tiekbane Art Carney just cant handle a dramatic role. His performance here is shallow. He appears to be adlibbing half the lines. For a road movie, he is literally walking through it. The viewer never really understands where any of the characters are coming from because the writing is so superficial & the characters underdeveloped. Characters come & go with just minutes of screen time. Therefore it's difficult to care for them or the story. The only decent scene is at the end with Larry Hagman playing one of Harry's down-on-his-luck sons. The scene is poignant & uncomfortable with father & son barely having anything to talk about but even here we don't understand why the son is a failure or why they can't communicate. Then the film ends with cliché's. And Tonto really adds nothing to the story. Final note: it's also uncomfortable watching the actors holding the cat constantly in an awkward manner. Can't recommend it.

SimonJack "Harry and Tonto," reminded me of John Steinbeck's 1962 book, "Travels with Charley." In that travelogue, Steinbeck wrote about a road trip he took around the United States with his French poodle, Charley. Steinbeck drove his camper on the Interstates and back roads as he circled the country in 1960. He stopped at roadside diners, gas stations, truck stops and shops along the way. He talked to truck drivers, waitresses, hitchhikers, store clerks, and people on the streets. No doubt, the writers for "Harry and Tonto," Paul Mazursky and Josh Greenfeld, got some ideas from Steinbeck's book. The situation is quite different here, though. While it's billed as a "cross country odyssey," it's more of a trip interrupted here and there. Art Carney is Harry, and some of his encounters don't seem natural or spontaneous to me. Rather, they seem contrived. The film moves very slowly at times, and has a mix of Harry's philosophy and talks with other people. The movie also reminded me of the later very good comedy drama, "Planes, Trains & Automobiles." In that hit comedy, Steve Martin and John Candy meet while traveling from New York to Chicago for Christmas. Weather, accidents and numerous other situations lead them to take different modes of travel. In this film, Harry's son, Burt, drops him off at the airport to catch a plane to Chicago to visit his daughter. But Harry has to leave the airport because he wouldn't let go of Tonto's cage to pass through the security scanner (that's right, airport security was there as early as 1974). He takes a bus and gets left on the roadside after he has the bus stop so that Tonto could relieve himself. Next he hitchhikes and meets some different people. Then he buys a used car and picks up hitchhikers himself. This goes on past Chicago as he continues to California where he meets his youngest son and puts down new roots. Tonto dies toward the end of the journey. As I said, it's slow going much of the time, and some of his encounters with different people seem contrived. It was only mildly interesting for a time but seemed way too long. A movie can't be very good when, about half way through, one begins to wonder when it will end. Art Carney won the 1974 best actor Oscar for his role in this movie. He was okay here, but I don't think his performance was particularly good or challenging. That may have been a year when sentimentality ruled at the Oscars, because Carney beat out some superb acting jobs by Albert Finney ("Murder on the Orient Express"), Al Pacino (The Godfather Part II"), and Jack Nicholson ("Chinatown"), in what may be the best performance of his career.

Danny Blankenship 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!

Steve Pulaski The most delightful trait a film can achieve is pure, unadulterated humanism. Creating and structuring characters on realistic traits, with plausible backgrounds, dialog, and personalities is what I truly love to see. Harry and Tonto knows humanism inside and out, and is one of the most wholesome experiences I've had watching a movie this year, thus far.The level of whimsicality here is unthinkable, another trait that I love to see in a film. This is my third venture with Paul Mazursky's work. I watched him form likable characters in unlikable situations in Down and Out in Beverly Hills, and watched him erect a married couple arguing out their differences, for whatever reason, in a mall in Scenes from a Mall. While neither of those films blew me away, I can still say they were still pretty well developed. The only problem was there was no hook, no credible power or bang to either film's screenplay. In Scenes from a Mall, it was if we were the third wheel or a man in the background, spying on a married couple during their marital crisis. It was uncomfortable and unsettling rather than earnest and funny. In Down and Out in Beverly Hills, we met good, wholesome people who were seemingly content with their life, but after a while, the excursion became a tad tiresome and plotted out.Here is Harry and Tonto, a delightful drama about a patient, quick-witted elder who is removed from his apartment as it is being torn down and tries to adapt to a place that has no room for his kind. His cat, Tonto, is a likable scamp, but sometimes delays Harry's trip by wandering off or by simply being the cause of his paranoia. Initially, Harry wants to stay at his son's house, but comes to the conclusion that he is getting too old and wants to see the world while he still is able. He packs up Tonto and his miniscule luggage and moves out to the big world.This is another road movie, but a very interesting one at that, including deep characterization for likable, strong characters, including its two leads. Carney plays a likable elder, and Tonto simply steals every scene he is in.Harry and Tonto is basic entertainment, but provides so much substance to a story that would seem cliché and tired. Here we have two simple characters, both incomplete without each other, and satisfied with the life they've been enduring for years. What more can you ask for? Starring: Art Carney, Tonto the Cat, Herbert Berghof, Ellen Burstyn, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Larry Hagman, and Chief Dan George. Directed by: Paul Mazursky.