navin's door. He takes it fir a warning of a fire & evacuates the motel. It turns out to be nothing and the dog Navin names 'Saviour' is renamed sh@thead by one of the residents.
Navin gets dropped off at a garage where he gets a job & sends a letter & money home to his family which he continues doing throughout the film.
Navin feels he is now 'somebody' as he is listed in the phone directory, and believes thing will start happening to him. True enough as a nutter randomly picks Navin from the phonebook for a spot of murder!
Navin meets a customer whose glasses keep falling off and offer to fix them - fits what is later to be known as the 'opti-grab' and gives them back. The customer is amazed and says he could market this and will split any profit 50/50. Cut to the phonebook gunman who starts shooting at Navin at the garage. And so Navin escapes with the dog in a car with no tyres and joins a carnival.
We have the scene where Navin is a weight guesser talking with his boss at his stall. Cut to Pattie the biker girl jumping through a ring of fire, then her coming to meet Navin the next day, takes him back to her trailer to 'guess his weight', and Navin finds out what his 'special purpose' is for. We see Navin's family back home reading his letter about it saying how he wished the whole family could have been there...
Cut to Navin in his trailer with Marie having pizza in a cup. (Quite full scene, pretty funny bit) until Pattie shows up pushing them both around & tells Marie to get lost. Marie punches Pattie out. Navin takes this that Marie must really like him because she defended him.
Next scene is Navin & Pattie in bed, him talking about how the last 5 days have felt like 3 weeks...
Cut to the glasses man finally catching up with Navin & giving him a cheque for 250 big ones. Navin’s letter home lists all the crazy things (ridiculous things) he 'always wanted' which he now has, including a disco room with dancers.
Cut to disco room, the party stops to watch a television interview of Navin. The interview is interrupted due to revelations of a lawsuit over the Opti-grab causing people to go cross-eyed. Shows the section of the film director who failed to shout 'cut' - resulting in the deaths of 2 actors. Navin’s party is over and the guests depart.
Cut to courtroom scene where the case goes against Navin.
Cut back to scene near the start where Navin is a bum in an alleyway telling his story. Navin’s family turn up with Marie to take him home. It turns out that Dad is a financial genius and invested all the money Navin sent home. They are now rich and decide to build a new larger house, (a replica of the old shack but bigger).
Ends with the whole family & Marie, at the front of the house, singing & dancing as before. (although Navin is a bit more with it!) Credits roll over this section.
I really enjoy watching this one, and everyone i have showed it to loved it. The film has some funny scenes and flows well. It runs for just over 33mins i think, my 600ft one is a VERY full reel.
Colour on mine is a little red but it after the first few minutes a barely notice that, it's pretty good anyway. The sound could do with a bit more top end but it's a minor complaint that can be remedied through an amp / eq.

Hope that's not too long-winded!

Posted by James N. Savage 3 (Member # 83) on November 01, 2012, 03:51 PM:

Andy- Thanks for these reviews, they are great! Not too long-winded at all. If I might suggest only one thing it would be maybe to separate the paragraphs, but I'm nit-picking. [Wink]

The Jerk-

This was one of the first 2 x 800 foot digests I purchased from U8 (after Jaws). It is very well-edited, and tells the story perfectly. My wife was mad because the scene missing in the beginning when Steve Martin's in bed and his first reaction to the music, when he realizes he's "different". I guess you can't please everybody [Smile]

Thanks again Andy!

James.

Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on November 01, 2012, 05:50 PM:

Yet another very good good cut down that I used to have until 1995 when i sold all my collection at the time back to Derann!! Arghh.... I had been convinced at the time that LCD Projection was the way to go by investing over £2k on a Sharp XVZ1E! Its worth about £50 now (if that) stuck in my loft with less than 500 original hours on it! Anyhow back to the film, I bought it brand new off Deranns shelves sealed in plastic cases with card over-sleeves for £19 in 1991 and I rated it as being one of my best cutdowns at the time. Yes, there are some memorable scenes missing from the complete film but overall I thought it captured the story of the film really well and was a thoroughly entertaining and enjoyable 40min watch.I purchased many more of these over the next few years but have yet to see any I had come up for sale nowadays that are in even reasonable condition. Would love to have them all back now though, still you live and learn and at least I can now say "never again!"

Posted by Andy Ward (Member # 3328) on November 01, 2012, 06:42 PM:

Thanks James, in future you will have paragraph spacing! [Smile]

I have a couple of other films i plan to review anyway.

Andrew, I think Foster films may have a copy of the Jerk for sale.

Foster FIlms Film List

Glad other people agree with how good this one is!

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