Movies Shop DVD Bul-Ray VCD Series Movie Update Synopsis: Buy movie Manhattan [Blu-ray] : Synopsis Movies Shop DVD Bul-Ray VCD Series Movie Update

Customer Rating :

List Price : $24.99 Price : $10.30

Synopsis: Manhattan [Blu-ray]

Product Description

Nominated for two Academy Awardsr in 1979 and considered "one of Allen's most enduring accomplishments" (Boxoffice), Manhattan is a wry, touching and finely rendered portrait of modern relationships against the backdrop of urban alienation. Sumptuously photographed in black and white (Allen's first film in that format) and accompanied by a magnificent Gershwin score, Woody Allen's aesthetic triumph is a "prismatic portrait of a time and a place that may be studied decades hence" (Time). 42-year-old Manhattan native Isaac Davis (Allen) has a job he hates, a seventeen-year-old girlfriend, Tracy (Mariel Hemingway), he doesn't love and a lesbian ex-wife, Jill (Meryl Streep), who's writing a tell-all book about their marriage and whom he'd like to strangle. But when he meets his best friend's sexy intellectual mistress, Mary (Diane Keaton), Isaac falls head over heels in lust! Leaving Tracy, bedding Mary and quitting his job are just the beginning of Isaac's quest for romance and fulfillment in a city where sex is as intimate as a handshakeandthe gateway to true love is a revolving door.

Amazon.com

Manhattan, Woody Allen's follow-up to Oscar-winning Annie Hall, is a film of many distinctions: its glorious all-Gershwin score, its breathtakingly elegant black-and-white, widescreen cinematography by Gordon Willis (best-known for shooting the Godfather movies); its deeply shaded performances; its witty screenplay that marked a new level in Allen's artistic maturity; and its catalog of Things that Make Life Worth Living. But Manhattan is also distinguished in the realm of home video as the first motion picture to be released only in a widescreen version. You wouldn't want to see it any other way. Allen's "Rhapsody in Gray" concerns, as his own character puts it, "people in Manhattan who are constantly creating these real, unnecessary, neurotic problems for themselves, because it keeps them from dealing with more unsolvable, terrifying problems about the universe." It's a romantic comedy about infidelity and betrayal, the rules of love and friendship, young girls (a radiant and sweet Mariel Hemingway) and older men (Allen), innocence, and sophistication. (a favorite phrase is used to describe a piece of sculpture at the Guggenheim: "It has a marvelous kind of negative capability.") The movie's themes can be summed up in two key lines: "I can't believe you met somebody you like better than me," and "It's very important to have some kind of personal integrity." OK, so they may not sound like such sparkling snatches of brilliant dialogue, but Manhattan puts those ideas across with such emotion that you feel an ache in your heart. --Jim Emerson

Order From Here

Manhattan [Blu-ray] Reviews

135 of 145 people found the following review helpful

More Than 30 Years Later, Still Woody's True Masterpiece, November 14, 2001

David Kusumoto (San Diego, CA United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Manhattan (DVD)

In 1979, Woody had the burden of trying to capture the "originality" of "Annie Hall," the Oscar-winning Best Picture of 1977.

So when "Manhattan" was released, Woody's first "true" widescreen picture (so much so that Woody insisted this film NEVER be released on video or shown on television without the black bars on the top and bottom of the screen), I wasn't quite sure what to expect.

I discovered that "Manhattan" had a completely different tone than "Annie Hall." It was more serious, but still hilarious. I became so enraptured by its themes, its music and its atmosphere that I felt, until I saw "Schindler's List" in late 1993, that I had witnessed something that comes along only once or twice a generation...and that's true greatness on film. I paid to see "Manhattan" at least four times during its initial run in 1979. I had never done this before, even when I include those popcorn pictures I had seen several times put out by Spielberg and Lucas during the... Read more

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful

Magical, dreamy, spectacular, perfect, May 17, 2000

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Manhattan [VHS] (VHS Tape)

No matter how many times I watch this piece of heavan, I still get teary at the line "you gotta have a little faith in people..." This is a movie with so much beauty and depth, humor and poignant romanticism. I can even accept Issac's (Woody Allen) older man/young girl romance ( and usually I am annoyed by the prevalance of this type of pairing in so many movies ) because to me ,the endearing Tracy, (Mariel Hemingway so SO wonderful here) represents the tender spirit of love, the open heart that simply feels what it feels. She is the point on which the movie pivots, with her sweet goodness and simple message of emotional purity in contrast to the over analysis the other older characters give love. There are so many levels on which to appreciate this movie. I could try to analyze it in words (as Woody and his complex, terrific cast of characters analyze their lives and loves...) but instead, I have to just tell you all with FEELING: Visit this film, the... Read more

28 of 32 people found the following review helpful

AFI 's Love Stories #66: Manhattan, October 6, 2002

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Manhattan (DVD)

When Woody Allen won the Oscar (in abstentia) for writing and directing "Annie Hall," which also won the Oscar for Best Picture, it was assumed the stand-up comic turned auteur had reached the pinnacle of his career. Then Allen proceeded to go out and make an even better film with his next effort, "Manhattan." Filmed in glorious black & white (and widescreen) by the great cinematographer Gordon Willis, the opening sequence combining indelible images of New York City with Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" is a paean to city Allen loves and the most rhapsodical sequence in any of his films.

Rather than talking about the plot per se, "Manhattan" is best explained as a convoluted series of wrecked and ruined relationships centering around Allen's character, Isaac Davis. Isaac is divorced from Jill (Meryl Streep), who is now living with Connie (Karen Ludwig), and planning to write an expose on her marriage. Isaac is having an affair with... Read more