Love and Death(1975)- User Reviews

Love and Death is Woody Allen, that he directed, starred and wrote loosely based around the period in Russian history as ‘War and Peace’ the great novel, this was Allen’s last funny ha ha films, after this movie was released in 1975 his films became more serious and funny.
In Tsarist Russia Boris Grushenko played with his usual buffoon style by Allen himself, is called up to fight the French in the Napoleonic wars. His great love Sonja played with her comedic timing working well by Diane Keaton, is desperate to be married before all the men go off to war. A big party is thrown in honor of the men going off to war and Sonja firstly tries her hand with one man only to be told he is marrying another. This gets Boris’s hopes up but she goes to a second man who dies from the excitement of being asked, this kind of behavior continues until she marries the fish merchant who has a sexual fetish about his fish.
At the training school for the men to be turned into soldiers only Allen could cast a black American with a thick Brooklyn accent as the Gunner drill sergeant played with style by Frank Adu. After numerous pathetic battle sequences and a number of twists of fate Sonja and Boris are joined together and live together. She is not satisfied with her way of life of the French occupying her country the pair (Allen and Keaton) decides to go and hunt down Napoleon and assassinate him. When they find Napoleon Bonaparte
Played by James Tolkan, they plan to lure Napoleon into Sonja’s room where Boris will shoot him, but as usual with Allen films, it is a complete failure.
As usual with Allen’s movies, they are not exactly spot on for details it is the dialogue or the comedic routines that save Allen’s films and this is the last of Allen’s really belly laugh films.