1970's Best Movies: 50 Years Later

Ryan's Daughter is fascinating, and not really bad aside from maybe John Mills

mighta been a little better or much worse if Brando had accepted the Christopher Jones role

pretty sure both Where's Poppa? and Diary of a Mad Housewife, missing from this list, make my top dozen of '70.

but almost certainly voting Tristana

My actual fave movie of 1970, Goin' Down the Road, is also missing, but I wouldn't have really expected it to be here.

A lot of stuff here that I like but don’t really love. I actually rate Woodstock pretty high & might vote for it tbh. I like gimme shelter too but it feels slight by comparison. Agree w/cryptosicko that the herzog is kind of gross.

(xpost) Ditto!

Good lord, what an embarrassment of riches. Voted Zabriskie Point, but easily could've went with any of these:

Wanda
Beware of a Holy Whore
Le Boucher
Gimme Shelter
The Conformist
Performance

Not a fan of El Topo, Claire's Knee, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, or Five Easy Pieces.

also Wiseman's Hospital is among his very best, even if it debuted on US public TV

have always found The Conformist's weird gay stuff offputting

I don't feel that strongly about it. And I don't even like Performance, but it's the start of Nic Roeg's classic run.

Hospital is 1968 iirc

oh nvm I'm thinking of High School

the Herzog film was memorable I thought. the Fassbinder I haven't seen yet but it's on CC so I will watch it

Maybe: Deep End

Runners up: Le Boucher, Tristana, Claire's Knee, Performance

Threw a vote to the always underrated Elio Petri. Don't let the fact that it won an Oscar turn you off!

Not my favourite Fassbinder, though I know it's Top 5 for a lot of people- including Fassbinder himself! It's still great mind you. One of my favourite Herzogs though, a complete mindfuck of a movie.

Might have to vote for 'A Swedish Love Story' if only because it seems to need the love.

M*A*S*H almost certainly my least favorite of what I've watched on this list.

My top ten would go:

The Landlord (Hal Ashby)
Gods of the Plague (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
Claire's Knee (Eric Rohmer)
Tristana (Luis Buñuel)
The Wild Child (François Truffaut)
Wanda (Barbara Loden)
The Ballad of Cable Hogue (Sam Peckinpah)
Hospital (Frederick Wiseman)
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (Vittorio de Sica)
The Butcher (Claude Chabrol)

xpost and that includes Patton

M*A*S*H* has NOT aged well.

One of the obvious problems is that it's just a rough draft for later and much better films (California Split being the most obvious pairing, I'd say, with Gould/Sutherland replaced by Gould/Segal).

I was surprised by how little the jerkiness of the Gould and Sutherland characters was painted as a response to, or was just otherwise informed by, the horror of their surroundings. It's been ages since I've seen California Split, and while I remember liking it, I can't remember how it directs us to respond to the characters.

I'm sure the room here would have very different opinions about that latter question.

never cared for California Split all that much

Army personnel were pigs in the Korean War, golly gee, gold stars in perception all around (the original novel was written by the 'real' Hawkeye, who was a total reactionary)

Chaplain has best line in MASH: "He was drafted."

the thing that's most offensive about Kellerman's Hot Lips is she just becomes a dumb cheerleader in the last third for no reason at all.

The sitcom turned her into a '70s feminist, like all the other regulars (except Frank Burns).

the thing that's most offensive about Kellerman's Hot Lips is she just becomes a dumb cheerleader in the last third for no reason at all.

Not to mention the number of times she's called an imbecile (or whatever it was) during that sequence. Speaking of which, that football game feels about as long as an actual football game (I hate football).

Also, I'm not expecting military dudes from the 50s, written from the perspective of the early 70s, to exude post-millennial wokeness. I'm just looking for some kind--any kind--of perspective on the subject matter.

saw Dodes’ka-den this week and really liked it, but also saw Performance, which was pretty great. I’m not sure that film makes any sense, but I loved its frantic editing, split-second images and action close-ups, inspired soundtrack, and overdose of 1970-era aesthetic choices

it was Nicolas Roeg’s first film. It reminds me a little of Fassbinder’s first film Love Is Colder Than Death a year earlier

could you understand at least a third of the dialogue?

crypto, you understand that MASH was considered a reinvention of the war film/comedy upon its release (and b.o. success) ... a lot of that was due to the juxtaposition of gore and hijinks.

but yes at its core it's still a "service comedy," which stretched back to Abbott & Costello in Buck Privates 30 years earlier.

could you understand at least a third of the dialogue?

― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Friday, January 17, 2020

:) it was very disjointed, but I really liked the images and the moment it represented. Richard Schickel called it "the most disgusting, the most completely worthless film I have seen since I began reviewing"

There's at least one scene in California Split that makes we squirm a little--Gould and Segal drunkenly hamming it up in the parking lot just before they get jumped (I do enjoy their Seven-Dwarts ramblings just before that)--but I think most of it's great, and I think it's a much better film about the rush of gambling than Uncut Gems. (Of which my experience is limited to low-stakes poker games with friends, so I supposed someone with actual experience will disagree with me on that.)

Performance made me think of the Safdies, the reckless style of it

at its core it's still a "service comedy," which stretched back to Abbott & Costello in Buck Privates 30 years earlier.

Right. I probably had my expectations elevated--this is one the last of the major Altman films I had yet to see, though it was very early in his filmography--so there's a good chance I just wasn't on the movie's wavelength, my only familiarity with the "service comedy" being Stripes and assorted Three Stooges shorts. I've only ever seen the sitcom in passing, as well (different animal, I know).

well I don't think Donald Cammell (co-director) and Nic were quite that close xp

MASH was Altman's first and last popular smash.

While this thread's active again, they've unveiled the 2020 version of TSPDT's aggregate list:

http://www.theyshootpictures.com/gf1000.htm

The Winners – Top Climbers within the 1,000
Vagabond (1985), 672 to 478 (up 194)
Near Dark (1987), 920 to 730 (up 190)
La Ciénaga (2001), 733 to 577 (up 156)
Diary (1983), 983 to 835 (up 148)
Le Bonheur (1965), 925 to 801 (up 124)
The Winners – Highest Entrants into the 1,000
Holy Motors (2012), ranked 619
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), ranked 629
Superman (1978), ranked 746
Iracema - Uma Transa Amazônica (1975), ranked 766
Sideways (2004), ranked 767
The Losers – Biggest Fallers within the 1,000
3 Women (1977), 863 to 951 (down 88)
Branded to Kill (1967), 776 to 861 (down 85)
Time of the Gypsies (1989), 788 to 872 (down 84)
The Lusty Men (1952), 738 to 820 (down 82)
The 47 Ronin (1941), 895 to 976 (down 81)
The Losers – Biggest Fallers from the 1,000
Donnie Darko (2001), formerly ranked 765
The Return (2003), formerly ranked 862
The Godfather Part III (1990), formerly ranked 935
Malcolm X (1992), formerly ranked 937
The Verdict (1982), formerly ranked 939

Vagabond, La Ciénaga, Le Bonheur are all great

not sure what I think of Holy Motors, need to see it again

regarding this poll, I want to see Husbands, The Conformist, Wanda

Sideways is definitely overrated at 767.

Movies like Sideways keep popping in and usually immediately out of the bottom quarter of this list.

Can’t argue with science

really don't think 3 Women should descend on this list

not relevant to 1970 though

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

for people who subscribe to the Criterion Channel and are interested in seeing Five Easy Pieces, it is one of the films that will be discontinued at the end of January

a minor point, but I really liked Nicholson’s shirt at the bowling alley. I wish they would make baseball shirts today the didn’t have the darker color draped over the shoulders, just on the arms, it is so much more appealing.

What you're saying is you prefer a Set-In sleeve to a Raglan sleeve. A Set-In sleeve has a seam around the shoulder and under the arm whereas the Raglan sleeve has a seam that goes from under the arm right up to the collar with no shoulder seam. Raglan sleeves are popular because many people feel they provide more freedom of movement, although I agree that a Set-In Sleeve looks nicer. Not sure if a Raglan sleeve would have helped Nicholson's bowling game though.

thanks for explaining that! I thought the outfits in the film were really good

I've always loved those baseball tees and wish I was still thin enough to wear them.

Of the films that got votes, I've never seen (any) Otar Iosseliani or El Topo (damn stoners).

Dodes'ka-den should have gotten a vote or two

From memory, I think The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes was Sarris's #1 or #2 that year--he did something of an about-face with Wilder after The American Cinema.

haven't seen that film

It's mostly fun. Not in my top 10, or 15, for that year.

1980's Best Movies: 40 Years Later

Time for the showdown: The Best Movies Of Years Celebrating An Anniversary Divisible By 10 (1920-2010)