Harry and Tonto (1974)

Second viewing; first viewed on December 21, 1991

An elderly man gets thrown out of his apartment on account of its building getting demolished, and then goes on a tour through relatives and America.

Can I say phony? Can I say trite? Can I say that this is exactly programmed for unanimity, and achieves as much of it as anyone can? To give one example of a crack in that unanimity, someone in the IMDB's user comments area who calls himself Neil Doyle has observed that Harry's "most philosophical comment" is "Did you know that the strangest thing about being old is, all your friends are dead." This film is an inferior product in a very nice package, because the screenplay is inferior and everything else including the score, the acting, the cinematography, etc., is good. But I think the film is still interesting because it is a window to how people who know little about the world picture that world in their minds. In other words, it is an anatomy of its own ignorance.

Rating: 50 (up from 48)