"You talking to me?" THE 70s COUNTDOWN IS DONE!

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#38

Patton (1970)

43 points, 11 lists

Won 7 Oscars, including Best Picture

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Bradley served as a consultant for the film though the extent of his influence and input into the final script is largely unknown. While Bradley knew Patton personally, it was also well-known that the two men were polar opposites in personality, and there is evidence to conclude that Bradley despised Patton, both personally and professionally.[8][9] As the film was made without access to General Patton's diaries, it largely relied upon observations by Bradley and other military contemporaries when they attempted to reconstruct Patton's thoughts and motives.[10] In a review of the film, Brigadier General S.L.A. Marshall, who knew both Patton and Bradley, stated, "The Bradley name gets heavy billing on a picture of [a] comrade that, while not caricature, is the likeness of a victorious, glory-seeking buffoon.... Patton in the flesh was an enigma. He so stays in the film.... Napoleon once said that the art of the general is not strategy but knowing how to mold human nature.... Maybe that is all producer Frank McCarthy and Gen. Bradley, his chief advisor, are trying to say."[10]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patton_(film)

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#37

Cabaret (1972)

46 points, 8 lists, 1 #1, 2 top 5, 1 top 10

Won 8 Oscars

2012 Sight & Sound: 3 critics, 1 director

@captainwondyful

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Revolutionary and subversive in its 1966 release for stage, and in its 1972 release for film, Cabaret pushed the musical genre.  Musicals typically are cheery comedies about love and overcoming the odds. They make you feel good.

 

There isn't much to feel good about in Cabaret.  Set in a Kit Kat Klub in 1931 Berlin, as the Nazi Party's on the rise, every character in the story’s running out of time.  In the movie’s most frightening scene, the lunch between Brian (Michael York’s American bisexual writer) and Maximilian (Helmut Griem’s German playboy) is interrupted by a blonde Youth singing “Tomorrow Belongs To Me”.  This song is deceitfully gorgeous -- it starts off slow, a Youth sings about an idyllic Homeland in a strong tenor. The crowd of seemingly nice, polite people look onward. Then the camera pans down to show his swastika. The song changes tempo and becomes a rousing, nationalistic call to arms; and the crowd responses by joining in to sing wearing robust, angry faces. It ends with Brian asking Maximilian: “Do you still think you can control them?” Fucking damning.

 

Joel Grey and Liza Minnelli rightfully won Academy Awards for their performances as the EmCee and Sally Bowles.  Joel Grey plays the EmCee as a chaotic neutral, and is brilliant in “Two Ladies” and “If You Could See Her.” Then there’s Liza with a Z, who gives a tour de force.  In the song that’s tied for the most misunderstood song in musical history (the other is “Everything Coming Up Rose’s”), Liza NAILS the desperation and denial deep in Sally’s soul during her performance of “Cabaret”.

 

It's frightening to think this movie holds much cultural relevance as it did upon its release, maybe even more.  That, though, is what makes it enduring art.

 

Fun Facts:  Cabaret holds the honor of the movie winning the most Academy Awards without winning Best Picture (which it lost to the Godfather).  Gene Kelly was approached to direct the film, but refused to leave his kids to work in Europe.  He lobbied for Bob Fosse, who went on to win Best Director.

 

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#35 (tie)

The Muppet Movie (1979)

46 points, 9 lists, 1 #1, 1 top 5

"Rainbow Connection" 74th best movie song according to AFI

@Fancyarcher

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The Muppet Movie is an absolute delight. An all-star cast, with fantastic musical numbers, and instantly quotable as we join Kermit and the gang on their quest to break-into Hollywood. While it’s easy to say how good it is in retrospect, but back in 1979 it couldn’t have been easy to pull off. While The Muppet characters themselves are fine on the small-screen, transporting them to feature-length was no easy task, but Henson and company were more than up to the task of doing it, and the end result was nothing short of fantastic. I’ll just end this write-up, by saying that I had the pleasure of seeing my Jr. High perform Rainbow Connection back in the day, and it is indeed a fantastic tune. “Rainbows have nothing to hide!”

 

[cannastop]

#35 (tie)

Suspiria (1977)

46 points, 9 lists, 2 top 10

2012 Sight & Sound: 3 critics

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Initially, the characters in the film were very young girls—around eight to ten years old—but this was altered when the film's producers were hesitant to make a film with all young actors.[6] Additionally, the final sequence of the film was based on a dream Nicolodi had while she was staying in Los Angeles.[6]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suspiria

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#34

Grease (1978)

48 points, 12 lists, 1 top 5

AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions: No. 97
AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs: No. 70 for "Summer Nights"
AFI's Greatest Movie Musicals: No. 20

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Grease was originally released to North American theaters on June 16, 1978 and was an immediate box office success. In its opening weekend, the film grossed $8,941,717 in 862 theaters in the United States and Canada, ranking at No. 2 (behind Jaws 2) at the box office for the weekend[18] and with the all-time opening weekend records.[19] Despite losing the weekend, it set a record gross in its first 19 days with $40,272,000.[20]

 

In the United States and globally, it became the highest-grossing musical ever at the time, eclipsing the 13-year-old record held by The Sound of Music with a worldwide gross of $341 million.[3]

 

It was re-released in March 1998 for its 20th anniversary where it grossed a further $28 million in the United States and Canada.[1]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grease_(film)

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#33

The Conversation (1974)

48 points, 14 lists

2012 Sight & Sound: 9 critics, 3 directors

@Fancyarcher

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"Released the same year as The Godfather Part II, Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conservation is sometimes overlooked in his filmography, and it shouldn’t. It’s a masterful thriller, that requires the audience's attention 100%. Gene Hackman (who I’m still shocked wasn’t nominated for an Oscar for his performance) is fantastic as Harry Caul, dominating the screen, as a man who slowly loses his mind, as the movies ingenious twists and turns begin to reveal themselves, and his paranoia continues to rise. It’s one of those films that only gets better the more you watch it. There’s so many small details, that you lose on first viewing, that it just makes it all the richer. One of the most well-constructed films of the 1970s period. "

 

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#32

Serpico (1973)

49 points, 12 lists, 2 top 10

Pacino's role as Frank Serpico is ranked at #40 on the American Film Institute's AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains list.[13] Serpico is also ranked at #84 on the AFI's AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers, a list of America's most inspiring films.[14]

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The story was filmed in New York City. A total of 104 different locations in four of the five boroughs of the city (all except Staten Island) were used.[1] An apartment at 5-7 Minetta Street in Manhattan's Greenwich Village was used as Serpico's residence, though he lived on Perry Street during the events depicted in the film.[9] Lewisohn Stadium, which was closed at the time of filming, was used for one scene.[10]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serpico

[Fancyarcher]

Absolutely fantastic write-up of a great film @captainwondyful. Actually kinda makes me feel embarrassed considering the puny little paragraphs, I wrote. 

[cannastop]

#31

Dirty Harry (1971)

50 points, 14 lists

The film was ranked #41 on 100 Years ... 100 Thrills, a list of America's most heart-pounding movies.[64] Harry Callahan was selected as the 17th greatest movie hero on 100 Years ... 100 Heroes & Villains.[65] The movie's famous quote "You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?" was ranked 51st on 100 Years ... 100 Movie Quotes.[66] 

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The line, "My, that's a big one," spoken by Scorpio when Callahan removes his gun, was an ad-lib by Robinson. The crew broke into laughter as a result of the double entendre and the scene had to be re-shot, but the line stayed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_Harry

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#30

National Lampoon's Animal House (1978)

56 points, 13 lists, 3 top 10

No. 1 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies"

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Belushi was considered a supporting actor and Universal wanted another star.[4] Landis had been a crew member on Kelly's Heroes and had become friends with actor Donald Sutherland, sometimes babysitting his son Kiefer.[7] Landis asked Sutherland, one of the biggest stars of the early 1970s, to be in the film. For two days of work, Sutherland declined the initial offer of $20,000 plus "points" (a percentage of the gross or net income).[16] Universal then offered him his day rate of $25,000[17] or 2% of the film's gross.[16][17] Sutherland took the guaranteed fee, assuming that the film would not be very successful; although this made him the highest-paid member of the cast (Neidemeyer's horse, Junior, and John Belushi each received $40,000),[18] the decision cost Sutherland what he estimates as around $14 million.[17] The star's participation, however, was crucial; Landis later said "It was Donald Sutherland who essentially got the film made."[4][17]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_House

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#29

The Deer Hunter (1978)

56 points, 1 top 5, 1 top 10

Won 5 Oscars, including Best Picture

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Each of the six principal male characters carried a photo in their back pocket depicting them all together as children, to enhance the sense of camaraderie amongst them. Additionally, director Cimino instructed the props department to fashion complete Pennsylvania IDs for each of them, including driver's licenses, medical cards, and various other pieces of paraphernalia, in order to enhance each actor's sense of his character.[16]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Deer_Hunter

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#28

A Clockwork Orange (1971)

60 points, 14 lists, 1 #1

2012 Sight & Sound: 7 critics, 8 directors

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The cinematic adaptation of A Clockwork Orange (1962) was not initially planned. Screenplay writer Terry Southern gave Kubrick a copy of the novel, but, as he was developing a Napoleon Bonaparte-related project, Kubrick put it aside. Kubrick's wife, in an interview, stated she then gave him the novel after having read it. It had an immediate impact. Of his enthusiasm for it, Kubrick said, "I was excited by everything about it: the plot, the ideas, the characters, and, of course, the language. The story functions, of course, on several levels: political, sociological, philosophical, and, what's most important, on a dreamlike psychological-symbolic level." Kubrick wrote a screenplay faithful to the novel, saying, "I think whatever Burgess had to say about the story was said in the book, but I did invent a few useful narrative ideas and reshape some of the scenes."[17] Kubrick based the script on the shortened US edition of the book, which omitted the final chapter.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Clockwork_Orange_(film)

 

Man why did they remove the final chapter...

[Cap]

14 minutes ago, Fancyarcher said:

Absolutely fantastic write-up of a great film @captainwondyful. Actually kinda makes me feel embarrassed considering the puny little paragraphs, I wrote. 

Don't be!!! Yours are great too!  I pulled that out of some old post I wrote for Panda's Top 100.  (Though, you can think of it as preview to the Top 50 Musicals.)

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#27

American Graffiti (1973)

61 points, 14 lists, 2 top 10

1998: AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies – #77[55]
2000: AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs – #43[56]
2007: AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – #62[57]

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Despite unanimous praise at a January 1973 test screening attended by Universal executive Ned Tanen, the studio told Lucas they wanted to re-edit his original cut of American Graffiti.[30] Producer Coppola sided with Lucas against Tanen and Universal, offering to "buy the film" from the studio and reimburse it for the $775,000 (equivalent to $4.6 million in 2018)[32] it had cost to make it.[22] 20th Century Fox and Paramount Pictures made similar offers to the studio.[5] Universal refused these offers and told Lucas they planned to have William Hornbeck re-edit the film.[33]

 

When Coppola's The Godfather won the Academy Award for Best Picture in March 1973, Universal relented, and agreed to cut only three scenes (about four minutes) from Lucas' cut—an encounter between Toad and a fast-talking car salesman, an argument between Steve and his former teacher Mr. Kroot at the sock hop, and an effort by Bob Falfa to serenade Laurie with "Some Enchanted Evening"—but decided that the film was fit for release only as a television movie.[22]

 

However, various studio employees who had seen the film began talking it up, and its reputation grew through word of mouth.[22] The studio dropped the TV movie idea and began arranging for a limited release in selected theaters in Los Angeles and New York.[10] Universal presidents Sidney Sheinberg and Lew Wasserman heard about the praise the film had been garnering in L.A and New York, and the marketing department amped up its promotion strategy for it,[10] investing an additional $500,000 (equivalent to $2.8 million in 2018)[32] in marketing and promotion.[5] The film was released in the United States on August 11, 1973[2] to sleeper hit reception.[34] The film had cost only $1.27 million (equivalent to $7.6 million in 2018)[32] to produce and market, but yielded worldwide box office gross revenues of more than $55 million (equivalent to $310 million in 2018)[32].[35] It had only modest success outside the United States, but became a cult film in France.[33]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Graffiti

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#26

The French Connection (1971)

61 points, 16 lists, 1 top 10

AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies - #70
AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) - #93
AFI's 100 Years…100 Thrills - #8
 

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The plot centers on drug smuggling in the 1960s and early '70s, when most of the heroin illegally imported into the East Coast came to the United States through France (see French Connection). In addition to the two main protagonists, several of the fictional characters depicted in the film also have real-life counterparts. The Alain Charnier character is based upon Jean Jehan who was arrested later in Paris for drug trafficking, though he was not extradited since France does not extradite its citizens.[8] Sal Boca is based on Pasquale "Patsy" Fuca, and his brother Anthony. Angie Boca is based on Patsy's wife Barbara, who later wrote a book with Robin Moore detailing her life with Patsy. The Fucas and their uncle were part of a heroin dealing crew that worked with some of the New York City crime families.[9] Henri Devereaux, who takes the fall for importing the Lincoln to New York City, is based on Jacques Angelvin, a television actor arrested and sentenced to three to six years in a federal penitentiary for his role, serving about four before returning to France and turning to real estate.[10] The Joel Weinstock character is, according to the director's commentary, a composite of several similar drug dealers.[11]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_French_Connection_(film)

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#25

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

66 points, 11 lists, 3 top 5, 2 top 10

2012 Sight & Sound: 9 Critics, 1 Director

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Hooper has cited changes in the cultural and political landscape as central influences on the film. His intentional misinformation, that the "film you are about to see is true", was a response to being "lied to by the government about things that were going on all over the world", including Watergate, the 1973 oil crisis, and "the massacres and atrocities in the Vietnam War".[8] The "lack of sentimentality and the brutality of things" that Hooper noticed while watching the local news, whose graphic coverage was epitomized by "showing brains spilled all over the road", led to his belief that "man was the real monster here, just wearing a different face, so I put a literal mask on the monster in my film".[11] The idea of using a chainsaw as the murder weapon came to Hooper while he was in the hardware section of a busy store, contemplating how to speed his way through the crowd.[12]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Texas_Chain_Saw_Massacre

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#24

Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

68 points, 15 lists 1 top 5, 2 top 10

2012 Sight & Sound: 1 Critic, 4 directors

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Wojtowicz wrote a letter to The New York Times in 1975 claiming that the events of the film were "only 30% true." Some of Wojtowicz's objections to the film's accuracy included the portrayal of his ex-wife, whose real name was Carmen Bifulco, the conversation with his mother and the refusal of police to let him speak to Carmen (Angie). He did, however, praise Al Pacino and Chris Sarandon's portrayals of himself and Elizabeth Eden. [12] Also, although Sal was 18 years old at the time of the robbery, he is portrayed in the film by then 39-year-old John Cazale.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_Day_Afternoon

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#23

Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979)

68 points, 17 lists, 1 top 5

95% on Rotten Tomatoes with 64 reviews

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The first draft of the screenplay, provisionally titled The Gospel According to St. Brian, was ready by Christmas 1976.[15] The final pre-production draft was ready in January 1978, following "a concentrated two-week writing and water-skiing period in Barbados".[16] The film would not have been made without Python fan former Beatle George Harrison, who set up HandMade Films to help fund it at a cost of £3 million.[17] Harrison put up the money for it as he "wanted to see the movie"—later described by Terry Jones as the "world's most expensive cinema ticket."[18]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Python's_Life_of_Brian

[Fancyarcher]

8 minutes ago, captainwondyful said:

Don't be!!! Yours are great too!  I pulled that out of some old post I wrote for Panda's Top 100.  (Though, you can think of it as preview to the Top 50 Musicals.)

Thank you! Unlike you, I actually wrote those write-ups out of the blue, though they're my opinions in general.

 

When we get to the musical list, there are actually a few films, I might wanna about talk about as well (Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory comes to mind). I gotta make the list first, though.

[cannastop]

#22
Carrie (1976)

69 points 17 votes, 1 top 5, 1 top 5

94% on Rotten Tomatoes with 63 reviews

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Determined to land the leading role, Spacek backed out of a television commercial she was scheduled to film,[13] rubbed Vaseline into her hair, left her face unwashed, and arrived for her screen test clad in a sailor dress which her mother had made her in the seventh grade, with the hem cut off,[8] and was given the part.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrie_(1976_film)