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

According to the Eric Lax biography, the musicians in the dinner scene at General Vargas' house were actually to be playing instruments, but the rented instruments hadn't arrived, and rather than wait, Woody Allen decided the miming would fit with the tone of the film.

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Goofs

During the montage of Mellish training with the rebels he is standing in the chow line with a plate. When the cook dished out his meal, the overhead shot shows Mellish holding an army style mess kit. In the next scene he asks "What the hell is this stuff anyhow?" and he is back to eating off the plate.

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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 Apontes (1996)

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Soundtracks

1812 Overture in E Flat, Op.49
(1880) (uncredited)
Written by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
[In the score during the eating scenes with a rebel woman]

User Reviews

A Memorable Ahead-Of-Its-Time Classic

I went to see "Bananas," in the early 1970s with three of my high school buddies, in our local theater. And, it remains -- three decades later -- one of the most memorable and one of my most talked about movie-going experiences ever. So much of it was comprised of absolutely hysterical scenes which I've told countless people about through the years, and still tell people about.

Watching this movie today, it seems as if it had been somewhat haphazardly written. I get the feeling that Woody Allen had kept a journal in which he noted the funniest sights he'd witnessed and the cleverest one-liners he'd heard, over a period of years, and then set about mixing all of these totally unrelated funny things into one script. It's like he was saying to himself, "I think I'll throw in the bit about the guy trying to discreetly buy a sex magazine in a quiet neighborhood store and getting embarrassed, and then the snake bite bit later on. But first before the next plot turn, I think I'll put in the bit in which a guy gets out of his car and falls into an open manhole.", etc. You feel at times like you're watching a Benny Hill-type comedy show, or a TV variety show with a series of comedy skits that have nothing at all to do with each other. Somehow, Woody blended it all together into a fairly coherent story. There are also a few scenes which feature "Airplane"/"Naked Gun"-style tongue-in-cheek humor. But, this movie had been made *long* before those were even thought of. There's a message in that: This movie was ahead of its time. There's a segment of "Bananas," early on, which is just one outrageously funny bit after another after another.

I guess the movie doesn't really have a point . . . except maybe that maniacal dictators are crazy, dangerous and should be driven from power . .. or maybe that freedom is worth fighting for . . . or maybe that some causes are worth laying down your life for. Obviously, there's relevance in all of that for us, today. Or maybe the whole point of this movie could simply be that Woody Allen knows how to make people laugh.

Later, Art