When Harry Met Sally...

By now, all that needs to be said about this movie has been said. What we have here is early Meg Ryan, who shows her tremendous acting and comedic talent - a portent of things to come. We also have the young Billy Crystal at his finest. The supporting caste is made up of Carrie Fisher - less the Star Wars fright wig and a relatively unknown - at least to me - Bruno Kirby. Kirby and Fisher provide the proper foils/sidekicks to Ryan and Crystal. This movie was brilliantly directed by Rob Reiner who, it seems, was working out relationship issues while directing this film. Written by Nora Ephron - who is not on a socio-political crusade in this screenplay - the script has great moments written in with room enough for the cast to improvise. Rob Reiner was very much able to allow the cast the freedom to improvise and make the storyline sing! The interspersing of the "personal romance" stories was a great touch (can't remember who thought of it), but it kept the film from getting too worrisome. Crystal's character - Harry - sometimes was a bit over-the-top with the gloom and doom schtick. Ryan's Sally was the perfect foil and friend to Harry until she has her ultimate crisis and they violate the rules of the friendship. How they work it out is truly romance gold and you wish that they could truly live happily ever after. This is one of the great things about this movie - we actually _care_ about the characters and become involved with their inner conflicts - even if they do seem rather silly at times. Of course there is one of the most memorable of all scenes in the diner when Harry and Sally are disagreeing about whether women fake certain actions during the dating game. This is one of Cinema's most brilliant moments. I cannot recall whose idea this scene was. I recall that it was something that Rob Reiner and Nora Ephron disagreed about. Fortunately for the film, Ephron's viewpoint/perspective prevailed and this bit of movie gold was preserved for posterity. The Collector's Edition DVD is filled with good extras - a "making off," interviews with Reiner & Ephron and other goodies that make it a worthwhile purchase. As far as I could tell, the mastering for this was very good. I did not notice any flaws and the soundtrack was excellent. All in all a very good deal. I see that Amazon now has it on sale for less than I paid for it in April. But if I always waited for the price to go down, I probably would never by a DVD/Blu-ray ever. *Sigh*

This is a classic movie that continues to get rave reviews. Any movie starring Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal is worth watching - several time.

One of my favorite movies - nice to have something from Rob Reiner.

This wonderful comedy is going to become a classic. It's hilariously funny, sweet and touching. Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan could not be better. I highly recommend When Harry Met Sally.

This is a classic in the Reiner tradition open to human foibles but with a generosity of spirit and a blief in discovery of joy.

As a die-hard Woody Allen fan, particularly one who admires the work this controversial filmmaker produced from 1975 to 1989, there is no question that Rob Reiner's "Allenesque" riff in 1989 about romance in New York -- at first rubbed me the wrong way -- since so much of its atmosphere and dialogue reminded me of Annie Hall (1977), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), both nominees for Best Picture, with the former winning the big prize in 1978. But the film really felt most like Allen's 1979 masterpiece, "Manhattan." The stories are different, but the dialogue, music and wit are essentially the same. Having gotten that out of the way, what I really admire about "When Harry Met Sally" is its successful effort at taking a Woody Allen "riff" and making it mainstream enough to keep it from being cast as a snobby "art house" picture -- injecting a commercially pleasing structure without dumbing down the materal and -- perhaps the best improvement of all -- the inclusion of the snippets of dialogue from long-married real life couples (or so I think). This takes "When Harry Met Sally" momentarily out of the realm of romantic fantasy and into the realm of reality, juxtaposing interviews between a story of two people covering several years and watching them draw closer to each other -- inescapably falling in love -- which, while predictable (you can see it coming a mile away), is what the audience WANTS, without being overly manipulated. The "journey" is what counts, even if we know where the story is going, unlike Woody Allen's films, where you are guessing until the credits how everything is going to end. My biggest gripe continues to be the same I've brought up over and over with friends. The scene that gets the biggest laugh in theaters -- falls flat on its face without an audience. It is also the most completely unrealistic scene in the movie, a commercially inserted laugh-getter that plays well on a great theater on a New York stage with an audience but is the least believable scene in real life. It's probably the biggest flaw in an otherwise great script. As much as I laughed uproariously in the theater at that scene and the zinger that comes from Rob Reiner's real life mom afterwards, as years went by I felt increasingly uncomfortable watching this scene in subsequent viewings. It's not the subject matter that bothers me. I think the point Meg Ryan's character is trying to make is fine. But the WAY she does it gives us a scene absent of realistic context compared to the rest of the picture. (Who among us, assuming we're sober, would dare make a scene like that in a restaurant?) So I confess today, I purposely fast forward through that scene like a memory I want to forget and enjoy the other 9/10ths of the movie that are great. Meanwhile, about the ending. Without giving it away, this is what makes "When Harry Met Sally" film fabulous, one of the finest comedies of the 1980s. Woody Allen consistently riddles his New York films with humor, irony and angst on an intellectually nourishing plate. But Rob Reiner caps his New York story with a knock-out ending that is consistent in tone with the "realistic interviews" seen throughout the picture. No brain surgery involved, no psycho-analytic explorations of human behavior. The result is a conclusion that has you smiling from ear to ear. It's truly a perfect, flawless way to end a picture like this. Take the restaurant scene out and the movie is a masterpiece, or if not that, at least an underrated classic that deserved award-winning attention. A lot of films have great followings yet won no major awards. "When Harry Met Sally" is one of them. And I feel more confident saying this now that so many years have flown by since this film was first released. Who won the Best Picture award for 1989? Does anyone even remember? It was "Driving Miss Daisy." Fine picture and acting by Tandy & Freeman, but not the crowd pleaser that has achieved cult classic status as "When Harry Met Sally." There are many good reasons why this is the case, but there's no need to explain why to those who've seen both pictures.

So glad to have this DVD. Loved the movie so now I can watch it again and again. Speedy delivery and well packaged.

This movie is a classic and I had to have it even watched it the first time when we bought it love this movie!!!

A classic well worth the watch.

Llego a tiempo, en buenas condiciones, no rota, y de materiales originales.

A lovely comedy . Having seen it so many times wanted to own my personal copy. took me back to my college days. Obviously I loved it.

Super film !

Ho regalato questo DVD di “Harry, ti presento Sally” nel 2024 a mia sorella. È un film che non passa mai di moda, una commedia romantica iconica che vale sempre la pena rivedere. Il DVD è perfetto come idea regalo per chi ama i film romantici intelligenti, con dialoghi brillanti e personaggi memorabili. La visione è piacevole e il film resta coinvolgente anche dopo anni, segno che è diventato un vero classico. Il regalo è stato apprezzato proprio perché è uno di quei film che si riguardano volentieri, magari più volte. Ottima scelta per un pensiero semplice ma significativo.