Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Audience Rating: R (Restricted) Binding: DVD EAN: 9780780622241 Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Widescreen, NTSC ISBN: 0780622243 Label: New Line Home Video Manufacturer: New Line Home Video Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: New Line Home Video Region Code: 1 Release Date: May 27, 1998 Running Time: 96 minutes Sales Rank: 19060 Studio: New Line Home Video Theatrical Release Date: December 12, 1997
Amazon.com essential video: Woody Allen roared back at his detractors with Deconstructing Harry, a bitterly funny treatise about the creative process. Known to mine his often tumultuous personal life for his movies, the embattled writer-director-star didn't bother to make his alter ego likable in this movie: Harry Block (Allen) pops pills, frequents prostitutes, and cheats on the women in his life, then writes about their foibles in thinly disguised fiction. No wonder they're all furious with him. As Harry journeys to his alma mater with a hooker, ill pal, and kidnapped son, a series of flashbacks unravel, juxtaposing Harry's relationships with their 'slightly exaggerated' fictional counterparts. There are amusing cameos throughout, including a humorous turn by Demi Moore as a fictitious ex-wife who 'became Jewish with a vengeance,' and Billy Crystal as the devil who found Hollywood too nasty for his liking. The humor is dark and caustic, but well worth it; Deconstructing Harry is a near-brilliant mediation on the sometimes queasy relationship between art, creator, and critic. --Diane Garrett
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Rating: - A wonderfully constructed comedy that helps us deconstruct ourselves...
Getting to know Woody Allen's filmography as of late has been a real trip, and while there have been some misses for me, for the most part I have become a real fan of his work. `Deconstructing Harry' may very well be one of my favorites. The film is an uproarious look at the struggle one makes to create something, about the fact that fiction truly imitates life and that life, in its rawest of forms, is truly remarkable.
Woody Allen stars as Harry Block, a famous writer who is suffering from a serious case of writers block. While he's struggling with this artistic roadblock he is also presented with the honor of being the center of a University tribute, as the school that once threw him out wants to give him an award. Now, more than ever, Harry is faced with his own slew of insecurities as he contemplates why no one in his life likes him. As he struggles to find someone to accompany him to his awards ... Read More
Rating: - a masterpiece
One of the funniest movies ever made.
Woody Allen is an acquired taste, like oysters. If you like'm on the half shell, he hit this crustacean out of the lagoon.
The "elevator to hell" bit had me in tears. Pookie the hooker, and the whole crew on the road trip to the university -- well, who else but Woody Allen conjures up this kind of stuff and puts it on film?
Writing, acting, directing...everyone was in synch with Mr. Allen's history, angst, sturm, drang and reputation.
An absolute masterpiece.
Thanks, Woody.
Rating: - Writer's Block
When a writer faces that inevitable bugaboo...writer's block...he reviews his life, trying to examine all his mistakes, character flaws and foibles. His examination is depicted in a fragmented fashion, as if he is truly "deconstructing" his self.
As the final picture emerges, he is in a position to address his past, and in doing so, he is freed to write again.
Fascinating portrayal of the creative process.
Rating: - Woody Redux
Okay, I will admit that finally after almost a year of watching or re-watching films that the comedic legend Woody Allen wrote, directed, played in or produced I am Woody-ed out. Moreover, there is a reason for that beyond fatigue. As I have pointed out previously in this space if one lives long enough and produces enough work then one is bound to repeat oneself. And that is what has happened to brother Allen here.
Allen's premise has been used before as he plays the part of Harry, a writer (what else?) down with a case of writer's block who is also having romantic problems (again, what else?) because the young woman he truly, if belatedly, loves is getting married to a lesser writer. Sound familiar? There are many individually funny moments, mainly by Allen, along the way even if not enough to sustain the film. Naturally, as is usually the case in an Allen feature in the end things are not qualitatively ... Read More
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- A wonderfully constructed comedy that helps us deconstruct ourselves...
- Woody Redux
