Bananas (film)

Last updated

Bananas
Bananas (movie poster).jpg
Theatrical release poster by Jack Davis
Directed by Woody Allen
Written by
Produced byJack Grossberg
Starring
CinematographyAndrew M. Costikyan
Edited by
Music by Marvin Hamlisch
Distributed by United Artists
Release date
  • April 28, 1971 (1971-04-28)(United States)
Running time
82 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$2 million
Box office$11.8 million

Bananas is a 1971 American comedy film directed by Woody Allen and starring Allen, Louise Lasser, and Carlos Montalban. Written by Allen and Mickey Rose, the film is about a bumbling New Yorker who, after being dumped by his activist girlfriend, travels to a tiny Latin American nation and becomes involved in its latest revolution. [1] Parts of the plot are based on the book Don Quixote, U.S.A. by Richard P. Powell. [2]

Contents

Filmed on location in New York City and Puerto Rico, [3] the film was released to positive reviews from critics and was number 78 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies" and number 69 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs in 2000.

Plot

The film opens with Howard Cosell's coverage of the assassination of the president of the fictional "banana republic" of San Marcos and a coup d'état that brings Gen. Emilio Molina Vargas to power.

Fielding Mellish is a neurotic blue-collar man who tries to impress social activist Nancy by connecting with the revolution in San Marcos. He visits the republic and attempts to show his concern for the native people. However, Vargas secretly orders his men, disguised as Vargas's opponents, to kill Mellish to make the rebels look bad so that the U.S. will send Vargas financial aid. Mellish evades Vargas's assassins but is shortly captured by the real rebels. Vargas declares Mellish dead regardless, leaving Mellish no choice but to join the rebels for two months. Mellish then clumsily learns how to be a revolutionary. When the revolution is successful, Esposito, the Castro-style leader, goes mad. The rebels decide to replace him with Mellish as their president.

While traveling back to the U.S. to obtain financial aid, Mellish (sporting a long fake beard) reunites with Nancy and is exposed. In court, Mellish tries to defend himself from a series of incriminating witnesses, including a reigning Miss America and a middle-aged African-American woman claiming to be J. Edgar Hoover in disguise. One of the witnesses does provide testimony favorable to Mellish, but the court clerk, when asked to read back this testimony, replies with an entirely different, wholly unfavorable rendition. Mellish is eventually sentenced to prison, but his sentence is suspended on the condition that he does not move into the judge's neighborhood. Nancy then agrees to marry him. The film ends with Howard Cosell's coverage of the between-the-covers consummation of their marriage, an event that was over much more quickly than Nancy had anticipated, with Mellish anticipating a rematch in the early spring.

Cast

Eddie Barth and Nicholas Saunders make their theatrical film debuts as the characters Paul and Douglas, while comedian Conrad Bain plays Semple and actor Allen Garfield plays the Man on Cross. Uncredited appearances include Sylvester Stallone as a subway thug #1, Mary Jo Catlett as a woman in a hotel lobby [4] and Tino García in an undisclosed role.

Production

Development

According to an interview in the notes of the film's DVD release, Allen said that there is absolutely no blood in the film (even during executions) because he wanted to keep the light comedic tone of the film intact.

Allen and Lasser had been married from 1966 to 1970 and were divorced at the time the film was made.

The verdict in Mellish's legal case is portrayed as the headline story of a Roger Grimsby newscast. [5] Included in the scene is a parody television advertisement for New Testament cigarettes with a Catholic priest (Dan Frazer) promoting the fictitious brand while performing the sacrament of the Eucharist. [6] The movie received a C (condemned) classification from the National Catholic Office for Motion Pictures because of the spoof. [5]

Title

The title is a pun, "bananas" being slang for "crazy", as well as being a reference to the phrase "banana republic" describing the film's setting. When Allen was asked why the film was called Bananas, his reply was, "Because there are no bananas in it." Some writers have made the connection between this and The Cocoanuts , the first film by the Marx Brothers, by whom Allen was heavily influenced at the time, and which featured no coconuts. [7]

Music

Reception

Critical response

Bananas was well received by critics; receiving an 83% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 35 reviews with an average rating of 7.5/10. [9]

Vincent Canby of The New York Times praised the film, saying: "Allen's view of the world is fraught with everything except pathos, and it's a view I happen to find very funny. Here is no little man surviving with a wan smile and a shrug, but a runty, wise-mouthed guy whose initial impulses toward cowardice seem really heroic in the crazy order of the way things are." He concluded: "Any movie that attempts to mix together love, Cuban revolution, the C.I.A., Jewish mothers, J. Edgar Hoover and a few other odds and ends (including a sequence in which someone orders 1,000 grilled cheese sandwiches) is bound to be a little weird—and most welcome." [10] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film three stars out of four and called the opening scene "one of the funniest bits of film," though he thought the romance "gets in the way" and "could have been omitted easily." [11] Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times wrote: "Allen seems to have been unable to figure a suitable finish for the plot, which does not so much peak as stop. Still the best jokes have a glorious insanity about them. Given the diminishing ability to laugh like blazing idiots these days, Bananas is welcome even if Allen is not quite at the top of his form." [12] Gary Arnold of The Washington Post wrote that the film was "in a word, hilarious," and "an immense improvement" over Take the Money and Run . [13] Richard Combs of The Monthly Film Bulletin thought that "the gags seem a little brighter than in Take the Money," but also found the scattershot humor "too undisciplined and disparate." [14] John Simon wrote of the film's plot: "None of it makes for sense or solidly developing humor, and much of it is in bad taste". [15]

Accolades

The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Woody Allen</span> American filmmaker, actor, and comedian (born 1935)

Heywood Allen is an American filmmaker, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades. Allen has received many accolades, including the most nominations (16) for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. He has won four Academy Awards, ten BAFTA Awards, two Golden Globe Awards and a Grammy Award, as well as nominations for a Emmy Award and a Tony Award. Allen was awarded an Honorary Golden Lion in 1995, the BAFTA Fellowship in 1997, an Honorary Palme d'Or in 2002, and the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2014. Two of his films have been inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.

<i>Manhattan</i> (1979 film) 1979 film by Woody Allen

Manhattan is a 1979 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Woody Allen and produced by Charles H. Joffe from a screenplay written by Allen and Marshall Brickman. Allen co-stars as a twice-divorced 42-year-old comedy writer who dates a 17-year-old girl but falls in love with his best friend's mistress. Meryl Streep and Anne Byrne also star.

<i>Interiors</i> 1978 film by Woody Allen

Interiors is a 1978 American drama film written and directed by Woody Allen. It stars Kristin Griffith, Mary Beth Hurt, Richard Jordan, Diane Keaton, E. G. Marshall, Geraldine Page, Maureen Stapleton, and Sam Waterston.

<i>Private Benjamin</i> (1980 film) 1980 film by Howard Zieff

Private Benjamin is a 1980 American comedy film directed by Howard Zieff, written by Nancy Meyers, Charles Shyer, and Harvey Miller, and starring Goldie Hawn, Eileen Brennan, and Armand Assante.

<i>Take the Money and Run</i> (film) 1969 film by Woody Allen

Take the Money and Run is a 1969 American mockumentary crime comedy film directed by Woody Allen. Allen co-wrote the screenplay with Mickey Rose and stars alongside Janet Margolin. The film chronicles the life of Virgil Starkwell, an inept bank robber.

<i>Stardust Memories</i> 1980 film by Woody Allen

Stardust Memories is a 1980 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Woody Allen and starring Allen, Charlotte Rampling, Jessica Harper and Marie-Christine Barrault. Sharon Stone has a brief role, in her film debut. The film is about a filmmaker who recalls his life and his loves — the inspirations for his films — while attending a retrospective of his work. The film is shot in black and white and is reminiscent of Federico Fellini's (1963), which it parodies.

<i>Young Frankenstein</i> 1974 film by Mel Brooks

Young Frankenstein is a 1974 American comedy horror film directed by Mel Brooks. The screenplay was co-written by Brooks and Gene Wilder. Wilder also starred in the lead role as the title character, a descendant of the infamous Dr. Victor Frankenstein. Peter Boyle portrayed the monster. The film co-stars Teri Garr, Cloris Leachman, Marty Feldman, Madeline Kahn, Kenneth Mars, Richard Haydn, and Gene Hackman.

<i>Sleeper</i> (1973 film) 1973 futuristic science fiction comedy film directed by Woody Allen

Sleeper is a 1973 American science fiction comedy film directed by and starring Woody Allen, who co-wrote it with Marshall Brickman. Parodying a dystopic future of the United States in 2173, the film involves the misadventures of the owner of a health food store who is cryogenically frozen in 1973 and defrosted 200 years later in an ineptly led police state. Contemporary politics and pop culture are satirized throughout the film, which includes tributes to the classic comedy of Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, and Charlie Chaplin. Many elements of notable works of science fiction are also paid tribute to, or parodied.

<i>Conquest of the Planet of the Apes</i> 1972 science fiction film directed by J. Lee Thompson

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes is a 1972 American science fiction film directed by J. Lee Thompson and written by Paul Dehn. The film is the sequel to Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971) and the fourth installment in the Planet of the Apes original film series. It stars Roddy McDowall, Don Murray, Ricardo Montalbán, Natalie Trundy, and Hari Rhodes. In the film, set in a world that has embraced ape slavery, Caesar (McDowall), the son of the late simians Cornelius and Zira, surfaces out of hiding from the authorities and prepares for a rebellion against humanity.

<i>Real Life</i> (1979 film) 1979 American comedy film directed by Albert Brooks

Real Life is a 1979 American comedy film starring Albert Brooks, who also co-authored the screenplay. It is a spoof of the 1973 reality television program An American Family and portrays a documentary filmmaker named Albert Brooks who attempts to live with and film a dysfunctional family for one full year.

<i>Love and Death</i> 1975 comedy film directed by Woody Allen

Love and Death is a 1975 American comedy film written and directed by Woody Allen. It is a satire on Russian literature starring Allen and Diane Keaton as Boris and Sonja, Russians living during the Napoleonic Era who engage in mock-serious philosophical debates. Allen considered it the funniest film he had made up until that point.

<i>Whats Up, Tiger Lily?</i> 1966 film by Woody Allen, Senkichi Taniguchi

What's Up, Tiger Lily? is a 1966 American comedy film directed by Woody Allen in his feature-length directorial debut.

<i>The Purple Rose of Cairo</i> 1985 film by Woody Allen

The Purple Rose of Cairo is a 1985 American fantasy-romantic film written and directed by Woody Allen, and starring Mia Farrow, Jeff Daniels, and Danny Aiello. Inspired by the films Sherlock Jr. (1924) and Hellzapoppin' (1941) and Pirandello's play Six Characters in Search of an Author (1921), it is the tale of a film character named Tom Baxter who leaves a fictional film of the same name and enters the real world.

<i>Losin It</i> 1983 American-Canadian comedy film by Curtis Hanson

Losin' It is a 1983 comedy film directed by Curtis Hanson, and starring Tom Cruise, Shelley Long, Jackie Earle Haley and John Stockwell. The film follows four teenagers trying to lose their virginity. It was filmed largely in Calexico, California.

<i>A Midsummer Nights Sex Comedy</i> 1982 film by Woody Allen

A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy is a 1982 American science fiction sex comedy film written and directed by Woody Allen, starring Allen and Mia Farrow.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Woody Allen filmography</span> List of films by Woody Allen

Woody Allen has acted in, directed, and written many films starting in the 1960s. His first film was the 1965 comedy What's New Pussycat?, which featured him as both writer and performer. Feeling that his New Yorker humor clashed with director Clive Donner's British sensibility, he decided to direct all future films from his own material. He was unable to prevent other directors from producing films based on previous stage plays of his to which he had already sold the film rights, notably 1972's successful film Play it Again, Sam from the 1969 play of the same title directed by Herbert Ross.

<i>Play It Again, Sam</i> (film) 1972 film by Herbert Ross

Play It Again, Sam is a 1972 American comedy film written by and starring Woody Allen, based on his 1969 Broadway play of the same title. The film was directed by Herbert Ross, instead of Allen, who usually directs his own written work.

<i>Scenes from a Mall</i> 1991 film by Paul Mazursky

Scenes from a Mall is a 1991 American comedy film directed by Paul Mazursky, written by Mazursky and Roger L. Simon, and starring Bette Midler and Woody Allen. The title is a play on Ingmar Bergman's Scenes from a Marriage, and the film itself features similar themes of marital disintegration.

Carlos Montalbán y Merino was a Mexican character actor.

<i>The Iceman Cometh</i> (1973 film) 1973 film by John Frankenheimer

The Iceman Cometh is a 1973 American drama film directed by John Frankenheimer. The screenplay, written by Thomas Quinn Curtiss, is based on Eugene O'Neill's 1946 play of the same name. The film was produced by Ely Landau for the American Film Theatre, which from 1973 to 1975 presented thirteen film adaptations of noted plays.

References

  1. "Bananas". Internet Movie Database. Archived from the original on December 26, 2019. Retrieved May 11, 2012.
  2. Lax, Eric (1991). Woody Allen: A Biography. New York: Knopf. p.  220. ISBN   978-0394583495.
  3. "Locations for Bananas". Internet Movie Database. Archived from the original on March 16, 2016. Retrieved May 11, 2012.
  4. "Full cast and crew for Bananas". Internet Movie Database. Archived from the original on November 13, 2011. Retrieved May 11, 2012.
  5. 1 2 "Bananas (movie detail) – American Film Institute". Archived from the original on June 30, 2020. Retrieved January 30, 2021.
  6. Vitello, Paul. "Dan Frazer, Fretful Supervisor on ‘Kojak,’ Dies at 90," The New York Times, Tuesday, December 20, 2011. Archived April 3, 2017, at the Wayback Machine Retrieved January 12, 2017
  7. Hischak, Thomas S. (November 9, 2018). The Woody Allen Encyclopedia. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN   978-1-5381-1067-6.
  8. Harvey, Adam (2007). The Soundtracks of Woody Allen. US: Macfarland & Company,Inc. p. 30. ISBN   9780786429684.
  9. "Bananas". Rotten Tomatoes . Flixster. Archived from the original on August 25, 2021. Retrieved September 18, 2021.
  10. Canby, Vincent (April 29, 1971). "Woody Allen Leads a 'Bananas' Revolution". The New York Times . Archived from the original on April 17, 2014. Retrieved April 9, 2014.
  11. Siskel, Gene (May 17, 1971). "Woody's 'Bananas'". Chicago Tribune . Section 2, p. 16.
  12. Champlin, Charles (May 13, 1971). "Woody Allen in 'Bananas'". Los Angeles Times . Part IV, p. 26.
  13. Arnold, Gary (May 20, 1971). "Peels of Laughter". The Washington Post . C1, C7.
  14. Combs, Richard (October 1971). "Bananas". The Monthly Film Bulletin . 38 (453): 191.
  15. Simon, John (1982). Reverse Angle A decade of American films . Crown Publishers Inc. p.  40. ISBN   9780517544716.
  16. "AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs" (PDF). American Film Institute. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 16, 2013. Retrieved August 20, 2016.