Search - Deconstructing Harry on DVD

MPAA Rating: R Content Advisory: Brief Nudity, Adult Situations, Not For Children, Adult Humor, Profanity, Sexual Situations Movie Release: 1997 DVD Release: 05/27/1998 Format: DVD - Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV,Pan and Scan Audio Tracks: English, French Subtitles: English, French, Spanish SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 36 mins Studio: New Line Home Video Members Wishing: 17 Genres: Comedy, Comedy of Manners, Sex Comedy, Ensemble Film

Woody Allen wrote, directed, and stars in this very dark comedy about a novelist, Harry Block, who says with admirable honesty, "I'm a guy who can't function well in life, but I can in art." So far, Harry has made his way through six psychiatrists and three marriages (one, conveniently enough, with one of his psychiatrists), and he has precious few friends whom he hasn't alienated or betrayed. Harry uses the chaos of his life as fodder for his writing, angering his friends, lovers, and family, who find thinly veiled (and rarely flattering) portraits of themselves in his work. Drowning his growing misery in pills and sex, Harry finds himself invited to receive an award at a college in upstate New York which he attended, but never graduated from. However, he has a hard time finding anyone who will attend the weekend-long symposium with him: his girlfriend Fay (Elisabeth Shue) has just left him to marry his friend Larry (Billy Crystal); his best friend Richard (Bob Balaban) is afraid he's about to have a heart attack; his former wife/analyst Joan (Kirstie Alley) refuses to let him take their son, and his one-time sister-in-law Lucy (Judy Davis) is literally ready to kill him. Undaunted, Harry hires a hooker, Cookie (Hazelle Goodman), kidnaps his son, forces Richard to come along, and heads upstate, where disaster awaits. A stellar cast appears in small roles and episodes from Harry's stories, including Robin Williams, Demi Moore, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Eric Bogosian, Amy Irving, Richard Benjamin, Mariel Hemingway, and Julie Kavner. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Woody Allen - Harry Block
Kirstie Alley - Joan
Bob Balaban - Richard
Richard Benjamin - Ken
Billy Crystal - Larry

People have considered this quirky 1997 film about a womanizing writer whose characters come back to haunt him as a semi-autobiographical fantasy of the film's writer/director Woody Allen. That would have made for an interesting comparison and fascinating DVD fodder; however, this DVD has very few extras in addition to the film itself. Woody Allen fans know that he rarely submits to interviews and therefore won't subject himself to DVD commentary, but the disc is absent in many other possible extras. The two-sided disc has widescreen and full-frame versions available, as well as detailed cast biographies and filmographies of the all-star cast, but nothing else. There are no theatrical trailers. The 1:85 transfer is excellent, though the Dolby Digital Audio is in stereo only. Language and subtitle options are English only. ~ Arthur Borman, All Movie Guide