Fantastic!

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

"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.

When his apartment building is torn down, a retired lifelong New Yorker (Art Carney) goes on a cross country odyssey with his beloved cat Tonto.Carney beat Albert Finney, Dustin Hoffman, Jack Nicholson and Al Pacino, for their performances in Murder on the Orient Express, Lenny, Chinatown and The Godfather Part II respectively, for the 1974 Academy Award for Best Actor. This is quite an achievement considering that of the five, "Harry and Tonto" is probably the least known. Now, that is not to say he did not deserve the award, but wow. In retrospect, it seems like the odd one out.There is something about the "road movie", a person going from one place to another and meeting interesting characters. if done right, it is always a simple but effective formula. This is a great one, worthy of being alongside the best.

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.

If you want to positively change your outlook on your life..and your views on death…watch this great film! Art Carney so deserved the Oscar he received for this role. He brings such a real and positive presence to the screen that will ingrain itself in you (hopefully!). Kudos to the filming team for creating such a true and steady pace in the storyline that almost seems like it is occurring in real time. The script couldn't be more original and fascinating, the cinematography captures every location with a unique style and the acting is perfect though out. I happened to catch this film on a streaming service and it turned out to be one of the best movie experiences I have ever had. Many films of this era seem dated, but Harry and Tonto has a theme and a tone that is timeless..