Charlie and a Half (1974) User Reviews

bad, but good

[sigurros5 · 10/10 · 11 December 2001]

For most film critics this film was considered bad, but for viewers this film is really great. i was 5 years old when i first saw this movie, and i fell in love with it. it has everything, comedy, drama, action. it's one of the best israeli films ever, no doubt about it. if u can find this film, i recommend it highly. you'll love it(if you're not a film critic..)

A lot of stuff going on here

[marianp1 · 5 September 2004]

Charlie Ve'hetzi is sort of a cult film in Israel, for its portrayal of working class Israeli Jews from Arab countries. Working class isn't the exact term, because the main character, Charlie, lets his mother support him while he keeps the money he makes by cheating suckers with a three card scam. Hetzi is a street kid who would rather spend the day with Charlie than go to school (his put upon sister who is raising him isn't having a lot of success).

Charlie has managed to get himself a very rich, fantasy type rich, blonde girlfriend of European roots, and he's portrayed as a great guy, while all the European Jews are vicious exploiters.

It's a very odd film because it sends messages in all directions. Women come off very badly -- Hetzi's sister is harassed by her employer (I think it's a factory) but this is shown as a matter of fact, not as anything particularly wrong. Charlie's girlfriend is a real valley girl type, his mother serves him with a, "well, he's my boy" kind of attitude.

The film is widely discussed in film and ethnic studies here.

one of the biggest collection of cliché ever

[ayoreinf · 4/10 · 27 May 2010]

The only reason I ever saw the film is Haya Katsir, she's the only reason I tried to see it again. No she's not a great actress, but she's one of the greatest looking girls I've ever seen especially when I first saw it in my early teens. By now the collection of cliché in the film that made me uncomfortable to begin with makes me simply cringe. Some fairly good Israely actors give poor to mediocre performance in this film because their characters are so badly written. Yes it was the genre, but most of the films of that genre suffer from the same problem. "Burekas" films that were made in Israel at the 70s are a version of "blacksploitation" movies with lower production values. They don't present the reality of the under privileged, they simply want to cash in on their frustration. Have a look if you want, it might have some anthropological value, but don't say I didn't warn you.