Alfie
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Movie Reviews of Alfie
Movie Review: 'Alfie' is one of the best British 60's films
Summary: 5 Stars
Michael Caine plays the title role to perfection. Alfie is an attractive, sexy, but shallow and obnoxious playboy who goes about his business of womanizing while frequently turning to address the audience with his views, philosophies, justifications, etc., so that you get a sense of shadowing him like an invisible imaginary friend he's always talking to. He has very little respect for women and he's every mother's nightmare of the type of fellow she would not want her daughter involved with. Some may find the film disturbing because Alfie is such a rotten person, but the unfortunate fact is, he is realistic. Almost everyone has known men who behave just like him, just as everyone has known wonderful 'nice guys' like several of the male characters who appear in contrast to Alfie's type. Alfie seems to be in a constant battle with himself to remain insensitive, uncaring, and focused only on an 'empty sex is everything' point of view. He carries on affairs with married women who yearn to run away with him, and at the same time with single girls who'd do anything to pry a commitment from him, and he makes a few people pregnant along the way. Every female he meets is desperate to get him for a serious partner and he is indifferent to them all. Irony comes when he meets and finally falls for someone, at last wishing to commit himself. The object of his desire is a flashy, worldly older woman (Shelley Winters), and the problem is, she is a female replica of himself who uses men and views them with the exact same disregard he has for women. To her, Alfie, 'the bloke all the other gals are dying for', is just another meaningless piece of sexual action, and thus, he ends up getting a good dose of his own medicine.
The DVD is beautifully clear, almost 3-dimensional. I've never seen it with such clarity! And yes, as someone asked below, the great hit song 'Alfie', sung by Cher, is indeed played with the end credits. I've heard that the British release of the film had it sung by Cilla Black, but the American DVD has Cher's version, as did the American theatres.
Movie Review: The Wolf Speaks
Summary: 5 Stars
What's it all about? For who, is the question. Caine plays the architypical tomcat who takes the yearning for sexual conquest and utter freedom from commitment to it's farthest yet most logical conclusion in this very entertaining drama/comedy that has the unique feature of having a main character often directly address the viewers even as other characters on the screen casually go about their business right next to him. It's intriguing work and is nothing if not a philosophical treatise on the nature of man's conflict between his drive for sexual play and true intimacy. In this day of PC and careful where you tread in dealing with women, this movie breaks all the rules by modern standards (and probably the standards of 40 years ago when it was made, although it could be argued that this is very much a product of the 'sexual revolution'). It's frankness and even coldness have the effect of causing one to question his/her own morality. This movie does not preach but it certainly leaves one with something to think about, or perhaps it reaffirms one's own conclusions to some extent on the topic of "what it's all about". For exposing an eternal dilemma and being very entertaining into the bargain, I give this movie 5 stars without hesitation. If however you like your stories morally sanitized, or preachy, this may not be the film for you.Movie Review: The Movie That Launched Michael Caine
Summary: 5 Stars
Most huge movie stars have a movie which launched them onto a bigger career path where they never had to look back again. "Alfie" was that movie for Michael Caine just as the "The Graduate" did it for Dustin Hoffman in that same '60s era. Caine plays a Cockney philanderer who flits from woman to woman in one night stands. He is not attractive necessarily though to female viewers who will find his lower class bent offputting. His lifestyle will come off as tawdry at best to many of these viewers. Caine's brilliance in this role though is that his way of talking to you the viewer, speaking directly into the camera conversationally throughout the movie, draws you into the character of Alfie, wanting to know what makes him the way he is. ("What's It All About, Alfie?" was its famous song and is the question which occupies the viewer.) Although you do not sympathize with Alfie, you come to be fascinated by him. Shelly Winters also renders a noteworthy performance as a well-to-do woman Alfie dallies with for her money. I've read that Michael Caine himself in real life comes from origins similar to Alfie's and that the Cockney voice he uses throughout was the dialect he grew up with as a boy.Movie Review: Another rave
Summary: 5 Stars
My wife brought the Michael Caine version home recently. I had never seen it, but had some notion of it as a comedy about a love 'em and leave 'em cad. Whoa, was I wrong. Comedy? Holy smokes!! This is a tragedy of the most classic type, a fatally flawed man who never ever ever sees how his flaw causes so much pain. Alfie follows his flaw wherever it leads, which is disaster after disaster. There are some laughs along the way, but this is the tale of a morally repellent, fabulously self-justifying sleaze who uses people as needed, yet gets angry and sad when he sees the consequences of such thinking. Powerful stuff. I was amazed.
I know this is the film that made Michael Caine, and I can see why. I have always wondered why he was a star. Films from the same time, The Ipcress File and The Wrong Box have him woodenly lumber around, sucking energy from every scene. But he is absolutely magnetic here, the charming evil that we like and trust and enjoy until we get to see it a bit more closely. But by then we have been stolen from or abandoned or lied to, and we know emotionally just how coarse this man is. What a frightening tale. Almost hard to watch. But oh so worth it.
Movie Review: ALFIE is Michael Caine at his best.
Summary: 5 Stars
I can't believe it took the remake to inspire me to buy the original ALFIE with Michael Caine and watch it for the first time. I regret that I waited so long to see this, the best version, and to again see why Michael Caine is such a great actor. Forget that we're in London in the 60's, and just focus on this story of a guy who beds anything in sight and has about as much depth as a wading pool. (Some themes never age.) Caine plays his part wonderfully, including sharing his inner thoughts directly with the audience, straight-on into the camera. The women he crosses paths with are an assortment of types and each actress plays the part well. My favorites among his "birds" are Vivien Merchant as Lily, and Shelley Winters as Ruby. Talk about the extremes in his life! And as if the performances aren't enough, the end titles are creatively enhanced by Cher singing the title song. This one will hold a special place in my DVD collection. It took me almost 40 years to see ALFIE and I'm glad I finally did.