Zelig [1983]

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Customer reviews

review by: date: 2007-10-03 rating:
Clever Woody
This is Woody at his most inventive. Beginning in the prohibition era and filmed documentary-style largely in black and white, it tells the fictional tale of Leonard Zelig (Allen), a humble clerk with a troubled childhood, who grows into a man who can change his physical appearance to match that of those around him. If he's among Chinese people, he becomes Chinese; if he's among Scotsmen, he grows red whiskers and sports a kilt. When among professional people, he talks convincingly as though he were one of them, though he's unable to accommodate any changes to emulate women, midgets or chickens. In the company of his psychiatrist, he pretends to be one himself, claiming that he's treating two sets of Siamese twins for split personalities, and is therefore getting paid eight times ...

Zelig eventually finds himself in hospital, being experimented upon by numerous doctors who try to find the physical cause of his peculiar talent. The general public are interviewed, expressing their theories, including `I think it's something he picked up from eating Mexican food.' Eventually, he is put under the care of psychiatrist Eudora Fletcher (Mia Farrow) and she determines that he has developed chameleon abilities due to his desire to fit in. Their relationship blossoms into love, but the road to the altar becomes strewn with enormous and comical obstacles. Eventually overcoming his problems, he rises, falls and rises again to become a Lindbergh-like figure.

Although made before the advent of CGI and other techniques, Woody seamlessly blends genuine footage of the era with his own material and for added realism begins and ends the film with contemporary mock contributions from great American intellectuals, including Susan Sontag and Saul Bellow. They comment philosophically on Zelig's relevance in American history and how his story reflects the underlying psychology of the nation.

Woody captures the spirit of the zany twenties and thirties extremely well in this, while successfully blending his own style of humour into the proceedings. Technically impressive, too.

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review by: date: 2007-04-12 rating:
Woody's worst film by a long shot
Edna is a big Woody fan and has seen just about all of the great man's films. This one is the stinker, however - a clunker of epic proportions with NO redeeming features whatsoever. Avoid like the plague, dears.

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review by: date: 2004-09-08 rating:
Give a man a mask and he'll tell you the truth...
...Or so at least goes the "Velvet Goldmine" version of one of Oscar Wilde's more brilliant remarks. "Zelig" is generally held to be a minor movie in the Woody canon. It's not as rib-ticklingly hilarious as "Bananas" or "Love and Death", it's not as painful as "Husbands and Wives", it's not as self-consciously important as "Crimes and Misdemeanors" or all those Serious ones I haven't seen. But, in its sidelong, teasing way, it's one of the truest films Allen has ever made.

Most of the immediate fun is to be found in the brilliance with which Allen and Gordon Willis fabricate their fake footage of this utterly forgotten celebrity, Leonard Zelig, the man who wanted to be liked by whomever he happened to be with at the time. But the actual theme of the movie is surely something very close to Allen's heart. His filmography is evidence enough of a man who desperately wants the affection of his audience, even when this conflicts with his desire to make Serious Movies about Important Stuff. Would you really rather watch "September" instead of "Annie Hall"? If you would, then you are watching movies for some very strange reasons. That many of his latest movies haven't even found a distributor on this side of the Atlantic is probably because he still can't help trying to be an entertainer, even though people have come to expect more from him. But I hear that "Anything Else" is something of a return to form, so I hope he still has some more great movies in him. (Even though, with "Annie Hall" and "Radio Days" and "Crimes and..." and "Harry" under his belt, to name but four, he's already a great director.)

The technical excellence of the movie is beside the point. This is a peculiarly touching film. Allen's own performance, restricted to snatches of fake cine footage and crackly voice-over, is perfect for a change. (I personally think that much of the impact of, say, "Crimes and Misdemeanors" is spoilt by Allen's weaknesses as a straight actor. When called upon to be moving, he lapses into sad clown mode.) The idea is kept firmly under control, and the jokes are in the service of the story. I could wish that the likes of Susan Sontag and Irving Howe could have kept the smirks off their faces a little better, but the idea of "Zelig", a man who can't stand not to be liked, is one of the best stories ever told about Woody Allen himself. It may not be the most sock-it-to-'em movie he's ever made, but it's up there with "Deconstructing Harry" as one of his finest studies of celebrity.

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review by: Chicken Hat Theater Improv date: 2004-07-30 rating:
Remember when Zelig was as popular as Lindbergh?
Before there was Forrest Gump shaking hands with John F. Kennedy there was Leonard Zelig interrupting a speech by Adolf Hitler. This 1983 faux-documentary from Woody Allen tells the tale of a strange little man who wanted so badly to fit in that he was able to change like a chameleon to blend in with his surroundings, whether that meant being a musician in a black band, a psychiatrist in a mental institution, or a member of the Nazi party. Mia Farrow co-stars as Dr. Eudora Fletcher, who not only treats Zelig with her radical psychiatric theories but eventually falls in love with the lovable loser, saving him from those who want to put him on display so people can watch Leonard turn Chinese, French or obese.

Cinematographer Gordon Willis deserves a lot of the credit for "Zelig," creatively aging his film to blend with the archive footage that has Leonard rubbing elbows with Fanny Brice, Charles Chaplin and Rudolf Hess. This "documentary" includes "contemporary" interviews with Dr. Fletcher (Ellen Garrison) and other figures in the life and times of Zelig as well as comments from critics such as Susan Sontag and Saul Bellow ("He touched people in a way that they perhaps did not want to be touched..."). I also must commend the unique narrative style provided by Patrick Horgan, who delivers the sly narration with the driest sense of humor ever recorded.

My favorite section of this film is when Zelig becomes the national craze of the moment, to be celebrated and exploited by dolls, games and puzzles, songs like "Leonard the Lizard," and even a Hollywood movie. "Zelig" is a much more subtle documentary parody than either "Take the Money and Run" or "Spinal Tap." Truth, fiction and absurdity are blended seamlessly in this film, which is that most rare creature, a "charming" Woody Allen movie that is a much more enjoyable experience than reading "Moby Dick."


review by: date: 2004-07-02 rating:
An Overlooked Classic
Just 1 hour and 6 minutes exist of this rather intriguing and witty "documentary" about a strange little man who can somehow transform himself into whomever he is with. Ingenious and very well done, it harks back to the "true" Allen of "Sleeper", "Bananas" and even "Take The Money And Run".

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Similar categories

Video . DVD & VHS . Categories . Comedy . All Comedy
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . Format (binding_browse-bin) . VHS
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . BBFC Rating (intended_use_browse-bin) . PG
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . Editions (feature_two_browse-bin) . Standard Edition
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . Release Date (feature_three_browse-bin) . 1980 - 1989
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . Language (theme_browse-bin) . English
Video . Video . Categories . Comedy . General
Video . Video . Refinements . Condition (condition-type)

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