YMMV / Harry and Tonto

• Award Snub: How many interpret Art Carney's Best Actor Oscar victory over Al Pacino and Jack Nicholson's iconic performances in The Godfather Part II and Chinatown respectively. Cracked additionally saw Pacino's subsequent Best Actor victory for Scent of a Woman as a Consolation Award.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: It became popular in Japan because of the strong love for cats in the Japanese culture.
• He Really Can Act: Oscar controversy aside, this is a strong performance by Art Carney, showing he had tons more depth than you'd guess from seeing him as Ed Norton. Harry is the type of character that an actor would be tempted to either ham up or to take the pathos up to eleven with, but Carney makes him a very believable human being and constantly hits just the right tone.
• Older Than They Think: The poster of Meher Baba on the wall above Norman's bed is a reminder that Bobby McFerrin didn't invent the phrase "Don't worry, be happy".
• Overshadowed by Controversy: This quiet, unassuming little film gets an astonishing amount of vitriol directed at it online simply because of Art Carney's Best Actor win. The fact that it gets piled-on by people who clearly have never seen it is disappointing. Some of the issue seems to be people reading the plot description and assuming it's Glurge, when it's really more like a ‘70s equivalent of an Alexander Payne film.
• Tear Jerker: Harry saying goodbye to Tonto before having him euthanized.

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