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| Woody Allen, Louise Lasser, Carlos Montalban,
Howard Cosell |
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Anamorphic
widescreen |
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Dolby Digital
5.1 |
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DTS |
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Trailer(s) |
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Featurette(s) |
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Documentary |
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Audio commentary
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Deleted scenes
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Concept art
/ storyboards |
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Multi-angle
feature |
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Nancy
(Louise Lasser): Have you ever been to Denmark?
Fielding Mellish (Woody Allen): I've been, yes... to the Vatican.
Nancy: The Vatican? The Vatican is in Rome.
Fielding Mellish: Well, they were doing so well in Rome that
they opened one in Denmark.
A
neurotic American accidentally joins the guerrilla rebels of a small
South American nation and finally becomes their president.
 One
of Woody Allen's 'early funny' movies, Bananas is the kind of
anything-for-a-laugh jokefest that generally holds up quite well thirty
years after its first release. His second feature as a director after
Take the Money and Run, this outing already displays a much improved
sense of pacing and comic timing. It rarely however reaches the giddy
heights of Sleeper, which includes many similar themes and jokes,
but which featured Diane Keaton as a worthy comic sparring partner for
Woody Allen's routines. There is something a little disturbing about
the way the movie makes a total joke out of South American politics
and military dictatorships, but the movie's cynicism about the United
States' involvement is spot-on, and any moralizing or political message
would have been impossible to pull off in a slapstick comedy such as
this. |
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Identical
versions are available for Region 1 and Region 2.
The
anamorphic widescreen image is framed at an aspect ratio of approx.
1.85:1. Although colors are somewhat faded and graininess as well as
minor damages like dust and scratches are often in evidence on the source
print, this is generally a decent representation of the film that doesn't
introduce any compression artifacts or other transfer flaws.
The monaural soundtrack is presented in decent Dolby Digital 2.0. Its
limited dynamic range never distracts from the viewing experience and
hardly suffers from any hiss or pop.
The
theatrical trailer is the only extra on this release. It's presented
like a funny little interview with Woody Allen cut together with short
clips from the movie. The
static menu screens are nicely designed, similar to the menus on MGM/UA's
other Woody Allen DVDs.
Dan
Hassler-Forest
Reviewed: 2001
Click
here for IMDB info on Bananas.
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