Manhattan | | Cast : | Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Mariel Hemingway | | Director : | Woody Allen | | Studio : | Mgm/Ua Studios | | Format : | Color, Black & White | | Released Date : | March 14, 1979 | | DVD Released Date : | September 07, 2004 | | Language : | Unknown (Dubbed), English (Dubbed), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), Spanish (Dubbed), English (Original Language), Spanish (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | June 28, 2005 | | Summary | Good, but in an inverted way | Content
 | People tend to fall all over themselves praising Woody Allen's Manhattan with all its aesthetic strengths. Notable is its photography and score and the collective sensory romancing of NYC. The dialogue crackles and is very funny, which is the least you want and expect from a Woody Allen film.
But because of Allen's portrayal of a 42 year-old man having a fling with an emotionally vulnerable high school girl (are there any other kind?), played by Mariel Hemingway, I found the creepy-factor undermining my total appreciation of this film. Especially when Allen is dialoguing with her and delivering witty asides about his sexual prowess and being "lucky if the police don't bust in". I understand that this is sophisticated comedy and not one about some guy wiping donut grease on his t-shirt as he's engaged in statutory rape. But the line that separates one against the other is pretty tenuous. Once again, the cult of celebrity trumps our willingness to critique this dark streak for what it is, usually for fear of appearing conventional --not the healthiest thing, especially for a film that has been heralded as among the best offerings of American cinema.
Having said that, I do agree that this is a very skillfully made film. I cannot totally dislike any movie which contains an alleged TV show slyly entitled: "Human Beings, Wow!". I just wish that it wasn't so much of an inverted pyramid in its construction, with skin-deep beauty and a horror operating within; I wish that I could actually follow the central character without wanting to throw up. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 25, 2005 | | Summary | Best Woody Allen movie | Content
| Woody at his best--and that's saying a lot. I won't bore you with a long-winded critique. Suffice it to say that this movie should rank in the top ten all-time. Judged on its own terms, it is near-perfect. Allen is alone in his ability to mix humor and pathos at this level of artistic affect. A graceful, untelegraphed minimalism, where so much is achieved with so little apparent effort. A truly beautiful film. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 04, 2005 | | Summary | not that wonderful | Content
| I was recommended this DVD. While I enjoy movies from the 1970's, I was disappointed in this one for some reason. I wish it were in color and the dialog was kind of rambling in parts. I found this hard to follow. I know this movie is rated high by most other people, but unless you love Woody Allen I would pass on this film. |
| Rating | | | Date | April 25, 2005 | | Summary | One of Allen's best. His love song for New York. | Content
| `Manhattan', directed by Woody Allen and written by Allen with `Annie Hall' collaborator, Marshall Brickman has, since the moment I first saw it, been my favorite Woody Allen movie. Because I saw it before I saw `Annie Hall', I did not appreciate why the earlier movie garnered so much more attention than `Manhattan'. Even though `Annie Hall' has several gimmicky flashbacks and Marshall McCluhan moments, it is still obviously a major step towards a realistic plot and characters we care about, away from the contrivances of `Sleeper', `Love and Death', `Bananas' and other early movies.
`Manhattan' completes the separation from the gimmicks, easy jokes, and post-mortem speeches. While some of these devices may come back, especially with a very serious twist in `Stardust Memories' and with a refreshed inspiration in `Mighty Aphrodite', `Manhattan' is entirely realistic, with the jokes securely embedded in the situation at the moment and with characters for which one can really sympathize. The movie may also be more secure in itself with its black and white wide screen filming thanks to the `Annie Hall' Academy Award which gave Allen much greater clout in making the movie to fully fit his artistic vision.
The movie is so powerful and so real that if it were not for the great artistry with which the film was made, it may be, like Terry Gillian's `Brazil', almost too painful to watch, as we really don't enjoy seeing the four major characters go through some of the emotional turmoil played out in the course of the story.
The DVD liner notes say that the movie was inspired by Allen's listening to a recording of George Gershwin's overtures to his musical plays. While this is not the first movie in which the selection of music is an essential part of the story, it is certainly one of the most effective. It is also the one, obviously, in which the city of New York and surrounding towns such as Nyack play an important part of the `look and feel' of the movie. For people who are familiar with New York City, you see constant `quotes' in scenes at Zabars, in Greenwich Village, by Gramercy Park, the Museum of Natural History, the Guggenheim museum, Nyack antique stores, the wharf by the Hudson in Nyack, and Scribners book store, not to mention the great skyline, for which Allen has the good taste to use lesser landmarks such as the 59th street bridge and Third Avenue skyscrapers rather than doting on the Brooklyn Bridge and the Empire State Building. For really savvy New Yorkers, there is also a cameo appearance of Bella Abzug as the featured speaker at a fund-raiser for the equal rights amendment at the Museum of Modern Art.
Allen's evolving repertoire company is well represented here, with a small part for Wallace Shawn and leading lady heavy lifting going to Diane Keaton. `M.A.S.H.' alumnus Michael Murphy takes the best buddy role usually played by Tony Roberts. Mariel Hemingway and Meryl Streep play the two other important women in the story. Streep plays a role that is almost identical to her part in the Academy Award winning movie `Kramer versus Kramer'. Hemingway actually plays the more important role as the primary love interest to Allen's character, Isaac Davis.
This movie is chocked full of little pleasures. It is so great to be with, however vicariously, people who speak intelligently about cultural figures and issues. Being without this kind of stimulating conversation can leave one almost as desolate as being without love, which is one of the primary themes of the movie. This is just one of the things which make the characters so real to me. Like many of Allen's other middle and later movies, his character is not a `loser'. He is really a very successful comic TV script writer with some unfortunate moments of impracticality, as when he quits his obviously high paying job at the TV studio. He also happens to be relatively successful in charming women. His former wife (Streep) didn't leave him for another man, but for another woman. Murphy plays a highly respected teacher and writer. Keaton plays a talented book editor. Streep's vocation is not as well defined, but she is capable of writing a book that is immediately published, promoted heavily in book stores, and is seriously considered as the basis of a Hollywood movie. Hemingway is a serious student of acting who is given a scholarship to study Shakespearean acting in London. These are people you can take seriously.
Behind the great city, the delightful Gershwin music, the erudite, well-acted characters, and the jokes, is a tragedy. Isaac Singer, successful screenwriter and adored boyfriend of the drop dead gorgeous Mariel Hemingway, is skewered by his ex-wife's best-selling book, looses his job over a fit of intellectual integrity, drops Hemingway for the older mistress of his married friend, looses his new girlfriend who returns to teacher, gets blamed for this affair by teacher's wife, and looses his chance for reconciliation with Hemingway who is on her way to London. Not quite `Romeo and Juliet', but then Shakespeare didn't have to compete with Manhatten as a stage.
One can analyze this movie further, but I will leave it with the statement that I think it is a really important landmark in Allen's career, which I have always found even more interesting than my other favorite directors such as Stanley Kubrick. Almost all of Allen's movies seem to be cut from the same cloth, with a great continuity of topics, actors, crew, style, and level of achievement.
Even if you are not a Woody Allen fan, this is an important movie achievement.
|
| Rating | | | Date | March 12, 2005 | | Summary | Woody's best | Content
| This, I believe, is the best of Woody Allen's movies. It is all about relationships and commitment, with Allen quietly falling for Mariel Hemingway (who's half his age) and then for Diane Keaton, who is sort of a flake. His ex-wife is writing a tell-all book about their marriage, which makes Allen out to be a jerk, and he tries to get her to not publish it. This is the "new" Woody Allen, where depth of character is more important than one-liners. Everything about this movie works wonderfully--the triangular relationships of the story, the black and white photography of NYC, the great Gershwin score, and, yes, the poignant comedy. Top-notch all the way. Allen at his peak. |
|
