Movie Notes: Bananas

June 16th, 2009

= 3 stars

Starring Woody Allen, Louise Lasser, Carlos Montalban
Directed by Woody Allen

Synopsis

Fielding Mellish (Woody Allen), a typically noncommittal American, meets activist Nancy (Louise Lasser) who spurs him to visit the Latin American country San Marcos, where he winds up joining a revolutionary force. Hilarity ensues.

The Good

• Some very funny sequences based on male insecurity: Mellish nervously buys Orgasm magazine and is then roughed up on a subway by some leather jacketted thugs, one being a young Sylvester Stallone. Other funny bits are Allen’s indoctrination into the revolutionary force (culimating in a totally nutball deli order), and a very surreal courtroom scene.
• The subject matter of Allen’s entire body of work are forming — sexual insecurity, romance in Manhattan, ruminations of life, love, and death, psychoanalysis, religious guilt, and pointed one-liners. That said, at this early stage, none of these themes are tackled in an effective or compelling way — it would take many years before Allen became an effective enough filmmaker to do so.

The Bad

• Despite the political satire, this is just string of moderately amusing, nutball sight gags and slapstick comedy.
• Occasionally drags — it takes a while before Mellish gets to San Marcos where the hilarity really begins, and several of the funny scenes run a bit long to where the jokes overstay their welcome.

Conclusion

While Bananas is a pretty funny flick in places and a notable improvement over Take The Money And Run, there’s little question this particular brand of nutball humor is better honed in subsequent films.

Next Woody Allen Movie: Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex
Previous Woody Allen Movie: Take The Money And Run

IMDB: Bananas
Wikipedia: Bananas
Rotten Tomatoes: Bananas