Harry and Tonto

Art Carney took home the Academy Award for Best Actor not only for his work in this movie, but for his entire career. The movie is about a man living his final years. His best friend and partner is his side kick cat Tonto. Together they travel from New York City to the far ends of the west coast. On the way, they bump into one situation and conversation to the next. The final scene shows Carney meeting another face along the path of life as he makes his final goodbye to the audience. In a way, Carney's character has to make this journey in order to say goodbye to the world. A heart gripping scene, Carney must say goodbye to his best of friends as Tonto get old himself. This is in a way not a coming of age story but a coming of life story. This is a terrific movie that has a moral that needs to be learned.

Art Carney gives a magnificent performance as an elderly patriarch. His family is every slice as real as Thanksgiving dinner with all the extras and idiosyncracies that go with American family values and life. It couldn't have been made at a better time as films enter the gloominess of Coppola's prequel to the Godfather. It is a coming of age film for the connesiour who can relate to dysfunction.

A wonderful movie experience that speaks volumes with its quiet, methodical pace. "Harry and Tonto" concerns a retired school teacher in his 70s (shocking Oscar-winner Art Carney) who is forced to leave the only home he has ever known when his apartment in New York is demolished to make way for a parking garage. Possibly this will be no big deal as he and Tonto (his faithful cat) decide to go live with his son (Philip Burns). Quickly it is apparent though that the arrangement will not work and Carney decides that maybe it is time to see the nation he has never gotten a chance to see before by heading west (with a little luggage and his cat of course). Along the way he meets back up with his daughter (Ellen Burstyn), has his grandson (Josh Mostel) follow him from New York, encounters a strange hitchhiker (Melanie Mayron) and even has a short jail stay with Chief Dan George. As the trip continues a fine line is developed between Carney's old ties and his new ones. Carney is one of those people who instantly appears to be everyone's life-long friend. The trip is an opportunity to meet new friends and sometimes, very sadly, say goodbye to old ones. In the end Carney's journey does not only take him cross-country, it also takes him to new and sometimes forgotten emotional experiences that he desperately needed to have. "Harry and Tonto" is a simple film that did not rely on a big budget or trivial situations to tell its story. This is a human tale that speaks to anyone who is willing and able to listen. Director and co-writer Paul Mazursky (Oscar-nominated for the latter) created a movie that touches its audience with heart, emotion and smarts. Carney is a revelation. He is basically only known for his silly turn on television's "The Honeymooners", but he proved he could play a part that is very difficult to pull off. Carney, only 56 at the time, plays much older than he was and received much support come Oscar season (some looking suspiciously like sympathy votes). In the end, Carney did win Oscar gold over such other names as Al Pacino ("The Godfather, Part II"), Jack Nicholson ("Chinatown"), Dustin Hoffman ("Lenny") and Albert Finney ("Murder on the Orient Express"). In retrospect, it is still hard to decide which of those five delivered the finest performance of that year. One thing is for sure though, "Harry and Tonto" is one of those rare movies that always seems to stand the test of time. 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Every once in a while - but less and less these days - a movie comes around that has some impact, in that you find it hard to get it out your mind for awhile. That's what "Harry and Tonto" did to me, recently.

It wasn't the world's greatest film but it was great storytelling, sometimes a lost art among filmmakers in recent decades. "Harry" is a retiree and "Tonto" is his cat. The movie follows the two around as the pair travel from the East Coast to the West. It all begins when Harry's building is demolished as part of "urban renewal." He quickly finds out he doesn't want to live with his quirky son and his even-stranger kids, so he hits the road to Chicago to seek out other relatives. It goes from there.

The movie is filled with little vignettes. For instance, how the cat adapts for doesn't adapt to some modes of travel and the interesting and very diverse people Harry meets on the way (which winds up going all the way to Los Angeles).

Art Carney as "Harry Coombes" got the Academy Award for best actor. My vote might have gone to the cat. If you've ever owned a cat, you can appreciate how unbelievably-trained this feline was in the film. Tonto was amazing! Almost everyone in this film is a good person who tries to befriend Harry and Tonto, so you get a good feel throughout this almost-two-hour movie. It's one memorable short story after another - some funny, some sad.

I hate to use this cliché, but it's the kind of slow-moving, human-interest story movie you don't see anymore. That's a shame, because these kinds of films you don't forget.

Art Carney was a quiet, quirky genius and this film is a lasting testament to his talent.

It's a story about how an -average- man (actually not average at all, as we come to find out) lives a life of dignity and confronts the chaos of modern existence--including that most devastating of inevitabilities, mortality and, particularly, old age .

Besides Carney, watch for superb ensemble acting from Ellen Burstyn, Larry Hagman, the inimitable Chief Dan George, Arthur Hunnicutt, and a host of great character actors from the 70's.

Unlike so many contemporary scripts from the late 60's and early 70's, the cultural references seem interesting and historical and not dated, probably because--like everything else in this film--they are treated with respect and a sense of mercy.

If this film had been made by a French director in 1974, it would be heralded as a major classic. Oh, well.

Watch it. Savor it. This is really something special.