HARRY AND TONTO

US, 1974, 115 minutes, Colour.
Art Carney, Ellen Burstyn, Chief Dan George, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Larry Hagman, Melanie Mayron, Joshua Mostel.
Directed by Paul Mazursky.

Harry and Tonto: the journey is a valid and useful metaphor for illustrating life and its phases. It is not usually associated with old age, but this is the structure for this film - a kind of liberating journey of experiences for a 72
year old, accompanied by his cat, Tonto. The treatment is light Americana with a touch of sentiment - the journey is not as profound as it presents itself. But granted this, it is a very pleasant journey, comic and sad, with nice touches about ageing and a range of delightful cameos from an ageing Geraldine Fitzgerald and a moving father and daughter sequence with Art Carney (Oscar-winner) and Ellen Burstyn.

1. An appealing film? Entertaining and interesting? For whom was it made older people,, younger audiences, both? Impact on American audiences, non-Americans?

2. The quality of Art Carney's performance? His winning an Oscar? The reputation of Paul Mazursky as writer-director? His preoccupation with his own film-making, his finding a theme and presenting an interpretation of America?

3. The importance of the structure: an old man's odyssey? An odyssey away from an accepted home to find a new home? The introduction to him, his being ousted from his apartment? The episodes of his wandering America? The journey framework, the quest for a new home? The goal of self-understanding? The journey through his memories and the reliving of his life?

4. The presentation of contemporary America? How wide a cross-section of people, cities.. attitudes? How clever and acute was the observation of the particular ways of American life? The number of people that Harry encountered and tried to understand? Feelings in America of the early 70s? Harry and his wisdom., tolerance and patience? His anger? The importance of the visual presentation of America - the local colour of New York, Chicago, the mid-west, the desert, Las Vegas and California? An authentic feel for these varying locations? The importance of the poetry and King Lear within this framework? The importance of the tranquil musical score and the use of the piano?

5. The significance of the comparison between Harry and King Lear? King Lear in peace time and place? The contrast between Harry and King Lear? The reasons for his quoting him, the differences? The family,, inheritance, wandering, the possibility of loneliness and madness in old age? The need for independence?

6. How important was Harry's journey through his memories,, at the end of his life the perspective of all the people and events in his life? The continued prospect of ageing and of death? Harry and his encounter with people dying and the mirroring of his own death?

7. The tone and impact of the credit sequence with the varied collage of close-ups of people in old age? The gallery of old people in New York sitting in the streets, talking landladies? The emphases on age? The recurring theme of age when Harry settled in Los Angeles? The gallery of people in California? Audience response to such continued visual impact of age?

8. The portrait of Harry Coombs? As one of these ordinary old people? How did he stand out in terms of character and character portrayal? How well did the audience get to know him? The filling-in of the background of his life and work, family? The memory of Jessie, the impact of Anna and his marriage and its happiness? The range of friends that he had? The fact that family was absent? That he wanted to live alone and independently? The bond of Tonto within this framework? The bond with the cat? The device of having soliloquies to Tonto and Art Carney's delivery of these important speeches? The feel of the bond between man and cat, loneliness and the need for a man to talk? The giving of information about his life and indicating his varying moods?

9. Harry and his way of life in New York? The people at the bench, Jacob and his talking about the Capitalists, his memories of Poland, the story about his first fair? His memories of his sexual life? The irony and pathos of his death and the important scene of Harry's identifying him and his memories? The sequence in the shop and the discussion with the shopkeeper? Trying to cross the road and the hurrying cars and his abuse? The pathos of his being mugged and his ironic comments about this? Authority ousting him and the big demonstration and his being lifted out of his apartment? The long scene of his coming back to his apartment with the familiar things, sitting down and talking to Tonto, reading the paper and sleeping? How wise was the observation of Harry's way of life in New York? The quality of the man?

10. Burt taking him home? The journey and the contrast with life in the city? Elaine and her wariness about having him but her trying to make his welcome? Burt Junior and Norman at the table and their antagonism? The irony of Norman's vow of silence and the way this was handled at the table, his diet? Harry's tolerance and understanding? The family squabbles and the pressures on Burt, Elaine and her being hurt? The importance of the visit by the black friend and the entertainment, the leading to friction? His getting up during the night, the encounter with Norman? How evident was it that he had to move out? His telling the truth to the family and their letting him go?

11. Harry's decision to go to Chicago? The fuss at the airport and his fear of flying, the encounter with the security guards, Tonto in the box? The cab ride and the chat with the lady? The cat in the bus and his taking it out to relieve itself, running away in the cemetery and his being stranded? The hitch-hiking? The decision to buy a car? The change of pace as Harry moved out of the city and the open vistas of the countryside and the people, for instance the long conversation with the car salesman about his age, hair-piece etc.? (N.B. the sequence in New York where he tried to get a new apartment, discussed way of life with the ageing landlady, her sudden turning on him about the cat?)

12. How credible was Harry's anger? Why was he angry, intolerant? The encounter with Burt and the gun in the middle of the night? The contrast with his tolerance of Norman and wanting to read up the books? The Jesus people and his picking them up hitch-hiking?

13. The importance of the encounter with Ginger? As a young girl, running away from home? How well delineated was her character, background, personality facets? The embarrassment at the motel for Harry? Their communicating with each other? Harry's care for her? Telling his story and her urging him to visit Jessie? The significance of the visit to the wrong Jessie? Encountering the right Jessie and the build-up about her background, especially with Isadora Duncan? Seeing her in the home? Her vagueness, her only partially recognising him? The encounter and the tenderness of it? Harry and his compassion and care for her? The memory of his true love? As symbolized in their dancing together? Age and regret?

14. The contrast with Chicago and its visual presentation? The meeting with Shirley, Norman's presence? The bond between them, the clashes and arguments? Shirley and her failed marriages? Their reminiscences as they walked by the lake? The bond between them?

15. Harry's experience with Norman and Ginger and the liberation of moving into States where he had never been? Space, the landscapes? Letting Ginger and Norman go to the commune - and the humorous irony of the telephone call to Burt and Elaine with the tears and the intervention of the operator?

16. Harry by himself and his getting lifts? The encounter with wade and their discussions? wade and his medical salesmanship, his giving Harry a massage? Two old men sharing amicably?

17. The contrast with the lift with the hooker? Her style and brashness? Friendliness? His disbelief? The discussion about money and the driving off the road to the melody of 'Love is a many Splendored Thing?

18. The change with Harry in Las Vegas? The liberating effect, drinking, gambling, wandering around? watching the singing and dancing girls? The luck and the bad luck of the gambler? His urinating in the pot and his being arrested? His worrying about Tonto?

19. His experience in jail and the visualizing of this, his first experience of imprisonment? The encounter with Sam Two Feathers? Two old men encountering one another? The white man and the red man? The discussion about mod. cons and the exchange? Sam and the story of modern living and practising his good and bad medicine? The making of medicine in the prison cell? The comment on the American Indians?

20. Harry's encounter with Los Angeles and the pace of life there. eg. the homosexual winking at him? (played by Mazursky himself.) The flashiness of life in California? Eddie and his car, apartment, affluence? The bond between father and the son? The sudden tears and Eddie telling his father the truth? Harry and his generosity with his money and arranging it for Eddie?

21. The significance of Tonto's death and the way that it was filmed, Harry standing there watching in the way that he watched Jacob?

22. What had Harry achieved by his wandering? Happiness, complacency? The significance of a happy old age in California? Playing chess, on the beach, the lady with the cats and her offer of the apartment, chasing a cat that looked like Tonto? The significance in tone of the final sequence of the encounter with the little girl and her poking her tongue out?

23. The achievement of the film? Portrait of a man, a man in his times and place? The achievement in life, independence, care, the influence on others, family? How nice a film, how warm? A particularly American film?