70's Top 10 Films

[Woo]

Here we go again!

10. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Really like this movie- more so than ET- and think that it was pretty tense when people start spotting UFOs and get visions of the mountain where the craft is going to land. Also the aliens come in peace- what a novel idea! However Mars Attacks proves it's funny green killer aliens that arrive on Earth.

9. Monty Python's Life Of Brian
Very funny and witty film from the Pythons. The Church was so stupid to get offended by the film.

8. Blazing Saddles
I like Mel Brooks films and this is his best by far. Gene Wilder rules in this movie playing a retired sharp-shooter. Hilarious.

7. Jaws
DUUUUUUN DUN. DUUUUUUUUN DUN. DUN-DUN-DUN etc etc. Is this the best theme of all time? Probably (that'd make a good thread in itself), but what's more important is that this is one of the best films ever made.

6. The Godfather
This is also one of the best films ever. Not much else needs to be said about it really.

5. The Godfather Part II
The Godfather is great, but this is my favourite of the three films. Seeing Pacino slowly evolve from the wide-eyed good lad into the ruthless tyrant mob boss is gripping. Plus De-Niro plays a young Marlon Brando and nails it.

4. Halloween
The slasher that inspired a thousand copycats. Mike Myers in his legendary sprayed-white William Shatner mask is an iconic movie character.

3. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
From Michael Myers to Leatherface- another terrifying horror villain. I love the way this film looks grainy and low-budget- it somehow adds to the overall feeling of terror. Plus the way there isn't really an ending is fantastic- yes the lone female survives, but the film ends with Leatherface swinging his chainsaw round in the air meaning that he is still out there for some more poor unfortunate souls to bump into.

2. Alien
'In space no one can hear you scream'. What a terrific tagline. As you can tell the 70's was a great time for horror fans with all the films on this list plus Dawn of the Dead which almost made it. Alien though is imo the pinnacle of 70's horror films. It also would be the best sci-fi film of the decade too if were not for the next film on my list...

1. Star Wars
How could it not be? I could talk about how good this movie is but I'd run out of superlatives. It's simply a perfect film.

Anyone else got a top 10, 5 or one favourite film from the decade that gave us ABBA, Bee Gees and big flares?

[Hellion]

As ever, these lists are never definitive. It's only a representation of what I've seen to date, and how I feel for the moment. There are some noticeable absentees from this list, but it's reflective of my tastes and my tastes alone.

10. Rocky: This is truly a great movie. Put aside your Stallone prejudice and get wrapped up in a proper underdog story. Ruined only be a sliding scale of sequels. This works so well because the ending defies the hype of the story.

09 *M*A*S*H*: Before the series (of mediocre value in my opinion) came an excellent movie starring Donald Sutherland and Elliot Gould. Robert Altman directs this epic about passing time and staying sane in an occasionally flawed but entertaining manner. As a point of interest, of the original film cast only Radar agreed to join the series.

08 Taxi Driver: Step into one of the films which has created the legend of Robert de Niro. Performances like this, as the deluded self-righteous cab man meant that later in life an aging de Niro would rest on his laurels and perhaps never quite achieve a godly acting status. Nonetheless, Taxi Driver sees a young man well on his way to possibly achieving that mantle.

07 The Godfather: Pacino, much like de Niro, suffered largely from his outstanding success in the 70's and 80's. But the Godfather is much more than just Pacino. More than Brando, Duvall or Caan. This movie is perfectly paced, tensioned and shot. You could hardly ask for a more outstanding piece of cinema.

06 Barry Lyndon: One of Kubrick's most underrated movies. This is the story of a wild kid who gradually rises to a position of great power through sheer determination in 18th century Britain. The cinematography is outstanding... this is a director at the height of his game. It's funny, sad and breathtaking.

05 Life of Brian:
Reg: They've bled us white, the bastards. They've taken
everything we had, and not just from us, from our fathers,
and from our fathers' fathers.
Loretta: And from our fathers' fathers' fathers.
Reg: Yeah.
Loretta: And from our fathers' fathers' fathers' fathers.
Reg: Yeah. All right, Stan. Don't labour the point. And what
have they ever given us in return?!
Xerxes: The aqueduct?
Reg: What?
Xerxes: The aqueduct.
Reg: Oh. Yeah, yeah. They did give us that. Uh, that's true.
Yeah.
Commando 3: And the sanitation.
Loretta: Oh, yeah, the sanitation, Reg. Remember what the city
used to be like?
Reg: Yeah. All right. I'll grant you the aqueduct and the
sanitation are two things that the Romans have done.
Matthias: And the roads.
Reg: Well, yeah. Obviously the roads. I mean, the roads go
without saying, don't they? But apart from the sanitation,
the aqueduct, and the roads--
Commando: Irrigation.
Xerxes: Medicine.
Commandos: Huh? Heh? Huh...
Commando 2: Education.
Commandos: Ohh...
Reg: Yeah, yeah. All right. Fair enough.
Commando 1: And the wine.
Commandos: Oh, yes. Yeah...
Francis: Yeah. Yeah, that's something we'd really miss, Reg,
if the Romans left. Huh.
Commando: Public baths.
Loretta: And it's safe to walk in the streets at night now,
Reg.
Francis: Yeah, they certainly know how to keep order. Let's
face it. They're the only ones who could in a place like this.
Commandos: Hehh, heh. Heh heh heh heh heh heh heh.
Reg: But apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education,
wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh-water system,
and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?
Xerxes: Brought peace?
Reg: Oh, peace? Shut up

Need I say more?

04 A Clockwork Orange: An excellent adaptation. Burgess didn't like it, but funnily enough, good authors almost never like film adaptations of their work. He had right to be upset, too... Kubrick did away with the last chapter of the book. Good move if you ask me, it was all namby pamby soft and gooey. Completely at odds with the rest of a very compelling read. Funny how it's normally hollywood which takes a gritty ending and turns it soft and snuggly for broad appeal. If you needed confirmation that Stanley Kubrick was never 'Hollywood', that should be it. Malcolm McDowell needs mentioning here also. In spite of a relatively underwhelming career afterwards, there was truly noone who could have embodied Alex better.

03 Being There: I love this movie. Peter Sellars playing the simple man. Before Forrest Gump. Before Rain Man. There was the darkly comic Being There. But it's not a comedy. It's a drama with moments of hilarity. Sellars final movie has often been said to be semi-autobiographical. Although he clearly did not share the same intellectual shortcomings as the lead in Being There, his true personality is often talked of as underdeveloped and empty. The parallel is there and it explains the appeal of a story far different from what he is famous for committing to the screen. A must watch!

02 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: Another unhappy author in Ken Kesey. Another masterpiece. Cuckoo's nest probably couldn't have been directly adapted (using the Chief's narrative) nearly as seamlessly as Milos Forman's breakthrough movie. Story more or less has it that Kirk Douglas (who bought the rights to Kesey's book in the 60's) had seen an up and coming European director named Milos Forman. He sent the transcript to him but it never arrived and the project halted. 10 years later his son Michael tried again to contact Milos, with more success. This time they got the project up and going. Casting was an issue. Where the Douglas's considered Brando or Newman for the McMurphy role, Forman insisted that Burt Reynolds was perfect for the role... embodying what he labelled 'Cheap Charisma'. Cheap indeed.

As it were, they ended up with the rising Jack Nicholson in a career defining role. In retrospect, the role was perfect for him and him alone. Look out for noticeable cameos from Chistopher Lloyd (Doc from Back to the future) and Danny DeVito.

01 Wake in Fright: This is a film so far ahead of it's time. An Australian masterpiece, and probably the best Australian film to date. It was criticizing our culture long before it came in vogue and was largely chastised for it. An all-star ensemble cast (of Aussie actors at least) tell the story of an Englishman who gets caught up in outback Australia gambling his money away and gradually being sucked into a blizzard of alcoholism. It's bleak, gritty and cuts to the bone of the romanticised image of outback Australia. Funnily enough, it was directed by a Canadian.

It may not have the same appeal to people from other countries, but I'd hate to speak FOR you.