Monday 1 August 2011

A Movie For Every Year: The 70s...

I've been going through some draft posts, and it seems I failed to complete a meme about a movie for every year of my life thus far. If only because I hate leaving things unfinished, here's the next part - gods alone know when I'll submit the '80s list (although it may be short)...

Note: I know it was supposed to be only one for each year, but I love movies and couldn't choose, so here are some of my favourites from each year of the 1970s: 

1970 (I know, technically it's part of the '60s)
The Aristocats - Everybody wants to be a cat...
Kelly's Heroes - Never in the course of human conflict has so much been so easily calculated by so few...
M*A*S*H* - Poor Henry...

1971
The Andromeda Strain - Took a couple of viewings, but it grew on me like a - culture...
Big Jake - Did I hate it? Not hardly...
Diamonds Are Forever - Not my favourite Bond movie, but there were some good jokes...
Dirty Harry - D'you feel lucky, punk?
Duel - Spielberg's first movie; scary...
The French Connection - Didya' ever pick your feet in Poughkeepsie? 

The Omega Man - Charlton Heston vs the World - music by Ron Grainer
 

1972
Man of La Mancha - To dream the Impossible Dream

The Poseidon Adventure - The last of the great disaster movies
The Godfather - Respect.

1973
The Day of The Jackal - Edward Fox as Forsyth's fictional hitman
Don't Look Now - A scary movie - I had nightmares for a long time after seeing this
Magnum Force - "A man's got to know his limitations..."
Paper Moon - An excellent drama, tragi-comic, starring Ryan O'Neal and daughter Tatum
Soylent Green - Edward G Robinson's final role, and Charlton Heston Vs the World (again)
The Sting - Newman and Redford - together again...
Westworld - Not a bad sci-fi piece, with Richard Benjamin an unlikely hero and Yul Brynner looking like 13 years had not passed since he first wore black with guns

1974
Blazing Saddles - "There was a peaceful town called Rock Ridge..."
Chinatown - Nicholson as JJ Gittes; an excellent character...
The Golden Voyage of Sinbad - Ray Harryhausen's special effects and Caroline Munro's equally-special effects...
The Longest Yard - Burt Reynolds vs Eddie Albert in the original football-in-prison movie...
McQ - John Wayne driving a Pontiac Firebird around Seattle to an Elmer Bernstein soundtrack - unbelievable but not bad...
The Taking of Pelham 123 - Robert Shaw as ruthless killer, Walter Matthau as transit cop, Martin Balsam as Man with a cold...
The Three Musketeers - The best version of the story - ever!
Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too! - Just, y'know, because...
Young Frankenstein - It's pronounced 'Fronkensteen'...

1975
The Eiger Sanction - Clint Eastwood as an art-loving, mountain-climbing hitman. I can see that...
Farewell, My Lovely - Robert Mitchum, the man born to be Philip Marlowe, in Dick Richards's excellent period piece. Chandler would have approved.
The Four Musketeers - The boys are back in town...
The Great Waldo Pepper - Robert Redford as post-WWI circus flier with regret issues.
Jaws - "I think we're gonna need a bigger boat..."
Monty Python and the Holy Grail - "Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelt of elderberries!"
The Return of the Pink Panther - and a bumbling detective, and a twitching eye, and comedy...
Rollerball - "In the not-too-distant future there will be no more wars..."

Three Days of the Condor - Robert Redford goes for lunch and finds himself on the run from Max Von Sydow...

The Rocky Horror Picture Show: "I would like, if I may, to take you on a strange journey..."

1976
Assault on Precinct 13 - John Carpenter's riveting debut piece
The Eagle Has Landed - Michael Caine in WWII plot to kidnap Churchill

Bugsy Malone - Sets made to scale for Alan Ladd...
Logan's Run - Michael York, Jenny Agutter, Richard Jordan in post-Apocalypse tale of population control
Marathon Man - "Is it safe?"
Rocky - "Adriaaannn!!"
The Outlaw Josey Wales - "A man's got to do something to make a living." "Dying's not much of a living, boy."
The Shootist - John Wayne's last ride, straight into the sunset...

1977
A Bridge Too Far - The story of Montgomery's ego-trip...
Close Encounters of the Third Kind - I believe.
The Deep - Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water after Jaws and The Poseidon Adventure
High Anxiety - Mel Brooks's take on Hitchcock - priceless.

Star Wars - A Long Time Ago, in a galaxy far, far away...

1978
Capricorn One - Man on Mars? Not yet...

Force 10 from Navarone - Gung-ho Yanks, smug Brits, dastardly Nazis and Barbara Bach.
Heaven Can Wait - Warren Beatty, James Mason and Julie Christie in remake of '40s classic - not bad at all
Hooper - The greatest stuntman ever - ever!
Jaws 2 - Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water without Jacqueline Bisset...
Superman - I believed it then, I believe it now: Christopher Reeve is Superman

1979
10 - Wherein I develop a new-found respect for classical music, and in particular the work of late 19th-Century Spanish composers named Ravel...
Alien - Actually, in space, I can hear you scream (if I'm tuned to the proper wavelength)...
...And Justice for All - Pacino, brilliant.
Love At First Bite - "I do not drink - vine. And I do not smoke - shit..."
Monty Python's Life of Brian - "How blessed are the cheesemakers..."
The Muppet Movie - "Why are there so many songs about rainbows, and what's on the other side?"
Rocky II - "Adriaaannn!!!"
Star Trek:The Motion Picture  - "Unknown, Captain..."



Tune in again when I may, as noted above, get to the '80s...

A New Chapter...

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