1970s, group 3
- The Bad News Bears (1976)
- Breaking Away (1979)
- Smile (1975)
- The Long Goodbye (1973)
- The Paper Chase (1973)
- Brewster McLoud (1970)
- Getting Straight (1970)
- Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974)
- Carnal Knowledge (1971)
- Going in Style (1979)
- What’s Up, Doc? (1972)
- Day of the Locust (1975)
- Shampoo (1975)
- Nashville (1975)
- The Longest Yard (1974)
- Kotch (1971)
- The Last Detail (1973)
- The Candidate (1972)
- Harold and Maude (1971)
- Catch-22 (1970)
*****
Maybe if I provided check boxes you people would actually go out and start renting these puppies. Let’s go. Chop chop!
Now you’re talkin my language. I’ve seen most of these and love them.
Hey, I might “pass” this test. Is it open book?
Take notes, people. I’m giving you the gift of art!
Incidentally, I substituted The Candidate for Five Easy Pieces. While there’s plenty of black humor in FEP, Candidate better Fits this list.
16/20 (Getting Straight, What’s Up, Doc?, Kotch, and Day of the Locust still unseen).
Of course, as this was the director’s decade, it’s always interesting to see what happened to them in the 1980s. For instance, James Bridges, who directed The Paper Chase and The China Syndrome in the 70s, went on to do Perfect (you know, the jazzercise movie with Travolta and Jamie Lee Curtis) in the 80s. Which may not be as bad as Michael Ritchie (Smile, Bad News Bears) going on to do Cops and Robbersons.
True. But Ritchie also did Fletch, so we can cut him some slack.
And as a proud owner of Perfect on DVD, I’ll have you know that it captures the hair and clothes of an era nearly perfectly. Plus, it was the first time I ever saw a laptop computer.
I’ve seen seven of those. If you had left Five Easy Pieces on there, it’d have been eight.
I’m gonna go see the Adam Sandler version of the longest yard, does that count?
::prepares to be sneered at::
I am crestfallen.
Mama ! Papa ! The Italians are coming ! The Italians are cooooooooming !!!
So what ever happened to Dennis Christopher? I thought he was a very good actor.. He went on to do ”Chariots of Fire” and my favorite ”Dont cry, its only thunder..” He was even in Fellini’s Roma and Altman’s ‘3 Women’
and then….. crap.. but then he just had talent.. and not the perfect good looks of Tom Cruise..
We Americans deserve the lowest common denominator movies we get these days. hahahha
Kansas City Bomber. Valley of the Dolls. Werewolf in a Girl’s Dormitory. Bondage Boys of the SS
Wow, Burt Reynolds with no mustache. I’m SO renting that. Now pick up your crest Jeff, it will be okay.
Heh.
Kansas City Bomber is a good flick. I miss the glory days of Roller Derby.
Seen ‘em all except Smile.
Were they on the first list or did I miss the Eastwood canon of the ‘70’s–Play Misty.., Outlaw Josey Wales, Eiger Sanction?
…and What’s Up, Doc but no Brooks brothers? (Real Life,YF, BS, HA, SM (okay, maybe not that last one.)
Can only fit 20 at a time. The Eastwood I’ve included so far is the Gauntlet, though I have others lined up for later lists—Play Misty, Outlaw Josie Wales, The Beguiled, and Breezy (not starring Eastwood, but he directs)…
I’m thinking the Mel Brooks stuff is too well-known (and being too-well known, like Dirty Harry, makes me reluctant to include the title), but High Anxiety might slip in there.
logan’s run, anyone?
What’s Up Doc???? Why is this on the list? Can you explain the criteria?
It may just be that Ryan O’Neill’s appeal is completely lost on me, or that I can’t stand Barbra, but this would not appear on my list of top 20 anythings. If it’s Madeleine Kahn you’re fond of, Blazing Saddles would be my pick.
Noticed you had Scarecrow last list, which is an odd gem, but emblamatic of that weird early ‘70 movie vibe.
Carnal Knowledge is admittedly a better film, but Rebel Rousers does feature Nicholson playing a biker named “bunny”–and you get an early Harry Dean Stanton sighting.
–okay, your favorite is French Connection, right?
MASH?
Kentucky Fried Movie?
Since I’m already being sneered at by reactionary rightwing blogs for being a homosexual, I might as well make it a clean sweep.(sigh!)
I have seen 10 of these, and quite frankly, that represents about 18 hours of my life I will never get back. I refuse throw away anymore of my precious time, so sneer away!
Spam word: came, Oh my!
I like Rebel Rousers and have it on DVD. Also CC and Company, with Joe Namath.
French Connection appeared on the first list and yes, it is one of my favorites. M*A*S*H is fantastic; also a fan of Kentucky Fried Movie. But as I say, there are only 20 spots on each list.
As for What’s Up, Doc?… It is a very funny, very well done homage to the great screwball comedies of the 30s and 40s. Bogdanovich is a great director, O’Neal is perfectly deadpan, and Babs is actually quite hot.
Paper Moon is another great Madeline Kahn flick.
Agreed on Babs, I have to admit.
Did I miss Last Picture Show?
One film that barely misses your cut, which I think is the impetus for a lot of that early ‘70’s vibe is Easy Rider. Catching it again late last week, I realized that the long lag between lines of dialoge, the broad, ubiquitous landscape shots, the juxtaposition of the choppers being repaired while the horse’s shoe is being fitted just behind them shows Fonda is clearly trying to create a Western. The way the motorcycles sweep into town, that lone band of hippies trying to settle the land, hell, the leads’ names were Billy and Wyatt, fer Chris’ sake!
Certainly, there is some French New Wave in the mix, but I really think he was making a modern Western…in the same way that Pauline Kael thought Jaws was a comedy–seriously: http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/fridayreview/story/0,12102,823073,00.html.
Fonda actually went on to make a modern western. Hired Hand, with Verna Bloom. But Hopper was doing something similar with Easy Rider.
Hopper may have officially had the directing credit, but it was likely a collaborative effort–as the screenplay was.
Although, The Hired Hand does bring up a name that is pure ‘70’s, Warren Oates.
Don’t tell me Rancho Deluxe is waiting for list 4?
And, sure, Namath was good in CC, but what of the seminal work of Jim Brown??
Does Slaughter’s Big Rip-Off mean nothing to you!?
I almost put Rancho Deluxe on this list, but I’m waiting to put it on a list with Hired Hand and Every Which Way But Loose.
Any room for both Little Fauss and Big Halsy?
Like Bud Cort, Michael J. Pollard is a star whose orbit remains firmly in the ‘70’s.
see also,
Susan George
Strother Martin
A great list. One of my favorite statements when motivating the troops:
“Hit it, boys!”
Also, I’m trying to imagine the rest of the list that includes Robert Downey, Sr.
Putney Swope.
Pee-Pee dicky.
But what are the other 18?
Turing word “example”, as in “for example”. But I can wait.
Sneer away, pretty boy.
I will not watch Shampoo for love nor money. Or sex. Or even pie.
Not. Going. To. Happen.
It’s a good film. Often quite funny. And poignant in the end.
Don’t know if you’ve already listed any of these or if you’ve got room on another list: “The Jerk”, “Serpico”, “Car Wash”, “Slapshot”, “Meatballs”. I was going to say “The Final Countdown” too, but that’s 1980.
Serpico I mentioned. The rest you mentioned are all in the hopper—with a special shout out going to Slapshot.
Why should I see these films when I know in a few years/ months they will all have been remade and showing in a theatre near me?
God I hate remakes. Mostly. If a movie is good enough to remake, is’nt it good enough already?
Catch-22?!!!! Perhaps the worst adaption of a book to movie in that decade. Retained the basic plot and lost all the humor (especially the quick dialog). The movie was obviously concerned with making sure it was an anti-war pic. MASH (which also came out in ‘70) without the humor.
Yay! Fun movies!
Wait a second….is this some new version of the seven deadly sins or seven cardinal virtues? Instead of sloth, greed, lust, etc., we’re getting angst, desperation, irony…?
It’s the 70s, man. Nixon, Ford, and Carter. Desperation, irony, angst are all to be expected.
Smile. Kissing a chicken’s asshole. Yeah, good movie.
The Last Detail. Nice. Struck me how the beer cans in the movie, they were sealed like a soup can. No pull rings/tabs. Opened em by punching a triangular hole in the top ala a can of Hi-C. Guess I knew they did that once. Still funny to see. Crazy decade.
Kee-rist. I was wondering when Bad News Bears was going to hit the list. Thank goodness I withheld my question.
Who can forget that cheese-esque Roddy McDowell mystery, Arnold? (1973). Jamie Farr (Klinger from M*A*S*H) had a small part, as did Victor Buono. Another favorite is Neil Simon’s Murder By Death starring damn near everybody from that era. Alec Guiness plays a blind butler named “Jamesir Bensonmum.”
Hey, could you link all the previous lists at the bottom of these, or create a sidebar menu or category of something? I’m gonna just plug everything into Netflix.
I just watched Nashville. I was amazed at how much it seemed like a documentary, and I’m also shocked that I never rented it in high school.
My only quibble would be Lily Tomlin as a gospel singer and Tom’s paramour. Neither makes much sense.
I know it’s very, I don’t know, low-class of me, but I’d like to know what happened. Did Barbara Jean die? Why’d the dude shoot her?