TONYA MOSLEY, HOST:
This is FRESH AIR. Two new documentaries focus on veteran entertainers and are directed by prominent filmmakers. "Lorne," which premiered in theaters in April and is now streaming, looks at Lorne Michaels, creator of NBC's "Saturday Night Live," and is directed by Morgan Neville. "Marty, Life Is Short," streaming on Netflix, is a biography of comedian Martin Short, directed by Lawrence Kasdan. Our TV critic David Bianculli finds that they have a lot in common.
DAVID BIANCULLI, BYLINE: Lorne Michaels and Martin Short both entered show business in the early 1970s - Michaels as half of a stand-up comedy duo, Short as a cast member of a Toronto stage production of the musical "Godspell." Michaels moved to LA, wrote for "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" and some Lily Tomlin TV specials, then launched "Saturday Night Live." Short joined the Toronto Second City improv troupe, then joined the cast of "SCTV," a TV sketch comedy show just as brilliant as "SNL."
Eventually, Martin Short joined "SNL" for a year, but that was during the five years Lorne Michaels had walked away from the show. Yet their lives intersected soon after, when Martin Short starred as one of the three amigos in a comedy film alongside Steve Martin and Chevy Chase. That movie was written by Steve Martin, Randy Newman and co-producer Lorne Michaels.
In "Martin, Life Is Short," Lawrence Kasdan, writer and director of "The Big Chill," tells Martin Short's story with full access and an easy intimacy. They've been good friends for decades. Morgan Neville, whose documentaries include intimate studies of Fred Rogers and Paul McCartney, finds Lorne Michaels a more elusive subject, so gleans most of his valuable insights from Lorne's friends and "SNL" cast and crew.
Both films are loaded with celebrities - the movie "Lorne" with interviews and "Marty, Life Is Short" with a lifetime of personal family film footage where every holiday seems to turn into an all-star comedy and music fest. But there are plenty of interviews here, too, including a rather serious vintage one with late-night TV host Tom Snyder that explains the movie's title, "Marty, Life Is Short."
(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "MARTY, LIFE IS SHORT")
TOM SNYDER: You had to handle tragedy when you were a lad. You...
MARTIN SHORT: Right.
SNYDER: You lost a brother. He died.
SHORT: I lost my brother David when I was 12, my mother when I was 18, my father when I was 20.
SNYDER: Tough, being the youngest in the family as well.
SHORT: Right. At that age or at any age, when you lose someone in your family, you have a choice. You actually have a choice. How do I handle this? This is a life lesson.
SNYDER: Right.
SHORT: And so do I collapse? Do I become defeated forever? Or do I actually kind of learn that life is short and have a glass of wine and laugh and fun and appreciate these people and never let them go? See, that's, I think, the great secret. If you never let them...
SNYDER: Yeah.
SHORT: ...Go from your life, then they're always with your life because before you know it, you know, you'll be with them.
BIANCULLI: There is indeed a lot of tragedy in this film, but there's also a constant river of joy. The get-togethers held by Martin and his wife, Nancy, seem absurdly overpopulated - kids running everywhere, celebrities in every lounge chair, but also a ridiculous amount of fun. Short photographed many of these home movies himself, but others joined in, too.
One frequent guest, Steven Spielberg, brought his camera and filmed Martin Short and another party regular re-enacting a famous scene from "Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid." You know the one - Butch and Sundance are trapped on a cliff, cornered by a posse, and figure their only escape is to jump into the river far below. But in this version, they're on a big boat, and Butch and Cassidy are played by Tom Hanks and Martin Short, in character, respectively, as Forrest Gump and Ed Grimley.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "MARTY, LIFE IS SHORT")
STEVEN SPIELBERG: Marty and Tom got this idea. Hey, let's do that scene from Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid."
(LAUGHTER)
SHORT: (As Ed Grimley) Oh, this is very sad, I must say, 'cause we're going to be killed, you know?
TOM HANKS: (As Forrest Gump) Just get ready to shoot the bad guys.
SHORT: (As Ed Grimley) There's only one way out. So we should jump, I must say.
HANKS: (As Forrest Gump) I know. We'll get shot.
SHORT: (As Ed Grimley) So let's go.
HANKS: (As Forrest Gump) Mom always said jumping off cliffs is like a box of chocolates...
SHORT: (As Ed Grimley) Oh, yeah.
HANKS: (As Forrest Gump) ...You never know what you might get.
SHORT: (As Ed Grimley) Might get - yeah, yeah, yeah, right. Come on, Forrest.
HANKS: (As Forrest Gump) I can't swim.
SHORT: (As Ed Grimley) Oh, that's very funny. For heaven's sakes, the fall will kill us, I must say.
(SOUNDBITE OF YELLING)
BIANCULLI: "Marty, Life Is Short" gives you a sense of his love of family and his work ethic and perspective as a longtime comic and actor. In vintage clips and in new interviews, he's very open about his personal life and feelings. But there also are so many clips here that prove just how versatile and original Martin Short was, as when he portrays the famously overweight, underprepared celebrity interviewer Jiminy Glick and hits his subject - in this case, Mel Brooks - with the most unexpected of questions.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "PRIMETIME GLICK")
SHORT: (As Jiminy Glick) What's your big beef with the Nazis?
MEL BROOKS: What's my big beef?
SHORT: (As Jiminy Glick) Yes, it seems like you're always...
BROOKS: What's my big beef?
SHORT: (As Jiminy Glick) You're always knocking the Nazis. Oh, let's - it's time for Mel Brooks to knock the Nazis, it seems.
BIANCULLI: "Lorne," the movie, has less of its subject at dead center. Even amid all the hoopla and TV specials about the recent golden anniversary of "SNL," Lorne Michaels largely avoided the spotlight. Morgan Neville actually gets him to talk a bit about comedy, as when Lorne defends the traditional midweek all-nighter endured by the "SNL" writing staff.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "LORNE")
LORNE MICHAELS: I always say, fatigue is your friend. Through exhaustion and through people just being so depleted, the unconscious takes over, and suddenly, you take way bigger risks, and you start to make yourself laugh.
BIANCULLI: There's also clever use of animation to tell some parts of Lorne's story and an understandable reliance on current and former "SNL" staffers to tell their own Lorne stories. Almost everyone takes part, from Chevy Chase to Chris Rock, like this one from Mike Myers that explains the strengths of Lorne Michaels with one simple allegory.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "LORNE")
MIKE MYERS: You know, there's a story that Lorne always talks about, which is he was in somewhere in Europe, and he was driving through pumpkin fields. And he came across a guy, and you could get out at any moment and load your trunk full of pumpkins, and nobody would see you 'cause it was all these little back roads. But then he came across somebody selling pumpkins in the middle of these vast pumpkin fields. And so Lorne was curious. And so he got out and he said to the guy, why should I buy your pumpkins? I could have stolen 7,000. He goes, what am I paying for? And the guy selling pumpkins says, you pay for my eye. I picked the good pumpkins.
BIANCULLI: "Marty, Life Is Short" and "Lorne" are very different documentaries, taking very different approaches. However, they have at least one thing in common - I really enjoyed watching them both and learned some things, too. Like how Martin Short came up with Ed Grimley's very particular look and voice, and how a Tennessee road trip Lorne Michaels took with Paul Simon ended up inspiring Simon's "Graceland." Watch for the details and for a lot of laughs.
MOSLEY: David Bianculli reviewed "Lorne" and "Marty, Life Is Short." Tomorrow on FRESH AIR, comic Josh Johnson, one of the anchors of "The Daily Show." Johnson gets millions of views on his YouTube comedy channel, where he posts his comedy club performances, and he has a new HBO comedy special called "Symphony." I hope you can join us.
MOSLEY: To keep up with what's on the show and get highlights of our interviews, follow us on Instagram, @nprfreshair.
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MOSLEY: FRESH AIR's executive producer is Sam Briger. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham. Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Phyllis Myers, Ann Marie Baldonado, Lauren Krenzel, Therese Madden, Monique Nazareth, Thea Chaloner, Susan Nyakundi, Anna Bauman, and Nico Gonzalez-Wisler. Our digital media producer is Molly Seavy-Nesper. Roberta Shorrock directs the show. With Terry Gross, I'm Tonya Mosley.
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