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Movies / On DVD / Manhattan
Manhattan

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Manhattan (1979)

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Reviews Counted: 42

Fresh: 41

Rotten:1

Average Rating: 8.6/10

Consensus: One of Woody Allen's early classics, Manhattan combines modern, bittersweet humor and timeless romanticism with unerring grace.

Runtime: 1 hr 36 mins

Genre: Comedies

Synopsis: Woody Allen finished his first decade of filmmaking, the 1970s, with one of his greatest and most deliberately artistic films, the love song to his home city MANHATTAN. Allen plays Isaac Davis,... Woody Allen finished his first decade of filmmaking, the 1970s, with one of his greatest and most deliberately artistic films, the love song to his home city MANHATTAN. Allen plays Isaac Davis, another one of his thinly veiled self-portraits, who finds himself suffering from a mid-life crisis. Unhappy in his career as a variety show comedy writer and newly divorced from a woman who has since come out as a lesbian, Isaac waffles between two relationships: that with emotionally honest and open, but far too young, Tracy (Mariel Hemingway in an Academy Award nominated performance) and with pseudo-intellectual, neurotic Mary (Diane Keaton). Allen uses these two women to contrast the naiveté and lack of pretension of youth with the growing cynicism of middle age. Although the acting and writing is some of the sharpest of Allen's filmmaking career, what is truly memorable and endearing about MANHATTAN is its romantic view of New York. Whereas the character relationships in the film are largely dysfunctional and fueled by a vision of perfection, by contrast the city itself is envisioned by Allen as an object of perfection. In order to create aesthetically pleasing images of the city, Allen and his longtime cinematographer Gordon Willis decided to shoot the film in black and white and in the 2.35:1 widescreen ratio, the first time that Allen had used either format. The images are backed by the songs of quintessential New York composer George Gershwin, setting a tone of romanticism and grandeur that underlies Isaac's (and Allen's) inherent dissatisfaction with the mundane aspects of his life. The magnificence of the city of New York is the backdrop to the search for a similar splendor in human relationships in MANHATTAN. [More]

Starring: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Mariel Hemingway, Meryl Streep

Starring: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Mariel Hemingway, Meryl Streep, Michael Murphy, Anne Byrne, Karen Ludwig, Michael O'Donoghue

Director: Woody Allen

Director: Woody Allen
Producer: Charles H. Joffe
Screenwriter: Woody Allen, Marshall Brickman
Composer: George Gershwin

[See More Credits]

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Release:

Jul 5, 2000

[DVD Details]
 
 
  • Nominated for two Academy Awards®* in 1979 and considered "one of Allen's most enduring accomplishments" (Boxoffice), Manhattan is a wry, touching and finely rendered portrait of modern relationships against the backdrop of urban alienation. Sumptuously photographed in black and white (Allen's first film in that format) and accompanied by a magnificent Gershwin score, Woody Allen's aesthetic triumph is a "prismatic portrait of a time and a place that may be studied decades hence" (Time). 42-year-old Manhattan native Isaac Davis (Allen) has a job he hates, a seventeen-year-old girlfriend, Tracy (Mariel Hemingway), he doesn't love and a lesbian ex-wife, Jill (Meryl Streep), who's writing a tell-all book about their marriage and whom he'd like to strangle. But when he meets his best friend's sexy intellectual mistress, Mary (Diane Keaton), Isaac falls head over heels in lust! Leaving Tracy, bedding Mary and quitting his job are just the beginning of Isaac's quest for romance and fulfillment in a city where sex is as intimate as a handshakeandthe gateway to true love is a revolving door.
  • Source: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
  •  
     
     
     

    Reviews for Manhattan

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    1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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    Manhattan is not just Woody Allen's dream movie. Wistful as it is witty, it's his dream of the movies.

    Full Review Source: Village Voice | comment Comment
    02/04/09
    J. Hoberman
    Village Voice
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Allen's greatest film? Spend time in its company and you'll find it hard to argue otherwise.

    Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
    02/04/09
    Channel 4 Film

    Manhattan is a great film about love in and love for New York.

    Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | comment Comment
    02/04/09
    Peter Bradshaw
    Guardian [UK]

    Allen has, in black and white, captured the inner beauty that lurks behind the outer layer of dirt and grime in Manhattan.

    Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
    02/04/09
    Variety Staff
    Variety
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Woody Allen's great leap forward into character development and dramatic integrity.

    Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
    02/04/09
    Dave Kehr
    Chicago Reader
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    This is a deeply self-critical film about immaturity and the gift of real love. Many films can be said to put an epitaph on the decade, but few remain as relevant.

    Full Review Source: Time Out New York | comment Comment
    01/18/08
    Joshua Rothkopf
    Time Out New York

    One of Woody's more perceptive films.

    Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | comment Comment
    07/22/07
    Dennis Schwartz
    Ozus' World Movie Reviews

    No review available.

    comment Comment
    04/20/07
    Lori Hoffman
    Atlantic City Weekly

    One of Woody's most aesthetically gorgeous films as well as his classic love-hate letter to the city of his soul.

    Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
    11/30/06
    David Parkinson
    Empire Magazine

    Woody Allen’s gem of comic kvetching.

    Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
    06/24/06
    Dave Calhoun
    Time Out

    No review available.

    comment Comment
    03/09/06
    Jake Euker
    F5 (Wichita, KS)

    Classic Woody Allen: brilliant and bittersweet.

    comment Comment
    11/11/05
    Carol Cling
    Las Vegas Review-Journal

    No review available.

    comment Comment
    10/20/05
    Chuck O'Leary
    Fantastica Daily

    No review available.

    comment Comment
    10/07/05
    Cole Smithey
    ColeSmithey.com

    The best of Woody Allen.

    comment Comment
    07/29/05
    John Wirt
    Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA)

    No review available.

    comment Comment
    06/29/05
    Emanuel Levy
    EmanuelLevy.Com

    No review available.

    comment Comment
    12/26/04
    Philip Martin
    Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

    A black and white movie of black and white quality

    comment 1 Comment
    09/18/04
    Tony Medley
    Tolucan Times

    This is Allen’s most mellifluous, fervent dialogue with each line pierced and tinged with biting hilarity.

    Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | comment Comment
    02/21/04
    Greg Muskewitz
    eFilmCritic.com

    Quite simply Allen's masterpiece.

    comment Comment
    02/18/04
    Ken Hanke
    Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)
     
     
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    Latest News for Manhattan

    August 14, 2008: Woody Allen Looks Back With EW Opens in new window
    As he prepares to launch his latest feature, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Woody Allen has taken a few minutes to revisit a dozen of his career highlights with Entertainment Weekly. More...

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