Harry and Tonto (1974)

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Don't listen to the negative reviews

The first must-see film of the year.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

1974's "Harry and Tonto" is probably one of the better and more memorable and touching films made it's a new journey of discovery and new beginning away from a gone past it proves at no matter any age their is enough left for one last big travel to meet new people, visit family and most of all to begin a new start. The film rightfully won Art Carney a Best Actor Oscar as his performance of an old man is touching and uplifting.The story is simple Harry(Art Carney)is a mid 70's retired teacher who finds that his New York city apartment that he's living in all of a sudden is gonna be facing demolition so he and his beloved cat Tonto set out to live with his son. Soon that's a headache so plans change Harry then wants to journey to Chicago to live with his daughter(Ellen Burstyn)along the way he meets odd and complex people like hitchhikers and a run away. As the road is an adventure that narrows with curves and speed bumps and potholes of people from all different walks of like. As the journey goes more west Harry meets an Indian and a high class hooker in Las Vegas one last bang on the journey! Finally Harry ends in Los Angeles with his son(Larry Hagman). Wow that's one adventure that not even an old man would forget! Overall this is a film of journey and finding one last moment of happiness it proves that life is always full of places and people no matter how different the place or person memories are to be made and friends are discovered. "Harry and Tonto" is one film that clearly travels farther than the rest!

I like movies that are focused and don't have too many sideplots. My experience is that sideplots often make a movie worse."Harry and Tonto" is the perfect movie for people like me who like focused movies. The movie is about an old man and his cat. It follows Harry, played by Art Carney in an Oscar winning performance, as he travels around the USA after his New York City apartment building is converted into a parking garage.I didn't think that I'd be interested in a movie about this topic, but Harry has many interesting experiences as he travels to Los Angeles, including shacking up in a motel with a teen girl and meeting a hooker as he is hitchhiking. In addition, his devotion to his cat Tonto is charming. Initially, he wants to fly to Chicago, but airport authorities want to separate them and he is against this.The major problem I have with the movie is a big one -- Tonto gets sick suddenly and dies and Harry doesn't seem to be as bothered by this as he should be. There was no hint that Tonto was old until he got sick. I think, in retrospect, that Harry should have talked more about his passion for Tonto with his children and others and should have revealed his concern about traveling with an old cat (that I didn't realize was old until a minute before he died).I deducted one point from the movie because it wasn't exciting enough, interesting enough, and thought provoking enough to earn a 10 and another point because of how the death of Tonto was handled. I am still tempted to deduct another point because Harry didn't talk enough to Tonto -- and I still might.

I always liked Art Carney, having grown up on "The Honeymooners." He had a hysterical, nervous energy, like he might lose his job at any second, so he better stay on top of it. This was fantastic and made him constantly enjoyable. In this "movie" (I don't consider it a movie, I consider it an unmitigated disaster), Art plays an "old man," an "old man" as apparently defined by the 1970s. That said, I understand that many of the choices made in this film were dictated by the era. So, for a time machine experience, this film does have some value. For a story to keep one's interest, it does not. None of this, I should say, is Art Carney's fault. He stays in character and does his job well. But there were numerous things that bothered me. Somehow this man believes that everyone is going to be welcoming and accepting and understanding and tolerant of his cat, Tonto. And yet, why would they? When Art tries to take his cat to the airport, he will not be separated from it for five seconds so they can put the pet container through the security check. He got belligerent, but why? The airport crew were just trying to do their jobs. When he was on a bus, he told the bus driver to pull over so the cat could relieve itself. This was insane. We are supposed to accept that this nut man brought his cat on board, and that everyone in the bus was supposed to wait until Tonto took a dump so the journey could continue? Art's character was distinctly in a world of his own, completely oblivious to the needs, concerns and lives of others (I don't mean in a hateful, violent way; I mean in a contrived, fake "old man" who is clueless way). It was very difficult to sympathize with him. Because he gets kicked out of his home because the city wants to demolish the building, he decides, after a period of time, to go on the road trip he never went on when his wife was alive. This involves visiting his dysfunctional children, none of whom he has a good relationship with, although all of whom probably would like to be closer to him; he travels a good chunk of the film with a nutty hippie-esque female teen, who he actually shares a hotel room (and she casually removes her top as if it's nothing; what teen, unless they were a hooker, would disrobe in front of a strange, elderly man?); a hooker picks him up and says she's horny, and they drive up some hill and apparently do it, even though he "only has a hundred dollars" (in the 1970s? A hundred dollars would be closer to three- to-four hundred dollars now); after being goaded by the nut teenager, he suddenly decides to track down some woman he thought he was in love with. This first takes him to a slum house where, of course, a black family lives, and where, of course, the woman isn't home at the second he arrives, giving us loads of opportunities for stupid jokes with the man of the house and his kid. The movie goes on like this ad infinitum… disjointed, wandering, weird… including Art somehow allowing a nut case salesman to come into his hotel room and give him a shoulder massage (Art's stripped to the waist) and sell him a blender!All through this, Art's best bud is a cat. Now, I cannot say that the cat was hurt, but there were distinct moments when it was painfully obvious that it was uncomfortable. You do not carry an animal out into oncoming traffic (as if he was suddenly blind!), and then scream at a driver who barely misses you, because you were stupid enough to walk into the street (as if there would never be traffic there!!). The poor animal was squirming in his hands, desperate to get away. Yes, I know: this movie was made in the 1970s, where people's consciousness about animals was apparently as lower than the grade I can give this film on IMDb. Nonetheless, I found it inexcusable how this poor cat was dragged through the movie like it was a rag doll. It could have been treated more respectfully. Several other things I found extremely troublesome: Art tells a taxi driver that "Chicago is a great city for cats." When she asks him why, he says, "I don't know; it just is." -- Screen writing at its best. Art, who has now apparently decided to settle in Santa Monica and hang out at the beach playing games with similarly old, retired or disenfranchised men, is told by a person we have just met five seconds ago that "Tonto isn't looking good." The next thing we know, Art is at a pet hospital where Tonto is apparently dying. Art sings him a little song, and off he goes. I'm sorry: wouldn't Art KNOW if his pet was sick? Why was a stranger pointing it out to him? This was insane. Also, as another reviewer pointed out, there was NO reason for Tonto to die. None. Finally, at the end, when Art chases after another similar looking cat on the beach, and then sees some girl making sand castles, he stoops down and stares at her, presumably in a friendly old grandpa way… and she sticks her tongue out at him. I'm sorry, it was a bizarre, freaky, disturbing way to end the film. I did not find it to be an enjoyable viewing experience and I felt most of the actors' talents were wasted… the few that actually had talent.

When this movie premiered in 1974 I was only five years old. I loved this movie for many reasons. First, the movie encapsulates scenery and the feel of 1974. When Harry walks into the airport in New York I noticed the red carpet. Well, back in 1974 my parents took me to our native India and on the way we went through the New York airport on our way back where I met my Mom's brother for the first time. He was living in New York then and I always remembered the red carpet. Art Carney delivers a wonderful performance as Harry. Carney exudes likability and warmth. No wonder he makes friends so easily and yet at the same time he weathers tragedies like the passing of his wife, friends and ultimately Tonto with grace. This film presents many wonderful character actors. Ellen Burnstyn looks so pretty. Larry Hagman made me empathize with "Eddie's" desperation paying his bills. Burt, the oldest and his wife, along with the bus driver, just encapsulate the New York of 1974. Tonto proves to be a wonderful companion for Harry. Melanie Mayron and Josh Mostel add flavor and have a lot of screen time. Harry connects with the youngsters and in life how many times do we see a senior citizen and a young man or woman relate to one another? The answer, quite often, we see this dynamic. All in all this movie stands the test of time and remains a wonderful little treasure.