Summer blockbusters weren’t a thing…until 1975. Steven Spielberg, the 2nd of the legendary tripod of directors (Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas, the other 2) gets his #1 film of the 70s right in the middle, becoming a legend with Bruce (look it up if you don’t know to what I’m referrring).
Tame by today’s standards, this movie’s hyper violence was offputting for many at the time, but now is expected and actually very darkly funny at times. This movie also gets credit for essentially predicting reality TV and popularity of sports like MMA and football, while, you know, murdering pedestrians in a cross country race for points.
Comedian Rudy Ray Moore has a lot of fun writing and starring in this blaxsploitation flick. The themes are pretty predictable for these movies: a revenge flick with Dolemite fighting against whitey/the man. But damn if it isn’t funny and quotable as hell.
An arthouse film you either go with or you don’t. This movie takes the time to show you how sedate and mundane Jeanne’s (Delphine Seyrig) life has become. And how slowly and subtly it can start to unravel.
This movie initially was a B movie. However, as time has gone on, it’s become a rewatchable classic for the different. The drug induced. The cross dressers. The Transylvanian Transvestites. It’s queer style has aged like a fine wine into modern times, and boasts great looney performances from Tim Curry and Susan Sarandon. I highly encourage you to see this movie at midnight; it’s fun as hell.
Stanley Kubrick’s Southern epic is my pick for the one that will benefit most from rewatch. Exuding Kubrick’s meticulous directing skills like amazing tracking shots, epic portrait like views of cities/troops, and a relatable story of seeking the American dream, Redmond Barry’s tale is a feast on the eyes at least, on the brain at best.
The big award winner of the year is this Jack Nicholson/Milos Forman collaboration. Forman turns Ken Kesey’s novel into an allegory about the people in power controlling the strange but normal people. Nicholson, and early versions of Danny DeVito, Christopher Lloyd, and Will Sampson are terrific as the mental asylum inmates, but even better is the icy cold Louise Fletcher as the head nurse with zero sense of humor and all the power.
Robert Altman goes big and goes home, if you’re Barbara Jean (Ronee Blakely) anyway, to the country music capital of the world. This epic is a jaded and loving ode to a city, with amazing musical performance, but also terrible musical performances, as we see a sprawling cast of characters (an Altman feature) chase the American dream, or at least lie to themselves about it.
Sidney Lumet is really good at capturing 70s city life, as well as people stuck inside a corrupt system, desperate to get out. In this one, Al Pacino and John Cazale rob a bank in New York. But, the cops get wind of it, so we get a standoff with 2 men with hostages, and the entirety of a city outside watching for entertainment. Lumet’s jaded, cynical, but complex touch gives the thriller an air of tragedy right from the get go, filling the audience with dread every time the cops close in on Pacino and Cazale.
The Python’s silliest and most well liked film remains as funny as ever. Lampooning the quest movies, all the boys pack in the silly while still providing an entertaining as hell quest movie. There are so many things that are hard to forget (the blindly courageous but poor fighting black knight, brave Sir Robin…who runs away from every battle), and perfectly executed (a castle in the distance is a prop made of paper). When the Python’s bring their A game, everyone’s gonna laugh.
The world’s first summer blockbuster. Steven Spielberg worked around all sorts of mechanical shark issues brilliantly by waiting to show the shark until the end of the movie, instead using John William’s F and F sharp to terrify the audience’s imaginations to think the worst possible thing. He also cast 3 great actors to elevate the characters beyond wrote types, especially Robert Shaw’s Quint. Spielberg also plans out the scares perfectly, lulling the audience into normalcy and then scaring them with F/F Sharps out of nohwere. And yes, Quint, you’re gonna need a bigger boat.
