Review: Bananas



Woody Allen stars as Fielding Mellish a New York nebbish and product tester who tries to win the affections of politically-minded Nancy (Louise Lasser). This results in Fielding getting caught up in the socio-political situation of a fictional Latin American country, eventually becoming leader of a rebel movement and subsequently, dictator. Charlotte Rae appears briefly as Fielding’s surgeon mother.

 

Woody Allen (“Annie Hall”, “Scoop”, “Manhattan”, “Interiors”) attempts with this 1971 film to imitate/pay homage to the comedy stylings of old, and shows that he is without question, not Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, nor The Marx Brothers. Co-scripted by Mickey Rose (Woody’s “What’s Up, Tiger Lily?” and “Take the Money and Run”), this is a real chore and a bore, with pretty poorly dated Banana Republic nonsense to go with the failed Marx Brothers-esque anarchic screwball comedy and slapstick. Sure, revolutions and all that sort of thing still happens from time to time, but Banana Republics were a much more topical thing at the time the film was made, and it really did nothing for me in 2016.

 

I knew I was in trouble from the opening scene, a tastelessly unfunny presidential assassination scene. Surely even in 1971 that would be seen as just crass. Even Woody’s one-liners are painfully unfunny, including one very dubious line about child diddling that just doesn’t play well at all in 2016. It appears he’s occasionally going for shock here, and he’s not good at that, either. Crucifixion, bed-wetting, child beating (admittedly, a similar joke in the otherwise tedious “Radio Days” made me giggle a bit, but not this particular ‘gag’), and political assassination, none of it funny. Hell, he even manages to botch a parody of the Odessa Steps sequence from “Battleship Potemkin”, if you can believe it. Meanwhile, the bit where Woody orders lunch for the entire rebel army is eye-rollingly bad. There’s absurdist, and then there’s just fucking dumb. That scene is just fucking dumb. Sly Stallone’s silent cameo as a subway thug is useless, in a bit of pre-“Rocky” casting. The only clever bit in the entire film is the cameo by ‘J. Edgar Hoover’, and even that’s not funny just clever.

 

Easily the worst Woody Allen film I’ve seen to date, this is tedious, dated, and shockingly unfunny. Woody’s out of his element trying to do this kind of comedy. Even fans of this kind of thing have to admit Woody’s not got the greatest aptitude for the kinds of comedy allegedly on show here. I’m sure it’s someone’s favourite Woody Allen film, though, and “Diff’rent Strokes” fans might be curious to see a film that features cast members Conrad Bain, Charlotte Rae, and Mary Jo Catlett. I guess that’s something.

 

Rating: D

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