Boris Grushenko (Woody Allen) is facing execution as he recounts his story. In Czarist Russia, Boris is in love with his intellectual cousin Sonja (Diane Keaton). She is jilted by Boris' handsome brother Ivan and marries a rich herring merchant instead. Despite being a coward, Boris is drafted to fight in the Napoleonic Wars. Sonja becomes a widow. Ivan is killed in the war but Boris becomes an accidental hero. The two reunite to marry and try to save the world by assassinating Napoleon.This is a parody of Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy novels in a spoof. As such, this may not be to everyone's taste. One has to have a wide-ranging literary and art film knowledge to appreciate a lot of the jokes. Diane Keaton does get to do more in this one. She has some darker sides and is almost equal to Woody. The literary crowd may have some laughs although they may be too stuffy to relax about the skewering.

Woody Allen wrote and directed this, one of his two most amusing comedies. Not funny/serious, like "Annie Hall," which may be his best film ever, but at times hilarious.Allen and Diane Keaton, who plays his distant cousin, are Russians during the Napoleonic era. The climax is their attempt to assassinate Napoleon after he captures Moscow.The plot is ridiculous and encompasses the war, the tangled love affairs, duels, the tendency in Russian novels towards philosophizing and brooding about God, the distinction between aristocrats and serfs. It borrows heavily from Dostoyevsky and especially Tolstoy's "War and Peace." Its cinematic touchstones are Sergei Eisenstein and Ingmar Bergman -- some shots parody exactly the images from both.There are too many jokes to list, and it would be a bad idea to even think about it. I'll direct the viewer's attention to two.(1) Allen and Keaton attempt to knock out the Ambassador from Spain by hitting him over the head with a wine bottle. The Ambassador is alerted at the last moment. What follows is a speeded-up silent comedy shtick in which Allen and Keaton try to convince the Ambassador that it was just a game. The illustrate the game by hitting each other over the head with the bottle and laughing as they do so. No music, just a CLUNK each time the bottle lands on somebody's head.(2) Allen is about to be executed but receives a message from God that the Emperor will spare him at the last moment. This sends him into an epiphany in which he looks heavenward and recites a soliloquy about the meaning of life and the prophecies from the Bible. He's carrying on with banalities about how the wicked man will be delivered into the hands of his enemies. The spotlight on him is extinguished but he adds quickly, "Wait, not yet! I'm not done with the wicked man." It skewers a number of sacred cows, God and the belief in an afterlife among them.Some of the wisecracks fall a little flat but there are scenes and set pieces that lift it far above most comedies of the decade. He flirts with the paramour of a marksman and is challenged to a duel. The challenge should be to the viewer: Try not to laugh.

Woody Allen is a revered and maddening figure in my world. Revered because he is an absolute genius; maddening for the same reason. Even if you have never seen a film he has written and directed, you have no doubt heard his one liners: "Don't knock masturbation, it's sex with someone I love." "I'm not afraid of death, I just don't want to be there when it happens." "I'm not really the heroic type, I was beat up by Quakers." His jokes have a delivery that mocks the greats like Rodney Dangerfield and Bob Hope yet Woody Allen's unique on screen persona imposes at least a superficial level of earnestness and faux-intellectualism. It's especially maddening to think he's so freakishly prolific! Since 1969 he has written and directed at least one film a year. Not all of them cinematic gold but considered he has been nominated for an Oscar 18 times for writing, directing and producing I'd say a good chunk of his filmography is pretty darn good.In fact while my exposure to his filmography is less than complete, there's truly not a film I wouldn't see again. The worst I've seen was a little known box office bomb by the name of Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001) with a post Mad About You (1992-1999) Helen Hunt. It felt like a failed TV pilot but nevertheless was entertaining enough to slug through. If it were on TV about as often as The Mummy Returns (2001) I'd probably watch it again if nothing else were on.The best Woody Allen film I personally have seen is 1975's Love and Death. Like Curse of the Jade Scorpion it wasn't nominated for anything of significance. It didn't curry much favor with audiences either making just north of $20 million and while the critics enjoyed Love and Death it still remains one of Woody Allen's lesser known films. Yet while it's lesser known it's certainly not lesser loved. Vincent Canby of the New York Times calls Love and Death one of Allen's "most consistently witty films." It enjoys a 100% Fresh rating on Rottentomatoes.com and most "early Allen" enthusiasts swear by the Russian literature satire.Woody Allen's sixth directorial effort starts and ends centered on the life of Boris Grushenko (Allen), an impertinent yet cowardly Russian scholar who isn't too fond of going to war with the French and Napoleon. "She's (Russia) not my mother. My mother's standing right here, and she's not gonna let her youngest baby get shrapnel in his gums," Boris cries as he has pushed by his stout-hearted family to join the war effort. Once he's thrown into the fray, hijinks ensue in a Marx Brothers meets War and Peace kind of way. But while faced with the insanity of war, all Boris can think about is his lovely cousin Sonja (Diane Keaton) who he's had the hots for since childhood.Love and Death evokes memories of Duck Soup (1933) and The Great Dictator (1940) only with less political satire and more philosophical and humanistic satire. One of the reoccurring jokes involves Boris and Sonja taking inopportune moments to argue philosophy using jargon literally lifted from the existentialist writings of G.I. Gurdjieff and P.D. Ouspensky. Philosophy gets skewered along with the thick tomes of Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy, the historical significance of the Napoleonic wars and the films of Sergei Eisenstein and Ingmar Bergman. Who knew you could cram so many high-minded material into an 85 minute movie who's big battle scene involves Woody wearing a cheerleader outfit and a guy walking around yelling "get your red hots."While Allen has fallen out of favor since his heyday in the 1970's and early 80's (much of which is credited to his tumultuous personal life), his movies still create a blip on the cultural radar every once in a while. Friends my age were introduced to his comedic work through Midnight in Paris (2011). A movie that brought to mind another favorite of mine, The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985). His latest Blue Jasmine (2013), while closer in mood to Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) is nevertheless a stupendous film.I think most, if not everyone could find a Woody Allen film they'll enjoy. Perhaps there's a Quizilla that will assign you one based on your personality. Or perhaps you should just watch as many as possible and pick your favorite. That's what I did!http://theyservepopcorninhell.blogspot.com/

If you ever wondered about the missing link between Woody Allen's early slapstick comedies and his later, heavier stuff, this is it. While it's still very much a comedy, "Love And Death" is noticeably mellower, slower, more mature than Woody's earlier films, with more attention paid to the story and to the general production. It's also more philosophical and theological, as Woody constantly questions the existence of God ("I wouldn't want to blow my brains out and THEN learn that they found something up there!"). It does get too verbose for its own good at times, and some parts just don't come off (his monologue about Socrates, for example). But "Love And Death" also contains some of the most unforgettable visual gags (his military training) and classic punchlines ("You are the greatest lover I've ever had" - "I practice a lot when I'm alone!") of Allen's career. And Diane Keaton, besides being great to look at, proves once again that her contribution to Allen's movies is invaluable - Woody himself once again, to an even larger extent than in "Sleeper", trusts her with some comic scenes without his presence, which she pulls off fantastically ("I could have made love to you more often....once even"!!). And Woody's music selections (this time it's Prokofiev) continue to be excellent. *** out of 4.