Manhattan on Blu-ray & DVD (1979)

Manhattan

1979

TBC

Overall rating: 3.5 out of 5

from 14,919 members

On the heels of Annie Hall, the Oscar-winning romantic comedy that rocketed Woody Allen to the front ranks of American filmmakers, Manhattan continued Allen's romantic obsessions in a slightly darker, more pessimistic vein. Allen stars as Isaac Davis, a TV comedy writer sick of the pap he is forced to churn out and harboring dreams of being the great American novelist. His love life is in barbed-wire territory: he is tormented by his second ex-wife Jill (Meryl Streep), a lesbian who has written a tell-all book about their marriage, and he is dating teenager Tracy (Mariel Hemingway), to whom he refuses to commit, and keeps hinting that a breakup may be imminent. Isaac's disillusioned (and married) best friend Yale (Michael Murphy) has begun an affair with the cerebral writer Mary Wilke (Diane Keaton). While Isaac makes a last minute, sink-or-swim decision to quit his job and devote all of his time to book writing, and neurotically moans about what the lack of a full time job will do to him (My parents won't have as good of a seat in the synagogue, he moans. They'll be far away from God... away from the action) Yale is crippled by his lack of resolve, as indicated by his inability to leave his wife Emily (Anne Byrne). Meanwhile, Isaac and Mary) begin to fall for one another. Tracy then tells Isaac the basic truth that none of his hung-up friends and past lovers fully realizes: You have to have a little more faith in people. Manhattan is both a seriocomic dissection of perpetually dissatisfied New Yorkers and an ode to the city itself, filmed in glorious black-and-white by ace cinematographer Gordon Willis, and set to a score of rhapsodic George Gershwin music.~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Manhattan details

Formats:	15 DVD, TBC Blu-ray
Starring:	Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Michael O'Donoghue, Anne Byrne, Mariel Hemingway, Meryl Streep, Michael Murphy, Karen Ludwig
Director:	Woody Allen
Genres:	Comedy, Drama - Romantic, Gay/Lesbian, Romance
Studio:	MGM ENTERTAINMENT

Name	Discs
Manhattan	15 Feature

DVD Information

Run time:	1 hour 32 minutes
Rental release:	10 Jul 2000
Main languages:	English
Dubbed:	German, French, Spanish, Italian
Hearing impaired subtitles:	English, German

Name	Discs
Manhattan	TBC Feature

Blu-ray Information

Run time:	1 hour 32 minutes
Rental release:	To be confirmed
Main languages:	English
Hearing impaired subtitles:	English

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Most helpful review Manhattan

Very Witty

By a customer from Ealing, London , 18 Feb 2004

[Highly rated reviewer]

Very witty Woody Allen film. It is both funny and quite sad - bitter-sweet, I suppose, but really enjoyable. A lot of the film is recorded on the streets of NY, so small bits of the soundtrack are sometimes difficult to understand all of the dialogue because of the background noise, but it is well worth replaying because the screenplay is really first rate. I particularly liked the performances of Woody Allen and Diane Keaton. Must be one of their best performances.
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Overrated and unenjoyable

By Abby88 (168 reviews) from Bognor Regis , 31 Oct 2012

The characters are unlikable and I didn't find anything amusing or interesting. Woody Allen said this is his worst film but many somehow disagree.
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Not looking so good now..

By Platospupil (203 reviews) , 14 Jun 2012

Am I being unfair? This is clearly a great movie of its time but the self-obsessed neurotic in the urban back drop which is now ten times worse just looks a little .. well pathetic and not in a good or funny way.

I admired the films lens and shot choice, I liked some of the acting and, twenty years ago I laughed.

The problem is, some events do not hold up as authentic. Time moves and the film is left in an increasingly revealed position. Not true to its own time even and certainly an overstatement of a mindset which is no longer really relevant.

I was never bored.
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woody allen discusses further neurosis

By a customer , 09 Feb 2012

I persevered with the film, although it has odd moments of humour, and the storyline is brilliant it might as well just been titled woody allen discusses further neurosis...but all in all ok.
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Manhattan Comment

By a customer , 04 Feb 2012

Having loved Annie Hall I was really looking forward to Manhattan. It was in parts very funny, and the cast were all superb but I found the whole series of events less engaging than I had hoped. It's certainly worth a watch, but I probably won't watch it over and over again.
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'Bridget Jones' for Boys

By a customer , 09 Sep 2011

This film is pretty much 'Bridget Jones' for boys, but it seems we still live in a world where men's opinions are valued to such an extent that we can get away with justifying our guilty pleasures as masterpieces.

If you want to see a rich, successful, middle-aged man spend a couple of hours whining about how hard his life is while justifying going out with a 17 yr old then this is the film for you. To be honest the only joke I spotted was Woody Allen himself.
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