Crimes and Misdemeanors
by Woody Allen
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DVD details
Actor: Alan Alda, Bill Bernstein, Caroline Aaron, Claire Bloom, Martin S. BergmannDirector: Woody Allen
Brand: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 104 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-06-05
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
DVD Reviews of Crimes and Misdemeanors
DVD Review: This sort of thing only happens in the movies...
Summary: 5 Stars
Central to this film is the ancient tragic question; is there a higher equalizer for our actions, or do we have to judge ourselves because there is no higher authority and meaning? Woody suggests the latter in the spirit of Sophicles and the Greeks.
Bringing the two stories together at the end with Allen and Landau might be the best scene in Woody's career. In this scene Allen puts a twist on the Greek self-flagualtion and instead gives an ironic 'Hollywood ending'. Doubly ironic since the happily self-absolved man chides the Allen character for being too influenced by the movies... See it for yourself and you'll understand...
This film also has a very artful use of the other theme of 'vision'. As the rabbi has a clear and grateful conscience even while losing his faculty of sight, Mr. Allen brings in very spiritual overtones about satisfaction in life coming from an inward illumination, rather than outward lusts.
One criticism however; the two "big ideas" of the philosophy professor character are actually very tired and decidedly middlebrow retreads - one from Soren Kirkregarrd, and the other from some book called "love Maps".
DVD Review: One of Allen's best films!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of Woody Allen's best films, and for the price of $10 it is a no-brainer to buy it!DVD Review: Morality As A Stumbling Block And Pragmatism As Redemption
Summary: 5 Stars
A great film! Crimes and Misdemeanors is Woody Allen's ultra in-depth exploration (or is it an analysis) of morality, conscience, pragmatism, the all-seeing---or not---eye of G-d, ego, accomplishment, inner identity, secrets, obsession, murder, and above all else the inter-relationships that surround every living person, no matter how much of an island in the ocean that person may think himself to be. Imagine Crime And Punishment set in 1989 Manhattan with the infringement coming against predominantly Jewish ethics and you begin to grasp the outer weave of this equally buoyant and heavy fable. Crime and Misdemeanors is among the most well-cast and thoughtful movies of the entire 1980's.DVD Review: deep and entertaining
Summary: 5 Stars
A rare gem. I imagine that Lester is an auto-parody of the real-life Woody - it adds yet another dimension.
DVD Review: Is Being Bad Good?
Summary: 5 Stars
Well, what can I say about Crimes and Misdemeanors? I'd recommend it though I spent some of the last few minutes waiting for it to end so I could put in the 5th season of Six Feet Under. I have one week to watch the series so I have lot of ground to cover.
The essential plot points being an ophthalmologist having an affair where he want to break it off and she doesn't. She threatens him with telling his wife and revealing shady business deals. He eventually agrees to have her murdered. What's so wonderful about this is the distance between the words and meaning. Landau is sitting with his brother saying he doesn't want her killed but he really does. It's amazing what we do to avoid guilt. He's flanked by his other brother, sort an angel and fallen angel on either shoulder advising Landau how to handle the issue.
The other major plot point is Woody Allen who wants to leave his wife for a film producer played by Mia Farrow. The conflict is with Alan Alda's character, who also pursues Mia's character.
The essential questions have to do with love, the definition of love and the conflict between religion and practical day to day life. The scene where Martin Landdau's character goes into his old Jewish home witnessing a discussion of religion and morality pretty much settles the need to ever discuss religion again. The major conflicts between religion and morality, does it matter to do right are all settled here.
The endearing qualities of the movie have a lot to do with the relationships and the amazing ability of Woody Allen to communicate complex human dialogue. He's a writer/director acting at the peak of his intelligence.
Ok - now do I have time to watch Six Feet Under?
Description of Crimes and Misdemeanors
"Poignant, penetrating [and] scathingly hilarious" (Long Beach Press Telegram), Crimes and Misdemeanors is a deftly rendered tale about the complexity of human choices and the moral microcosms they represent. Showcasing Allen's brilliant grasp of the link between the funny and the fatal, his 19th movie is "one of the watershed films of his career" (Los Angeles Times). Cliff Stern (Woody Allen) is an idealistic filmmaker until he's offered a lucrative job shooting aflattering profile of a pompous TV producer (Alan Alda). Judah Rosenthal (Martin Landau) is the pillar of his community until he learns that his ex-mistress (Anjelica Huston) plans to expose his financial and extramarital misdeeds. As Cliff chooses between integrity and selling out, and Judah decides between the counsel of his rabbi (Sam Waterston) and the murderous advice of his mobster brother (Jerry Orbach), each man must examine his own morality, and make an irrevocable decisionthat willchange everyone's lives forever.Along with Deconstructing Harry which would follow seven years later, this is Woody Allen's most somber comedy-drama, as well as his most ambitious film of the 1980s. Allen weaves together two central stories about very different groups of Manhattanites, linking them through a mutual friend, a rabbi (Sam Waterston) who's going blind. This image is key to the sometimes ponderous, often clever musings on faith, morals, and vision (or lack thereof) that obsess his deeply troubled and unhappy characters. At its center, the film explores people who, through lack of religious conviction or arrogance, rationalize their awful, selfish acts by presuming that God couldn't possibly be watching.
The central story--a neo-noir of sorts--follows a fortuitous ophthalmologist (Martin Landau, all sweat and grimaces) who faces the prospect of his obsessed mistress (Anjelica Huston) ruining his life by telling his family of their affair. Desperate, the doctor hires his slimy criminal brother (Jerry Orbach) to eliminate the situation, and then suffers overwhelming regret afterwards. The flip tale is more typical Allen. Funnier and lighter, it focuses on an impossible romance between Allen's character and Halley Reed, a film producer played by Mia Farrow. Between Allen and his Hollywood fantasy stands his brother-in-law (Alan Alda, perfectly cast as an obnoxious, successful sitcom producer), who also desires Halley. Allen is Landau's opposite: an honest, struggling documentarian who cares nothing about fortune, suffers in a loveless marriage, and is surrounded by triumphant phonies. The nice-guys-finish-last moral may be as contrived as it is devastating. Yet, when Landau and Allen finally share a final scene during a wedding, their faces, subtle body movements, and contrasting fortunes somehow suggest that indeed God may be blind, and if not, the deity has a very sick sense of humor. --Dave McCoy
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