Customer Reviews

Who Is Harry Kellerman [VHS]

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

 

 

i first saw this movie when it was released in 1971 and it blew me away. i have waited 28 years to find it on video. in around 1985 i stumbled on it on late-night tv, about a third of the way thru and taped what was left....the movie had that much of a pull on me. hoffman is brilliant as a bob dylan-like, aging rock star who has everything and nothing. terrific writing all the way thru, the film blends music, psychoanalysis, lament and comedy.

Dustin Hoffmann gives a rare, little known performance as a manic depressive schizoid rock star but the movie's magic comes from its superb character actors (the shrink, the Bronx mother and so on) and from its visual drama, such as Hoffman's jump off the GM tower on 5th avenue and the ending in lower Manhattan. Not for the middle of the road crowd, this one calls for a bit of verve in the viewer's noggin.

This is a rather bizarre film, unlike any other I've ever seen, but I love it. Dustin Hoffman shines as Georgie Solloway, a Paul Simon-esque songwriter who is finding his tremendous financial success increasingly unfulfilling. His lack of happiness, lack of sleep, and lack of real friends has him talking to himself and thinking he's crazy. And he may well be, since his conversations with his therapist (the always excellent Jack Warden) seem to be mostly hallucinatory. Hoffman appears in nearly every second of the film, and his performance is a tour de force. Some of the film's 'hip' dialogue has aged poorly, but the soundtrack is great, and by and large the movie is an undiscovered treat from director Ulu Grosbard, who didn't make another picture for six years ("Straight Time," also starring Hoffman). Look for Dom DeLuise in a small, early part as Hoffman's accountant, and especially for Barbara Harris' fantastic portrayal of a would-be singer who knows that she has probably aged past most of her schoolgirl dreams. She was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for this role, and deservedly so. She would lose out to Cloris Leachman ("The Last Picture Show"), but she gives one heck of a performance.

Barbara Harris gives her best performance in the audition scene. The veteran actor was never so vunerable, so delightful and so beautiful. Hoffman played fantastically to her tenderness. And Gabe Dell,so many years ago and the Dead End Kids and in this movie, a swinger. Doesn't the man ever age, whatever the guy is eating and drinking, let me know. It took me about 15 years before I found a tape and now it's #1 on my list. I feel very fortunate to have it. Hell, I even liked Dom and that's going the whole nine yards. Great show to watch on a dark and stormy night.

This is the story of George Soloway ( Dustin Hoffman ) a sucessful songwriter who despite his financial sucess can't get the bugs out of his head. All he asks for is " Just 1 minute without fear "which his shrink considers a ridiculas request. A good study on tormant and maybe we are that much alone. A self absorbed, self centered self destructive song writer who can't even sleep. We've all had those moments but not lived that life. This movie always made me wonder ... should I feel blessed or just jump off a bridge. Well you won't get any answers here.

WHO IS HARRY KELLERMAN etc. is typical of its time: trippy, introspective, colorful, melancholy.

The tone is established in an opening shot of composer Georgie Soloway's free-fall from a Manhattan skyscraper. This slow-speed happy faced plummet to the concrete is only one of Georgie's many hallucinations. Schizophrenia may be more accurate.

The film has several themes: the brevity of life, loneliness, fear of failure, celebrity, insomnia, the efficacy of psychotherapy. Although Georgie is very self-involved and caught up in a mystery of who is calling his friends and badmouthing him, he is at times able to get beyond his own baggage and show kindness to others, including a gal he meets at an audition.

It's Allison Densmore's 34th birthday. Her attempt to land the role of a much younger woman ends with a perfunctory "that's all for now" from the play's director, but Georgie liked her song and is attracted to Allison. He invites her on a NYC flyover in his private plane and spends a romantic night at Allison's apartment. She confides of having suicidal thoughts upon waking up that morning, yet at the end of this same day is grateful to be alive and feels blessed by Georgie's special birthday present. A rare feel-good moment in a troubling story.

Another joyful sequence is an on-stage performance at the Fillmore East in front of a real concert audience by Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show, vocalist Shel Silverstein and Georgie, who's asked to duet on one of his many hit songs.

Georgie's therapy sessions with Dr. Moses haven't done much good. His marriage ended in divorce some years earlier and those hallucinations seem to be getting worse. In one sequence set at July 4th, the shrink appears as Santa. He's also in Georgie's final daydream, a peaceful mountainside ski scene that's totally unrelated to what is really about to happen.

In this story of partial revelations, at the end we learn just who Harry Kellerman is but not why he's saying those terrible things, how Georgie overcomes insomnia but not why he's afflicted with it, that he's afraid but not what of, and how a man retreats inside a shell of fantasy but not why he does so.

Parenthetical number preceding title is a 1 to 10 imdb viewer poll rating.

(5.4) Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? (1971) - Dustin Hoffman/Barbara Harris/Jack Warden/David Burns/Gabe Dell/Rose Gregorio/Betty Walker/Dom DeLuise

This movie captures the essence of the hippie era - a wandering through a vaguely hallucinatory landscape of soul-searching and finding oneself. It's a reflection on the disappointments of success. Although the title of the film and this unformed subject matter may put some people off, this is actually quite a trip, man.

In addition to being an engaging blast from the past, there are two things in this film that make it an unforgettable must-see. The first thing is Barbara Harris' performance. Her gentle, falling-leaf reconciliation with the fact that neither she nor any woman is likely to have the romance that was the stuff of all their dreams - is one of the best, most heart-wrenching scenes ever captured on film. Barbara Harris may not have won the Academy Award, but she wins silver-screen immortality with this portrayal.

The second reason to check out this movie is the music - especially the closing song sequence that's a collaborative effort between Shel Silverstein and Dr. Hook (the band). That trailing refrain, "This is the Last Morning" is all of us trailing off into the dying of all our dreams. It's a great and sad song. But it's all right, man. It's the journey that counts.

Who is Harry Kellerman is very very good Dustin Hoffman! This is more evidence of Dustin Hoffman's performance range and it is entertaining. Director Ulu Grosbard too deserves more credit. No Dustin Hoffman movie collection is complete without Who is Harry Kellerman and why is he saying all those terrible things about me. So, how soon can we have the DVD? The Objective is Happiness, Tom

I'm a big Hoffman fan, but this one was a stinker. A very generic script
with big stereotypes about rock stars, psychiatrists, squares, etc. Very dated and very dull and boring. A lot of scenes where they just let the camera roll on and on while nothing is happening and the dialog goes nowhere. Hoffman's performance is pretty poor, but basically it's not his fault, because there was nothing to work with and I don't know what the point was. I turned it off halfway thru b/c it was too pathetic to watch.