why is rabbi ben going blind? what is woody allen, the writer and director, trying to say with this?
A moving picture that explores the human soul.
When I registered with the IMDb, one of the survey questions asked what my favorite film was. I listed Allen'due south Crimes and Misdemeanors. I don't know if this is always true, just for the most part I feel adequately confident regarding my option. Allen'south story here works, like virtually well written literature, on many levels. It is funny (Woody'southward lessons), symbolic (the Rabbi going blind), ironic (the good endure and the evil go unpunished), deep (faith and suicide), and is a picture that leaves you with something to identify with and larn from. Even Hally Reed's (Mia Farrow) surprising revelation at the end of the film, which I won't reveal of grade, shows usa a bit about the dangers of prejudging others. Woody shows us that we shouldn't gauge on the surface, merely must look deeper into the private value of people. Do nosotros trust Hally, or practise we stick to what we see as the truth most Lester (Alan Alda)? This is a lesson that Woody's grapheme, Cliff, doesn't even fully grasp at the stop of the film, but Allen gives united states the insight, even though what Hally reveals about Lester goes against what nosotros've seen of him.
Crimes and Misdemeanors is certainly not for all tastes. It's not exactly a film that people would sentry for pure escapism. This is a film to be treasured, revisited and held up with some of the greatest films of all time. Non for how information technology looks or sounds, but for what it says. This is a picture show aimed at both the centre and the mind and succeeds in capturing both.
88 out of 106 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
"Human happiness does not seem to be included in the design of creation... If yous want a happy ending, you lot should go run into a Hollywood motion picture."
"Crimes and Misdemeanors" (1989)- is Woody Allen'south masterpiece and my favorite film. It is urban and sophisticated, subtle and cruel. Information technology is darker than night and self-ironic. It is profound and touchingly poignant. It is deadly serious and in the same time it is incredibly funny. Its humor is razor sharp and sparkling and the best and funniest Woody's one-liners and comic performances belong hither. As always in his all-time films, Allen had created a clever and elegant film out of his own weaknesses and insecurities and information technology shines. How much was Allen able to meditate on life, death, God, religion, morality, crimes and the responsibleness, love and lust, happiness and the price one pays for information technology, and amongst those eternal subjects - how much fun it is to skip work or school and to sneak to the movies.
Information technology is universal. It has the references to many Artists and cultures - Chekhov, Dostoyevsky, and Bergman amidst the others but it is so undeniably and uniquely Allen. It could not have been made by any other director.
It is the picture show Allen will exist remembered for.
57 out of lxx found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
Masterpiece
Nigh would say "Annie Hall", some would say "Manhattan", those who prefer Allen's early on career might even mention "Sleeper". Few would call "Crimes and Misdemeanors" Woody Allen's all-time film as writer/managing director, but the more I scout it, the more I realize that it'south not only my favorite, only in many ways the film Allen was working towards for the entirety of his career as a writer prior to this.
In "Crimes and Misdemeanors" Allen revisits a recurring theme in many of his films, infidelity. Information technology would be a simplistic and bigoted view of this motion-picture show to say that it was simply near adultery because information technology is really far more complex than that, and essentially a moving picture most all varieties of human nature and relationships, and one could even argue- the relationship between reality and film as explored through the lens of genre- romantic comedy, Film-Noir, and documentary, and what parts of this motion-picture show are- satire.
"Crimes and Misdemeanors" is 1 of Allen's best scripts. Any screenplay attempting to achieve every bit much as this one does could hands autumn apart, and Allen has had less convincing attempts than this one with similar ambitions, but everything works beautifully here. This movie practically defines the 'tragicomedy' sub-genre, with neither overpowering the other and much of the sense of humour is night humor originating in tragedy, something that is acknowledged by Allen through the character of Lester (played to perfection by Alan Alda), who comments that comedy is zippo more than "tragedy plus time". He also mentions that one-act has to have an catastrophe, and that's one of the best things about this movie- Allen allows dramatic scenes to succeed at being dramatic and emotional, then throws a hilarious punchline at you, which has an effect that is both entertaining and somewhat unsettling. This is an expertly-written movie.
"Crimes and Misdemeanors" is the culmination of a decade of consistently brilliant, evocative, original, and fascinating films from Woody Allen, whose 80's output I would personally consider to exist his best. His 70's work is far more than popular, just his 80'south piece of work contains some of the most unique and memorable films ever made: "Stardust Memories", "Zelig", "The Purple Rose of Cairo", and "Hannah and Her Sisters", as well as numerous overlooked and by and large forgotten films that can only exist called excellent, such as: "A Midsummer Nighttime'southward Sex Comedy", "Broadway Danny Rose", "Radio Days", "September", and "Some other Woman". On top of all these memorable films is "Crimes and Misdemeanors", which is merely my favorite Woody Allen flick and almost certainly his best and most focused endeavour.
10/ten
44 out of 59 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
Rare film that ventures into Adept and Evil Conscience
Let's brainstorm by declaring that you do not need to be a Woody Allen fan to appreciate this moving-picture show. Every bit is often the case, Allen's schlemiel character is the to the lowest degree sympathetic and interesting one in the movie.
But that aside, here's a story that I institute thoroughly engaging. Is in that location a perfect offense? Is guilt the same as remorse? How does a "good" person come to terms with his sins?
The blind Rabbi: Is God unseeing? The Holocaust survivor philosopher who challenges survival (that'due south all I can say without spoiling): is in that location any real redemption?
The movie has flaws but I requite it a "ten" for daring to ask serious questions. (And the visit to the old business firm in Brooklyn has a dynamism that all of united states who recall our childhood homes volition relate to.)
37 out of 52 plant this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
Allen's best
This is a profound moving-picture show, a truthful archetype and bully even amid Woody Allen'due south smashing films! Thought-provoking and involving, I've found since seeing information technology that the moving picture and its statements well-nigh skillful versus evil, denial, guilt, narcissism, have never really left me. A film with many layers, one that demands a re-visiting from time to time.
34 out of 48 plant this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
A perfect film
Non much has to be said. This is an outstanding moving picture, possibly one of the best films I have ever seen. All performances are perfect. Half drama, half one-act, and that very well done. Information technology has deep thoughts well-nigh quilt and mistakes, lots of truth nearly relationships. Information technology has laughs and a perfect ending. Every time I watch this film I just want to sit down down and write, only write something interesting to exit behind. The flick is already xvi yrs old and y'all wont detect that at all, information technology's ane of those films that never age. I would recommend this movie to anyone who doesn't want to spend another two hours of his life watching nevertheless another Hollywood crap.
62 out of 93 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
A masterpiece
Martin Landau, a successful doctor, contemplates murdering a former mistress who threatens his piece of cake life while Woody Allen, an unsuccessful filmmaker, contemplates having an extramarital thing. This film, alongside "Annie Hall," will one solar day exist rated equally one of Woody Allen'southward greatest achievements. It is an important, intelligent work that explores the implications of whether or not this is indeed a moral universe. It besides very funny. The subplot most Allen making a film most his successful, conceited brother-in-law (Alan Alda.) A masterpiece. I dubiety he will accomplish these heights again.
33 out of 49 institute this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
Ane of Woody Allen'southward about ambitious films, also ane of his classics
Woody Allen is not everybody'south cup of tea, with me while his body of work is non always consistent(simply that is true with a lot of directors) much of it is wittily written and insightful equally seen with his masterpiece Annie Hall. Crimes and Misdemeanours has everything that is so practiced near the all-time of his work. With the bailiwick matter and how the comedy and seriousness is blended Crimes and Misdemeanours is one of Allen'south most ambitious, and forth with the likes of Annie Hall, Hannah and Her Sisters, Husbands and Wives and Manhattan information technology'south one of his best too. The expect of the film is elegant and hauntingly nighttime, while the score is jazzy and seductive. The story has some central themes(good and evil and life and death as examples) that are very clearly addressed and dealt with with craftsmanship and truth. The concept is not an innovative one equally such only information technology's challenging and hugely compelling. And the writing is to thank for that, the humour is wonderfully ironic and very characteristic of the distinctive wise-cracking Allen style, in that location are references and observations that are sharp and insightful(always ane of Allen's strong points as a writer) and they is blended well with a serious tone that is dark and appropriately troubling, the shifts between one-act and drama didn't jar to me. The acting is very skilful, ofttimes outstanding. Woody Allen acts too as directs and writes and there are no obvious problems with his functioning(or his directing), non a likable graphic symbol by all means but that was the intent. Anjelica Huston doesn't disappoint, nor does Jerry Orbach earlier his Police and Lodge days, Sam Waterson and Claire Blossom. Mia Farrow is affecting besides. But the acting honours go to Alan Alda and especially Martin Landau, Alda plays an accented weasel to perfection while Landau gives a functioning that has non but only been matched by his Bela Lugosi in Tim Burton's Ed Woods merely besides 1 of the greatest performances of any Woody Allen motion picture. All in all, a Woody Allen classic, an case of aggressive done brilliantly. 10/10 Bethany Cox
10 out of 15 plant this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
Brilliant
This is one of the near brilliant Woody Allen movies. Deep, dark and cynical, it speaks truth about the globe around u.s.a.. It essentially involves two plots, one about crimes (murder that goes unpunished) and the other almost misdemeanors (involving Woody's character every bit a decent person who is inevitably a loser in such a world, and Alan Alda in one of his best roles as a memorable pompous villain with unforgettably mocked line "if information technology bends it's funny, if it breaks, it is't not funny"). Admittedly recommended!
eight out of 12 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
Fatal flaw in premise of otherwise excellent picture show on microcosm of NY
This is a deftly made movie with parallel stories and portrayal of the earth of Jewish New Yorkers. The angst over whether there is a true morality from an omnipotent God makes the film thought-provoking and, to some, agonizing. Allen has grappled now twice with this idea of getting away with murder and whether ane tin proceed to live a good life without fear of retribution. He explored it in this picture, and and so over again in Matchpoint. In Crimes and Misdemeanors, the event was whether God was watching and if the guilty character could live well with his censor. In Matchpoint, retribution is a matter of random luck.
The conclusions of both films tin seem brilliant to some, but quite troubling to others. The reason this is so, is because Allen'due south chief question, "Can the murderer get away with it?" hinges on one important supposition: that all rewards and punishments occur in this life...and that moral behavior is discipline to rewards and punishments. This is in fact a very Jewish point of view (hence the family debate in their Midwood, Brooklyn, home). Jews do not believe in Heaven or Hell, so all has to be achieved in this life. Within the logic that emerges from the above question is inevitably a morally confused universe and contemptuous point of view. What's worse is that the motion-picture show assumes the rewards are things like wealth, career success, love.
If murderers do not get found out and practice not suffer punishment, does that mean there is no moral God watching over usa? No, their law-breaking or misdemeanor is still incorrect, because it caused damage to someone. If they accept no censor and they are not caught, it is still wrong. If there is non a God meting out rewards and punishments in this life or the afterlife, what makes information technology wrong? Does it not matter if ane decides to murder for personal gain? Is non the rule to follow simply canis familiaris swallow dog and every man for himself? Allen has non progressed in questioning the assumption, whether material rewards are the appropriate measure of morality.
To get past his ongoing puzzler, the next time Allen takes on this theme, he needs to consider how society as a whole would intermission down if no one subscribed to whatsoever code of morality. There would not exist annihilation to get abroad with, since everyone would subscribe to the police of the jungle: who ever eats, wins. Without a common code of morals, we would be reduced to a archaic state.
Allen is very literary, but to accost moral bug, he needs to go beyond the private and consider social systems every bit a whole. Morality is a affair of relationships to our fellow human beings, non of private success in life. One might argue that societies accept a long history of sanctioning, through the police force, behaviors we find abhorrent today, so morality is still all relative and there is no moral absolute. I think, rather, that homo societies evolve as we learn from our mistakes, and we find out these mistakes considering indeed at that place is a moral accented that reveals them to be wrong: gradually it becomes recognized that it is not okay for women to exist an underclass to men; that racism violates the rights of people; that lying, cheating, stealing, and murdering result in a breakdown of the trust required to engage in transactions and the economical health of a society; that crime is a symptom of a lot of social ills, from economic inequities to mental illness to social pressures that sway the private'due south moral compass. Obviously, at that place are sociopaths and criminals who have no empathy for their victims and no conscience well-nigh gaining at the expense of others, including murder -- we now accept clinical terms for them, and even tin can link aberrant, deficient behaviors to parts of the brain. Judah's brother is such a one with no twinges of conscience. Judah enjoys the trappings of success very much because those around subscribe to a moral code to which he must pretend.
Criminals are put in jail to punish them, to protect social club from them, and to reform them. Society's sense of morality evolves in the effort to accomplish some social order that is sustainable. If someone gets away with murder, the goal of the police is that society does not implode with everyone doing the aforementioned as some norm of beliefs. One does not need a God to tell us what works or not. Our dissimilar beliefs in God or non, meanwhile, colour how we codify our morals in social bear and the police force.
Practiced movie, within its narrowly defined universe, but Allen needs to expand beyond that pocket-size universe to truly answer the question of moral absolutes. I promise he reads my review somehow, as I get the sense that his is indeed a very troubled man.
P.S. To those who analyze the film in terms of Utilitarianism and Kant, my above take based on human relationships draws from Asian philosophy and Confucianism, and the concept of societies as complex systems.
5 out of seven establish this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
Maybe my all fourth dimension favorite film
Information technology's hard to add together to what SanFava said. This is a film I never tire of seeing and I've seen it many, many times. Information technology's so well written and well acted. What'due south really remarkable to me, no matter how many times yous've seen the film, is that the funny parts are still funny and the thought-provoking parts are still equally deep and relevant equally always. What does information technology say nearly America that most people you talk to about motion picture either have never heard of Crimes and Misdemeanors or have seen it and thought it ho-hum? A nifty picture doesn't demand Tom Hanks or Jack Nicholson or Julia Roberts or computerized graphics or massive explosions every 10 seconds or gory blood spatters from people shot in the head (this ways you, The Departed). Crimes and Misdemeanors is, to me, Woody Allen's greatest film and he's made a lot of great ones. One of my "stranded on a deserted island" films. ten/x.
5 out of 7 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
Missed Demeanor
tedg 18 Oct 2000
I am beginning a review of Allen'due south films and decided to starting time with this one, as it is considered his most intelligent. Certainly, the focus of the film is at the cease where the master graphic symbol proposes making this moving-picture show to Woody, who has played a filmmaker. This directly self-referential device is assuming, and could have been office of a fine spider web, equally several other filmmakers take created.
But the trouble is that we're given pretty thin goop upwards until that point. Woody tries to be as honestly raw equally Chekhov and as deeply symbolic as Kafka. Instead we go a sophomoric endeavour.
God'south eyes are mentioned a dozen times. And the protagonist is an eye doctor who is treating a rabbi who goes blind. `Go it?' Woody shouts. To set up the self-referential last scene, we are treated to Woody playing an unappreciated filmmaker making a film inspired by a Jewish philosopher who seems happy but is not. `Get it?' Woody nudge nudges. To underscore that in the theater, we are the optics of God, Woody bluntly demonstrates by inserting his own viewing of films and philosophizing nearly film.
This is not intelligent filmmaking, my friends. It is the clumsiness of someone smart plenty to see what art is, just non clever enough to create it. Maybe he thinks 90% of creating art is showing upward.
Along the mode, we go an interesting performance from Alda. Just it is all too obvious that every character'due south dialog is Woody's and they are interim just equally Woody has demonstrated to them. Check out their mannerisms. Perhaps his comedies will exist ameliorate. His books are excellent.
14 out of 29 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
Slyly written, amply made serio-comic Woody Allen...
Writer-director Woody Allen smoothly examines the parallels between a nervous documentary filmmaker in beloved with an indifferent female producer and a celebrated family man contemplating having his frustrated, frustrating mistress bumped off. A serious-comedy, saddled with a bit of pretentious banter too equally a draggy sub-plot with Sam Waterston as a rabbi losing his sight. However, the incredibly rich performances from a well-chosen group of actors strengthen the film, including Woody as the filmmaker, Alan Alda equally his egomaniacal flick subject and brother-in-law, Mia Farrow, Martin Landau (in the moving-picture show's best turn), Anjelica Huston, Caroline Aaron and Jerry Orbach. One of Allen's finest endeavors, cleverly-maneuvered and sly; it is past turns witty, fallacious, funny and ironic. ***i/2 from ****
5 out of 8 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
A look at the worst kind of blindness: of the ane who refuses to look
On our daily full routines sometimes nosotros overlook something here and there, regardless of consequences, only going ahead with our passions and desires, interests and achievements. But life knows how to makes us pay the price for not looking at those things more carefully. And not looking at all of this is a crime, a misdemeanor, and to that in that location's penalty also. Maybe not to everyone involved but to a vast majority. At times leading its story with a dramatic seriousness and other times with a abrupt humor, Woody Allen divides this moving-picture show in two segments (serious/funny), often intertwining both stories with i common theme: the worst blindness of all, of the ane who doesn't want to run into.
The stories: ophthalmologist Judah Rosenthal (Martin Landau) is living the life of his dreams with a perfect family, a dandy job and being a respectable man but there's one affair bothering this man: his mistress, the flying attendant Dolores (Anjelica Huston) got tired of being on the second plan of his life and she wants to live with Judah, without caring nearly his family and reputation as an honored denizen. The terminal ultimatum she gives to him (tell you're wife about me or I'll tell her about us and your lies), makes him accept a unexpected and desperate measure out that might haunt him for life: he hires someone to impale Dolores. On a less serious take there'southward the story of Clifford (Woody Allen), an filmmaker in a low indicate of his career trying to brand the project of his life when he's approached past his brother-in-constabulary Lester (Alan Alda), a guy he despises with all of his force, to make an documentary about him. While making this projection in which he'due south not and so thrilled nearly it he'll meet the special Halley (Mia Farrow), for whom he falls in love but she seems looking at other management, and to some other person, Lester. The abiding fight Clifford will accept is with himself trying to figure out a manner to understand why such affair is happening with him and trying to caught Halley's attention.
Allen analyzes all kinds of blinds and unlike types of blindness here. The ophthalmologist, and that'due south not an accident, he's the one who prevents heart issues and he's the most pregnant of the blinded characters of the film. He's blind for never realizing he has everything he needed: a family, money, respect from his colleagues and friends. No, he's jeopardizing everything in trade of some adventurous honey affair he doesn't know how to end information technology; his mistress can't see he's never gonna leave his family and take chances his reputation for her, therefore, she's blinded besides; the filmmaker had its vision of reality obscured by declining to notice that life isn't like movies where showing your securely affects to someone might be returned, no matter how much he tries to conquer the woman of his dreams, she'll always turn her back on him, preferring his egocentric rival on concern; Halley is blind for not seeing how much Clifford loves her, instead concentrating her thoughts on Lester; the latter is blind to his own egocentrism, refusing to be seen every bit someone contemptuous, unfunny and not so bright, he's too focused on himself although he pays a sure attention to Halley; and at last nosotros accept a existent blind person but this one seems to see more than than any of this graphic symbol altogether. The Rabbi Ben (Sam Waterston) gives profound advises to Judah, his friend and doctor, of what to do with the whole affair problem. Picayune by little, we get saddened by his loss of eyesight throughout the story but he e'er has the right word to say. Conclusion: with the exception of Ben, all of them can run into (physically) but they refuse to do then (spiritually/morally) and at the finish they're caught in their ain silly entrapment.
"Crimes and Misdemeanors" is an exceptional story about life consequences, dear, human relations at its adept and bad times, guilt, the things which determines failure and success on everything, and the often mentioned blindness of all kinds, particularly the worst kind of it. This is Woody'southward great response to the happy endings he gave to his characters in the magnificent "Hannah and Her Sisters". Hither, the stories gustation bittersweet with an incredible and implacable reality. Besides exceptional are the performances by the boggling casting, near notably Landau and Huston playing the complicated couple of the ongoing tragedy. It is on scenes where Landau doesn't speak at all where nosotros see how peachy he is, displaying a enormous guilty conscience, the sense of fear present all the time when he's driving his automobile, Schubert playing in the background, his glad flashbacks of how he met Dolores merely he's e'er worried about what to do adjacent.
Few times in our lives we were able to meet the truth behind the lies greatly presented similar in this motion-picture show. Allen in its geniality took the blindfold of our eyes and it's not every time something like this happen. Please, don't be like the worst of all blind, who can see just refuses to practise so and become lookout man this film correct away. 10/x
vi out of eleven plant this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
a motion-picture show with a brilliant scope into the moral implications of everyday life, both big and minor in scale
Woody Allen's Crimes and Misdemeanors ranks with the very best of his work in the 1980s, as it provides serious bailiwick thing for its audience without beingness (overall) preachy, and acts as a terrific precursor to other Woody films (ie Deconstructing Harry, Melinda & Melinda, and Match Betoken to an extent). The side that is more dramatic sometimes merges very well with the side that's meant to be more than of the existent "Woody" motion picture with touches of existent wit and truly laugh-out-loud moments. This is washed by giving a kind of balance between the dilemmas of both of the characters.
Both the doctor and the filmmaker deal with the issues of faith and infidelity and beloved, both on levels that will end upward affecting them (or not) by the end of the picture. That information technology ends up being a trivial as well 'pointed', if that'south the word, by the stop of the picture show, with quick images from before going by over the philosopher'south main message, doesn't put down the strengths. It's ane of Allen's more than successful 'serious' films by tracking the existential quandaries of both of the leads, and what ends upwardly beingness or not being important for them becomes what draws in the audience (or non).
One of the strengths is the acting, of which Allen has assembled i of his very best ensembles. Landau is in a function where he has trouble facing realities equally they are, and when he does it begins to bring him to doubt everything that he was raised to believe and think was right or wrong. His grapheme is equally if it was out of i of those Russian works of the late 19th, early 20th century- conservative to the point of no complaints, but with an emotional side that is aging. At this Landau makes Dr. Rosenthal one of his near memorable performances- even as in that location could accept been fifty-fifty MORE scenes with him &/or his married woman- as his often stone-cold, detached look tells more than than annihilation. Anjelica Huston, while working sort of on a limited basis as the 'sensible' mistress, is also very good. But best is seeing Alan Alda as a harmless simply undeniably hokey and laughable (to express joy at not with) comedian, who is never better at playing these kinds of roles. Other actors similar Jerry Orbach, and Caroline Aaron (in ane of the funniest scenes describing a date), are too great supporting players.
If maybe the motion-picture show isn't a apartment out masterpiece, it might be because it leaves things a picayune too 'this is how information technology is' at the end, despite the good points fabricated in the narration. It takes the reality on both sides, the neurotic but smart documentary filmmaker played by Allen and the businesslike and flawed Doc Landau plays, and fleshes them out so equally to non exist also convoluted or entirely unsympathetic. Many scenes, particularly those showing the religious nature of the film, likewise work improve than expected. Basically, any petty quibbles I had with Crimes and Misdemeanors can be disregarded for all of the interesting bits, which out-rank those of practically any given drama or comedy released in that fourth dimension. ix.5/ten
4 out of 7 plant this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
and that's what they practice...
Sometimes, Woody Allen gets and so into stories about neurotic rich New Yorkers that his movies get boring. "Crimes and Misdemeanors" is adequate. Ophthalmologist Judah Rosenthal (Martin Landau) has been having an matter for some years, just is at present considering having his mistress murdered, while filmmaker Cliff Stern (Allen) is trying to have an affair.
Yeah, that sounds similar something that would appear in a Woody Allen movie, but he does an OK job with it here. Pretty much everyone does a good chore with their roles. Still, I wish that Allen would sometime return to the one-act that gave him his start.
4 out of 7 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
Splendid motion picture.
Let'southward give credit where credit is due. This is an fantabulous movie. Information technology offers the kind of character development that not only is engaging, but is likewise relevant to the story, which makes the movie all that much more compelling, powerful and unique. A homo lives a lie, lives a life of deception, is a coward and a hypocrite, all the same i tin can feel empathy for this man who is struggling to come to terms with the consequences of his own duplicity. It almost makes the audience want to call out to the other characters: "Don't you know what kind of charlatan this man is?" "Don't you realize that this man yous adore and love then much is a fraud?" A sad movie, merely one worth watching.
four out of 7 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
The darkest of Woody's comedy-dramas
Crimes and Misdemeanors is probably Woody Allen's darkest comedy. In it, a prominent doctor arranges to have his mistress murdered to prevent her from exposing his thing and financial irregularities; meanwhile an unsuccessful film director makes a documentary about his TV producer brother-in-law, a man he despises.
The motion picture is divided into two strands, the funny ane and the serious one. They have very different tones merely explore like themes. Both are tragic merely for opposite reasons – the doctor's crime goes unpunished and he prospers, while the managing director loses on all fronts. The bulletin of the motion-picture show is pessimistic just very true, and that is that in that location is no moral law in reality and bad deeds frequently benefit the perpetrators, while life doesn't have inbuilt happy endings. Like to Hannah and Her Sisters, the funny and serious plot strands only briefly overlap here. They both dovetail together at the end in a brilliant scene where the two protagonists run into in a back room at a party.
Like all Allen films from the menstruation, this one is very well written and acted. Martin Landau is the most prominent presence in the role of the doctor. His is a complex grapheme full of very contrasting characteristics. Alan Alda plays the Goggle box producer and provides many of the funniest moments. Allen again shows slap-up skill at interweaving comedy and drama, although in this example the serious dramatics outweigh the funny material. It's not the best Allen picture but it is another very stiff i.
three out of 5 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
An Absolute Treat!!
What better tin a Picture show maker achieve than having audiences think virtually the movie, long subsequently its over. I spoke to about x people who accept seen this picture and everyone gave the same response, that this film made them sit and think about their own lives and things they have done. Having said that this film is not just an Cocked flick trying to laissez passer any message. Its amazingly entertaining flick with great acting, unpredictable storyline and some of the best dialogues. Information technology has several layers and allows the viewer to go every bit deep as one wishes to and still exist entertained. I agree with the before reviewer who said it is Allen's Best. Yep i think this movie far surpasses Annie Hall, which i recall was a great film too. Highly recommended to everyone. perfect x/10!!
3 out of 5 plant this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
Incredibly Unpredictable Script/Great Filmmaking
This could exist Woody Allen's best motion picture, even though Manhattan and Annie Hall go nearly of the press. Martin Landau is incredible in this portrayal of a man who is beset past his past indiscretions. He is blackmailed by his mistress who is getting tired of waiting for Landau to get out his wife. He has her murdered and then goes through all the existent anguish one would accept. He falls back into his religious beliefs and has to carry them around for a time. In that location is a 2d plot having to do with a documentary being fabricated. Allan Alda does a superb job as an unlikable dilettante who is just in it for the money. The twists and turns that ensue and the incredible tension, especially as they relate to Landau, keep us on the edge of our seats. This is a "real" moving picture where Allen has thoroughly invaded his characters' psyches and taken them on a ride. This could exist and so badly washed under other heavy handed directions. There is none of this. Run across this film.
4 out of 8 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
Masterpiece
Truly brilliant. This moving picture has information technology all, starting with its themes from Dostoevsky and Bergman, and honestly - though I revere both of those men, it's on a par with their work. In addition to the existential pondering of the significant of it all, the desolation in our little lives, and crushing feelings of guilt, Woody Allen mixes in comedy, romance, former Hollywood references, and a groovy soundtrack on meridian of it all. The moving picture has no wasted moments and is incredibly focused in its development of the 2 parallel story lines, each of which is fantastic.
In 1 of the stories, a middle-anile man (Martin Landau) having an affair reaches a crisis betoken when his lover (Anjelica Huston) threatens to betrayal him later he tries to break it off. In the other, a husband (Woody Allen) who is frustrated both personally and professionally falls for a woman (Mia Farrow) but watches in horror every bit she's attracted to his celebrity brother-in-police (Alan Alda), a shallow guy he envies as much as he detests.
Some of the almost powerful scenes in the movie are when Landau interacts with people in his mind, including a Seder gathering from the past. There we see arguments for and against religion laid out beautifully, and I loved the strength and pessimism in the graphic symbol of Aunt May (Anna Berger). It'due south in moments like these that Allen channels Bergman the almost, and I thought information technology was pretty cool that he besides had Bergman's legendary cinematographer, Sven Nykvist, for this flick. At the same fourth dimension, he makes it his ain, with fine humor in the one-liners and hilarious facial reactions to pitiful situations.
*** Spoiler Warning ***
1 of the things I really appreciated nearly the film is that while it's playful, in that location is real darkness in how the stories play out. The guy who is a consummate phony gets the girl, and the guy who had a murder committed gets off scot-costless once he gets over his guilt. Raskolnikov he is not. Meanwhile the guy merely trying to brand honest indie films loses both the girl and his wife, the rabbi with the positive worldview (Sam Waterston) is going blind, and the intelligent professor (Martin Southward. Bergmann) who makes such profound observations nigh the human condition commits suicide. How tin can such injustice exist? The film wisely does not endeavor to answer this question, nor does information technology sugarcoat reality. It'due south profound and artistically nearly perfect, and I felt waves of goosebumps when information technology finished.
Quotes, all from the character of the professor: On significant; I absolutely beloved that last bit about the hope for hereafter generations: "We are all faced throughout our lives with agonizing decisions. Moral choices. Some are on a grand calibration. Most of these choices are on lesser points. But nosotros ascertain ourselves by the choices nosotros accept made. We are in fact the sum total of our choices. Events unfold and so unpredictably, so unfairly, human happiness does not seem to have been included, in the design of cosmos. It is only we, with our chapters to dearest, that give pregnant to the indifferent universe. And yet, most human beings seem to accept the ability to go along trying, and even to find joy from elementary things similar their family, their work, and from the hope that future generations might sympathize more than."
On love: "You volition notice that what we are aiming at when we autumn in honey is a very strange paradox. The paradox consists of the fact that, when we fall in love, we are seeking to re-observe all or some of the people to whom nosotros were attached as children. On the other hand, nosotros ask our beloved to correct all of the wrongs that these early parents or siblings inflicted upon us. So that love contains in it the contradiction: The try to return to the past and the attempt to undo the past."
On God (and man): "The unique affair that happened to the early Israelites was that they conceived a God that cares. He cares, only, at the same fourth dimension, he too demands that you acquit morally. But, hither comes the paradox: what'due south i of the kickoff things that God asks? That God asks Abraham to cede his only son, his dear son, to him. In other words, in spite of millennia of efforts, we have not succeeded to create a really and entirely loving image of God. This was beyond our chapters to imagine."
2 out of 3 institute this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
"If information technology bends it's funny, if it breaks it isnt".
One of Woody Allen's own favorite movies, although he mentioned he wanted to cut the comedy part out of "Crimes and Misdemeanors". Thankfully he didnt, because "Crimes and Misdemeanors" mixes crime and comedy as perfectly as I have e'er seen information technology. Add together to this mix a very melancholic and tragic romance and you take the wonderfully vivid ingredients of this Woody Allen classic.
The storyline: a secret affair turns sour because the mistress threatens to reveal everything to his wife.The man panics and starts pondering of ways to become rid of her. This storyline is the backdrop for a moral question: tin can 1 get away with crime WITHOUT punishment? The many (humorous and serious) ways in which Woody Allen wrestles with this question is what makes "Crimes and Misdemeanours" so beautiful and endearing.
I could go along and on about this movie which is and so love to me, but I want to cease with a quote from the brilliant Professor Louis Levy, who survived the concentration camps in Earth War 2. Louis Levy is the personification of many moral questions in this moving-picture show. And those questions are being posed without humor and in all hostage. In the terminate Levy asks himself what "love" is:
"...when we fall in love, we are seeking to re-find all or some of the people to whom we were fastened every bit children. We ask our dear to correct all of the wrongs that these early on parents or siblings inflicted upon us. Then that love contains in it the contradiction: The attempt to return to the past and the endeavor to undo the by..." Louis Levy.
2 out of three found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
One of my favorite
I graduated higher a year ago I didn't get any job offers , no intimate life, zippo. And with coincidence I started to be addicted to woody Allen movies. He became my buddy in somehow, I go broken-hearted every dark for another story of his. It'southward but a hugger-mugger effortless way to keep me going. He in most of his movies acts like a losser just with a wisdom who want to change something most his life sometimes information technology works sometimes not and I similar how real this is . Never complicated always fun.
1 out of 1 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
Could yous live with murder on your soul?
Say what you volition about the quickly decreasing quality of Woody Allen's work of tardily, or most the writer/director/actor's character in the wake of the recent horrific allegations made confronting him, but look back at his filmography and there's a wealth of luminescence to be found. As he became a household name thanks to some of the virtually hilarious comedies of the 1970s, Allen moved away from playing the clown and into more than serious territory. The comedy was notwithstanding there, just as a fan of Ingmar Bergman and Marcel Ophuls, he was ever eager to explore the darkness rooted in our souls. One of his most sobering works is also i of his all-time. Released in 1989, Crimes and Misdemeanors asked the question posed by many a philosopher: Can you live with yourself after committing a murder or will the shame gradually swallow abroad your soul?
The man at the center of the story, Judah Rosenthal (Martin Landau), seems to have it all. He's a respected doctor with a loving family and a group of adoring friends, and the film opens with a lavish dinner held in his honour. On the surface, Judah is a happily married human, just he holds a dark secret. Over the by few months, he has indulged in an thing with flight attendant Dolores Paley (Anjelica Huston), enjoying short breaks away and taking long walks on the beach. Only now Dolores is threatening to reveal his secret, sending a letter of the alphabet to Judah'southward wife which he manages to intercept at the concluding minute, and calling from the gas station downwardly the road with ideas of turning up at the family'due south door. When she refuses to listen to Judah's pleas, the doc turns to his brother Jack (Jerry Orbach), who has connections to the mob, for assist. Jack has a elementary answer: He will hire someone to murder Dolores and Judah won't accept to lift a finger.
While all of this is going on, struggling documentary filmmaker Cliff Stern (Allen) is thrown a gig past his brother-in-law - the obnoxious, cocky-obsessed sitcom writer Lester (Alan Alda) - and meets cute acquaintance producer Halley Reed (Mia Farrow) on the job. Unhappy in his own marriage, Cliff can't help only fall in dearest, but Lester has her in his sights too. Information technology took me a while to figure out why these two seemingly unconnected stories were unravelling side-by-side, only information technology presently becomes articulate that this is a film about the absurdity of guilt. Judah and Jack had it drilled into them from a young age by their rabbi father, but now they appear to be literally getting away with murder. Cliff may want to crook on his berating married woman, just he is ultimately a 'good' guy, yet life doesn't seem to desire to throw him any luck. There's also a fundamental character in Ben (Sam Waterston), a rabbi who yet maintains a lust for life despite his deteriorating eyesight. It plays like a thriller, only it's also very funny. There'due south a depressing theme constantly at play, but Allen ensures that the story remains insightful, engrossing and occasionally heartbreaking. 1 of Allen's shrewdest and nearly humanistic pictures to date, assisted by a flawless ensemble.
i out of 1 institute this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
Martin Landau - great performance!
Martin Landau gives an astonishing functioning equally an eye doctor who has to decide if he wants to murder the woman who stalks him. His decision changes his life and forces him to face his conventionalities in God and his belief in the soul. Even so - I cannot assistance only wonder how much of Woody Allen and Mia Farrow's drama that was soon to spill out in the open up is linked to Mr. Allen's script? Information technology feels as if Woody is dealing with his own crimes in this flick - and his own issues with Mia. I have no thought what is truthful or not true - but information technology seems he was battling his demons when he wrote this.
one out of 1 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
Source: https://imdb.com/title/tt0097123/reviews?spoiler=hide&sort=helpfulnessScore&dir=desc&ratingFilter=0
0 Response to "why is rabbi ben going blind? what is woody allen, the writer and director, trying to say with this?"
Post a Comment