Product Description

Based on the life and work of underground comic book writer Harvey Pekar- a prickly poet of the mundane who knows that all the strategizing in the world can't save a guy from picking the wrong supermarket checkout line.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10647 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2004-02-03
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.77:1
• Formats: AC-3, Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 101 minutes

Amazon.com
One of the most acclaimed films of 2003, American Splendor is also one of the most audaciously creative biographical movies ever made. Blending fact, fiction, and personal perspective from the comic books that inspired it, this marvelous portrait of Harvey Pekar--scowling curmudgeon, brow-beaten everyman, insightful chronicler of his own life, and frustrated file clerk at a Cleveland V.A. hospital--is an inspired amalgam of the media (comic books, TV, and film) that lifted Pekar from obscurity to the status of a pop-cultural icon. As played by Paul Giamatti in a master-stroke of casting, we see Pekar and his understanding wife (played by Hope Davis) as underdogs in a world full of obstacles, yet also infused with subtle hope and (gasp!) heartwarming perseverance. We also see the real Pekar, and this multifaceted commingling of "reel" and "real" turns American Splendor into a uniquely cinematic celebration of Pekar's life and, by extension, the tenacity of an unlikely American hero. --Jeff Shannon

From The New Yorker
Well, it's different. Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, directing together, have made a drama-documentary in which the drama and the documentary look at each other but don't touch. The movie is about Harvey Pekar, a real and rusted-up gentleman from Cleveland. He works as a filing clerk, and his experiences have long been the subject of a comic strip, illustrated by-among others-Robert Crumb. So we get a good dose of Harvey. But we get an even better and funnier dose of Paul Giamatti, who plays an alternative Harvey, and who is framed, or sometimes drawn, in fond imitation of a comic book-the implication being that even the cruddiest lives can, in sympathetic hands, acquire shape and grace. The story, such as it is, moves from Harvey the record collector to Harvey the cancer sufferer to Harvey the chat-show guest. There is terrific supporting work from Hope Davis as Mrs. Pekar and from Judah Friedlander as Harvey's profoundly unusual friend Toby. Mild fame may have patronized these folks, but the movie pays them a comic homage that feels flattering, fast-witted, and true. -Anthony Lane
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Excellent film
If you're unsure about buying this, it's worth checking out just to see the characters. The crazy thing is that they're essentially real people. Go to wikipedia and look up Harvey Pekar, Robert Crumb, Toby Radloff, and Joyce Brabner. It's a pleasant surprise that they exist. See the movie. (It was in great condition when I got it, too.)

Quality, Six stars not Five!
In my opinion this was one of the best films out there. Beautifully shot, written, and acted. I love this movie so much that I don't eve care that people didn't get it...it's their loss, and I hope that if you have not seen it, check it out and see for yourself.

A nerd film for elitist a-holes.
There they stand in safe New York studio apartments in their skinny, disproportionately crafted outfits, looking smug and very middle-European as they hold expensive champagne with white gloves and giggle at the cute absurdity found in American Splendor. This, my friends, is a depiction of the psychotic element of film critics who made of the 2.3% of the viewing world who actually enjoyed this pile of wrathful bile.

American Splendor is the type of pathetic film that makes one wonder just how in the h*ll it made it to the big screen. Did Harvey Pekar sell his soul to the devil in exchange for having his later life made into a movie? Do you want a plot synopsis? Well, the plot deals with a seedy comic-book man and his series of seedy breakups with his seedy girlfriend in his seedy neighborhood. Seriously, people, why should we care?

(writhing lunatic fan of this film to press NO on the Was-this-review- helpful section in T minus 6...5...4...3...2...1...)