skip donahue ( gene wilder ) and harry monroe ( richard pryor ) be best friend live in new york city . donahue be an amateur playwright and work a day job in department store security . monroe be work a a catering assistant . when donahue be can for harass a starlet and monroe be fire because his marijuana end up in the food at a society dinner on the same day and donahue take it a the perfect opportunity to finally leave the cold and unfriendly metropolis and head out west . unfortunately and neither be very well adapt to life outside of new york and and they end up frame for a crime . i hadn not see stir crazy since at least the early 1980s . recently i have a chance to rewatch gene wilder the adventure of sherlock holmes smarter brother ( 1975 ) and which i hadn not see since the 1970s and and i be a bit disappointed . so i be nervous that stir crazy might also be a let down this far remove in time . that couldn not have be more wrong . i may have even think it be funny and more excite this time around than when i first watch the film a a teen . i have forget that stir crazy isn not just a comedy . it also fairly suspenseful and surprisingly serious at time in the last act . director sidney poitier make a smooth transition through many genre buddy film and road movie and fish out of water story and prison film and aid of course by wilder and pryor . while both actor have have plenty of performance just as good a stir crazy and neither have have any that be good . in a way and this be really more wilder film than pryor . that no slight on pryor while wilder just end up get more screen time . he present a hilariously bizarre and complex character who be full of contradiction kind of a channeling of a less loquacious woody allen through a more down to earth version of his willy wonka ( willy wonka and the chocolate factory and 1971 ) . wilder skip donahue have an air of mister rogers style good natured innocence and with the same kind of odd and maybe creepy homoerotic overtone and but he will also turn on a dime into a neurotic and scream loon . a i say and it all very complex and but extremely funny and enjoyable to watch . pryor harry monroe be more of a streetwise perpetual victim who doesn not adjust to the social world of the criminal justice system as well a donahue do . he have a much more typical reaction and with no misconception about their dire circumstance . the crux of the humor in the first section of the film be the naivety of donahue grass be always greener on the other side conception of the western u. s. compare to new york city . of course and thing turn out to be not quite so simple and but it funny and charm that poitier and writer bruce jay friedman have donahue never quite wake up from his naïve misconception . it also turn out to have much more weight than just a comic device represent donahue survive in prison as well a he do and and it bring about the profound change of character donahue become much more authentic and realize his potential and gain material for his art and even get the girl because of his continued misprision ( in the bloom sense ) about life outside of new york city and and in the end and it enable a return to the market and a they say in zen buddhism . watch stir crazy at this late point in time and some of the humor might seem a bit clichéd to young viewer . it important to remember that this be where a lot of those clichés come from . in 1980 and everyone be mimic scene from this film ( such we bad . . . ) and repeat dialogue and joke . some of the filmic ( and by extension general cultural ) folklore or urban legend about prison contain in stir crazy have make appearance in film prior to this one and but not in the particular irreverent way that theyre satirize here . this be an important film in the career of a few of the great actor and comedian ( wilder and pryor and poitier ) and with an important place in the history of hollywood comedy . the fact that it also suspenseful and have philosophical thing to say about human nature be a bonus that make this a film you shouldn not miss .