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

I love you guys.

Patton, while 'professionally made' and primarily a Scott vehicle, leaves a sour taste for the way it was marketed -- with the subtitle 'Salute to a Rebel" to pander to the Groovy People -- and the way the film hedges against the bloodthirsty SOB's mania throughout, finding his desire to start WW3 before II was over kinda cute. It was also Dick Nixon's most-screened movie in the White House, and inspired him to illegally bomb Cambodia (I'll exempt Schaffner and Coppola from direct responsibility).

The only minor downside is that the film shies away from making the two main characters members of the Nazi party (they both explicitly state that they aren't): that would've emphasized the idea that those on the "bad guys'" side weren't necessary that bad, just ordinary people caught in the midst of political currents far bigger than them.

so even if they *were* nazi party members, you're saying, they were powerless amid the 'currents' of politics?

Never has another film made Devon seem so haunting. The whole film has a disquieting, slow pace, and evokes the madness and serenity in 'Englishness' better than many films by English directors. Bates (infinitely disturbing) and Hurt are great, too; what a shame we didn't see more of them in British cinema in the following decades.

"Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia and The Getaway are among my all-time favourites. Past the hard-as-steel protagonists and the "balletic" action there really is an incredible economy of storytelling, visually these films are excellent. There is always a degree of tension wrung from every scene, and it's never over or underplayed, just on the surface. I actually find that a lot of directors/films that owe something to Peckinpah (Christopher McQuarries Way Of The Gun, Tarantino) skip over a lot of the qualities I have just mentioned."-Nordicskillz

"i got shit to say about the hows and whyfors but i absolutely love the wild bunch, straw dogs, ...alfredo garcia, and the getaway. i bought a toy shotgun last year and wrapped it in brown paper so i could emulate steve mcqueen while i watched the latter flick.
err...i mean nothing." -brian badword

As for me, I think the film has little more than diddleyshit to do with the book. That doesn't stop it from being one of McQueen's best, and one of Peckinpah's most entertaining. Not to mention a key part of Sally Struthers secret history (the other being Five Easy Pieces). Besides Alfredo Garcia was a fair stab at great pseaudo-Jim Thompson.

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93. Day for Night
François Truffaut, 1973

Points: 28
Total Votes: 3
First Place Votes: 0

Comments?

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92a. Days of Heaven
Terrence Malick, 1978

Points: 29
Total Votes: 2
First Place Votes: 0

Amateurist: the rhythms are very strange. the sound design is strange. the pervasive quiet is very strange.

(i have to say i find the lead actress really unappealing. but the little girl is the strangest and most fascinating of all the film's elements.)

it's interesting to think of this film and "badlands" (and i guess "the thin red line") coming out the revisionist cycle of films that kicked off with "the chase" and "bonnie & clyde" etc. and they *are* revisionist readings of american history, albeit very unorthodox compared to the likes of "soldier blue" or even "heaven's gate."

sam shepard talks in this movie just like terrence malick!! it's weird.

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92b. The Tenant
Roman Polanski, 1976

Points: 29
Total Votes: 2
First Place Votes: 0

Jay Vee: I love when Polanski's character comes back from his wacky shopping spree, takes his new shoes out of their bag and does that little, high pitched "What lovely shoes! Wherever did you get them?" conversation with himself.

Polanski does "slowly unhinging" really, really well.

Fields of Salmon: the first time i saw this film i was stone cold sober, yet it unnerved me to such a degree that i actually shut it off (i think at the point where he starts screaming "they're trying to turn me into her!") ... and yet after staring at the darkened t.v. screen for about a minute i found myself unable to not finish the film.

Fabrice: One of my faves ever. The filming angles are also key in giving it that subtly nauseating feel, eg. when going to the bathroom and seeing the mummy there. Classic scene, Polanski in full garb in a darkened room staring at the window, with this head bouncing in the courtyard..

I didn't vote so feel free to disregard above.

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90a. All the President's Men
Alan J. Pakula, 1976

Points: 29
Total Votes: 3
First Place Votes: 9909

Comments?

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90b. Up in Smoke
Lou Adler, Tommy Chong, 1978

Points: 29
Total Votes: 3
First Place Votes: 0

Comments?

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88. The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser
Werner Herzog, 1975

Points: 31
Total Votes: 3
First Place Votes: 0

mm: It's so sad at the beginning of 'the enigma of kaspar hauser' when it says 'every man for himself and god against all

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87. Monty Python's Life of Brian
Terry Jones, 1979

Points: 31
Total Votes: 5
First Place Votes: 0

Comments?

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86. Gates of Heaven
Errol Morris, 1978

Points: 31
Total Votes: 5
First Place Votes: 0

Sherm: best scene in Gates of Heaven is when the rock dude has his amp set up outside overlooking the cemetary and surrounding valley and is just jamming away.

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85. Picnic at Hanging Rock
Peter Weir, 1979

Points: 32
Total Votes: 3
First Place Votes: 0

Alex in NYC: Every single instant in "Picnic at Hanging Rock" wherein the pan-flute theme is heard, ominously unfurling itself like a beautiful poisonous flower.

jewelly: I loved this film too. One of the many ideas I had about it was that it was sort of symbolically illustrating a shift from the Victorian era to the twentieth century (I think the story is set on Valentine's Day of 1901, yes?) ... And then I went out and rented a bunch of Peter Weir's movies and decided "Picnic" was the rare case of a director perfectly suited to the material

Kyria: One of my all-time favorites, this is not a movie for just everybody. Those who are willing to see no more then the "outward" picture- Victorian schoolgirls, repressed sexuality, menacing landscape and outstanding camera work- will probably lable the movie as "slow," or "old fashioned". But those who exert themselves a little, to become immersed in the picture, will discover the reasons why "Picnic at Hanging Rock" is such a masterpiece. From the story behind Venus (the picture of a "Botticelli angel") to the significance of the clocks pictured everywhere, the thousand and one pieces of a mystery that does not add up to an explanation; Put simply, every shot in the film is symbolic. And every shot in the film is fantastic.

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84. California Split
Robert Altman, 1974

Points: 32
Total Votes: 3
First Place Votes: 1

Jams Murphy: california split i loved, even though i can hardly remember a single scene. just hypnotic and typical greatness from segal and gould. you'd love it, adam

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83a. Up!
Russ Meyer, 1976

Points: 32
Total Votes: 4
First Place Votes: 0

SexyDancer: Meyer's film "Up!" remains as good as The Bible.

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83b. Stroszek
Werner Herzog, 1977

Points: 32
Total Votes: 4
First Place Votes: 0

steveo: 'Stroszek' - alienated outsider musician (Bruno S. brilliant) released from prison leaves for US with hopes of new life in new world with prostitute girlfriend, but ends up in desolate Railroad Flats, Wisconsin. Curtis was about to leave on Joy Division's first US tour at the time.

Jeff-PTTL: C'mon, you know any film is classic if it ends with the line "We've got a truck on fire, can't find the switch to turn the ski lift off, and can't stop the dancing chicken. Send an electrician." Plus the first time I watched the film, I had the vaugest recollection that I had been there before, and I had! At least to the Cherokee tourist trap at the end, it's in the mountains of NC.

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81a. Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid

Sam Peckinpah, 1973

Points: 33
Total Votes: 2
First Place Votes: 0

Comments?

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81b. The Mirror
Andrei Tarkovsky, 1974

Points: 33
Total Votes: 2
First Place Votes: 0

Jeff-PTTL: I actually remember very little of this film, except that it was a complete mindfuck and gave me a raging headache. I loved it.

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79. The Last Picture Show
Peter Bogdanovich, 1971

Points: 33
Total Votes: 4
First Place Votes: 0

Comments?

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78. Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music
Michael Wadleigh, 1970

Points: 33
Total Votes: 5
First Place Votes: 0

Comments?

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77. The Warriors
Walter Hill, 1979

Points: 34
Total Votes: 3
First Place Votes: 0

nickalicious: Warriors for the bottle-clanking 'come-out-to-play-ee-ay', for featuring a gang whose get-up was vests-with-no-shirts-and-ascots, and basically just for being DA SHIT and entertaining me on many a drunken not-getting-any-tonight-why-not-turn-on-USA-network?-night.

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76. Papillion
Franklin J. Schaffner, 1973

Points: 35
Total Votes: 2
First Place Votes: 0

Comments?

crosspost

I love the film so much, and get so caught up in it, I've never even stopped to ponder the logic. I guess I've always assumed that while Hackman is technically hired by Ford, it's with Duvall's knowledge; we hear Duvall say "You want it to be true" to Ford, which I take to mean that Ford initiated Hackman's hiring as a way to prove to Duvall that there's a plot against him, that Duvall approved the project, and that now they're sitting around weighing the evidence. I don't think Cindy Williams and Frederic Forrest were aware they were being taped. That would make Ford the really shadowy and unknowable figure--aligned with Duvall at the beginning, but keeping quiet and keeping his own proximity to the company's seat of power intact when the plot to kill the emperor succeeds and power is transferred.

I don't know, maybe that's wrong. But with The Conversation so steeped in the Watergate moment (accidentally; it's well known that Coppola wrote the script years earlier), I think a little mystery concerning the film's internal logic works well. The real-life parallel is why Nixon never burned the tapes, something that continues to puzzle everyone.

You mean "Gredo-shoots-first," right? On a related note, I also notice that the Jaws swimmer's breasts are less visible on the DVD art than they were in the original 1975 poster. These things matter.

I seem to remember Gene Wilder regreting that he made the film because it was "anti-child," but can't place the source...

But then, you know, "Looney Toons" is pretty fucked up, moralitywise, too (how many times does Bugs torture his foes in a manner of total overkill that isn't at all justified by the small infraction that they've made? That's without mentioning the times when it's entirely unprovoked), and I wouldn't want that erased from my childhood.

"Taxi Driver" is a good movie.

Of course, I could have voted.

/opening Netflix queue

They sound like utterly unremarkable films that have passed into greatness on qualities I can't ascertain.

Should I just break down and watch them?

actually, bugs usually doesn't go after ppl without a good reason (i.e. they're trying to shoot him or dig up his home or posting "rabbit season" signs all over the place). chuck jones talked about this in his autobiography, how he wanted bugs to be more sympathetic/interesting than, say, woody woodpecker. of course, daffy's another story...

"My coat! My lucky coat!"

"This pope has powerful enemies!"

OK, who was it who liked The Shout (96b)? It's showing at Lincoln Center at 4pm. Dave Kehr:

An airy allegory (from a Robert Graves story) held to earth by some scathing sexual passion. Alan Bates is the traveling madman who holds a composer (John Hurt) and his wife (Susannah York) in thrall. Sexuality triumphs over civilization through a series of small betrayals, each registered with appalling, pinpoint accuracy by Jerzy Skolimowski's camera. Though Skolimowski had backed off from his formal ambitions somewhat (he once seemed a real rival to Godard), this 1978 feature is shrewd, imaginative moviemaking, a trance thriller that beats Peter Weir on his own turf.

^this is like the most noize board movie ever (maybe crossed w/ I LOVE CRICKET: THE CHINATOWN OF ILX: THE CHINATOWN OF ILX)

I used to disagree with Dr. Morbius under my actual name; now I disagree with him under a fabricated one. The world has changed so much.

has anyone seen Chilly Scenes of Winter ('79) by Joan Micklin Silver, aka Head Over Heels?

http://www.ifccenter.com/films/chilly-scenes-of-winter/

A friend was telling me about this book--not sure if I knew about it or not.

https://academic.macmillan.com/academictrade/9781632868183/openingwednesdayatatheaterordriveinnearyou

Will definitely try to track down a copy at a decent price.

I was Gene Hackman from The Conversation a few years ago for Halloween, so I like it enough for that.
― Pete Scholtes, Monday, September 12,

Still the funniest Halloween costume I've ever heard of.