Alfie is my favourite Michael Caine performance he manages to find something in the character and show it in a way noone else could. His sexually driven strong male role slowly crumbles and the vulnerble reality comes through. The script and story are great and i urge all to see this if they havent already. A British classic!
This is a strange movie for me to review. On one hand, I didn't like the title character and since the movie is about him, it makes it a bore to watch.
On the other hand, all the women he uses throughout the film feel realistic and each had their own distinct personality. All of them were better written then 80% of the wives/girlfriends on film that you see in movies now-a-days.
Wild and ribald comedy about a Cockney playboy who finds "birds" irresistible. Full of sex and delightful charm, this quick-moving British film also tells the poignant tragedy of a man uncrertain about his lifestyle. Michael Caine was superb in the title role.
I enjoyed this film. The character Alfie was a bit of a bastard towards his women (always refering to them as "it")but Michael Caine bought a certain charm to the character making him more likeable. This is meant to be a comedy but there were some pretty grim scenes (mainly the illegal abortion scen...(read more)e). Shelley Winters also put in a good performance who in the end gave Alfie a taste of his own medicine.
In all a good film showing another side of 60s London, but nowadays is slightly dated.
Ach well, watched it again the other night there and was yet again blown away by the performance by Michael Caine. His Alfie is repulsive, rude, ignorant arrogant yet exceptionally attractive, not just to the women who want him but to us men that want to be him. There's that old idea that women love a bastard and the script here brings that notion to the forefront in a truelly marvellous way.
Whilst the movie is a comedy, it's also extremely tragic in places. The pain of watching so many women having their hearts broken by this reckless cad is quite saddening and although Alfie deserves everything the climax throws at him, you can't help but have that pang of sympathy for him.
The film also presents an alternative view of London during the 'swinging' 60s, focussing on the more industrious, working class side, with no view of the jiving nightlife.
On the whole it's a rare kind of movie, never cheerful yet always charming, never warm yet consistenyl comfy, like the main charcter himself the film is on occasion cold, yet always desirable. Ultimately superb movie making.
What's it all about eh? That's the big question that Caine ponders over during the entire film. Wonderful acting and script and Caine is such a charmer. Sorry but this is the definitive version and not even Jude Law, Siena Miller or even Mick Jagger could've saved that dreadful remake.
I'll admit I came back a bit to my old habit of room wandering when I watched this, so I'm not going to be perfect at reviewing it, but I certainly got enough of the details, ideas and events that I "got" the film.
I picked it up simply because I thought, oh, hey, they felt they could remake this (they did in 2004 with Jude Law in the title role), the reviews are good and Michael Caine stars! Wa-hey!
I'm not drawn to comedies (it's debated whether this is a comedy or not, but nevermind that) from the 60s, or much of anything other than the "big" and "important" films of that decade, so this one has been sitting around a relative bit of time in my collection. It also was not holding my interest enough to keep me centered as I already mentioned. Still, it did well enough, and certainly ended up surprising me. I was intrigued by the start of the movie, where Alfie suddenly turns and speaks to the audience as an aside, and says his name is--and the woman he's with says "Alfie!" as the title flashes onscreen. He tells us the titles are, in fact, not going to be shown now as we expect, and onward the movie goes, trundling back and forth between Alfie's "advice" and the dramatic events of the story.
Essentially, imagine any negative consequences and possibilities to occur from having a womanizing central character with more interest in himself than those around him, and they're here. He abandons one woman who has mothered his child, despite his obvious affection for the child, because he simply cannot commit to anyone. In a later relationship there is an abortion. He's controlling, manipulative, self-centered and unloving. He's a little tragic, too, though, as you can see how lonely he is, and how he has so convinced himself that his freewheeling sex-life is the way to be happy, that he refuses to see how unhappy he, himself is. A great performance by Caine, one that helps us to appreciate Alfie, even as we're utterly disgusted by almost everything he does. Shame, though, that the movie ambles along without any real spice to it--there's just not much here of interest in the way it's all put together.
A LOT cleaner than the remake with Jude Law, and SO much better.
Law's version is all about how many women he can bed, that's it. Caine's has more emotional complexity to it and a much better preformance.
I love Jude Law as much as the next girl, but come on, let's be honest, he's not a good actor, he's just another pretty face. That alone can't carry a movie.
My name is...Alfie. Alfie. Sometime it acts like it almost has feelings...Lewis Gilbert is a very good director (check out The Admirable Crichton) and this is why Michael Caine is such a British icon
Best understood as the dramatic milestone of the Swinger phenomenon, but also can be viewed as a rejection of the Angry Young Man persona. Excellent acting all around. Ranked higher than "Gandhi" in a list of British films.
I don't like a lot of what Alfie said about women but that's who he is as a character and I still found myself liking him. Michael Caine was the perfect choice for this role and I have no idea why they bothered doing a remake. I may have to see it, just so I can compare the two...
If you liked the remake, the original will make you hate yourself for even having watched the remake. If Jude Law had any respect for himself, he should make a public apology.
Michael Caine is brilliant, and this deserved a re-make as it's very dated and not as slick, showing a bit more of the ugly truth than the Jude Law version. A great watch by itself and in reference, though. Honest stuff.
The funniest thing in this movie is Michael Caines monologues to the audience. Especially when he gets confused between his 'internal monologue' and what he's saying to the character's he's supposed to be interacting with.
the orginal, yah was good, and for me alfie is micheal caine... altho jude law does do a good job, nothing just gets to the part like micheal, its fun, its easy to watch, and good and well done :D
saw this way back when and only love this movie more now. You've had to have lived some life yourself to truly embrace this film. Along with Caine's most wonderful perfomrance is the great soundtrack by Sonny Rollins. His music is as fresh in 2005 as it was in 1966. And yes the title song we hear at the very end...and yes...song by a 19 year old Sher and NOT the much better version later done by Dionne Warwick - but Rollins you hear all throughout the movie and it works and it's perfection. Depressing - yes. Great movie - yes. Better than the remake
One of Michael Caine's most famous roles is another of those zeitgeist movies that sums up perfectly the time in which they were made; in this case, London's swinging sixties. Caine's effortless charm is at the core of this comedy of sexual mores, but it skillfully shifts to a much darker tone once Alfie starts to experience the repercussions of his lascivious actions. A minor classic.
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