A young nihilistic New Yorker copes with pervasive urban violence, obscene phone calls, rusty water pipes, electrical blackouts, paranoia, and ethnic-racial conflict during a typical summer of the 1970s.
Writing
Jules Feiffer's savage, stage-to-screen dialogue.
Acting
Elliott Gould's deadbeat nihilism is pitch-perfect.
Direction
Arkin's only feature—chaotic, personal, unhinged.
Director
Alan Arkin
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Feiffer wrote the play in 1967; it flopped on Broadway but became a counterculture touchstone after this film.
The film's NYC—blackouts, garbage strikes, random violence—mirrors the actual 1977 crisis, making it accidentally prophetic.
No ratings yet
Sign in to join the discussion — comments are spoiler-gated to your watch progress.
Discussion starters
US
