Love And Death

With Sleeper, it was science fiction and futuristic films that were the target.  With his follow up effort as writer/director/star, Woody Allen targeted Russian literature in his classic from 1975, Love And Death.

A Russian pacifist in love with his cousin is swept up into the Napoleonic Wars and, through no part on his own, becomes a hero.  Marrying his cousin, things are great until Napoleon invades Russia, and he decides to leave until his wife convinces him that they must assassinate Napoleon himself.

As I said earlier, Love And Death is a parody on Russian literature; in this case, the works of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky.  As a parody, it has a plethora of hilarious jokes and gags, especially in scenes where the characters go into philosophical discussions.  As for the story itself, it's adequate enough and that's about it.

The strength of the film lies with the writing; being a parody, it's the jokes which are more important than the story (although an adequate story would be nice).  The acting, like the story, is adequately done, with Allen as Boris (the pacifist), Diane Keaton as Sonja (the cousin), and James Tolkan as Napoleon (and his double) being the sole standouts.  As for the directing, Allen did a good job of presenting the film (jokes and all), but I suspect in Love And Death, early signs of the kind of films he would make and what made him a celebrated writer/director can be seen in the film.

A final standout in the film was the music.  Woody Allen always has an ear for music, and in his films, the music not only fits his films well, it also heightens the narration, the presentation, and the overall experience.  With Love And Death, the music of Sergei Prokofiev does just that.  I couldn't imagine another work of music that could possibly fit the film as well as Prokofiev's.

On the whole, I found Love And Death to be as hilarious as Sleeper, but the story was a little bit better told and no particularly weak points.  Nothing but laughs throughout, I give this film three (of four) stars.

Note (Mar. 4th, 2:09 PM EST): I added a paragraph in my initial review that I had intended to write but forgot.  The addition deals with the film's musical score.