I'd never even heard of this film until someone mentioned it on TV. It sounded good so the DVD was ordered. This is a little gem of a film, although it has some serious bad points. Harry (Carney) and his dear cat Tonto are thrown out of their New York apartment and reluctantly accept a place at his son & daughter in-law's home. But he doesn't like the strained atmosphere and sets out to visit other friends and relatives. This is a very 70's film, from the look of the film itself to the subjects broached and the language and mores of the time. Carney plays it quiet and knows when to shut up and let the silence speak. It may be a little over-sentimental at times, but I found it very touching and I was blinking a bit by the end. The bad points are that we don't quite see the love between Harry and his cat and (SPOILER!) when Tonto dies it is handled rather quickly and with a lack of warmth. The other problem is that some of Harry's adventures are very brief and come and go without consequence. Despite these irritations, this is a charming film. This release (bought from Amazon) seems to be from or aimed at the Italian market but the original English dialogue is present and correct. There are no extras and the print has not been cleaned up or restored, which is a pity as in some parts it was rather dark and grubby looking.

I like movies that are focused and don't have too many sideplots. My experience is that sideplots often make a movie worse."Harry and Tonto" is the perfect movie for people like me who like focused movies. The movie is about an old man and his cat. It follows Harry, played by Art Carney in an Oscar winning performance, as he travels around the USA after his New York City apartment building is converted into a parking garage.I didn't think that I'd be interested in a movie about this topic, but Harry has many interesting experiences as he travels to Los Angeles, including shacking up in a motel with a teen girl and meeting a hooker as he is hitchhiking. In addition, his devotion to his cat Tonto is charming. Initially, he wants to fly to Chicago, but airport authorities want to separate them and he is against this.The major problem I have with the movie is a big one -- Tonto gets sick suddenly and dies and Harry doesn't seem to be as bothered by this as he should be. There was no hint that Tonto was old until he got sick. I think, in retrospect, that Harry should have talked more about his passion for Tonto with his children and others and should have revealed his concern about traveling with an old cat (that I didn't realize was old until a minute before he died).I deducted one point from the movie because it wasn't exciting enough, interesting enough, and thought provoking enough to earn a 10 and another point because of how the death of Tonto was handled. I am still tempted to deduct another point because Harry didn't talk enough to Tonto -- and I still might.

Pretty schmaltzy road trip movie that stars Art Carney in an Oscar-winning performance as an old man who's evicted from his apartment and goes off on a late-in-life voyage of self discovery.Carney is winning and likable, but the film treads too softly and safely for it to be truly engaging. Indeed, I came across this on TCM and spent the first 40 or so minutes wondering if I even wanted to watch the whole thing, only deciding to once so much time had passed that it seemed silly not to.If you're interested in it for some of the other actors billed in the cast (like Ellen Burstyn), be warned that no one but Carney gets more than some very short cameos (Burstyn herself has maybe five minutes of screen time).See this movie if you want to see the performance that inexplicably beat Jack Nicholson ("Chinatown"), Dustin Hoffman ("Lenny") and Al Pacino ("The Godfather Part II") to the Oscar. Otherwise, you're not missing all that much.Grade: B-

The basis of the film is described well elsewhere in the reviews here, so I will try and cover a different aspect. This is the sort of film I would not have bothered watching until recently. As I age, I find I am less interested in watching FX extravaganza's and more interested in human stories. Provided we are successful in reaching Harry's age, any of us could find ourselves in circumstances similar to Harry's.Retirement, widowed/widower, children scattered across the country, and friends gradually all dying off are the prizes waiting at the twilight of a long life. What happens when in your mind you feel the same as you did at forty but now your body is slower, your license is revoked and you have to give up, for whatever reason, your home?SPOILER ALERT Like Harry, most of us try to hold on to the past; to live in moments now gone. With the death of Tonto, Harry removes the last of his old ties. At peace with his family and himself, Harry's journey has expanded his appreciation of life. In the glow of the setting sun, we see a renewed Harry, ready to use the last of his own fading light to embrace the opportunities that life can still provide.