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.