Kevin's Watch

You guys should just leave the poll alone. You're digging into something bigger than you. Bigger than us. Step away from the poll.

You can't handle the poll!

Sure, go ahead. Vote and then list...

Mine:
1- Godfathers

2- Apocalypse Now
3- Star Wars
4- Chinatown
5- Jaws
6- Alien
7- Rocky
8- Patton
9- Cuckoo's Nest
10- Holy Grail
11- Close Encounters
12- The Sting

This is hard.

1. Logan's Run.
2. Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
3. Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
4. A Clockwork Orange.
5. Patton.

Patton is popular

After at least three minutes of deliberation, I've decided to list six that leapt to mind. They'd be my favourites from this era, and some would be my pick for the best too:

1 Dersu Uzala. Kurosawa Akira, 1975
2 Taxi Driver. Martin Scorcese, 1976
3 Macbeth. Roman Polanski, 1971
4 Aguirre, Wrath of God. Werner Herzog, 1972
5 The Exorcist. William Friedkin, 1973
6 Stalker. Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979

IotBS+1

Cail wrote:IotBS+1

Best Ending Ever.

Hells yes.

...never seen the original...the remake was okay...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970s_in_film

What an amazing decade for movies! Check out the list at the bottom of the page in the link, truly the film equivalent of the musical 60s.

Speaking of Japanese cinema, I just watched Oldboy...

Truly great film. Better than Eternal Sunshine.

Favorites

Star Wars - single most influential movie in my life
Star Trek: The Motion Picture - magnificent, unfairly maligned epic
Close Encounters of the Third Kind - still the best-looking UFOs in cinema
Alien - this movie is partly to blame for my fear of spidery things
The Andromeda Strain - archaic-looking technology doesn't diminish power of the story
Superman: The Movie - still the only Superman film that got it right
The Black Hole - I watch it to drool over the Cygnus
Logan's Run - I watch this to drool over Jenny Agutter
Apocalypse Now - napalm and Brando's noggin never looked so sexy
THX 1138 - George, please retire Star Wars for now and go back to brilliantly edgy stuff like THX

I really like every one on your list, Matrix. Kudos.

Can't make a list, because I can't remember all the films that I've seen that are from the seventies, and I'm to lazy to look them up

But I can start a heated debate

I don't see what the big deal with the Exorcist is. It had potential, but to me, it never amounted to much of anything. I really do not know what the deal is for me with this movie.

I'll admit, the actual exorcism was awesome, but there was just so much to wade through to get there, I can't say it was worth it....

BTW, I voted Alien

Orlion wrote: I don't see what the big deal with the Exorcist is. It had potential, but to me, it never amounted to much of anything. I really do not know what the deal is for me with this movie.

The reason the film made such an impact at the time (and has kept it) is really two-fold - one, it's incredibly controversial - having a young girl stab herself in the vagina with a crucifix and shout "let Jesus f*ck you" is about as extreme as most movies will ever go; two, Exorcist is a horror film for adults that takes its subject matter completely seriously. The film's long-slow build to its climax lends credence to the story in the same way that Bram Stoker's meticulous every-day detail in Dracula takes an improbable story and makes it belivable.

Besides, the Exorcist has my pick for most compelling cinema character of all time - Father Karras (Jason Miller). I could go on about the other details which make this film brilliant (the soundtrack, the cast, the cinematography) but I'll give it a rest.

Well, Orlion, I don't want to see you get attacked alone from all sides, so I'll join you for the stoning...not for The Exorcist, but for the Godfather movies. I love Coppola's Apocalypse Now, but his Godfather saga does nothing for me. Unless you yourself love the Godfather movies, in which case we may have to be in separate stoning areas.

I wouldn't have trouble acknowledging The Exorcist as a great horror film. It's just that I only feel comfortable listing my favorites from that era - my definition of "favorite" being films that I like to watch again and again. The Exorcist does not fit that definition. It's a movie that messes with the head (literally, in Linda Blair's case) and I'm not a person who wants that kind of experience on a regular basis. Or at least not the kind that involves demon children and priests.

Thanks for your reply, Montresor, I always enjoy well-thought defenses that do not include something along the lines of, "well, back in those days, a moving picture was enough to make most people frightened, you just have to think about how it was back in those days...etc, etc." A classic, as your response pointed out, should also affect people today, not just people in the year it came out.

I guess the reason why I can't see the horror in it is that, to me, it's too funny.

Thanks for the camaraderie, matrixman! However, I don't know where I would stand in position with respect to Godfather... you see, I can never get through it, it always inspires me to turn it off and read a much more exciting classic like Beowulf...(and with that comment, I think I'll get the bigger stones thrown at me )

I have to respect your good nature here, Orlion.

Hrm. Maybe it's because Godfather doesn't have an emotional effect, while Apocalypse Now did, at least for me.

jacob Raver, sinTempter wrote:Hrm. Maybe it's because Godfather doesn't have an emotional effect, while Apocalypse Now did, at least for me.

Seriously? How is Michael's corruption and conversion (to a mob boss) unemotional to you? His story was so... tragic