"Certified Allen hilarity! His verbal comedy is brillantly wacky!" -Time Magazine
Woody Allen's second film as a director, co-writer and star takes parody to the extreme with a brilliant send-up of everything from relationships to dictatorships. An early example of what Allen called his 'slapdash' approach to comedy, Bananas' broad, fast humor and rapid-fire witticisms form a dazzling kaleidoscope of "inspired ingenuity and comic artistry" (Look Magazine).
When bumbling product-tester Fielding Mellish (Allen) is jilted by his girlfriend, Nancy (Louise Lasser), he heads to the tiny republic of San Marcos for a vacation…only to become kidnapped by rebels! Once the band of rebels seize power, their leader does crazy, and they replace him with Mellish, thinking he can save the country. But when Mellish is nabbed by the FBI, he is put on trial for subversion and in a side-splitting courtroom showdown -- including the most hilarious self-cross examination ever -- Woody Allen proves beyond a doubt that he is not only our most gifted satirist…he's a master comic artist.
(38 votes)
2.
Woody Allen's second film as a director was a wild, unpredictable and unlikely comedy about a product-tester named Fielding Mellish (Allen), who can't quite connect with the woman of his dreams (Louise Lasser, Allen's ex-wife). He accidentally winds up in South America as a freedom fighter for a guerrilla leader who looks like Castro. Once he assumes power, the new dictator quickly goes insane--which leaves Fielding in charge to negotiate with the US. The film is chockfull of wonderfully bizarre gags, such as the dreams Fielding recounts to his shrink about dueling crucified messiahs, vying for a parking place near Wall Street. Look for an unknown Sylvester Stallone in a tiny role--but watch this film for Allen's surprisingly physical (and always verbally dexterous) humour. --Marshall Fine
(38 votes)
3.
Woody Allen leads a revolution in a small Latin American dictatorship in this hysterical comedy that parodies everything from the American media and political activism to the CIA and the judicial system. Allen plays Fielding Mellish, a nebbish unwilling to commit to anything--until he meets Nancy, played by Louise Lasser. Mellish soon finds himself fighting with guerrilla forces in the small third world country of San Marcos, and he becomes an international figure, even appearing on ABC's Wide World of Sports with Howard Cosell, who plays himself. The film is loaded with sight gags that pay homage to Chaplin, Bergman, and the Marx Brothers while taking on politics, government, and religion, even breaking for a commercial for cigarettes endorsed by the church. One of the most memorable scenes of Allen's career occurs when Mellish defends himself in the funniest courtroom scene since the Three Stooges' DISORDER IN THE COURT. Allen's obsessions with food, sex, and death begin to take form here, on their way to becoming major themes in such films as LOVE AND DEATH, ANNIE HALL, and HANNAH AND HER SISTERS.
(37 votes)
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