Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Woody Allen | ... | Leonard Zelig | |
Mia Farrow | ... | Dr. Eudora Nesbitt Fletcher | |
Patrick Horgan | ... | The Narrator (voice) | |
John Buckwalter | ... | Dr. Sindell | |
Marvin Chatinover | ... | Glandular Diagnosis Doctor | |
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Stanley Swerdlow | ... | Mexican Food Doctor |
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Paul Nevens | ... | Dr. Birsky |
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Howard Erskine | ... | Hypodermic Doctor |
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George Hamlin | ... | Experimental Drugs Doctor |
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Ralph Bell | ... | Other Doctor |
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Richard Whiting | ... | Other Doctor |
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Will Hussung | ... | Other Doctor (as Will Hussong) |
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Robert Iglesia | ... | Man in Barber Chair |
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Eli Resnick | ... | Man in Park |
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Edward McPhillips | ... | Scotsman |
Fictional documentary about the life of human chameleon Leonard Zelig, a man who becomes a celebrity in the 1920s due to his ability to look and act like whoever is around him. Clever editing places Zelig in real newsreel footage of Woodrow Wilson, Babe Ruth, and others. Written by Scott Renshaw <as.idc@forsythe.stanford.edu>
Leapin' lizards! This film is brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.
"Zelig" was a revelation in 1983, an utterly ingenious faux-documentary, without any precedent, at least not on this scale. Hilarious then, it still is today. That quick glimpse you get of the all-Hasidic production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is priceless. It gives renewed meaning to "Lord, what fools these mortals be!"
Allen's technique is extraordinary. "Zelig" has the best bogus documentary footage quite probably since "Citizen Kane".
As the film urges, everyone should "Do the Chameleon", by seeing "Zelig". Woody Allen creates a trenchant comment on people's desire for conformity: "Everybody, go chameleon." We all tend to do that to some degree, but it's not usually so amusing. Try to blend in with the crowd rushing out to find "Zelig" on video.
It is probably worth noting that a Jewish Nazi is not as ridiculous a stretch as Woody makes it seem. Reinhard Heydrich, the vicious organizer of the Final Solution, fell into that category. The top Nazis were all misfits in one way or another.