The Age of Commercialism

Pretty Good

Awesome Movie

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

This is one of those movies that when it is over, one wishes it had not ended. It involves Harry, played by Art Carney (of course, Ed Norton on The Honeymooners), who has had to take his cat and leave his apartment building, which is being torn down to make way for a parking garage. He leave all the old men he usually hangs out with and heads west. He visits a son who sends him packing, a daughter, and has a host of experiences, including meeting a hitchhiking hooker and being in thrown in jail with an elderly Indian man (Chief Dan George from "Little Big Man."). As he travels the road, literally and figuratively, he comes to realize that those around him have their troubles and that he is a pretty happy man, despite being uprooted. This is touching, poignant, and loving. Art Carney won the Oscar for best actor.

1974's "Harry and Tonto" is probably one of the better and more memorable and touching films made it's a new journey of discovery and new beginning away from a gone past it proves at no matter any age their is enough left for one last big travel to meet new people, visit family and most of all to begin a new start. The film rightfully won Art Carney a Best Actor Oscar as his performance of an old man is touching and uplifting.The story is simple Harry(Art Carney)is a mid 70's retired teacher who finds that his New York city apartment that he's living in all of a sudden is gonna be facing demolition so he and his beloved cat Tonto set out to live with his son. Soon that's a headache so plans change Harry then wants to journey to Chicago to live with his daughter(Ellen Burstyn)along the way he meets odd and complex people like hitchhikers and a run away. As the road is an adventure that narrows with curves and speed bumps and potholes of people from all different walks of like. As the journey goes more west Harry meets an Indian and a high class hooker in Las Vegas one last bang on the journey! Finally Harry ends in Los Angeles with his son(Larry Hagman). Wow that's one adventure that not even an old man would forget! Overall this is a film of journey and finding one last moment of happiness it proves that life is always full of places and people no matter how different the place or person memories are to be made and friends are discovered. "Harry and Tonto" is one film that clearly travels farther than the rest!

There's an old saying, "When life gives you lemons, Make lemonade! Retired Teacher, elderly Harry Coombs is physically forced out of his New York Apartment to live with his son Burt and his three children. Harry feels like he's in the way. Burt suggests that his Dad should fly out to Chicago and stay with his daughter Shirley. Harry has the flight jitters and decides to take a u-turn to the bus station complete with Cat Tonto by his side. A few hours into the greyhound experience Tonto has to relieve himself but won't make in the rear toilet of the bus so he orders the driver to stop. Out goes Harry and Tonto as the driver insists on keeping his schedule in tact but tells Harry there will be another bus in a while and he could catch that one. Harry at this point wants no part of planes, buses or any form of public transportation as he stumbles upon used car salesman Cliff Norton. One of many characters to come in this unique cross-country adventure. There goes our weathered Harry and cat in a 50's type vehicle crawling along the interstate with an expired license. Harry meets through a hitchhiker a runaway girl Ginger played by Melanie Mayron who joins him en route to the windy city.They debate as to how old she really is during their encounters and discussions which brings up a lost love. On the way another stop in Indiana at a Nursing home to meet up with a past love Jessie. Harry spoke fondly earlier to Ginger about there romance back in those early days. Grandson Norman Played by Josh Mostel plays Harry's Grandson and has some funny quips at condescending Aunt Shirley Mallard Played by Ellen Burstyn upon arrival at her bookshop /apartment. Norman is suppose to bring Harry back home but instead decides to join him in his beat up jalopy westward bound with violin. Norman decides to travel to a commune in Colorado with new companion Ginger. That leaves Harry alone in the dessert with his luggage and cat by his lonesome.The rest of the journey makes you wish for your free time ahead during your retirement.Meeting salesman, Native Americans, high priced hookers and any thing else Harry encounters makes for an enjoyable ride to the finish! So collect your social security check and with that money. Buy some popcorn and a beverage and you'll be singing Roamin in The Gloamin.

The most delightful trait a film can achieve is pure, unadulterated humanism. Creating and structuring characters on realistic traits, with plausible backgrounds, dialog, and personalities is what I truly love to see. Harry and Tonto knows humanism inside and out, and is one of the most wholesome experiences I've had watching a movie this year, thus far.The level of whimsicality here is unthinkable, another trait that I love to see in a film. This is my third venture with Paul Mazursky's work. I watched him form likable characters in unlikable situations in Down and Out in Beverly Hills, and watched him erect a married couple arguing out their differences, for whatever reason, in a mall in Scenes from a Mall. While neither of those films blew me away, I can still say they were still pretty well developed. The only problem was there was no hook, no credible power or bang to either film's screenplay. In Scenes from a Mall, it was if we were the third wheel or a man in the background, spying on a married couple during their marital crisis. It was uncomfortable and unsettling rather than earnest and funny. In Down and Out in Beverly Hills, we met good, wholesome people who were seemingly content with their life, but after a while, the excursion became a tad tiresome and plotted out.Here is Harry and Tonto, a delightful drama about a patient, quick-witted elder who is removed from his apartment as it is being torn down and tries to adapt to a place that has no room for his kind. His cat, Tonto, is a likable scamp, but sometimes delays Harry's trip by wandering off or by simply being the cause of his paranoia. Initially, Harry wants to stay at his son's house, but comes to the conclusion that he is getting too old and wants to see the world while he still is able. He packs up Tonto and his miniscule luggage and moves out to the big world.This is another road movie, but a very interesting one at that, including deep characterization for likable, strong characters, including its two leads. Carney plays a likable elder, and Tonto simply steals every scene he is in.Harry and Tonto is basic entertainment, but provides so much substance to a story that would seem cliché and tired. Here we have two simple characters, both incomplete without each other, and satisfied with the life they've been enduring for years. What more can you ask for? Starring: Art Carney, Tonto the Cat, Herbert Berghof, Ellen Burstyn, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Larry Hagman, and Chief Dan George. Directed by: Paul Mazursky.