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Whistle Stopper - The Anderson Tapes
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List Price: $19.94
Our Price: $12.31
Your Save: $ 7.63 ( 38% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
Starring: Sean Connery, Dyan Cannon, Martin Balsam, Paul Benjamin, Hildy Brooks
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 0043396268074
Format: Color
Label: Sony Pictures
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Sony Pictures
Region Code: 99
Release Date: 2008-09-23
Running Time: 99
Studio: Sony Pictures
Theatrical Release Date: 1971
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: A refreshingly multi-faceted caper flick.
Comment: "The Anderson Tapes" is loaded with the sort of richness that you can count on when its director, Sidney Lumet is at the helm. Sean Connery heads up the sort of first-rate cast of character actors that routinely gravitate toward any Lumet film. There is the sprinkling of humor and the rising suspense that you might expect from a movie about a plot to commit a robbery. The director's masterful touch with pacing keeps the picture moving in a thoroughly engrossing fashion. Most of all, his gift for drawing intense and powerful performances from his casts is in full flower here. Screen the recent Lumet film, "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" and you will see an even more intense and infinitely darker "caper-flick" that is, likewise, very worthwhile.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Great for 1971 NYC but not much else
Comment: Other reviews here that say this movie isn't dated are hard to take serious. All I could think of while watching was how many holes there were in the plot that would never be there even 5 years later. Martin Balsam uses his real name and place of business when casing the apartment. They use a dim, alcoholic old-timer to be look-out? They do everything that will guarantee they will get identified. Look I know it was 1971 but this is Sydney Lumet lite and I'm sure he was not proud of this. I remember seeing this movie when I was a kid and thinking that all the taping and surveillance was very cool. Looking at it now it was very amaturish. Having grown up in NYC it was great to see old ny-St. Anthony's Church downtown. The building on 91st St which in this day and age would be lived in by multi-billionaires with hi-tech security. Of course the streets on ny in this movie were deserted (unbelievable). The use of Garret Morris and his crack TPA police squad was also a stretch. This was an enjoyable light movie of it's time that really has dated very badly. Even the acting other than Connery and Balsam is not really good. But...with a post-007 sean and a hot Dyan Cannnon together there is some value in this movie.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Press Play
Comment: Sean really seems to relish his role as a tough-guy ex-con in this intense caper from the early 70s that holds up nicely. The conceit that everything we're seeing and hearing is culled from various surveillance tapes is a little distracting and doesn't quite work. But Lumet's brisk, no-nonsense take on the action when the heist goes live still delivers. Good NYC locations and Qunicy Jones jazzy score help. The punch card type of the credits and those awful "futuristic" sounding, echoing computer beeps on the soundtrack are what make the picture seem much more dated than it is. Plus Lumet's inclusion of more than a few gay caricatures.
It's fun to see Chris Walken's debut and Dyan is sensationally sexy. Only Alan King's irritating over-acting mars the cast.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Lumet Strikes Again
Comment: Director Sidney Lumet is impeccable in handling any type of material. What should have been a routine caper film in the hands of Lumet's masterful direction and scenarist Frank Pierson (Oscar for "Dog Day Afternoon" turns into something transcendant. Lumet isn't so much concerned with the caper because it's pretty routine and it's a foregone conclusion how it's going to go down. What distinguishes the film is the terrific dark comedy and great characters. What can you say about a movie whose cast includes everyone from Margaret Hamilton ("The Wizard of Oz") to Garrett Morris("Saturday Night Live")? I particularly liked the work of Judith Lowry whose claim to fame was playing brassy grannies on Seventies sitcoms and plays a similar character here to great effect. Sean Connery is ostensible star but basically his job is to be ringmaster to the circus environment. A real gem and a feather in the cap for director Lumet.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Anderson and Watergate
Comment: The Anderson Tapes -- like The Conversation -- is amusingly a precusor to the Watergate scandal, the Plumbers Unit, etc. Those the electronic eavesdropping isn't central to the caper, it is all illegal! The end -- I don't wanna spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen this movie. Walken's film debut, this movie (and Diamonds Are Forever) put Sean Connery back in the top ten box office stars for 1971.
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Editorial Reviews:
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A habitual criminal, looking for a big score immediately upon leaving prison, goes to the syndicate seeking funds for a massive robbery. He intends to ransack a posh East Side New York apartment building. Rounding up a gang of top-flight thieves, he proceeds to plan and carry out his caper unaware that he is being taped.
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