Woody Allen's Play It Again, Sam

Play it again, Sam is an excellent production, by far one of Woody Allen’s best movies. It tells the story of Allan Felix, a neurotic New York film critic who is left by his wife, since according to her he is an ‘observer, not a doer’. This devastating event makes him fall into a deep depression; consequentially, he gets corporal aid from his married friends, Linda and Dick. However, this help appears not to be enough, Allan’s love life seems going nowhere until he creates a special connection with Linda, which leads him into her arms. My opinion about this movie being excellent is based on several facts, which can be easily appreciated when watching this extremely controversial film.

The word ‘controversial’ should be emphasized when analyzing this movie, considering that the topics discussed in it were not commonly discussed or confronted in the mid nineties, time in which this film was released. This movie is considered polemic due to the obvious critiques towards the American’s daily life, which is achieved by mentioning different subjects such as, dependence. This theme is represented in a different way depending on the character we focus; with Allan, this topic is represented by the deep depression he falls into, which follows him though all the film. When focusing in
another character, Linda in this case, her dependence is shown by her pill addiction. Finally Dick, he is a workaholic, his dependence takes him to the point when he starts comparing his love to his wife with an ‘economical investment’. These characters decide to depend on something so it is easier for them to be secure and comfortable, ignoring the problems surrounding them and escaping from reality.

Stereotyping is another main theme in this movie. When Dick asks Allan how he liked women, he describes a model type ‘Skinny, blond, good breasts’. This stereotype of perfect women is a consequence of the idol worshiping so characteristic of us, human beings. We all have someone we follow. An actress, singer, model, etc. someone we relate ourselves with or because we want to overcome something we don’t like about ourselves, we always use someone as a reference and Allan is not the exception. Allan's character is a Humphrey Bogart-obsessed film writer that has abundant imagination. Bogart himself appears as an apparition to give Allen advices.
Allan: I can't do it. How does it look? I invite her over and then come on like a sex degenerate. What am I, a rapist?
Bogart: You're getting carried away. You think too much. Just do it.
Allan: We're platonic friends. I can't spoil that by coming on. She'll slap my face.
Bogart: Oh, I've had my face slapped plenty of times.
Allan: Yeah, but your glasses don't go flying across the room.
The reason why Woody Allen sets the title ‘Play it again, Sam’ is because it is originally a quote from the film Casablanca, and as I already said before the main character is obsessed over this movie (Casablanca) and the main character of it.
Not only the apparitions of imaginary characters and dependence on drugs and self unconformity but how music is applied to the film shows how Allan is trying to escape from reality and place himself in a romantic Bogart movie. Every time he has a date, he turns on the music volume really loud so that the atmosphere is more movies like or factionary. We can appreciate this all over the movie and mostly at the end when he quotes the ending of
Casablanca.
Finally, trying too hard is the last main topic. Allan is always trying too hard for everything, making things tougher for himself and being clumsy. This is a quote from the movie demonstrating what I just stated,
Allan: What are you doing Saturday night?
Woman: Committing Suicide.
Allan: What about Friday night?
This character is always trying to fit in, we can appreciate in a scene on the movie the night after his wife leaves him that he goes to a pub and takes a drink but he doesn’t really likes it, he is juts doing what most of the men do trying to be normal.
In conclusion, I believe this is a great movie, considering that it is not only hilarious; but it is fascinating how the different elements used by the film director Herbert Ross such as, music, effects, lights and place set; creates a perfect atmosphere for each of the scenes. Also, the actors chosen were all brilliant choices and how every character has its own meaning, contributing a special and unique theme to this classical film. This movie is one of my favorite oldies.

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