Harry and Tonto - One of the greatest movies ever

I've been wanting to watch this movie since I was 17. See, when I was 17, I badly wanted to watch "On The Waterfront" after seeing "The Godfather" and wanting to see everything Brando was in. I borrowed my mom's car, and got into a car crash totaling the car within a mile from the mall after purchasing. Anyway, I get home and watch On The Waterfront after my friend and next door neighbor came to see how I was. I asked if he wanted to watch, he didn't, and I remember thinking inside "how close minded" - and I ended up watching the movie back to back. I've never done that before.

With that tape, an Oscar VHS was attached. Karl Malden was the host, and one of the things this tape showed was a period 58-92, I'll look it up later, but it would go year by year, Best Picture, Best Actress, and Best Actor, and I saw Art Carney win the award for this film. Immediately, I thought it would be great. An old man in his 70's was enough for me. That should be a category for me, "Old Man Films" -

I watched the first 10 minutes of this film in 2009, in Budapest, but there was no translation. I thought it would be a nice exercise to see how much I can know about the film just by the vision. I knew maybe 4 Hungarian words, I was just backpacking there for a couple of weeks, and I was working in a hostel for free accommodation. However, I could tell immediately it was going to be great, and stopped watching.

Today, I finally watched it. It reminded me of Umberto D; a very old man whose best friend is a cat, and whose forced to vacate his apartment and be in limbo. I actually like this more. I would have given it a 10, but I should wait a few weeks and watch it again to make sure.

He goes to son, and finds they can't co-exist, goes to another kid, his only daughter, but he meets a few people, maybe inspired a bit (reminded me a little of Wild Strawberries), and it's a great adventure film, poetic, philosophical, and fun. Very fun.

Anyway, highly recommend this film. I didn't want it to end, it could have been 3-4 hours long. What I love about it is that it's very current, you have a good barometer of the times, technology, social problems, changing values between 3 generations, and how sometimes a man doesn't really live until his very end.

"I've never been west of Chicago but I like it."

Things happen, the directing is also very good, very stylish (a word I usually can't stand), and an adventure (and I find most 'adventure' lame, or at least using the setting as the story (like a ship sinking)..