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Good movie but grossly overrated

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

The French/Romanian writer Eugène Ionesco wrote this VERY strange story for The Theatre of the Absurd. Now if you are the sort of person who likes their stories very literal (or semi-comprehensible), you will most likely have no interest in this film. In fact, MOST people would probably have no interest in this movie!! Despite this, it was a reasonable hit on Broadway--running for 240 performances (very good back in the 60s) and earning Zero Mostel the Tony.There are other films that are absurdist and most often they are French (such as "Buffet Froid"). The trademark of these stories are bizarre situations but even more bizarre are the reactions or lack of serious reactions by the actors. Here in "Rhinoceros", people inexplicably start turning into rhinos!! It's totally weird. But weirder still is that folks aren't all that upset about it and although they react, it's completely out of proportion. While there SHOULD be panic and terror, folks take it very much in stride. Other really odd bits are the dream sequence 2/3 of the way through film where Karen Black in orange crepe dances about with Mostel (who at this point has already turned into a rhino but he's not a rhino in the dream)--while Gene Wilder looks on from inside a cage marked 'Human'. You may be tempted to keep watching--just so something is eventually revealed that makes it all make sense. But this is NOT something you very important in truly absurdist films--as they WANT to provoke the audience and confuse them. Some have interpreted all this craziness as a reaction against Fascism, Communism, conformity, modern life or WWII or whatever. I doubt if this was the intention...who knows.The bottom line is that even if you are a huge fan of the Mostel/Wilder combination (they were BRILLIANT in "The Producers"), this still probably will be a very tough movie to like. I am not saying it isn't without merit (a bit of the comedy is funny--such as when Mostel tells his friend to take in some culture--such as seeing a Eugène Ionesco play--and he's the guy who wrote "Rhinoceros"!). For me, it was very hard going even if it was, in an odd way, well written and acted.

A hungover Stanley (Gene Wilder) meets his pompous and condescending best friend, John (Zero Mostel), at a restaurant. John's inevitable criticisms about Stanley's drinking and dishevelment are interrupted by a rhinoceros charging through the street outside. This provides the staff and the patrons some amusement until the creature charges through the restaurant and destroys everything. At the office, Stanley arrives late as the boss and the other workers are having an argument about the absurd news reports regarding these animals. The attractive but not overly bright Daisy (Karen Black) insists she saw the rhinoceros with her own eyes. Stanley says the same thing, but it's not until a coworker on the street below changes into a rhinoceros before their eyes that they grasp the importance, and absurdity, of what is happening. Soon, everyone is becoming a rhinoceros, and Stanley is feeling the pressure to conform."What you are about to see," reads the introductory title card, "could never take place. Several eminent scientists have assured us of this fact, for, as they are quick to point out... the world is flat."Are they? That dismal attempt at irony is an omen for the rest of the movie. Whatever value Eugène Ionesco's absurdist play may have had on stage, this film adaptation is a leaden allegory, filled with room-wrecking slapstick, that is exhausting, exasperating and tedious. Zero Mostel, who won a Tony for playing the same role on Broadway in 1961, has a transformation scene that is fascinating for its sweaty excess, but his antics can be better appreciated in "The Producers" (1968) in which he and Gene Wilder are actually funny. In this film, the two play off each other just as well, but it doesn't come to much.No rhinoceroses appear, which might sound like admirable restraint (if not an impoverished budget), but the movie already opened up the play considerably and added a dream sequence and a lot of Keystone Comedy antics. Not showing us rhinoceroses just seems irritatingly coy.

The Theatre-Of-The-Absurd was a style of experimental play-scripting that was practised in the '50s and '60s by playwrights like Samuel Beckett, Arthur Adamov, Jean Genet and Eugene Ionesco. When first devised, the Theatre-Of-The-Absurd movement was rather unpopular because audiences were left bewildered by the intentionally illogical and plot less story lines. A particular rule of absurdist plays is that they have no dramatic conflict, instead dealing with logically impossible situations and having the characters speak about irrational things as if they are perfectly rational. Also, the main character in an absurdist play is usually significantly out of key with everyone and everything around him. Eugene Ionesco's "Rhinoceros" is one of the most famous of all the absurd plays. This film version is set in urban America and is a deliberately subversive, surreal experience with strong comic performances. It is not, however, as multi-layered as the original play (which was set in France and had strong political and historical connotations about the Nazi occupation). This presentation of Rhinoceros is mainly a story about conformity and, in particular, those rare few who refuse to conform.Depressed, bored accountant Stanley (Gene Wilder) spends his week-days crunching numbers and his weekends drinking himself into a haze. His friend John (Zero Mostel) disapproves, but still meets Stanley every Sunday lunchtime to talk to him about the error of his ways. One particular Sunday, their lunch is interrupted when a stampeding rhinoceros charges down the street outside the restaurant. Soon, more and more rhinoceroses are sighted in town and Stanley gradually begins to realise that the entire population is turning into these huge pachyderms. More alarming still is that everyone that Stanley counts on to "remain" human seems to be switching to rhinoceros form too - his work colleagues (Joe Silver, Robert Weil, Percy Rodriguez), his dream girl Daisy (Karen Black), and even his best friend John. Stanley is determined not to conform, but as the human numbers dwindle and the rhinoceros population soars, will he be able to resist?One of the main problems with this film version of Rhinoceros is that it doesn't use the possibilities of film to "open-up" the constraints of its stage-bound play origins. For instance, during the scene where Mostel's character transforms into a rhinoceros, Wilder keeps commenting on the bump appearing on his forehead and the greyness of his skin, but there's no bump or greyness visible. Here was an opportunity to use the visual advantages that film has over the theatre stage, but it remains an unused opportunity. In fact, at all points the film refuses to become cinematic and constantly has a feel of "filmed theatre" about it. However, in other ways Rhinoceros is quite well done and credit needs to be given where it is due (Maltin rated this film BOMB, which shows how wide of the mark Maltin is prone to be). Wilder and Mostel interact brilliantly, relishing the play's enigmatic and often self-contradictory dialogue. Mostel's transformation sequence - done without make-up or visual effects, as noted earlier - is almost compensated by the sheer outrageous energy that Mostel invests in it. And, by removing the historical and political subtext of the original play, I think they've actually made it more timeless by focusing more on the themes of conformity (after all, don't we all relate to how it feels to spend our lives conforming, losing more and more of the animal-like freedom that was a characteristic of primitive man?) Transforming into a rhinoceros could be viewed as a metaphor for any type of conformity - doing drugs because all your peers do them; being promiscuous because it's the norm; voting for a particular political party because everyone else on your street is in favour of that party; etc.Not a complete success, then, but definitely a worthwhile and thought-provoking piece of cinema.

this is one of the all-time magnificent plays, illuminating ww2 france as it enthusiastically embraced antisemetic nazi ideals. sartre wrote that france could have been germany, and ionesco brought that home with rhinoceros.one could argue that the work applies today as the bush regime asserts its anti-evil doctrine, and so many buy into it without levels of proof demanded in a courtroom, seemingly willingly! it took years for europe to undo analogous nazi assertions (albeit hitler was infinitely worse to jews than bush is to muslims, the propaganda is scary in its similarity), and perhaps the united states is in for the same.regardless of one's political inclination, the movie is amazing. the trio of mostel - wilder - black is magical. a movie that stimulates the mind.