Deconstructing Harry
Our Price: $44.95
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $33.69 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD Cover Information
Actor: Bob Balaban, Caroline Aaron, Eric Bogosian, Kirstie Alley, Richard BenjaminDVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 96 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1998-05-27
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: New Line Home Video
Movie Reviews of Deconstructing Harry
Movie Review: Deconstructing Harry Rocks
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie is simply the best self-parody ever done. In the poetry world I'm sometimes sneered at because self-parody is considered self-indulgent, usually by pinchy-faced critic types as opposed to the people who don't mind seeing the whole truth, whether that truth allows someone to be egotistical or not. So, predictably, critics were a bit snarly about Woody's new level of self-indulgence. In fact, the first time I saw the movie, I too was a bit upset about it, (and I'm not a literary snob).
In fact, after all these years, it turns out the film is raw talent and genius with some of the funniest romantic-horror-comedy scenes of all time. The highlights of the movie are quite simply two scenes. The first is the argument between Woody and Judy Davis, a real high-energy scene, complete with harrowing action. But the apex of the film is the final conflict between Kirstie Alley and Woody, which is just the best couples' argument scene that has ever been produced. Woody is good in the scene in that he keeps interjecting jokes in what should be a deathly serious thing, and he plays the "calm abuser," a type toward whom I have much bitterness, brilliantly. But it is Kirstie Alley who gives simply the best performance of her life in this scene. She is both frighteningly angry, in a way that is completely believable and yet she does hilarious things.
Of course he ongoing dialogue with his Jewish roots is very evident, and the conflict he has with his Judaic Fundamentalist sister and her similarly-oriented husband is classic.
Oh yeah, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus has a brief appearance that is sheer slapstick. She really is very funny and very sexy in this movie. Woody often disproves the critics, who by the way need to be disproved and mocked at every turn, when he takes actors that have been pigeon-holed by the critics and proves that they are great actors in their own right and, in fact, very convincing in diverse roles. (I'm a left-winger, but so are most of the movie critics. However, my form of leftiness doesn't include this "debunking" of people's careers or art. There is just some cynical urge in the critics to box people in, and it comes off practically like an edict or some authoritarian impulse. Sorry about the political note, but I sometimes have to take my fellow liberals to task, since conservatives do not have a corner on the market of pettiness.)
And, of course, we can never forget how wonderful it is when Woody takes a trip to Hell itself, which, it turns out, is ruled over by Bill Crystal, for subconscious reasons the movie itself will make clear). You never saw a Satan more comfortable in his own skin. The dialogue is funny and perverse, and a bit x-rated, so I can't quote much of it here, but it's some solid locker-room filth delivered by two men in suits looking quite classy as they do it. All of the contrasts here are excellent.
And, throughout the movie, as one who loves Woody would insist, the Psychoanalytic and Atheistic world view as they play out in their journeys through the subconscious and the conscious mind are sheer mythological and philosophical wonders. (I myself and not an Atheist, and am in fact very religious, but I really believes every belief system, including those differing from mine, have something great to give. In truth, Woody would agree with me in saying, whether or not there's a God, most people can't be trusted with religion, as the current wars display all too well. So I'm not at all hostile to Atheists, since they are usually more trustworthy than their spiritual counterparts, and I'm secure in my own spiritual feelings, so none of this threatens me.)
Now, if you are a person whose life is held together, and about to break apart, but not for a thin thread of romantic and philosophical constructs, this movie might not be for you. The first time I saw this movie, I wasn't strong enough to handle the truth of it. (This is very much a "you can't handle the truth" movie.) I have beliefs, but I'm not addicted to them. However, if you need to be right most of the time and you NEED to have your beliefs validated, you may want to skip this film. It's for folks who can be hit with the whole truth of their romantic and philosophical condition.
Summary of Deconstructing Harry
Woody Allen roared back at his detractors with Deconstructing Harry, a bitterly funny treatise about the creative process. Known to mine his often tumultuous personal life for his movies, the embattled writer-director-star didn't bother to make his alter ego likable in this movie: Harry Block (Allen) pops pills, frequents prostitutes, and cheats on the women in his life, then writes about their foibles in thinly disguised fiction. No wonder they're all furious with him. As Harry journeys to his alma mater with a hooker, ill pal, and kidnapped son, a series of flashbacks unravel, juxtaposing Harry's relationships with their "slightly exaggerated" fictional counterparts. There are amusing cameos throughout, including a humorous turn by Demi Moore as a fictitious ex-wife who "became Jewish with a vengeance," and Billy Crystal as the devil who found Hollywood too nasty for his liking. The humor is dark and caustic, but well worth it; Deconstructing Harry is a near-brilliant mediation on the sometimes queasy relationship between art, creator, and critic. --Diane GarrettSimilar DVD Movies
You Will Meet a Tall Dark StrangerSON; Release date: 2011-02-15; DVD
Best price: $12.00
Price in other shops:
New York StoriesBuena Vista Home Video; Release date: 2003-04-08; DVD
Best price: $5.53
Price in other shops:
Match PointParamount; Release date: 2006-04-25; DVD
Best price: $20.94
Everyone Says I Love YouRelease date: 1999-08-17; DVD
Best price: $47.95
Sweet and LowdownSony Pictures Home Entertainment; Release date: 2000-06-20; DVD
Best price: $5.28
Price in other shops:
Bullets Over BroadwayBuena Vista Home Video; Release date: 1999-04-20; DVD
Best price: $35.97
CelebrityRelease date: 2012-02-14; DVD
Best price: $2.84
Price in other shops:
Mighty AphroditeRelease date: 1999-05-18; DVD
Best price: $41.96
Manhattan Murder MysteryManhattan; Release date: 1998-12-15; DVD
Best price: $8.81
Price in other shops:
Husbands and WivesSony; Release date: 2002-04-16; DVD
Best price: $9.29
Price in other shops: