Harvey Pekar is file clerk at the local VA hospital. His interactions with his co-workers offer some relief from the monotony, and their discussions encompass everything from music to the decline of American culture to new flavors of jellybeans and life itself. At home, Harvey fills his days with reading, writing and listening to jazz. His apartment is filled with thousands of books and LPs, and he regularly scours Cleveland’s thrift stores and garage sales for more, savoring the rare joy of a 25-cent find. It is at one of these junk sales that Harvey meets Robert Crumb, a greeting card artist and music enthusiast. When, years later, Crumb finds international success for his underground comics, the idea that comic books can be a valid art form for adults inspires Harvey to write his own brand of comic book. An admirer of naturalist writers like Theodore Dreiser, Harvey makes his American Splendor a truthful, unsentimental record of his working-class life, a warts-and-all self portrait. First published in 1976, the comic earns Harvey cult fame throughout the 1980s and eventually leads him to the sardonic Joyce Barber, a partner in a Delaware comic book store who end ups being Harvey’s true soul mate as they experience the bizarre byproducts of Harvey’s cult celebrity stature.

American Splendor (2003)
  • Rating: (28,756 votes)
  • Tagline:Ordinary life is pretty complex stuff. »
  • Runtime:101 minutes
  • Directors: Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini
  • Country:USA
  • Actors:
    Superman
    Chris Ambrose
    Batman
    Joey Krajcar
    Robin
    Josh Hutcherson
    Green Lantern
    Cameron Carter
    Young Harvey
    Daniel Tay
    Housewife
    Mary Faktor
    Harvey Pekar
    Paul Giamatti
    Real Harvey
    Harvey Pekar
    Interviewer (voice)
    Shari Springer Berman
    Throat Doctor (as Larry John Myers)
    Larry John Meyers
  • Genres:Biography, Comedy, Drama
  • Producers:
    Declan Baldwin
    line producer: New York  
    Ted Hope
    producer  
    Julia King
    associate producer  
    Christine K. Walker
    line producer (as Christine Kunewa Walker) 
  • Plot: Harvey Pekar is file clerk at the local VA hospital. His interactions with his co-workers offer some relief from the monotony, and their discussions encompass everything from music to the decline of American culture to new flavors of jellybeans and life itself. At home, Harvey fills his days with reading, writing and listening to jazz. His apartment is filled with thousands of books and LPs, and he regularly scours Cleveland's thrift stores and garage sales for more, savoring the rare joy of a 25-cent find. It is at one of these junk sales that Harvey meets Robert Crumb, a greeting card artist and music enthusiast. When, years later, Crumb finds international success for his underground comics, the idea that comic books can be a valid art form for adults inspires Harvey to write his own brand of comic book. An admirer of naturalist writers like Theodore Dreiser, Harvey makes his American Splendor a truthful, unsentimental record of his working-class life, a warts-and-all self portrait. First published in 1976, the comic earns Harvey cult fame throughout the 1980s and eventually leads him to the sardonic Joyce Barber, a partner in a Delaware comic book store who end ups being Harvey's true soul mate as they experience the bizarre byproducts of Harvey's cult celebrity stature. Written by Sujit R. Varma
American Splendor
  • User's comment:A True Super-Hero! by departed07

    Throughout the years, people have read dozens of comic books: Spider-Man, Batman, Superman, The Green Latern, X-Men, Hulk, etc., looking for escape from reality, but at the same time, looking for a relation from those books. With "American Splendor" on the other hand, it's quite a different comic book. What makes it so special? It's depicting real life where it shows the character Harvey Pekar in different situations.

    "American Splendor" is a comic/drama biography about the life of Harvey Pekar(Played by Paul Giamatti) in which the film plays like a comic book showing scenes that are real and fiction. Even the real Harvey makes appearances quite often in the film to talk about his life, his wife(Joyce) and everything that sort of made him the person who he is today.

    Harvey Pekar can be described as one of those characters who don't seem to give a damn about the world. The reason that I root for this character is that he's the type person that lives in his own world, from not giving a crap about the incidents in the world, to not having a formal college education, to working at a dead end job where in the future, people are still laughing at him. And yet, I don't blame him. I am reminded of two other movies that had losers, but made an impact on male society: "The Big Lebowski" and "Fast Times At Ridgemont High" in which both male characters didn't have to worry about anything or go out on dates, or even pleasing society(shame on you, people).

    All in All, American Splendor is a great movie. Though the film's target audience are for guys, I still encourage people to see this movie. The film also stars, Hope Davis portraying Harvey's wife, Joyce.

    One of the Best Films!


  • Quotes: Harvey Pekar: Ordinary life is pretty complex stuff. Robert Crumb: You turned yourself into a comic hero? Harvey Pekar: Sorta, yeah. But no idealized shit. No phony bullshit. The real thing, y'know? Ordinary life is pretty complex stuff.
  • Also known as: American Splendor (Greece), American Splendor (Japan - English title), American Splendor (Portugal - imdb display title), Esplendor americano (Argentina), Esplendor americano (Mexico - imdb display title), Ameerika hiilgus (Estonia - imdb display title), Americka divota (Serbia - imdb display title), Amerykanski splendor (Poland - imdb display title), Anti-Herói Americano (Brazil), Görkemli hayatim (Turkey - Turkish title), Sikersztori (Hungary - imdb display title),

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