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| The Anderson Tapes | 
 enlarge | Actors: Sean Connery, Dyan Cannon, Martin Balsam, Paul Benjamin, Hildy Brooks
Studio: Sony Pictures
Category: DVD
List Price: $19.94
Buy New: $12.58
You Save: $7.36 (37%)
New (37) Used (8) Collectible (1) from $12.58
Avg. Customer Rating:  15 reviews
Sales Rank: 14169
Format: Color, Dubbed, Dvd-video, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), English (Original Language), French (Dubbed)
Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 99
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: 26807
UPC: 043396268074
EAN: 0043396268074
ASIN: B001CQONHM
Theatrical Release Date: 1971
Release Date: September 23, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: BRAND NEW, Factory Sealed items direct from the Studios. 30 Day Satisfaction Guarantee. Quick International Airmail!
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Product Description
A habitual criminal, looking for a big score immediately upon leaving prison, goes to the syndicate seeking funds for a massive robbery. He intends to ransack a posh East Side New York apartment building. Rounding up a gang of top-flight thieves, he proceeds to plan and carry out his caper unaware that he is being taped.
Amazon.com
An early example of the techno-thriller, The Anderson Tapes--sharply directed by Sidney Lumet from the novel by Lawrence Sanders--follows just-out-of-jail Duke Anderson (a balding Sean Connery) as he plots the heist of an entire New York apartment building, enlisting a crew that includes Martin Balsam as a vintage 1971 gay stereotype and a very young Christoper Walken in perhaps the first of his jittery crook roles. The gimmick is that Anderson has been out of circulation so long that he doesn't realizse his mafia backers are only supporting him because they feel nostalgic for the days before they were boring businessmen and that the whole set-up is monitored by a criss-crossing selection of government and private agencies who don't care enough to thwart the robbery, which instead becomes unglued thanks to a spunky handicapped kid-cum-radio ham. With a cool Quincy Jones score, very tight editing, a lot of spot-on cameo performances from the likes of Ralph Meeker as a patient cop, The Anderson Tapes hasn't dated a bit: it's wry without being jokey and suspenseful without feeling contrived. --Kim Newman
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| Customer Reviews: Read 10 more reviews...
 A refreshingly multi-faceted caper flick. November 30, 2008
"The Anderson Tapes" is loaded with the sort of richness that you can count on when its director, Sidney Lumet is at the helm. Sean Connery heads up the sort of first-rate cast of character actors that routinely gravitate toward any Lumet film. There is the sprinkling of humor and the rising suspense that you might expect from a movie about a plot to commit a robbery. The director's masterful touch with pacing keeps the picture moving in a thoroughly engrossing fashion. Most of all, his gift for drawing intense and powerful performances from his casts is in full flower here. Screen the recent Lumet film, "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" and you will see an even more intense and infinitely darker "caper-flick" that is, likewise, very worthwhile.
 Great for 1971 NYC but not much else October 25, 2008
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
Other reviews here that say this movie isn't dated are hard to take serious. All I could think of while watching was how many holes there were in the plot that would never be there even 5 years later. Martin Balsam uses his real name and place of business when casing the apartment. They use a dim, alcoholic old-timer to be look-out? They do everything that will guarantee they will get identified. Look I know it was 1971 but this is Sydney Lumet lite and I'm sure he was not proud of this. I remember seeing this movie when I was a kid and thinking that all the taping and surveillance was very cool. Looking at it now it was very amaturish. Having grown up in NYC it was great to see old ny-St. Anthony's Church downtown. The building on 91st St which in this day and age would be lived in by multi-billionaires with hi-tech security. Of course the streets on ny in this movie were deserted (unbelievable). The use of Garret Morris and his crack TPA police squad was also a stretch. This was an enjoyable light movie of it's time that really has dated very badly. Even the acting other than Connery and Balsam is not really good. But...with a post-007 sean and a hot Dyan Cannnon together there is some value in this movie.
 Press Play October 5, 2008
Sean really seems to relish his role as a tough-guy ex-con in this intense caper from the early 70s that holds up nicely. The conceit that everything we're seeing and hearing is culled from various surveillance tapes is a little distracting and doesn't quite work. But Lumet's brisk, no-nonsense take on the action when the heist goes live still delivers. Good NYC locations and Qunicy Jones jazzy score help. The punch card type of the credits and those awful "futuristic" sounding, echoing computer beeps on the soundtrack are what make the picture seem much more dated than it is. Plus Lumet's inclusion of more than a few gay caricatures.
It's fun to see Chris Walken's debut and Dyan is sensationally sexy. Only Alan King's irritating over-acting mars the cast.
Lumet Strikes Again October 4, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Director Sidney Lumet is impeccable in handling any type of material. What should have been a routine caper film in the hands of Lumet's masterful direction and scenarist Frank Pierson (Oscar for "Dog Day Afternoon" turns into something transcendant. Lumet isn't so much concerned with the caper because it's pretty routine and it's a foregone conclusion how it's going to go down. What distinguishes the film is the terrific dark comedy and great characters. What can you say about a movie whose cast includes everyone from Margaret Hamilton ("The Wizard of Oz") to Garrett Morris("Saturday Night Live")? I particularly liked the work of Judith Lowry whose claim to fame was playing brassy grannies on Seventies sitcoms and plays a similar character here to great effect. Sean Connery is ostensible star but basically his job is to be ringmaster to the circus environment. A real gem and a feather in the cap for director Lumet.
Anderson and Watergate December 19, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The Anderson Tapes -- like The Conversation -- is amusingly a precusor to the Watergate scandal, the Plumbers Unit, etc. Those the electronic eavesdropping isn't central to the caper, it is all illegal! The end -- I don't wanna spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen this movie. Walken's film debut, this movie (and Diamonds Are Forever) put Sean Connery back in the top ten box office stars for 1971.
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