Irene Manor
02-26-2002, 10:46 AM
Predating the recent slew of movies containing twist endings, changing perspectives, and twisted narration by 30 years, Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? was very much ahead of its time. It is the story of Geroge, a famous rock musician, played by Dustin Hoffman, who is living in NYC and has the world in the palm of his hands. This is until a character named Harry Kellerman shows up into his life and starts to change that. Kellerman has been calling women that George is sleeping with, and telling them that their boyfriend is a scoundrel. A completely evil person who has no friends, and violent tendancies. George is going nuts over this.
George spends much time speaking with his psychiatrist, played by Jack Ward doing a very exagerrated Freud. As Geroge starts to deteriorate through out the movie, he begins seeing the psychatrist appear in other forms and as different characters: Santa Claus, A cab driver, a street vendor, and so forth. Of course this all may or may not be a figment of George's derranged mind. His shrink has no qualms about telling him, "You must accept the fact that you are a bird. A complete and utter looney bird."
One thing a particularly liked about this flick was the surrealism of it all. This was made in 1971, and even atop of the normal psychedelia of the era, the film went a step further and disjoined the scenes, shifted from 1st to 3rd person POV, constantly altered the settings/time, and constantly makes the viewer question how much is real. I got a kick out all this because, like I mentioned earlier, this sort of stuff seems so standard nowadays.
The acting all around was magnificent. I never showed any interest in Jack Warden before, but here he raised my brow. This film also features a young, slimmed-down Dom Deluise, with out his usual chubby guy silliness, as Geroge's friend/accountant. A great scene in the movie comes while Geroge, who has been awake for 4 days (You listening Fight Club fans?), calls the accountant to talk to him at 3 in the morning. Geroge visits with him and insists, as the accountants highest paid client, that he be read the entire yearly budget in bedtime story form. Weird, but worth it.
This movie may seemed dated for some viewers, but it is a strong film. The psychedelia fits the story perfectly, and never seems out of place in George's dream-like life. There are multiple near-suicide scenes that have enough manic energy to light the countries state mental wards.
As the movie progressed, I became more and more part of the story, almost feeling George's insanity being passed on to me. This movie holds some traces of Vonnegut abound, but holds the energy of a rock and roll movie. It is very funny in most parts, but the real treat is the, well, I guess I use the word trippiness of the whole thing.
I recommend this movie to anyone who gets a kick out of Monty Python, Yellow Submarine, The Trip, or any of those other, well I'll say it again, trippy movies. If it isn't you scene, this movie may not do it for you, but then again, everyone turns on somewhere.
George spends much time speaking with his psychiatrist, played by Jack Ward doing a very exagerrated Freud. As Geroge starts to deteriorate through out the movie, he begins seeing the psychatrist appear in other forms and as different characters: Santa Claus, A cab driver, a street vendor, and so forth. Of course this all may or may not be a figment of George's derranged mind. His shrink has no qualms about telling him, "You must accept the fact that you are a bird. A complete and utter looney bird."
One thing a particularly liked about this flick was the surrealism of it all. This was made in 1971, and even atop of the normal psychedelia of the era, the film went a step further and disjoined the scenes, shifted from 1st to 3rd person POV, constantly altered the settings/time, and constantly makes the viewer question how much is real. I got a kick out all this because, like I mentioned earlier, this sort of stuff seems so standard nowadays.
The acting all around was magnificent. I never showed any interest in Jack Warden before, but here he raised my brow. This film also features a young, slimmed-down Dom Deluise, with out his usual chubby guy silliness, as Geroge's friend/accountant. A great scene in the movie comes while Geroge, who has been awake for 4 days (You listening Fight Club fans?), calls the accountant to talk to him at 3 in the morning. Geroge visits with him and insists, as the accountants highest paid client, that he be read the entire yearly budget in bedtime story form. Weird, but worth it.
This movie may seemed dated for some viewers, but it is a strong film. The psychedelia fits the story perfectly, and never seems out of place in George's dream-like life. There are multiple near-suicide scenes that have enough manic energy to light the countries state mental wards.
As the movie progressed, I became more and more part of the story, almost feeling George's insanity being passed on to me. This movie holds some traces of Vonnegut abound, but holds the energy of a rock and roll movie. It is very funny in most parts, but the real treat is the, well, I guess I use the word trippiness of the whole thing.
I recommend this movie to anyone who gets a kick out of Monty Python, Yellow Submarine, The Trip, or any of those other, well I'll say it again, trippy movies. If it isn't you scene, this movie may not do it for you, but then again, everyone turns on somewhere.