Rating: 
Summary: The bridge between his funny and personal films
Review: One would have to be well read to enjoy this comedy and yet if you know nothing about Russian arts you will most likely laugh frequently. Love and Death is the kind of film I had to go and see several times, partially because audience laughter stepped on jokes that are exceptionally paced.In Love and Death, Woody Allen gets deeper into plot compared to his previous comedies. In particular Diane Keaton really shines as she sees more screen time and is on par with Allen in terms of character and humor. Think of Love and Death as classic comedies by Bob Hope or The Marx Brothers smashed together in a pastich of Bergman films. Many of Keaton's monologues are at once parody, absurdist and funny just by delivery. Her abilities as an actor and even tougher, a comic actor are formidable. Although she would shine even brighter in 'Annie Hall' it is Love and Death that has to me stayed more endearing. The breadth of this film is substantial. The jokes are litteral, metaphysical and physical. My favorite physical bit is the scene where Keaton's character attempts to seduce a Spanish royal. In the sceen things don't work out and are a hommage to silent films by Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin. It's something you need to see to appreciate but it makes me laugh every time I watch it. The transfer to DVD is excellent in terms of video. Audio is mediocre but acceptable. For those that hate widescreen this is a double side disc and there is a formatted for television version as well. Woody Allen never quite made a film similar to Love and Death in his career. The film is literate without being boring or annoying. As many of his earlier films Love and Death can be viewed in many contexts and many audiences. My girlfriend back in the 70's saw the film with me and was laughing constantly but knew little of the philosophical, literate or theatrical 'quotes' within the film. Back then I only knew a few and the ones I did know were wry and still bring a smile and admiration in a way other Allen films haven't managed. Of his early films this is the one to buy along with "Annie Hall" or the more sober "Manhattan". Of the three films this lacks the pretension some critics of Allen's work complain about.
Rating:
Summary: How about a nice big bowl of sleet?
Review: Woody Allen outdid himself by taking history and humor where it had never been before. When I first saw this film in the mid-70's, I was not quite up to speed on my historical references and dry saracastic wit. Five years later I saw it a a repetory film theatre, and laughed so hard that I dropped my over-priced concessions all over my lap. I have laughed at many a Allen film, but "Love And Death" works on so many levels that it just kicks your "laugh trigger" into overdrive!!! I wish I had this mans smarts...I am amazed at Allens twisted weaving of story-telling and one-liners..My favorite is when he is in training and the seargent says "From now on you'll clean the latrines and the mess hall" Allens response: "Sir, how can I tell the difference?".....Hilarious... I've seen this film dozens of times, and it simply doesn't get old..Allen has proven once again that if a joke is TRULY funny it can be repeated over and over again and have the same effect on people. The reclusive Woody Allen is the one celebrity I would like to meet..... to thank him for making this extraordinary film....it;s like a best friend I like to watch when I'm in the dumps..
Rating:
Summary: Angst-Ridden Comedy
Review: It's his specialty. Or it was anyway. This film presents a hilarious, atheistic vision of the Russian epic. All that's required to find this film funny is a knowledge of several of the titles of Dosoyevsky's books. Foreign film buffs will be pleased by the references to Eisenstein and Bergman classics. With this film, Allen makes light of his own fear of death, his pessimissm regarding the existence of God, his cowardice and ineptitude, but allows the fact that a specimen such as himself should be so lucky, or endowed in some way with greatness, as to reach great success. If one takes into account the absence of God, as Allen hypothesizes, one must find some other explanation for the incredible turn of events that put the story of Boris into motion, catapaulting him from a mediocre existence at home as the least appealing specimen of a robust family, into a war hero and husband to his true love. Allen is a hilarious, but weak hero, but what strength he does have comes from the fact that he knows what he is, and he's blessed with a sensitivity and inventiveness that found its way to the medium of film, where he can demonstrate his strength as a genius. Allen said this was his favorite film. By 1975, he was on the cusp of achieving worldwide success with his next film. Love and Death is his autobiography, as told through Doestoevsky, Tolstoy and Groucho Marx.
Rating:
Summary: Some of Woody Allen's best
Review: Some people like Woody Allen's early movies like Sleeper and Bananas, full of slapstick, puerile sex jokes, and silliness. Others like his later movies like Annie Hall and Hannah & Her Sisters, full of neurotic dialogue and strange relationships between men and women. Love and Death was characterized in a review I read as a movie situated directly in the middle of these two styles. This is wholly accurate. There are a lot of amusing slapstick bits in the movie, and lot of silly jokes and scenes. But also there is a lot of that humorous Woody Allen dialogue where people spend a lot more time talking than doing. And above and beyond all that, this is a fantastic spoof of 19th Century Russian literature. Anyone at all familiar with Tolstoy will find the familial situations (Diane Keaton's character falls in love with Woody Allen's character's brother, but Woody Allen's character loves her, etc.) very amusing and true to the genre. One of the funniest dialogues manages to work in a character from or the name of many of the major Russian novelists of the 19th Century. This movie is so funny and it works on so many levels and I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: You know the chicken at Tresky's Restaurant? This is better.
Review: Sonja: You were my one great love.
Boris: Oh, thank you very much. I appreciate that. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm dead.
Sonja: What's it like?
Boris: You know the chicken at Tresky's Restaurant? It's worse.
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There are those who think that Woody Allen is a genius. The only people smarter than those people are the ones who KNOW he is a genius.
But seriously folks, this film, Love and Death, is Woody Allen's favorite movie of his, and I must side with him on the matter. This film has everything that everyone could possibly love about Woody (the slapstick, the one-liners, the genius undertones) without any of the things that many people don't like about Woody (the heavy-handedness of something like "Interiors", say). This is his funniest movie, but it is also rife with serious analyzations about Life, Love and Death. Such things as "If Jesus was a carpenter, I wonder what he charged for bookshelves?" You just can't get any deeper than that.
The history here is the funniest ever portrayed, and the fickle hand of love and fate is evident with every brilliant brushstroke of Allen's gentle, humorous mind on the canvas he paints with his words and visuals. To see this film is to yearn to see it again.
Be good to yourself, and to all mankind. Buy this movie. Own it. Watch it 2 to 4 times per year. Then, when you meet Death in the afterlife, you can say, "Hey, I know you...!"
Rating:
Summary: My favorite woody allen
Review: Sleepers and annie hall are also good. Is as good as mel Brooks and monty python. No one else but Woody Allen could make such brilliant comedy out of such a sober book like War and Peace(and dostoevski and twenti other books)!
Rating:
Summary: Everything You Wanted To Know About Cinema,But Afraid to Buy
Review: 'You are a great lover'
'Yeah I practiced a lot on my own'...
Love and Death is the funniest Allen movie, and one of his best. Not different in its comic style from his early slapstick period, (Bannas, Sleeper..), but has much more depth as Allen takes full on the Russian revolution, and literature, God and war in a very intelligent and intellectual way. You can tell how Allen was developing his on camera one-liners, or his self analysis ramblings, that he used perfectly in Annie Hall and Manhatten.
He also pays tribute to Ingmar Bergman, especially in the Death scenes. (The Seventh Seal).
Diane Keaton delivers one of her best performances for Allen, along with his underrated masterpiece Interiors.
In France and Europe, they consider film directors as artists, in the same league as poets, composers and painters, and rank Woody Allen among the finest, and quite rightly so.
BUY Love and Death and you would really appreciate how great an artist Allen is.
'I love him like a brother, just not one of my own'.
This is great moviemaking, and very fuuny to boost!.
Rating:
Summary: Let's assassinate the leader, Part III
Review: This film arrived third (1975) in Allen's sequence of his let's-assassinate-the-president capers. Allen chose this theme as the plot climax for 'Bananas', 'Sleeper' and 'Love and Death', but it's a simple enough story on which to hang lots of wonderful sight gags. In line with the popular vote on Amazon, I believe this is a stronger movie than 'Sleeper'. I first saw this film soon after its release, and I know it appeals to people at several levels. Undergraduates love it for its literary and philosophical references, and many enjoy its smutty jokes ("You're the best lover I've ever had." "Well, I practise a lot when I'm alone."). The visual gags are also wonderful. I've never read any Russian author besides Turgenev, so some of the literary side-swipes have always been wasted on me. But I've never felt left out of the fun. The only flaw with this movie is that for me it sags a little about three-quarters of the way through with the let's-assassinate-Napoleon sub-plot. This movie marked the end of Allen as Keaton-like buffoon. Here he speaks much more to camera than on either of the previous two films, and it's a technique he extends in his next picture, ANNIE HALL. Like the other Allen DVDs I own, the soundtrack is simple -- probably mono -- and the only extra is a trailer. But who cares? Get this on DVD because you'd wear out the VHS tape watching it repeatedly.
Rating: 
Summary: Funnier than Annie Hall
Review: This movie is absolutely, ball bustingly hilarious. Anyone who has any familiarity for the literary and historical references will find this movie extremely satisfying in an empirically philosophical way. Any a priori knowledge of what it means to be a funny movie will be summarily challenged. The only problem I had with this movie was that there was so much going on at once, lacking the kind of cohesive quality that made Annie Hall more palatable. What can you expect from a movie trying to fit in all of Russian literature and history? Great laughs all around.
Rating:
Summary: I Love It To Death
Review: Woody won the Oscar for "Annie Hall", but for me the first 3/4 of this film is the best work he's ever done. From the laugh out loud funny one-liners and sight gags to thought-provoking meditations on God, death, and love (although couched in humor, this is one of the few movies that dares to take on such heavy subjects without providing facile "answers"), "Love and Death" is a constant source of pleasure no matter how many times you watch it. I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 because the "let's assassinate Napoleon" finish is unsatisfying compared to the consistent brilliance of the first hour. There is a sacriligious prison monologue that just isn't funny and it's like Allen ran out of screenplay steam. But oh that first hour, Woody has never been better.
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