Customer Reviews

Harry and Tonto

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Evicted (literally carried) from his New York apartment, Harry Coombes (Carney) and Tonto, his cat, undergo a series of encounters that move them slowly, inevitably west. Harry stays briefly with each of his three children, and reinforced by casting choices, we feel that we're moving backward in time, eldest to youngest. Harry, too, seems to move backward in time. Through a series of other encounters - an Indian healer, a young girl running away from home, and others - Harry sheds his past, piece by piece, and moves toward an open future in which anything might happen.

There are memorable character portraits by Ellen Burstyn, Larry Hagman, Arthur Hunnicutt, Chief Dan George, and others. And of course Harry, whose acceptance of loss and refusal to indulge in sentimentality or self-pity show us it is possible to age with dignity and suppleness. This is a gem of a movie, from a time when Hollywood was not afraid to tell real stories about real people.

Would someone, PLEASE, release this on DVD!? Forget the special features, forget the cast & crew bios, the filmographies, the frills and trills. Just remaster this and put a good, clean copy on DVD. It's too good a movie to lose to tape rot!

A truly magnificent film that is forgotten, even though it displays independence, sentimentality, masterful acting and pure entertainment. If for no other reason, you need to get the DVD version to hear Paul Mazursky's commentary version of the film. It is fascinating to learn the details that went into making this classic! The one criticism is that Mazursky makes a couple of references to "Art Carney being only 59 when the
movie was made." Since the movie was shot in the fall of 1973, Art was actually only 54 at that time, and he plays Harry at
age 72 perfectly. With all apologies to Jack Nicholson, Al
Pacino, Dustin Hoffman and Albert Finney, their work in 1974 cannot compare to Art Carney's Oscar-winning performance. You owe it to yourself to purchase this film!

Art Carney renders an amazing performance as Harry Coombs, a 70 year old schoolteacher who is forced along with his 11-year-old cat Tonto from his lifetime home when developers want to plough under his apartment building to make way for a parking garage. When he realizes that living with his son in the suburbs isn't working, Harry and Tonto opt to take to the road and see the world that a career and family kept Harry from doing so long ago. The one aspect of this film that shone through is that Harry never forgot his friends. He never abandoned Tonto, though if he had he'd have had more options on living space. This is definitely a touching 'coming of age' film.

This movie came out in 1974, when I was 16 years old, but I don't recall ever hearing of it until I read about Art Carney's death a couple of weeks ago. I promptly ordered the video, watched the movie for the first time last night, and wow! it was so sad it ripped my heart out! It's a great movie, with an outstanding performance by Art Carney (yes, I do think he deserved the Oscar). The thing that most prompted me to get it was the fact that I love cats. If you love cats, I guarantee you'll love this movie, but I also guarantee you'll cry at the end. You'll also feel sorry for Carney's character, an old man who feels he's lost all his old friends and doesn't know his place in the world. He sets out with his cat Tonto trying to find roots, and along the way he meets some strange characters. That's one thing that makes the movie interesting. This movie also took me back to the 1970's and made me realize that life was actually simpler then, when we didn't have the Internet, cell phones, and computerized cars. Watching the movie will give you a feeling of nostalgia (if you can remember the 70's), as well as humor, sadness, and sympathy. A lot of emotions are wrapped up in this movie, and I couldn't believe how real it seemed to me.

Well, I'll agree Art Carney was certainly the unlikely Oscar winner in 1975 for his role as gallivanting, cat toting septuagenarian Harry Coombes in the film Harry and Tonto (1974), especially given his competition including Jack Nicholson (Chinatown), Al Pacino (The Godfather: Part II), Dustin Hoffman (Lenny), and Albert Finney (Murder on the Orient Express), but that shouldn't overshadow the fact that this is just a really wonderful film, one worth checking out. Produced, co-written, and directed by Paul Mazursky (Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, Down and Out in Beverly Hills), the film stars, as I mentioned, Art Carney (W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings, Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood), probably best know for his role of Ed Norton, the world's most famous sewer worker, on the 1950s series "The Honeymooners". Also appearing is Philip Bruns (The Great Waldo Pepper), Cliff De Young (F/X), Josh Mostel (City Slickers), Geraldine Fitzgerald (Wuthering Heights), Melanie Mayron (My Blue Heaven), Chief Dan George (The Outlaw Josey Wales), Larry Hagman ("I Dream of Jeannie"), and Ellen Burstyn (The Exorcist), who won an Oscar for another film she appeared in released the same year titled Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore.

Carney plays Harry Coombes, a widowed, 72 year old retired teacher who's recently found out that he and his orange tabby named Tonto, are soon to be among the homeless throngs as their NY apartment building is slated for destruction, to be replaced by a parking lot. Harry reluctantly moves in with his son Burt (Bruns) in his suburban home, but quickly realizes living with a group isn't his (or Tonto's) bag. Harry begins looking for a new place in the city, but it's difficult, especially when you've got a cat in tow. After the death of a close friend, Harry decides to do a little traveling and spend time with his two, other children, one of whom named Shirley (Burstyn) lives in Chicago, and the other named Eddie (Hagman) who lives in California. After problems not only at the airport and subsequently on the bus, Harry and Tonto find themselves on foot somewhere between the moon and New York City, eventually buying a car, picking up a couple of hitchhikers (the scripture quoting hitchhiker soon finds another ride, thank God, as he's headed south rather than west), one of them a runaway named Ginger (Mayron), who manages to convince Harry to look up an old flame (Fitzgerald) along the way (it's not like Harry or Ginger are in that big of a hurry to get anywhere in particular). The trio do make it to Chicago and see Harry's daughter, but they're soon on their way again, with Harry's grandson Norman (Mostel) along for the ride (Norman was sent from NY to collect his grandfather, but ends up sort of hooking up with Ginger). After some interesting encounters (a vitamin salesman, a benevolent prostitute, and an honest to goodness Native American medicine man), Harry and Tonto finally make it out west, learning the journey can often times be more enjoyable than the destination.

Here's one of my favorite lines from the film...it comes from an elderly landlady of a shoddy NYC apartment building as Harry, who's looking for a new place, comments on the limited view..."At our age, if you don't know what the world looks like, you never will." Everyone's a comedian...I like how she just walked in on the tenant still living in the apartment to show it (apparently, he was moving out at the end of the week). You know what's strange? I've never seen anyone walking a cat (as they would a dog, with a leash), until I saw this film. This is a fairly sweet, mellow, sometimes sad film that flows along at a amiable pace, taking its' time in the telling. Carney, who was in his mid 50s at the time, is really wonderful as Harry, an educated man (he's always got a line of Shakespeare handy), and devoted cat owner, always with a song in his heart, just beginning to explore the opportunities now in front of him, some of which he traded off on many years past in choosing to settle down and raise a family. One of my favorite elements of the character is, despite the time spent in the Big Apple (he'd been mugged four times that year), he displays a willingness to open himself up to the experience of traveling the country by the seat of his pants with his furry companion, meeting new and interesting people, and seeing the world outside of a major, metropolitan city. He does seem a little naïve at times, but I think it's more of him just leaving his preconceptions behind and his willingness to want to understand how the rest of the world lives. As far as the rest of the performances, they were all very well done, doing exactly what they should have, supporting Carney's role. I thought Harry's children interesting...there's Burt, the sort of clingy, overly concerned son, Shirley, the independent daughter who seems to have inherited her father's intelligence as well as his stubbornness, and finally Eddie (Hagman), the seemingly well-to-do Hollywood schmoozer who puts up a good, but transparent façade (he's broke as the day is long). As I said, the story moves along pretty well, and I hardly even realized nearly two hours had passed by the time it was over. I was really engaged in the characters and relationships, along with the bits of humor and drama. There are a couple of poignant moments in the film, but they're never milked as they would have been in other films, and for that I was impressed and thankful. They were relatively short, sweet, and appropriate, and kept the film well away from the realm of schmaltzy sentimentality.

The picture, presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1), looks clean and comes across well, as do the audio tracks, available in both Dolby Digital mono (English and Spanish) and stereo (English only). There's a commentary track with producer, co-writer, and director Paul Mazursky, along with a theatrical teaser, a theatrical trailer, and three television spots, and English and Spanish subtitles.

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By the way, not only did Mazursky produce, co-write, and direct this film, but he also appeared in a bit part credited as the `Gay Hustler'. Watch for his scene in the last third of the film, as Harry's at a bus terminal in L.A. waiting for his son Eddie to pick him up. One last thing, if this film taught me anything it's that people sure loved the Raymond Burr television series "Ironsides" back in the day.

Following the traces of that devastating portrait of lonely man in "The Swimmer", and even foreeing the fabulous Tornatore's film "We are fine", a decade later, an old man decides to make a country trip with his cat as only partner.

You can include this powerful and majuscule masterpiece among one of the most expressive films ever made, loaded of humanity, poetry and sublime grandness. As a matter of fact there have not been so many films that have dealt with this uneasy chapter of our lives, in which the lights of the existence are turning off, but far to be an overindulgent work, this man displays a radiant conviction and sense of epic, easily contrastable respect the different people he will meet on this long road.

Art Carney in the role of his lifetime deserved the Academy Award for this sublime performance.

I have just had the pleasure of watching "Harry and Tonto" in its entirety in the last year and I did not know what I missed. A masterful perfor- mance by the versatile Art Carney, who absolutely deserved his Best Actor Oscar. The ensemble of supporting players added richness to a bittersweet and entertaining film about "every man". The plot and pacing of the film flow naturally and make for pure entertainment - a must see!

This 1974 jewel addressed the deepening loneliness of elders in our country and the role animals and other strangers play in sustaining them through loss and displacement.

Harry & Tonto -- like John Steinbeck and Charley -- embarking on their final journey to discover America, and while these characters prefer to share their deepest insights with four-legged creatures, it's the humanity of Mazursky's characters that make this movie shimmer. The film revels in the eccentricities of our fellow-humans and the ways in which their quirks enrich our lives.

There are few, if any, weak links to the cast. The performances of veteran director, Herbert Berghof, Ellen Burstyn, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Josh Mostel and Chief Dan George are dead, solid perfect.

Carney delivers an understated performance that captured the 1974 Oscar for Best Actor. In the final moments of the film, Harry --aat the end of his journey -- sees a vision of the past on a California beach.

At the instant he stops running, completely winded, and accedes to life as it is, he triggers a catharsis I found unforgettable.

Eye-catching cinematography, a durable, moving score by Bill Conti and thoughtful art direction enhance the trip futher.

A lovely film, capably remastered, and a steal at this price.

Don't worry, if you've never seen it and you think it might be syrupy, it's not really a cat movie, that's just for side interest. Oh, Tonto is a nice kitty, and the running cat theme is great (I love the bit about being a travelling cat salesman). But this is Art Carny's swan song, a man late in life, long past judgement of others, particularly his own family of semi-weirdos and losers, who swim in and out of this movie as Carney moves across the country to visit his son in California.

I don't know if Carney deserved an Oscar either, that was probably for old times sake, as I don't know if Art is really acting at all here. He sounds just like he did in real life. But you can't help fall in love with him and this movie. No plot to speak of, just vignettes that feature each of the fine supporting cast, and the ending will stick grief in your mind and leave it there, but a movie that rewards and charms anyone with a human heart.

What can you do if you're a senior citizen, retired and living on a small fixed income, when the apartment building in which you've lived for the past 30 years or so is about to be demolished to make way for an upscale high-rise? What can you do if your best friend, who promised to take you in, then up & dies? What can you do if you are then taken in by your son and his family who pretend that they want you but, all the while, you know in your gut that you are an absolute burden to them? What can you do if your only true friend is yourself--and your cat? Would you have the courage to uproot yourself for the first time in your life and to discover new places, new experiences and yourself?

Such is the predicament of Harry Coombes (Art Carney, in his Oscar-winning performance), who sets out in search of a new, better life after the old, comfortable existence he always knew is unceremoniously cast by the wayside. In his quest across America, which takes him from New York City to Southern California, he occasionally hooks up with family members--his neurotic son Burt (Philip Bruns) and his dysfunctional family, cold-hearted daughter Shirley in Chicago (a well-cast Ellen Burstyn, who won her much-deserved Best Actress Oscar in the same year for Martin Scorsese's ALICE DOESN'T LIVE HERE ANYMORE) and philandering son Eddie (an earnest Larry Hagman)--but it's his experiences with others such as hippy chick Ginger (Melanie Mayron), Native American healer Sam Two Feathers (an unforgettable Chief Dan George) and possible new love interest Celia (Sally Marr) that truly guide him to his destination; perhaps his destiny.

Also memorable is the earlier-mentioned dysfunctional family of eldest son Burt, consisting of wife Elaine (Dolly Jonah) and their two grown sons, the ingrate Burt Jr. (Cliff De Young) and the weird, silent Norman (Josh Mostel, in the second significant role of his career). One of the most touching scenes in HARRY AND TONTO is the brief reunion of Harry with his old flame Jessie (a radiant Geraldine Fitzgerald). Their scene together in which they dance to their old memories is one of the greatest in all of cinema.

Art Carney's performance as the 72-year-old Harry Coombes is so incredibly natural that you don't realize that Art was, in fact, only 56 at the time. You also forget all about him having played Ed Norton for all those years in the 1950's on the classic TV sitcom "The Honeymooners." HARRY AND TONTO may not be the most exciting film from 1974, but it is has the most human interest. I personally cannot wait until it comes out on DVD.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED