TOP TEN FAVORITE 1970's MOVIES.

[Lincsong]

[

I guess I'm at a loss. I cannot come up with ten films from the 1970s I really like. I've seen most of the films that folks have mentioned, and most I don't care to see again. I have yet to understand the attraction of the Godfather or Saturday Night Fever. I suppose I'm just part of the great unwashed. Maybe those arty films are over my head.

It's not that you are unwashed, you just have different tastes in movies. Nothing wrong with not finding the attraction of The Godfather. In my opinion, I'm attracted to it because it is so dark and sinister. That in some strange way it portrayed how the American Underworld operates. As for Saturday Night Fever; we are on the same page.:cheers1:

 

[topcat]

NOBODY MENTIONS The Dino DeLaurentis MASTERPIECE "KING KONG" 76????

(actually there are those who LOVE it as much as hate it,has its own webpage and everything.)

 

[Marc Chevalier]

MONTY PYTHON'S LIFE OF BRIAN (1979).

 

[Sefton]

And in no particular order...

U.S. Films:
Dawn of the Dead
Dirty Harry
Death Wish
Alien
Annie Hall
Play It Again, Sam
Young Frankenstein
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Taxi Driver
Apocalypse Now

Foreign Films:
Jingi Naki Tatakai (Japan)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (U.K.)
Le Cercle Rouge (France)
Gekitotsu! Satsujin Ken ("The Streetfighter" Japan)
Enter The Dragon (H.K./U.S. co-production)
The Devils (U.K.)
The Ruling Class (U.K.)
Suspiria (Italy)
The Wicker Man (U.K.)
Gojira Tai Hedora ("Godzilla vs. The Smog Monster" Japan)

 

[Marc Chevalier]

DAWN OF THE DEAD is from the 1980s, not the '70s.

 

[Doh!]

In no particular order (and not Top Ten, either):

THE COWBOYS ('72)
HALLOWEEN ('78)
ROCKY ('76)
ALIEN ('79)
ANIMAL HOUSE ('78)
JAWS ('75)
YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN ('74)
and, um, STAR WARS ('77)

 

[Harry Lime]

Yes, that was rather "bonkers" wasnt it? It's "out there" to place un-called for stereotypes onto people for liking a certain kind of film, isnt it? Like calling someone a 12 year old who lives in his parents basement for liking a certain type of movie, huh? The only "action figures" in my house belong to my 2 year old daughter. And my parents are both dead, by the way.

This has nothing to do with SW, actually. It has to do with some people here and their holier-than-thou attitudes. I would be kicking up the same fuss say, if someone in here accused Norman Rockwell of not being a 'real' artist . (At one time a common misconception). If you dont like a movie, fine. Some things are just not your cup of tea. But dont try to prove that it is trash based only on your opinion.

Try to remain calm, Straightrazor. It's only a discussion forum. We're just having a little fun. So, dear boy...

Re-read the first posts and see how far you've strayed. Jake and I are just having a bit of fun. No one set out to disprove Star Wars initially. I did as you asked...only offered a strong opinion of not liking it. If you do like it, fine. If you don't like other movies I like, also fine. Now I do believe you took this as an opportunity to accuse me, so far, of...

1) Because of my SW comments, I therefore hate everything from kittens to the sun.
2) I even hate the concept of love.
3) I hate fast food, sitcoms, popular culture.
4) I hate the way kids dress if it's not like an old white man
5) I hate rap music
6) I am a snob who hates everything "common" probably inclusive of the artwork of Norman Rockwell

I suppose at this point you may want to also report me to the House Un-American Activities Committee. At the very least you're hardly behaving like a good Jedi.

The joke about "living in your parents basement" is a circuitous reference to an old Saturday Night Live episode that featured William Shatner. There was a skit where he played himself at a Star Trek convention. He couldn't answer all the rabid fans infinite questions so he urged them to "move out of their parent's basements and get on with their lives! It was only a TV show! You've taken all my enjoyment of being in it and bled it dry!" A pop culture in-joke at the super-serious devotion of Trekkies that I transferred to the Star Wars fan base. This sort of zeal is the kind of thing some us find funny.

I can be a bit of a wise guy, I admit that. As for the snobbery thing... friend - this is an international discussion forum and this is the Film Lounge. That's kind of allowed here. It's all sort of a half-lark to not be taken that seriously.

Like I said earlier, you've really got yourself worked up and your underwear knotted in a bunch for nothing. And I'm sorry, but I do find it all really, really funny.

"But Straightrazor...I am your...father..."

Harry Lime

All you film snobs like me out there, you get that last joke, right?

And lest we stray completely off track, other great seventies movies:

Three Days of The Condor
Day of the Jackal
Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid
MASH (which aslo became a great sitcom, I'm told)

 

[Quigley Brown]

Hollywood had its finest moment in the 1970s, but, yes, there were great films being made everywhere. So what was it about that decade?

Finally, also, (probably not finally, until I can get back into work), Zabriske Point is unfairly maligned, but I also love The Passenger, also recently restored.

I've always wanted to see The Passenger. I don't know what the deal is with Antonioni films, but they just won't release them on DVD (except Blow Up). I've heard Jack Nicholson is to blame.

As for my allure to Saturday Night Fever I guess it defines an important period in Amercian pop culture (good or bad). Sometimes to have to judge a film that way. It wasn't all about disco. It was a very human film. A lot of the other films listed here really don't have that cultural importance. Decades from now someone will want to know about life in the 70s and SNF will be the one to watch. A disco hater? Too bad. It was there and it was big.

 

[StraightRazor]

At the very least you're hardly behaving like a good Jedi.

One things for sure, kid. You're behaving like a perfect jackass.


Zing!

 

[Salv]

As for my allure to Saturday Night Fever I guess it defines an important period in Amercian pop culture (good or bad). Sometimes to have to judge a film that way. It wasn't all about disco. It was a very human film. A lot of the other films listed here really don't have that cultural importance. Decades from now someone will want to know about life in the 70s and SNF will be the one to watch. A disco hater? Too bad. It was there and it was big.

SNF was so much of its time that it's hard to look past all those elements (the music, the dance moves and the clothes) that now make it look so dated, and realise that it actually is a fairly gritty film about a working class lad with not much future, trying to make the best of a dead-end situation. Take away the terrible Bee Gees songs on the soundtrack - but leave in The Nite-Liters, Kool & The Gang and Ralph McDonald please - and ignore the hideous flared trousers that Travolta had to wear, and there's a decent film in there. An unwanted pregnancy, a priest who has problems with his vow of celibacy, gang violence ... there's a lot more going on than just some silly dance moves.

There are plenty of similar films, some also made in the 70's, about NY street gangs, hanging out, having fun, refusing to grow up, and just getting along until they have to get married and settle down - The Wanderers and The Lords of Flatbush spring immediately to mind - but SNF at least made the effort to update the style and make it contemporary. They maybe weren't great films, but they tried to be realistic and they treated their blue-collar subjects with some respect.

I have to admit I disliked it intensely when it first came out because, like Travoltas character, I was regularly going out dancing, although my soundtrack was a damn sight funkier and I was just starting to get into 50's vintage clothes as well. I didn't want to be associated with those clothes and that music! One of the national papers did a feature on 'our' scene, comparing it to SNF and I had to explain to a lot of people at work that no, I didn't dance to Bee Gees records, and no, I didn't wear flares, and NO, I didn't dance like that.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

In 1979, when I entered 7th grade, the high school seniors were all wearing shirts that said "DEATH BEFORE DISCO!"

 

[Salv]

In 1979, when I entered 7th grade, the high school seniors were all wearing shirts that said "DEATH BEFORE DISCO!"

There was an awful lot of very bad disco music, plus it destroyed the careers of many of my Afro-American musical heroes of the 70's, but I think those seniors needed to calm down a little

 

[Marc Chevalier]

They also wore t-shirts that said "GO TO HELL, WORLD! I'M A SENIOR!"

I wanted to ask them, "What are you going to do with that t-shirt when you're a freshman in college next year?"

 

[Marc Chevalier]

One more ...

NATIONAL LAMPOON'S ANIMAL HOUSE (1978)

 

[jake_fink]

Quigley Brown said:
I've always wanted to see The Passenger. I don't know what the deal is with Antonioni films, but they just won't release them on DVD (except Blow Up). I've heard Jack Nicholson is to blame.

Actually he should be congratulated. He bought up the rights to the film and has tried to have it restored and relreleased for years. It came out in limited release just a month ago and is still playing the reps here in Toronto. It will be released on dvd very soon, I think mid-march.

A few of Antonioni's films are avialble on dvd, L'Aventurra is part of the Criterion Collection, and well worth the price.

The Passenger is similar in tone to The Conformist, and similar to The American Friend as it is a reworking of the thriller. Imagine The Wrong Man or The Man who Knew Too Much with existential angst instead of thrills.

(Actually it's a heck of alot better than I just made it sound.)
:cheers1:

 

[Sefton]

DAWN OF THE DEAD is from the 1980s, not the '70s.

Dawn of the Dead was released to U.S. theaters in 1978.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

You're absolutely right. I was way off mark. Thanks for the correction!

 

[Sefton]

No problem. No offence was taken... In many ways 'Dawn' sums up the late 70s perfectly...the complacent consumerism of suburbia...the enourmous shopping malls as refuge from the outside world. And of course...ZOMBIES!

 

[Marc Chevalier]

I have to see that movie again. It's been too many years.