Bananas (1971)

When a bumbling New Yorker is dumped by his activist girlfriend, he travels to a tiny Latin American nation and becomes involved in its latest rebellion.

Director:

Woody Allen

Writers:

Woody Allen, Mickey Rose

Stars:

Woody Allen, Louise Lasser, Carlos Montalbán

2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Woody Allen	...	Fielding Mellish
Louise Lasser	...	Nancy
Carlos Montalbán	...	General Emilio M. Vargas
Nati Abascal	...	Yolanda (as Natividad Abascal)
Jacobo Morales	...	Esposito
Miguel Ángel Suárez	...	Luis (as Miguel Suarez)
David Ortiz Angleró	...	Sanchez
René Enríquez	...	Diaz (as Rene Enríquez)
Jack Axelrod	...	Arroyo
Howard Cosell	...	Howard Cosell
Roger Grimsby	...	Roger Grimsby
Don Dunphy	...	Don Dunphy
Charlotte Rae	...	Mrs. Mellish
Stanley Ackerman	...	Dr. Mellish
Dan Frazer	...	Priest

Storyline

Fielding Mellish (a consumer products tester) becomes infatuated with Nancy (a political activist). He attends demonstrations and tries in other ways to convince her that he is worthy of her love, but Nancy wants someone with greater leadership potential. Fielding runs off to San Marcos where he joins the rebels and eventually becomes President of the country. While on a trip to the states, he meets Nancy again and she falls for him now that he is a political leader.

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Plot Keywords:

banana republic | political satire | dictator | latin america | revolution | 

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Taglines:

The Revolutionist That Shook the World With LAUGHTER!

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Genres:

Comedy

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for comic sexuality including some pin-up nudity, some drug use and crude language

Details

Official Sites:

MGM

Country:

USA

Language:

English Spanish Yiddish Italian

Release Date:

19 July 1971 (Sweden)

Also Known As:

El Weirdo

Filming Locations:

Playa de Cerro Gordo, Puerto Rico

Box Office

Budget:

$2,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Jack Rollins & Charles H. Joffe Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

82 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The very short song "Rebels Are We" that Esposito sings to his men is later sung by Diane Keaton when she becomes a rebel in Woody Allen' later film Sleeper (1973).

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Goofs

When Fielding is offering Nancy some ribs, he has his hand on his collar. In the next shot his hand is by his side.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Don Dunphy: Good afternoon. Wide World of Sports is in the little republic of San Marcos where we're going to bring you a live, on the spot assassination. They're going to kill the president of this lovely Latin American country and replace him with a military dictatorship. And everybody is about as excited and tense as can be. The weather on this Sunday afternoon is perfect; and if you've just joined us, we've seen a series of colorful riots that started with the traditional bombing of the ...

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Crazy Credits

In the opening credits, the credits flash in time to the music. Additionally, the cards are shot with machine gun fire.

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Connections

Referenced in The Replacements (2000)

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Soundtracks

Naughty Marietta
(1910) (uncredited)
Music by Victor Herbert
Libretto by Rida Johnson Young
[Excerpts played and sung on a record during the torture scene]

User Reviews

"You cannot bash in the head of an American citizen without written permission from the State Department."

When asked why he titled his third feature-length picture 'Bananas,' Woody Allen replied, "because there's no bananas in it." This, in a nutshell, pretty much summarises the general tone of the film. During the first ten years of his directing career, it's interesting to see Allen slowly developing his craft; as the years go by, from 'Take the Money and Run (1969)' to 'Sleeper (1973),' {and culminating in 'Annie Hall (1977)'} we notice how he learned to assimilate an unrelated collection of gags into a mature, cohesive narrative. 'Bananas (1971)' sits somewhere in the middle of all this, with a more developed story than its predecessors, but maintaining its roots as an anarchic comedy, much in the same vein as films like 'Duck Soup (1933)' and 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975).' Though I had not anticipated enjoying 'Bananas' very much, I must say that the film provided countless moments of immeasurable hilarity. Though slightly uneven in parts {as is often the case, some jokes hit while others miss}, the film delivers the promised laughs.

The storyline is characteristically simple and absurd. After a revolution breaks out in the small South American nation of San Marcos, a mediocre, unintellectual New Yorker, Fielding Mellish (Allen), travels there to impress his ex-girlfriend (Louise Lasser). After the fascist government tries to have him assassinated, poor Fielding falls in with the rebel gangs, somehow eventually becoming the President of the Latin American republic. This absurd plot line allows Allen to pile one gag on top of another, and, interestingly, the story itself never seems to lose its way or go off on any tangents. The film's satirical take on war, with the Vietnam War still raging in 1971, was very timely, and Allen also aims a few jabs at the media's handling of warfare – in the ridiculous and inspired opening, ABC's Wide World of Sports arrives in San Marcos to commentate the assassination of the current President. Later, Howard Cosell returns to host the consummation of Fielding's marriage, with an enthusiastic crowd watching the awkward couple tussling beneath the covers. 'Bananas' is a type specimen of one of Woody Allen's "early, funny movies."