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Nabaza.net-The MarketPlace - Crimes and Misdemeanors
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List Price: $19.98
Our Price: $9.99
Your Save: $ 9.99 ( 50% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
Starring: Caroline Aaron, Alan Alda, Martin S. Bergmann, Bill Bernstein, Claire Bloom
Directed By: Woody Allen
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: DVD
Brand: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT
EAN: 0027616862662
Format: Anamorphic
Label: MGM (Video & DVD)
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: MGM (Video & DVD)
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 2001-06-05
Running Time: 104
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Theatrical Release Date: 1989-10-13
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Editorial Reviews:
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"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.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Heads you win, tails I lose
Comment: Allen has said on more than one occasion that he doesn't have the stuff to be a director/writer of the caliber of Bergman or Fellini. But in "Crimes and Misdemeanors" he comes up to the task. The film isn't just one of Allen's best (I'm comfortable with saying it's the very best he's ever made, except for the fact that, because Allen works in at least three genres, it's difficult to compare and contrast his films). In my judgment, it's one of the finest films in American cinema.
The film is really cut from the same cloth as the medieval passion play. It explores themes that involve morality and God. In a godless universe, does it make any sense to talk about right or wrong? In a universe in which there might be a god, but one who's apparently indifferent to us, are we free to act as we wish? Allen's conclusion seems to be not unlike Albert Camus' in The Myth of Sisyphus: the universe may or may not be godless, but it is absurd. Bad guys (as personified by Martin Landau's character) do what they do without apparent retribution or punishment, but may not be easy with their gains. Good guys (as personified by Woody Allen's character) do what they do without apparent reward or acclaim, and may be just as uneasy. Most of us are simply too self-absorbed and witless (Alan Alda's character) to know that, in the end, everybody loses.
A bleak image of human existence, perhaps. But (as in Bergman's worldview), it's lightened by fleeting moments of grace: falling in love, moments of wonderment and happiness, relating to young people. We all may be losers in the end, but that needn't make life totally miserable.
Performances in the film, especially Alan Alda's and Martin Landau's, are superb. The only exception is Angelica Huston's wooden performance. But insofar as she's got to be one of the most overrated actors in the business, one doesn't expect more from her, and thus is never really disappointed.
Easily five stars.
Customer Rating:
Summary: This sort of thing only happens in the movies...
Comment: 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".
Customer Rating:
Summary: One of Allen's best films!
Comment: This is one of Woody Allen's best films, and for the price of $10 it is a no-brainer to buy it!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Morality As A Stumbling Block And Pragmatism As Redemption
Comment: 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.
Customer Rating:
Summary: deep and entertaining
Comment: A rare gem. I imagine that Lester is an auto-parody of the real-life Woody - it adds yet another dimension.
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