Bananas | | Cast : | Woody Allen, Louise Lasser | | Director : | Woody Allen | | Studio : | Mgm/Ua Studios | | Format : | Color, Widescreen, Closed-captioned | | Released Date : | April 28, 1971 | | 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 : | PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | July 09, 2005 | | Summary | No Wasted Motion | Content
 | This is a great movie. Unlike most comedies I see today, EVERYTHING in this movie is meant for a laugh. No part is meant for anything else. There's no padding at all, and no touching message is trying to be sent. This movie is only made for laughs.
And the jokes keep coming, one right after another. It's astounding. By far, I think the funniest part of the film is where Melish gets a cheap beard as a disguise when he comes to America as the President of San Marcos. And even better, in this cheap disguise, he gives a botched speech asking for foreign aid, starting out with a REALLY inappropriate joke. It's hilarious. The Wild World of Sports coverage of non-sporting events such as honeymoon nights is pretty darn funny too.
Woody Allen is a master at making films. In this movie he even has a silent comedy bit when he's on a subway, showing how great he is both at comedy and artistic expression.
Bananas is a must-see. I probably only gave it 4 stars instead of 5 because I've seen it so many times that I practically have it memorized, and under those conditions, you just don't laugh at the film like you did when you first watched it. No movie has that much replay value. |
| Rating | | | Date | April 28, 2005 | | Summary | Jokes and Visual Gags at the Speed of Thought. Funny! | Content
| `Bananas' is cowriter / director Woody Allen's second film (after `Take the Money and Run') in which he writes, directs, and acts. It has all the trademarks of his classic comedies such as visual gags, guest interviews (including Howard Cosell and other leading announcers for ABC's `Wide World of Sports'), one liners, obscure references to other movies, long lists of surprising cameos, and inept sexual encounters.
In fact, one small thrill from this movie is to see Sylvester Stallone in a minor, nonspeaking role.
I have not seen `Bananas' for years before just now getting the DVD and I'm pleasantly reminded of how many Allen scenes I remember from this movie, with no recollection that the scene came from `Bananas'. My favorite, which I always thought was from `Take the Money and Run' is when he directs a parking car so that it rams into the car behind it. This seems like an almost trivial piece of business until you match it up with Allen's character, which is simply not necessarily a nice person. Through so many movies, including some of the very best such as `Manhattan' and `Stardust Memories', Allen's character is neither stupid, sexually inept, intellectual, or particularly admirable. But then, Hamlet and Macbeth were not the most sterling of characters, yet their personalities were a great basis for drama.
The liner notes to this DVD claim that there is a significant influence from the Marx brothers on this movie, but aside from the fact that the Marx brothers probably influenced every American comedian working since 1935, I really don't see a big connection to `Bananas'. Even the hypothesis that the movie was titled in homage to the Marx brothers `Coconuts' I think is a bit of a stretch. The other thing they cite is the appearance of a harp player in main character Fielding Mellish's hotel rooms closet. But then, there is an even more obvious quote from the famous marble steps scene in the famous Russian film `Battleship Potemkin', but I don't see the liner notes claiming a kinship with the works of Sergei Eisenstein.
On the other hand, just as I suspected scenes in `Play It Again, Sam' being quoted in `Animal House', I sense a borrowing of one or more scenes from `Bananas' by the filmmakers who did `Network'. I have a really strong sense that either `Network' was quoting Allen or vice versa.
Unlike almost all of Allen's films starting with `Annie Hall', this and other early Allen films have virtually no socially redeeming value except for the fact that they are very, very funny and they enable us to see the funny side, if that is at all possible, of things like the `Bay of Pigs' invasion and our various incursions into Haiti and the Dominican Republic. So, If I had to choose to be locked up with but one Woody Allen movie, it would definitely be `Annie Hall' or later. I simply cannot see the virtue of the attitude parodied in `Stardust Memories' of preferring the earlier, `funny' movies. I may not be especially keen on `Interiors' or `September', but I do prefer the later comedies such as `Shadows and Fog', `Curse of the Jade Scorpion', and `Mighty Aphrodite' than the earlier ones with virtually no meaningful plot.
That does not mean they are not very funny movies. On average, I think they are at least as funny as most of Mel Brooks movies (except for `Blazing Saddles' and `The Producers') and I think they succeed with more laughs per reel by resorting to fewer improbabilities and downright silliness than does friend Brooks.
In fact, in the liner notes, Allen is quoted as saying that `Bananas' is a movie where his only concern was to be funny. There may be one behind the scenes parallel with the Marx brothers in that lots of both Marx brothers movies and Allen movies borrow from their stage routines. Another parallel is that both Allen and the Marxes were incredibly physical, so there may be just a little more Groucho here than I was originally inclined to admit.
If all you want is comedy, or you are a died in the wool Woodman fan, this is a movie for you! If you like `Annie Hall' but are cool in `Take the Money and Run', you may want to pass on this movie.
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| Rating | | | Date | March 12, 2005 | | Summary | 25 Years? | Content
| I think it's been twenty-five years since I've seen this. I was a lefty then. Now I'm a conservative, but I still have a sense of humor. The cigarette ad spoof was side-splitting; I'd forgotten about that. The courtroom scene is even better than I remembered. The Coen Brothers must have studied that before they wrote Intolerable Cruelty. I remember Allen's comedy books better than his films and several of those book gags are present in the film. I love "The Rebel Song." I was singing that yesterday in the car! What about raiding the village for food? And visiting his parents, the surgeons? LOL! Yeah, funny stuff. I watched it twice. |
| Rating | | | Date | January 21, 2005 | | Summary | Snakebite!! Snakebite!! | Content
| An Interesting tale with a few exciting twists. Fielding Mellish (Woody Allen) is so enamored of Nancy that he takes on her cause and then some. Due to a twist of fait he gets involved with the op-force and by default become more than he planed to be. Will he be able to eventually impress Nancy? Or will she be able to tell deep down that he is still Mellish?
Next to "Oscar (1991)" this is one of Sylvester Stallone's best performances. That's right Sylvester is in this also. By now you can tell I liked the Snake Bite Lady (Princess Fatosh.) Dorothi Fox did a convincing J. Edgar Hoover. Look for Danny DeVito. And I think they outdid the "Tom Jones (1963)" eating scene.
If you like this kind of dictator movie, you may want to watch "Moon Over Parador (1988) "
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| Rating | | | Date | January 04, 2005 | | Summary | Entertaining spoof | Content
| This 1971 satire has little in the way of plot, but is amusing enough, with plenty of laugh-out-loud moments. Noticeably more chaotic and lowbrow than subsequent offerings, but seeds of the later, more sophisticated Allen are discernible nonetheless. |
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