Rating summary
Movie | | 3.5 |
Video | | 4.5 |
Audio | | 4.0 |
Extras | | 1.0 |
Overall | | 3.5 |
Crimes and Misdemeanors Blu-ray Movie Review
Is God watching us?
Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 3, 2014
Many people, whether they’re overtly religious or not, give at least lip service to following the Ten Commandments.
Really observant orthodox Jews, on the other hand, have a grand total of 613 proscriptions which are used to
guide the adherent to a righteous life. This potential overkill of rules and regulations may be one reason why many Jews
(my father among them) have forsaken outright allegiance to their religion, tending to relate to their Judaism more as a
cultural or societal relationship rather than one which defines their interaction with God. Pundits like Bill O’Reilly may
regularly rant about so-called “secular progressives”, but the secularization of Judaism has been an ongoing situation,
one which is in a way perhaps ironically tied to a desire for assimilation into the American way of life. Many immigrant
Jews tended to sublimate their ethnic and religious identities in order to better blend in with the masses. The issue of a
non-religious man who is still patently Jewish is front and center in Woody Allen’s Crimes and Misdemeanors, a
film which explores weighty issues of morality with an alternately flip and philosophical tone. The film is often overtly
theatrical, not always in a good way, but it contains a thoughtful, penetrating performance by Martin Landau (who was
nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor). One of those 603 “additional” commandments mentioned
above is not to hate fellow Jews, so in an attempt to rectify years of my own bad behavior, I won’t go too
overboard in
discussing the “eww” factor (considering the recent brouhaha about Allen and Dylan Farrow) of watching Allen portray
Cliff Stern, a documentary filmmaker who has a rather uncomfortably close relationship (including a full on lip kiss)
with his young niece. Despite the Oscar nomination that Allen also
received for his screenplay for the film, the dialogue here is at times quite stilted, as if Allen were attempting to pay
homage to the family dysfunctions of a Eugene O’Neill or an Arthur Miller, but Crimes and Misdemeanors does
end up delivering a thought provoking experience.
Allen repeatedly plays with memory throughout
Crimes and Misdemeanors, and that tendency crops up in the
first
sequence of the film, where ophthalmologist Judah Rosenthal (Martin Landau) is being fêted at a huge society banquet.
A
quick flashback shows us that Judah has been involved in a longstanding affair with a flight attendant named Dolores
Paley
(Anjelica Huston), and that Dolores is now asking for more than mere promises and is attempting to contact Judah’s wife
of
several decades, Miriam (Claire Bloom). Judah is the perfect example of compartmentalization, and gets through the
evening’s festivities without any problem. Later, however, when he arranges a
tête à tête with Dolores, it soon
becomes evident Judah’s mistress is an emotionally unstable woman capable of just about anything—even if that means
destroying her lover’s family life.
Meanwhile, a parallel story involving Cliff Stern is playing out. Cliff’s brother-in-law is a multiple Emmy Award winning
television producer
named Lester (Alan Alda), and due to the importuning of Lester’s sister and Cliff’s wife Wendy (Joanna Gleason), Lester
arranges for Cliff to
be hired to put together a PBS documentary on Lester. Cliff isn’t at all thrilled by the idea since he actually despises
Lester and also feels
that this kind of commercial enterprise is beneath him, but he relents when the money he’ll receive is enough to allow
him to finish the
documentary he
really wants to make, about a philosopher. Cliff’s attitude about Lester only devolves during
the documentary
shoot, but he at least has the benefit of working with production assistant Halley Reed (Mia Farrow), a quick witted
woman who seems
genuinely impressed with Cliff’s nascent piece on the philosopher.
The connective tissue between these two stories is Ben (Sam Waterston), a rabbi who is another one of Cliff’s brothers-
in-law but who also
sees Judah for his eye problems. Judah actually confides in Ben fairly early in the film about his marital indiscretions, and
Ben urges him to
come clean with Miriam, telling him that there can be forgiveness if honesty is the first step. Without revealing too much
about the film,
Judah decides on a decidedly less “honest” approach, one that actually involves a major crime facilitated by his brother
Jack (Jerry Orbach).
Judah’s ensuing guilt causes him to really think about a watchful God (the eye motif harkens back to such iconic works as
The Great
Gatsby, no doubt intentionally) in a way he never has before.
One of the odd dichotomies of
Crimes and Misdemeanors is the tonal disconnect between the two main stories.
There’s a shocking
aspect to the Judah plotline, one which allows Allen to really fully investigate matters of morality, justice and guilt. On
the other hand, the
Cliff side of things seems like small ball much of the time. Cliff is like a B-movie version of Judah,
wanting to reach
out past his
faltering marriage, but never able to effectively consummate that desire. The fumbling neurotic that Allen so often plays
is on full display
here, and one wonders at times what exactly this storyline adds to the film’s content.
But of course it’s an intentional dichotomy, as evidenced by the film’s very title. Allen is looking at degrees of moral
turpitude and ironically seemingly coming to exactly the opposite conclusion to which Judah arrived. Judah ends the film
remarkably guilt free, despite having engaged in heinously breaking at least one of the holiest of the commandments
(and we’re
talking the “Top 10” here, not merely those pesky additional hundreds), while Cliff, who perhaps only “lusted in his
heart” (to borrow a phrase), is wracked by an unfathomable depression that he can’t escape the pangs of his own
conscience. Allen seems to suggest that there is in fact no Deity handing out approbations, but that everything we
experience is a construct of our own minds.
I was actually rather surprised by how much less effective
Crimes and Misdemeanors seemed to me now,
revisiting it for the first time after having seen it years ago during its initial theatrical exhibition. Allen’s writing is often
too florid for its own good, and oddly awkward at times .Note for example in the very first scene how Allen pans past
Judah’s daughter, who speaks in the third person about Judah, when he’s right in front of her. This seems to be a failed
shorthand to quickly introduce relationships, when the same thing could have been accomplished more organically by her
simply aiming her comments about Judah directly at him while calling Judah “Daddy”. Some of the acting doesn’t quite hit
the mark as solidly as one might expect in an Allen film, notably Anjelica Huston who doesn’t seem to know whether
she’s supposed to be a harridan or a vulnerable victim.
Still,
Crimes and Misdemeanors raises a number of compelling points and has its share of both
tsuris (if I
may indulge in a little Yiddish) and humor. I frankly don’t think hindsight is ultimately going to be quite as kind to this
outing as to even some of Allen’s other dramatic pieces, let alone his legendary comedies, but the film has some bracing
moments and certainly gives Martin Landau a showcase role.
Crimes and Misdemeanors Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality
Crimes and Misdemeanors is presented on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. This licensed title
bears the imprints of Orion, 20th Century Fox and MGM, a sign of the convoluted intramural relationships between former
rivals, but the good news here is that the elements utilized for this release are in great shape, with only an occasional
blemish to be found. Contrast is generally quite strong, and colors are extremely solid and well saturated. The film is not
overly
"sharp" by today's standards, but retains a nicely organic appearance. There are some occasional very minor stability
problems, though you really have to look to spot them. Watch, for example, Judah's pinstripe shirt when he's reading the
note Dolores has sent to his wife and you'll see just the barest hint of instability, causing the lines to shift slightly but
perceptibly.
Crimes and Misdemeanors Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality
Crimes and Misdemeanors features a perfectly respectable lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono mix which faithfully
recreates the film's narrow but quite nuanced combination of dialogue, effects and music. Even crowded scenes like a club
that Cliff and Lester go to never bury the piquant dialogue beneath too much of the jazz or crowd sounds. Fidelity is
excellent throughout this track, which posits no problems of any import.
Crimes and Misdemeanors Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras
- MGM 90th Anniversary Trailer (1080p; 2:06)
- Theatrical Trailer (480p; 1:39)
- Isolated Score and Effects Track is presented in DTS-HD Master Audio Mono.
Crimes and Misdemeanors Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation
Admittedly perhaps I've been swayed by all the unseemly press coverage surrounding Woody Allen over the past few
weeks, but I was genuinely surprised at how let down I was by Crimes and Misdemeanors, at least when compared
to my memories of how thoughtful I perceived it to be when it first came out. The film is still rife with almost Talmudic
exposition and dialectic, but I noticed more false notes this time around. Landau has scarcely been better and the bulk of
the large cast is similarly excellent. The Blu-ray offers generally excellent video and audio, though the supplements are
minimal. Recommended.