CrawlerChunky
In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.
Grimossfer
Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%
Micah Lloyd
Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.
SimonJack
"Harry and Tonto," reminded me of John Steinbeck's 1962 book, "Travels with Charley." In that travelogue, Steinbeck wrote about a road trip he took around the United States with his French poodle, Charley. Steinbeck drove his camper on the Interstates and back roads as he circled the country in 1960. He stopped at roadside diners, gas stations, truck stops and shops along the way. He talked to truck drivers, waitresses, hitchhikers, store clerks, and people on the streets. No doubt, the writers for "Harry and Tonto," Paul Mazursky and Josh Greenfeld, got some ideas from Steinbeck's book. The situation is quite different here, though. While it's billed as a "cross country odyssey," it's more of a trip interrupted here and there. Art Carney is Harry, and some of his encounters don't seem natural or spontaneous to me. Rather, they seem contrived. The film moves very slowly at times, and has a mix of Harry's philosophy and talks with other people. The movie also reminded me of the later very good comedy drama, "Planes, Trains & Automobiles." In that hit comedy, Steve Martin and John Candy meet while traveling from New York to Chicago for Christmas. Weather, accidents and numerous other situations lead them to take different modes of travel. In this film, Harry's son, Burt, drops him off at the airport to catch a plane to Chicago to visit his daughter. But Harry has to leave the airport because he wouldn't let go of Tonto's cage to pass through the security scanner (that's right, airport security was there as early as 1974). He takes a bus and gets left on the roadside after he has the bus stop so that Tonto could relieve himself. Next he hitchhikes and meets some different people. Then he buys a used car and picks up hitchhikers himself. This goes on past Chicago as he continues to California where he meets his youngest son and puts down new roots. Tonto dies toward the end of the journey. As I said, it's slow going much of the time, and some of his encounters with different people seem contrived. It was only mildly interesting for a time but seemed way too long. A movie can't be very good when, about half way through, one begins to wonder when it will end. Art Carney won the 1974 best actor Oscar for his role in this movie. He was okay here, but I don't think his performance was particularly good or challenging. That may have been a year when sentimentality ruled at the Oscars, because Carney beat out some superb acting jobs by Albert Finney ("Murder on the Orient Express"), Al Pacino (The Godfather Part II"), and Jack Nicholson ("Chinatown"), in what may be the best performance of his career.
Syl
Art Carney's performance of Harry Coombes earned him a well-deserved Academy Award for Lead Actor and a Golden Globe Award as well. In this wonderful film, he plays a 72 year old retired New Yorker with his beloved cat, Tonto, even on a lease as well. Except for the end, I loved the film and it was done on location with an all star cast such as Larry Hagman and Ellen Burstyn playing his adult children in Los Angeles and Chicago. He begins the film by losing his beloved New York City apartment to be turned into a parking lot on the Upper West Side in Manhattan. He moves reluctantly to the suburbs with his son, Burt, and his family. I have to say that Dolly Jonah did a terrific performance as his daughter-in-law Elaine and I'm surprised that she didn't work more in films and television. He decides to travel to Chicago but won't fly because he refuses to let the airline employees mishandle his beloved Tonto who is also the star of the film. It's a great film with memorable moments and Art Carney's finest performance in film.
ben-winterburn
The basis of the film is described well elsewhere in the reviews here, so I will try and cover a different aspect. This is the sort of film I would not have bothered watching until recently. As I age, I find I am less interested in watching FX extravaganza's and more interested in human stories. Provided we are successful in reaching Harry's age, any of us could find ourselves in circumstances similar to Harry's.Retirement, widowed/widower, children scattered across the country, and friends gradually all dying off are the prizes waiting at the twilight of a long life. What happens when in your mind you feel the same as you did at forty but now your body is slower, your license is revoked and you have to give up, for whatever reason, your home?SPOILER ALERT Like Harry, most of us try to hold on to the past; to live in moments now gone. With the death of Tonto, Harry removes the last of his old ties. At peace with his family and himself, Harry's journey has expanded his appreciation of life. In the glow of the setting sun, we see a renewed Harry, ready to use the last of his own fading light to embrace the opportunities that life can still provide.
MartinHafer
This is a very unusual film and is a bit hard to describe. It's almost like a traditional "road movie" combined with the wonderful old film "Make Way for Tomorrow" (an absolute must-see) combined with 1970s sensibilities.Art Carney, who was only 56 at the time, plays an elderly man in New York City whose life has passed him by. His wife died some time ago, he's retired, many of his friends have died and now he's being forced out of his apartment, as it's being leveled and made into a parking lot. All he has is his cat and three grown children who really are in no position to take him in, though his son in the New York suburbs does try--creating a lot of tension with his wife. Harry sees that he and his cat, Tonto, are in the way and announces he's going to Chicago to stay with his daughter for a while.At the airport, Harry doesn't really understand the whole process of boarding the plane with his cat and just leaves. He instead takes a bus, but this also doesn't work out well. Finally, he picks up a cheap used car and starts traveling across the country. Along the way, he has a few adventures and meets some interesting folks in a very free-form sort of movie. You never exactly know what will happen to him until eventually he decides he's found a new home and settles down to an all-new life.While some of the film might shock you a bit (with its rather frank 1970s attitudes about sex and the very, very depressing nature of much of the film), the acting and gentle pace are so nice that you really don't mind the few faults that it has. Nor, do you really mind that there isn't all that much in the way of plot--just a gentle journey with a man and his cat! Art Carney received the Oscar for Best Actor and I am sure that this must have ruffled a few feathers--particularly since he was up against Al Pacino in "The Godfather Part II". It's not a particularly risky role he did in the film and it's a "nice" film, but I can see why the Academy liked the film and his acting--it was very sweet and real.By the way, don't try watching this film if you suffer from severe depression--some of the film would undoubtedly make this worse! Also, while many of you know this, 'Tonto' is Spanish and is means 'stupid'.
