NoFace for Film

Title: Raw
Year: 1987
Director: Robert Townsend
Starring Cast: Eddie Murphy
Rated: R

NoFace for Film rating: 5 out of 7

Long, long ago, Eddie Murphy was funny. He didn’t do cartoon voices or star in lame children’s films, and he did movies that actually made money. Unfortunately, the public tends to forget the diamonds in Murphy’s career like 48 Hrs., Beverly Hills Cop, and (my personal favorite Murphy movie of all time) Coming to America, . Instead, we tend to think about horrid, horrid lumps of coal like Bowfinger, Vampire in Brooklyn, and The Adventures of Pluto Nash. Sadly, the crap movies outweigh the good ones, so it’s refreshing to go way back in time and watch a Murphy movie that’s actually good. What’s interesting is that Raw isn’t even really a movie but rather his 1 1/2 hour stand-up routine filmed for theatrical release.

Raw is the second stand-up comedy film after Delirious, which came out in 1983. In Raw, Murphy is at his comedic finest. Wearing a godawful purple leather jacket with a pair of matching tight purple leather pants, Murphy covers a range of topics from the consequences of not signing a prenuptial agreement; cheating in relationships; Bill Cosby’s discomfort with Murphy’s use of profanity during his routines; and the pumped-up ego that befalls Italian-Americans after watching Rocky.

For example*, Murphy explains that after making fun of Mr. T. in Delirious, Mr. T. supposedly became so upset that he threatened to beat Murphy up if he ever finds him. Murphy describes his plan to evade Mr. T:

So I figured if he came up to me, I could use the Jedi mind trick on him.

Mr. T. walk up and go,

[In gruff, Mr. T. voice] “I heard you did some jokes about me.”

“No, you didn’t.”

[In Mr. T. voice] “Maybe I didn’t.”

[Laughter from audience]

[In Mr. T. voice] “I’m gonna go beat up the fool that told me them lies.”

Granted, because Raw was filmed in 1987, some parts are a little dated. For example, political incorrectness was obviously not popular at the time yet, for Murphy often says the word “fags/faggots” when performing his gay jokes. Also, some of the jokes may seem somewhat recycled, that you’ve heard his jokes coming from guys like Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock (for example, when he does his interpretation/parody of a “White man’s” accent). But then you have to consider that Murphy (and Richard Pryor before him) were the pioneers of this kind of humor, and without Murphy’s unapologetic candor and use of profanity on stage, we wouldn’t have young comedians like Rock and Chappelle. Furthermore, his material is funny. You will laugh out loud a lot, and there are so many quotable jokes. It slows down a bit near the end when he tells his last joke, which deals with his parents. This last joke is very long and dragged out (about 10 minutes long), and I got kind of bored in between.

If you want to see Eddie Murphy in his prime comedian days and have a good, non-PC laugh, check out Raw.

*I got a copy of this joke from a dialogue transcript, in which you can read the whole thing. But you still have to watch Raw so you can see Murphy’s facial expressions and actions that go with his jokes.

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