Harry et Tonto

Harry is a man who has no place in the world; with his orange cat Tonto, his partner, they search for a place in the world that is changing. Through a repression, changing values, and rapid changing scenery, he sticks out like a sore thumb with his family, his friends, and people. He then is on a destination to Chicago to stay with his daughter, but after he's thrown off a plane, he travels on a bus, but when his cat won't go to the bathroom, he's thrown off the bus and is stranded and decides to drive. On the way to Chicago he has an adventure meeting different people, people that are symbols of the changing society and he learns to cope with them and tries to adapt, yet can't find his place in society. Harry must find a place in the world and he intends to find one. This is a heartbreaking, poignant and engrossing view into a man's life in old age. Art Carney gives an excellent performance of a man conflicted with changing society, and a man who must force himself to adapt whether he likes it or not. Will he ever find his place in the world? You have to watch to see.

*** out of **** stars.

"Harry and Tonto" is one of those films that surprises you. It seems very simplistic with an old man traveling with his trusty cat, however; there is more to the film than that. Harry(Art Carney) is a 72 year-old man displaced from his apartment building in New York that is scheduled for demolition. This is when his journey begins taking him from his son's home and comes across various people along the way including Ginger, a 16 year-old hitchhiker, a former lover with a shaky memory (Geraldine Fitzgerald), his bookstore owner daughter, Shirley(Ellen Burnstyn) in Chicago, a vitamin salesman, a Las Vegas hooker and an Indian Chief. Harry is an intelligent man in his twilight years prone to fussing over his aging cat. The film is good natured and at the same time sad. It plays as a slice of life movie but one thinks of the old saying, "It is not the destination but the journey that matters." Art Carney gives a very real, complex performance while being understated and I am not surprised that he won an Oscar for this film. I am glad that I finally came across this film and certainly appreciate it more as an adult than I did as a kid.

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.

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.

"Harry And Tonto" is one of my all time favorite movies. It is a film that is as beautiful and funny as it is poignant and sad. It is also a film that features one of the finest acting performances in the last fifty years given by the late, great Art Carney. Carney shows why he won a well deserved Oscar for his performance as the kindhearted, retired teacher Harry Combes who goes cross-country with his pet cat Tonto as they encounter several eccentric characters and have some truly unforgettable moments. A wonderful film, that truly deserves a DVD release. Hopefully one day.