*** ILE Best Films of the 1970s REVEALED ***

Ha, except the "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair" scene ends somewhat differently...

>morbs prefers pakula to waters, roeg to herzog.

Funny blount, I snubbed the guys I "prefer" in the poll and voted for Female Trouble and Aguirre. cold, incoherent and shitfaced is no way to go thru life suhhhh... (ya don't say the N)

Straw Dogs: Jay Cocks was on to something when he said (I paraphrase) this was the first major American film to be devoid of heroes. I know that the whole "blood shed as rite of passage" angle gets played up alot, but even Peckinpah said the theme was about coming to terms with the evil you are capable of doing.

M*A*S*H: If you think about it, this movie is notable for two rarely discussed reasons--(1) It sets up a formula for some Altman, meaning throw a diverse bunch of people into a common community situation for a set period of time (Nashville, Short Cuts, McCabe, Popeye) and devote the last act entirely to some event (the concert in Nashville, the Reno card game in California Split, the shoot-out/church fire in McCabe), and (2) This is the spiritual birth of flicks like Animal House, Stripes and such (straights vs. hip rebels with comic results etc).

Useless trivia: M*A*S*H frequently gets compared to Mike Nichols' very good take on Catch-22 (which may or may not be coming up on the list). For those who haven't seen Catch-22, or have seen it and missed it, look closely at the soldiers in line at Milo's brothel. That dazed-looking one standing in the curve of the line inside the building is Alan Alda, star of the M*A*S*H TV show.

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39. Stalker
Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979

Points: 67
Total Votes: 5
First Place Votes: 1

Pashmina: I think the best part of "Stalker" is the whole sequence from where the protagonists enter the zone in their land-rover, up to where they get into the zone, and you see the abandoned tanks, bodies in armoured cars etc. The part where they are on the little rail trolly, and you can see the landscape behind them changing is just phenomenally good, esp w/the newer artemiev soundtrack.

Reed Moore: - the reason I prefer Stalker is how expertly he creates the world of 'the zone' without resorting to any kind of cheap special effects, relying instead on more subtle effects of lighting and color to create that sense of foreboding. The shots of the undulating grass, the close-ups of the water with the submerged industrial detritus, the characters' physical disorientation and circular travels while in the zone, the encounter with the telephone -- all add up to one of the more eerie and unsettling films where nothing really overtly *scary* ever happens.

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38. Cries & Whispers
Ingmar Bergman, 1972

Points: 69
Total Votes: 4
First Place Votes: 2

Jedidiah: Harrowing. Bergman and Sven Nykvist's use of color is highly effective and astonishing.

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37. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Milos Forman, 1975

Points: 70
Total Votes: 7
First Place Votes: 0

Justyn: With its unreliable narrator and LSD-influenced narrative, Ken Kesey's novel is the
epitome of the unfilmable book, but it worked incredibly well taken straight, with Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher doing a lot to humanize their rather archetypal characters. A fine supporting cast, most of whom later wound up on "Taxi."

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36. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones, 1975

Points: 72
Total Votes: 7
First Place Votes: 0

Girolamo Savonarola: I think it's exceedingly hard in Western society (especially among males) to find someone who can actually speak of this film rationally and without total bias. I know I've seen it way too often to be able to look at it at all vaguely objectively. Is my laughter to this film reflexive now, or does it remain genuine? God knows. I haven't seen it in a while anyway, but I have the movie embedded in my memory, so why bother? The director's cut sucked, by the way, not b/c they made the movie bad, but because they were the least noticeable changes a director's cut has had in a long time. On the other hand, any excuse to roll this back out into the big screens again is fine with me. I wonder, though, if MP is at risk of such cultural saturation to the point that it all sorta cancels out as humor? Or worse, if they run the risk of being so seen that they age badly (a la Mel Brooks)?

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35. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Tobe Hooper, 1974

Points: 73
Total Votes: 9
First Place Votes: 0

s1ocki: texas chainsaw massacre (the original) is truly one of the most horrifying films i have ever seen!

chaki: texas chainsaw massacre is great. it makes you feel so hot and sweaty and dirty and hillbilly

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34. Cabaret

Bob Fosse, 1972

Points: 74
Total Votes: 6
First Place Votes: 0

anthony: A movie that i am rewatchig for the umpteenth time and realizng how economical its stagig and acting is , underplyed where it needs to be and overplayed when it needs to be , symbolic , shimmering , writhing and decadent , perhaps the best american movie to come out of the fabled auter driven 70s ?

Jonnie: I quite like the film but Liza Minelli dances like a duck.

Dirty Vicar: . I greatly admire its inventiveness and the way scenes are posed and shot. Am I right in thinking that some of the crowd scenes in the cabaret place are meant to look like actual paintings of the period?

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33. Young Frankenstein
Mel Brooks, 1974

Points: 82
Total Votes: 7
First Place Votes: 1

Comments?

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32. Last Tango in Paris
Bernardo Bertolucci, 1973

Points: 84
Total Votes: 6
First Place Votes: 1

Nicole Graham: When I was 8, I first saw Last Tango In Paris on terrestrial TV. I thought, "What's the big deal? They're naked." Sneak-watching my first porn flick (at 11) had greater impact, though I wasn't sure why at the time.

Reed Moore: I'm recalling the scene where Maria Schneider tells Brando he's self-centered and that he doesn't take an interest in the details of her life. And he's on that ladder, and then he climbs down, and he places his harmonica on her head, and then he goes into the other room. And Maria masturbates, while he breaks down and cries. Recalling this scene, right now, I am bawling like a baby. Brando was incredible. THE BEST. I know, apres his death, us cinemaphiles are probably sick of the hosannas and so forth. But make no mistake, this man was incredible.

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31. Harold & Maude

Hal Ashby, 1971

Points: 89
Total Votes: 8
First Place Votes: 0

Comments ?

COMMENT BY RICH GIN: I am proud that my mom gave me this move when I was 12 and didn't have to wait a decade for the Anderson revivalists to take it over

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30. Alien
Ridley Scott, 1979

Points: 89
Total Votes: 10
First Place Votes: 0

Lee G: I love the first movie above all, and am looking forward to seeing in on the big screen again after years of small-screen reruns. Having gotten the DVD last year, I was shocked to be reminded a) how great and imaginative it looks, still, retro computer interfaces notwithstanding, and b) that there is acutal stuff visible in the dark spots of the murked-out versions you get on cable. That said, Ridley Scott is not exactly a master storyteller or extravagant shooter, so I have a hard time imagining what "extra footage" he's gonna insert that hasn't already shown up on the DVD--extra footage, I might add, that I think he was right to leave out.

I'm intrigued by the "timing" complaint on YF, Jeff. Too slow? It's classic Jewish humor/vaudeville timing. Have you only seen it at home -- I'm thinking the spaces left for the audience to laugh bothers you? Also, Peter Boyle's perf is probably the most touching in Brooks' oeuvre (not to mention his priceless takes in the Hackman scene).

Brndo's great, but Play It Again Sam is far less sexist than Last Tango in Paris.

B-b-but, "Puttin' on the Ritz"!

That makes a lot of sense, so I'd just chalk it up to my strange taste. I don't like many comedies in general, and most of the ones I do are from the 90s. I do like the look though, I'd watch it with the sound off any time.

The look is from the James Whale '30s Frankensteins, which are better choices for being watched with the sound off (not that their dialogue is bad -- well, cept for Colin Clive's).

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29. Network
Sidney Lumet, 1976

Points: 90
Total Votes: 7
First Place Votes: 0

Comments?

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28. The French Connection
William Friedkin, 1971

Points: 90
Total Votes: 8
First Place Votes: 0

Comments?

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27. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul

Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1974

Points: 90
Total Votes: 8
First Place Votes: 1

Comments?

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26. Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
Mel Stuart, 1971

Points: 92
Total Votes: 9
First Place Votes: 1

Jimmy the Mod: Odd how a movie with GENE WILDER from 1971 can out-dark Tim Burton.

Nikwakwa Hoogenterf: I truly believe that the Oompa Loompas are the greatest creation ever made by the movie industry, that the Oompas should be worshiped daily, and what the heck, i think they deserve there own holiday... Oompas are the bases of all that is good.. ROCK ON OOMPAS!!!!

I forgot to vote for The Long Goodbye!

There is not one single aspect of Charlie that improves on Willie. If anything there are several major missteps that make it a pale shadow of the original.

seriously, onna smokey tip, the commentary to cannonball run has to be heard to be believed...

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25. A Woman Under the Influence

John Cassavetes, 1974

Points: 106
Total Votes: 7
First Place Votes: 0

nathalie: A film about relationships, the inability to express emotions, sufficating in suburbia, feminism, working class, the US,... Gloria is also pretty good, but WutI just blew me away.

Jeff, I'm sorry. The correct answer is Robert Mitchum.

Our third place contestants will receive Rice-a-Roni.

really? despite its unbelievable sexism?

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24. Mean Streets

Martin Scorsese, 1973

Points: 106
Total Votes: 10
First Place Votes: 0

Peter Scholtes: Personal filmmaking, urban filmmaking, Italian-American filmmaking, action filmmaking, and musical filmmaking, all turned up to 11.

s1ocki: mean streets is a harvey keitel movie and goodfellas is not, thus there is absolutely no basis for comparison

mark s: mean streets is still scorsese's best movie by far ("the rest is bullshit and you know it!")