Bananas

PG-13

Released Apr 28, 1971

1h 22m

Comedy

List

83%

35 Reviews

Tomatometer

74%

10,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

In this early Woody Allen comedy, the director stars as Fielding Mellish, a hapless product-testing New Yorker desperately attempting to impress a young and attractive social activist named Nancy (Louise Lasser). When Mellish travels to the turbulent country of San Marcos, he falls in with resistance fighters and, before long, becomes drafted as their leader. While Mellish's position of authority wins Nancy over, he has to deal with the many burdens of being a revolutionary leader.

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jaime h

one of the funniest films of all time

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

I found myself smirking dozens of times. I only laughed twice. This is classic Woody Allen humor, just without the strong characters and story driving it along. A great early exploration of comedy by the director, but it is not surprising the film has all but disappeared from public memory.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

02/02/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Not that funny. And the editing was a mess.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

01/14/23

Full Review

bucky r

Slapstick, silly, often outdated jokes are worth some laughs, but this is an early work that feels like a Jewish Benny Hill movie.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

Bill M

IMHO Woody Allen is one of the most overrated movie makers in the U.S. He has a reputation an "auteur" but his art is very derivative. Virtually every movie he makes is based on some other movie he's seen, some book he has read (or, in the case of Russian classics, heard about) etc. He tries to give the "Woody Allen touch" to stale material. It's "ersatz originality" masquerading as the genuine article. Take, for instance, The Purple Rose of Cairo, where a movie character walks out of the screen into real life. A stroke of genius when Buster Keaton did it, about half a century earlier, in Sherlock Jr. True, Woody Allen simply exploits this device to to illustrate his own ideas but these "ideas", while quite clever, result in a rather dull movie. At one time I thought it was merely Woody Allen's "serious" movies that were pretentious and dull, that his early "funny movies" were quite good. But a few days ago I re-watched Bananas, on TCM, and changed my opinion. Or, rather, I tried to watch it. I couldn't stomach more that 15 or 20 minutes. In one of his books Woody claims to have admired Bob Hope, and this early performance is like a bad Bob Hope parody. Woody is a stand-up comic. He has no slapstick chops. "Don't let them catch you acting," Larry Olivier advised a young novice. Woody was obviously "acting". Bananas is not funny; it's embarrassingly bad. Of course, that's just my opinion; others may disagree.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

11/28/20

Full Review

James K

A perfect farce with some sincere Orwellian-insight into the cyclical nature of Banana republics.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

09/15/20

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Woody Allen

Director

Woody Allen

Fielding Mellish

Louise Lasser

Nancy

Carlos Montalban

General Emilio M. Vargas

Natividad Abascal

Yolanda

Jacobo Morales

Esposito

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J. Hoberman

Tablet

...an inventive piece of filmmaking, full of cinephilic references and most evocative of the period during which it was made.

Mar 16, 2021

Full Review

Michael McNay

Guardian

Woody Allen is funny by reason of being Woody Allen, but that is becoming a decreasingly cashable asset.

May 15, 2020

Full Review

Jan Dawson

Financial Times

Much of the humour is blunted by Allen's self-indulgence as both a director and actor.

May 15, 2020

Full Review

Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

Choosing a favorite quip is a daunting task, although I'd have to go with Nancy telling Fielding that he's immature "emotionally, sexually, and intellectually," to which he replies, "Yeah, but what other ways?"

Rated: 3.5/4

Sep 18, 2021

Full Review

Mike Massie

Gone With The Twins

Lighthearted, goofy, cynical, ridiculous, and scathingly critical in equal proportions.

Rated: 6/10

Aug 27, 2020

Full Review

Alif Majeed

Battle Royale With Cheese

It is safe to say that Bananas was one of the funniest movies among his earlier films and there is a lot in it that would get a laugh or at least a chuckle out of you.

Jul 8, 2020

Full Review

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Synopsis

In this early Woody Allen comedy, the director stars as Fielding Mellish, a hapless product-testing New Yorker desperately attempting to impress a young and attractive social activist named Nancy (Louise Lasser). When Mellish travels to the turbulent country of San Marcos, he falls in with resistance fighters and, before long, becomes drafted as their leader. While Mellish's position of authority wins Nancy over, he has to deal with the many burdens of being a revolutionary leader.

Director: Woody Allen
Producer: Charles H. Joffe
Screenwriter: Woody Allen, Mickey Rose
Production Co: Rollins-Joffe Productions
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Comedy
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Apr 28, 1971, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Sep 16, 2008
Runtime: 1h 22m
Sound Mix: Mono
Aspect Ratio: 35mm

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