Thunderbolt and Lightfoot
The Conversation
Bullitt
Harold and Maude
Two Lane Blacktop
Bound for Glory
Badlands
Harper (‘66 or so but still looks great, it’s the film stock from that period used in real locations)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Day of the Locust
Midnight Cowboy
The Deer Hunter
OK, they’re kind of obvious, maybe I’ll think of some more obscure ones later…
@Loki – It’s hard, isn’t it?! I’ve heard of all these but two of them (Thunderbold and Lightfoot & Harper) I didn’t know anything about and they look good, so I’ll check them out. Thanks for the suggestions.
I love the look of French Connection and the way the characters don’t really talk. They just go around and do stuff. It’s great. I suppose that the look of the film stock used in that period could be recreated digitally which is nice, things are just shot too safely for me now- lots of soft light and kino flos.
Indagine su un cittadino al di sopra di ogni sospetto (Investigation of a subject above suspicion) – 1970, Italian
The Night of the Following Day- 1968
oh man. I started typing all these great 70s films, and then thought “Wait.. these aren’t American!”
ie. The Passenger (1974). In English, and starring Jack Nicholson, but not American ( I believe). Great film though, check it out if you haven’t seen it.
This one might be obvious, but if you haven’t seen McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) yet, you’re missing out. Also, Dog Day Afternoon (1975) is one of my favourites, and also I believe Pacino’s best performance.
@Adriana – ha! yeah, I resisted the temptation to list Suspiria even though I really wanted to list it. The Passenger is technically Italian I suppose but it’s got Jack so it counts! And Loki’s recommendation of “Investigation of a subject above suspicion” is well placed – I have never heard of the film, which apparently won Best Foreign Film, and it looks good. My intention is not to exclude world cinema because of any bias but to focus just on American films that have been overlooked and forgotten for whatever reason.
I saw a print of McCabe a couple years ago and for whatever reason, not a big fan. But I agree that Pacino’s performance is outstanding. Dog Day Afternoon is easily in my top ten films of all time.
I understand that. I think a large part of my McCabe & Mrs Miller appreciation has a lot to do with my considerable Leonard Cohen appreciation.
If you ever get the chance to read Sidney Lumet’s “Making Movies”, it’s got some really interesting bits about how Lumet worked with Pacino. It’s definitely worth a read.
McCabe is an interesting movie and the look that Vilmos achieved is something to be appreciated. I don’t really know why I didn’t care for it and I should really revisit it. Altman is so hit or miss with me. I love Short Cuts, I love The Long Goodbye. But I’m not a fan of Nashville, not a fan of Gosford Park.
For those interested on seeing what 1970’s films were being discussed earlier here, you might want to check out these two threads:
http://www.theauteurs.com/topics/1738/comments
http://www.theauteurs.com/topics/958/comments
This is not to disparage in any way this thread, as everything comes around again on this site, if you are here long enough!
Fredo —
Beginning in September, I’m teaching an entire course on this period, for the second time. We start with Bonnie and Clyde and end with Raging Bull.
@Bob – Thanks Bob! I assumed this discussion has already occured but since I wasn’t around (and too lazy to search old threads), I thought I’d bring up the topic (again). But I’ll definitely browse these older threads.
EDIT: Scanned these two older threads and everyone basically lists the same movies! Where’s the originality, people!
@Christopher Sepesy – that’s awesome that you’re teaching a class on the period and something that I’m sure is a lot of fun. I took a similar type class while in school and my only complaint (and suggestion for you) is that most of the films shown and discussed were the obvious ones. How about showing a film that may not be as good as The Godfather but is still worthwhile and not seen by anyone in the class? That actually might be a fun challenge to come up with that curriculum; to teach a class including films not listed on AFI’s top 100, films not mentioned in Easy Riders/Raging Bulls, films not nominated for Academy Awards. I don’t know, just a thought.
Midnight Express
I caught it on a whim because I liked the DVD cover. I love the ‘70s period of American cinema also and I’m always disheartened that this one never gets mentioned.
Some films I saw during that time period that still attract my attention:
Alice’s Restaurant (1969), Arthur Penn
Breaking Away (1979), Peter Yates
Carnal Knowledge (1971), Mike Nichols
Coming Home (1978), Hal Ashby
Day of the Locust (1975), John Schlesinger
Don’t Look Now (1973), Nicolas Roeg
Electra Glide in Blue (1973), James William Guercio
Interiors (1978), Woody Allen
Lenny (1974), Bob Fosse
Medium Cool (1969), Haskell Wexler
Night Moves (1975), Arthur Penn
Paper Moon (1973), Peter Bogdanovich
Petulia (1968), Richard Lester
Pretty Poison (1968), Noel Black
Rachel, Rachel (1968), Paul Newman
Shampoo (1975), Hal Ashby
Straw Dogs (1971), Sam Peckinpah
Take the Money and Run (1969), Woody Allen
The Candidate (1972), Michael Ritchie
The China Syndrome (1979), James Bridges
The Heartbreak Kid (1972), Elaine May
The Hospital (1971), Arthur Hiller
The Last Detail (1973), Hal Ashby
The Man Who Would Be King (1975), John Huston
They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1969), Sydney Pollack
Two for the Road (1967), Stanley Donen
What’s Up, Doc? (1972), Peter Bogdanovich
Zabriskie Point (1970), Michelangelo Antonioni
I’ve got to say, when it comes down to it I love the look and feel of Assault on Precinct 13 (1976). Everything is just so sparse about it. I think that’s what I love about cinema from this era. Badlands and Straw Dogs share its very slow pacing. What we see on the screen can be quite disturbing, but a lot of these films handle the content in such a mellow, serene way.
A few fantastic films up there… Here’s a few that come to mind that I don’t think have been mentioned yet…
Scarecrow (Why this hasn’t been more widely seen is such a crying shame!)
The King of Marvin Gardens (Rafelsons Five Easy Pieces Follow up…)
I’ll try to mention some I don’t think I saw mentioned earlier.
Vanishing Point
Point Blank
Barry Lyndon
Pat Garret & Billy the Kid
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia
Live and Let Die (come on, nothing says 70s quite like Roger Moore as James Bond, don’t you think?)
Dawn of the Dead
3 Women
Pink Flamingos
Little Big Man
Killer of Sheep
Shaft
Young Frankenstein
The Poseidon Adventure
Serpico
Mean Streets
Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
The Sugarland Express
The Stepford Wives
Eraserhead
Kentucky Fried Movie
Animal House
Up In Smoke
Being There
The Jerk
Blue Collar – Paul Shrader
Sisters – Brian De Palma
Hi Mom! – Brian De Palma
Greetings – Brian De Palma
The Trip – Roger Corman
Boxcar Bertha – Martin Scorsese
Panic In Needle Park – Jerry Schatzberg
A Woman under the influence – John Cassavettes
The Killing of a Chinese Bookie – John Cassavetes
The American Friend – Wim Wenders (technically a German Director, but never the less a director who wanted to be American)
This movement known as the ‘Movie Brats’ is simply the most interesting collection of films and filmmakers around…so many hidden gems.
George Segal was a major actor during this period:
LOVING (Irvin Kershner)
BORN TO WIN (Ivan Passer)
BLUME IN LOVE (Paul Mazursky*)
CALIFORNIA SPLIT (Robert Altman)
THE OWL AND THE PUSSYCAT (Herbert Ross)
WHERE’S POPPA? (Carl Reiner)
*Paul Mazursky directed a series of fine films during this period as well.
Among them:
An Unmarried Woman (1978)
Next Stop, Greenwich Village (1976)
Harry and Tonto (1974)
Without question, my favorite period of time in cinema is the 30’s.
The 70’s were good but overrated overall.
Key 70’s movies —
“Out 1”
“Performance”
“The Devils”
“La Cicatrice Interieure”
“The Long Goodbye”
“F For Fake”
“The Mother and the Whore”
“Rameau’s Nephew by Diderot (Thanx to Denis Young) by Wilma Schoen”
“Mikey and Nicky
“Le Diable Probablement”
“Providence”
Load of interesting brittish gems from that period too. Performance is a great film!
The Gambler (Karel Reisz)
Here’s 10 that I’d recommend:
The Landlord (Ashby)
A New Leaf (E. May)
Man on a Swing (F. Perry)
Up the Sandbox (Kershner)
Childs Play (Lumet)
Freebie & the Bean (R. Rush)
The Hospital (Hiller)
A Warhol’s Bad (J. Johnson)
Hannie Caulder (B. Kennedy)
The Outside Man (J. Deray)
Guilty Pleasures:
Tentacles
Let’s Do it Again
Demon Seed
Nashville! Nashville! Nashville!
and, of course, The Godfather Part II, Chinatown, Five Easy Pieces, Being There, An Unmarried Woman, The Exorcist, A Woman Under the Influence, Sounder, Last Tango in Paris, The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean, The Day of the Locust, Manhattan …
Fredo
Without question, my favorite period of time in cinema is the 1970s. This statement is not particularly original and is rather cliche but I’m ok with that. (I use the term 1970s loosely, refering more to a particular movement and not just the decade. So when I say 70s, I really mean from The Graduate to Apocalypse Now or 1967-1979).
Within this period in American cinema history, there’s really only a couple dozen films that are associated and remembered for this movement; we’ve all seen Taxi Driver, Star Wars, Rocky, Network, The Exorcist, etc. But hundreds of movies are made each year and if you think about this roughly thirteen year period, that’s thousands of films. And I’ve probably only seen a fraction of them. I was wondering if people had some recommendations for this period of lesser known American films. One thing that’s great about The Criterion Collection is that they highlight otherwise forgotten films. I recently rented The Friends of Eddie Coyle and even though it’s not a great film, it was still entertaining and worth watching.
What I love about American films from this period is the direction and the cinematography. Last week I saw a brand new print of The French Connection and it looked gorgeous! Why aren’t films shot this way anymore? Cinematographers like Owen Roizman, Haskell Wexler, and Conrad Hall were producing some outstanding work. And don’t even get me started on Gordon Willis, who is the king of them all.
I’m always dying to see great films from this period and I’d love to get some feedback and suggestions from other people about films to check out. And the more obscure the better! I’ve listed some for those who are interested.
-The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (the most underrated film of the 1970s)
-The Parallax View
-The Anderson Tapes
-The Day of the Jackal
-The Long Goodbye
-The Hot Rock
-Little Murders
-Fat City
-The Tenant
-Play Misty For Me