The Good The Bad & The Indifferent

[Chickenboy]

It wasn't THAT bad, rebel dude. Now, Paint your Wagon, on the other hand...

[Canoerebel]

It was that bad! And worse! What is it Gollum says: "I hates it!"

On a separate train of thought, you know how some movies, while not great, for some reason really stick in your mind? How about Duel, Major Dundee, and Shenandoah? (Actually, the first and third are good movies, though not great.)

[Flicker]

I thought of 'Animal House' (1978) as a training film for college. Belushi followed it with the WW2 comedy '1941' (1979).

Some more great 70s movies that deserve mention:

'Mad Max' (1979) was a seminal work in the post-apocalypse genre, however I also like 'A Boy and his Dog' (1975) starring Don Johnson (for the surprise ending).
'Monty Python and the Holy Grail' (1974) features brave Sir Robin, namesake of the widely used Allied tactic.
'The Outlaw Josey Wales' (1976) is one of Clint Eastwood's best films
'Dirty Harry' (1971) is the best of the tough cop genre.
'The Rocky Horror Picture Show' (1975) is of course a cult classic.
"The Man Who Would Be King' (1975).

[CaptDave]

"Animal House" came out in my freshman year. About half the guys on my floor in the dorm went to see it, and three of them went through rush immediately after. [:D]

A B&W movie I'd add to the list -- don't recall seeing anyone mention it -- is "Twelve O'Clock High." Most -- not all, but most -- other military movies with which I'm familiar were entertaining, but just inaccurate enough (knowing what I know now) to be off-putting.

Come to think of it, "Birdman of Alcatraz" wasn't too bad, though I'm not much of a Burt Lancaster fan (maybe if he didn't use the same persona for every role I've seen I'd think differently).

[Canoerebel]

12/10/42 and 12/11/42

Carriers: KB is on a tour of the waters east of Diego, trending back towards home, though that can change at a snap since those carriers can leap around 18 hexes at a time (with a lethal radius, therefore, of as much as 26 hexes, that's a lengthy reach). The Allied carriers have pulled into Colombo, possibly undetected, and have refilled the aircraft squadrons. More merchantmen are ready to head to Sabang, so we'll resume the game of chicken shortly.

Sumatra: Fairly quiet here as I wait to see what John does next. SigInt reports an AA unit on a maru bound for Port Blair. This is a bit of a surprise as that's at the end of a limb for him; and yet, a strong IJN DD force just made for Victoria Point. John seems to have some plans, but I'm not sure what yet.

Burma: The Allied stack near Ramree will try a probing deliberate attack tomorrow.

xx 793 hut! hut! The Allies are about to invade Noumea. Advance elements found a IJN transport TF and sank 13 very small xAK and two SC. Then Minneapolis and Nevada bombarded the base. I know 56/c Div. is there augmented by a CD unit. The Allies have what amounts to four RCT 100% prepped. This won't be enough unless the bombardment runs are sufficient to badly disrupt the enemy. I have additional RCT and Commonwealth brigades available at Auckland, so I can reinforce if necessary. IE, I'm not sure this operation is going to succeed, but I'll push as hard as possible.

[Bif1961]

What about Jaws and Tora Tora?

[Canoerebel]

Several have mentioned Tora! Tora! Tora! I personally think it's a great movie and it's my "second best" of the '70s.

Jaws, like a great many of the movies listed, is entertaining but by no means "great."

The '70s were horrid for movies, style and hair.

[Bif1961]

If you don't think Jaws was a great movie, I have one thing to say to you; you are gonna need a bigger boat! [:D]

[Canoerebel]

There are tons of '70s movies (many listed by you gents) that fit varying definitions of "entertaining," but certainly (to my way of thinking) do not reach the level of being great movies. Some quick examples from that decade: Jaws, The Sting, Deliverance, The Great Train Robbery, M*A*S*H, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Dirty Harry, Animal House, Jeremiah Johnson, Midnight Express, A Bridge to Far...

Those all have merit. There may be folks that love those movies for various personal reasons, the same way I love Tora! Tora! Tora! while my wife would fall asleep five minutes in. I'm not saying that I'm right and she's wrong, just that by my measurement these movies can't stack up to what I consider a great move: Casablanca, Gone with the Wind, Sound of Music, Singing in the Rain, My Fair Lady, Doctor Zhivago, Schindler's List, Titanic, Saving Private Ryan, Pirates of the Carribean I, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, and many more. From my perspective, I don't see how the '70s can offer anything close to what came in the '30s to '50s and '90s to present. The 70s were the black hole of movie making. A bunch of crud intermixed with a bunch of entertaining-but-not-great with a sad sprinkling of really good movies.

[Cap Mandrake]

Hey wait! What about The Godfather (1972)? Tremendous film.

And Airport 4, the Lost Weekend(1979)?


You guys are a bunch of Philistines. [:)]

[obvert]

Dan it seems you're a fan of the epic. All of these you list would be right up there for me in the great movie category (although I admit a severe difficulty in sitting through musicals unless there's a lot of ironic humor involved). [:)]

Sometimes students ask me for a favorite film, or even a top ten list. I simply can't rank these things. My interests are too broad and I guess my tolerance too high for really diverse things. I end up giving them my list, which now has about 300 films on it. Everything from these great films about societies at the brink to small simple comedies that just perfectly know how to make me laugh.

Although I love the film M.A.S.H., and I'm glad someone mentioned it, I still have to say the TV show did more to me because it was truly epic in nature, taking me through the lives of those people for so long. Mostly silly, but with a background of seriousness that never really dissipated. How many films or TV shows are there where you can rattle off the names of 5-10 characters without really trying? [:)]

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: crsutton

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Ross! The 70s? That's the black hold of the motion picture era. The '30s through early '50s were golden, and really the '90s through the present day have been great. But the '70s were just plain awful.*

*Note: This, of course, is my own humble opinion based on my subjective likes and dislikes. In particular, I dislike vulgarity, sleaze, and movies with an overtly political agenda. That leaves about three decent movies from the '70s.

I somehow missed the great 70s movie debate that I started here. I get the feeling that if the great canoe paddler and I go to the multiplex together, we are going to end up in different theaters..[;)]

I love all films of all eras but the 70s was my coming of age time and was the coming of age time for American Cinema as well. My wife and I have spent the last two years re watching and watching some of the best films from that decade. Some have already been mentioned but here are a few that were missed.

The Conversation.
Badlands
Little Big Man
Being There
Cabaret
The Last Detail
The Man Who Would be King
The Sunshine Boys
The Garden of Finzi Continis
Breaking Away
All the Presidents Men
Young Frankenstein
A Bridge Too Far
Midnight Express
The Goodbye Girl
A Clockwork Orange
Network
M.A.S.H
American Graffiti
Alien (I still can't watch it twice)
Dog Day Afternoon
The Spirit of the Beehive
Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Not really. Just threw it in to get Dan excited)

Amazing! Spirit of the Beehive! Love that film!

Hardly anyone I've ever met has seen it though. So haunting.

[Canoerebel]

One big reason I'm opinionated about movies is that I detest gratuitous sex, vulgarity, and profanity, and feel the same about movies that glamorize or condone crime, drug use, and immorality. By modern standards, I think I may seem prudish. But I come from an old fashioned southerners household which takes things like this seriously. In large part, this is because of our religious beliefs.

I hope you won't dismiss my standards out of hand, though, because many of us share the same idea with respect to historical accuracy. We deplore movies that take liberties with history, feeling almsot a sacred duty to get it right. To fail to do so, we feel, is to do an injustice to the men and women who went through those times. Thus, our loathing for TMTSNBN and others like it.

I make allowances for profanity etc. when used correctly in historical context - Saving Private Ryan and Schindler's List for example. But think of the great old movies from the '30s through the '50s - no profanity, no vulgarity, etc. - and they are just marvelous. The '60s and '70s (and also through current day) deviated from that sharply, but especially the '70s, when directors flaunted their newfound freedom and lack of standards to pour it on even when it wasn't necessary. Execrable.

Since the '90s, many filmmakers have exercised a commendable level of self control. While these things I deplore are still common, there are so many great movies that are nearly totally free of it - think of it - Pirates of the Carribean, Les Miserables, most of the super hero movies, Lord of the Rings trilogy, Narnia trilogy. Many more delve into these things for historical accuracy - Enemy at the Gates, Zero Dark Thirty, and others.

Perhaps you can understand why, from my narrow perspective, the golden era of film making was '30 to '50s and '90s to present, while the '70s were bad.

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

I'm not a sci fi fan at all, but I wholeheartedly agree that Star Wars was a great ("Wow!") movie. I think it was the best movie of the '70s. I think Tora! Tora! Tora! might have been second best, but for reasons that demonstrate how subjective this is. My wife wouldn't like Tora! at all.

Nearly all of the other movies nominated by good folks rate from "okay" to "yuck!" in my book. I do realize my standardd and taste are rather unusual (not better, but probably odd).

I do note that you gents have enough taste not to mention the one movie that is worse than TMTSNBN. Arg! I can't even bring myself to mention it. Let's just put it this way: Hogan's Heroes was much better and far more true to history, bumbling Gestapo agents and overweight Keystone Cops sergeant and all.

I am willing to bet that just like my grandma the great puntpaddler refuses to go see Gone with the Wind because Rhett Butler said "I don't give a damn." [8D]

[CaptBeefheart]

To each his own, CR, and I agree a lot with your criteria, although my definition of "condone" might be a bit different.

I watched the more recent "Get Smart" remake and the Maxwell Smart character used the a-hole word to refer to someone. What? That went completely against the grain of that character from the original series (i.e. bumbling, yet completely goodnatured, much like Inspector Closeau). I stopped watching remakes because the vision of the new writers, directors and actors usually clashes with my conception of the original. That said, if someone wants to make historically accurate remakes of a lot of war movies *cough* Midway, Battle of the Bulge *cough* I'd be all over it.

Cheers,
CC

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

One big reason I'm opinionated about movies is that I detest gratuitous sex, vulgarity, and profanity, and feel the same about movies that glamorize or condone crime, drug use, and immorality. By modern standards, I think I may seem prudish. But I come from an old fashioned southerners household which takes things like this seriously. In large part, this is because of our religious beliefs.

I hope you won't dismiss my standards out of hand, though, because many of us share the same idea with respect to historical accuracy. We deplore movies that take liberties with history, feeling almsot a sacred duty to get it right. To fail to do so, we feel, is to do an injustice to the men and women who went through those times. Thus, our loathing for TMTSNBN and others like it.

I make allowances for profanity etc. when used correctly in historical context - Saving Private Ryan and Schindler's List for example. But think of the great old movies from the '30s through the '50s - no profanity, no vulgarity, etc. - and they are just marvelous. The '60s and '70s (and also through current day) deviated from that sharply, but especially the '70s, when directors flaunted their newfound freedom and lack of standards to pour it on even when it wasn't necessary. Execrable.

Since the '90s, many filmmakers have exercised a commendable level of self control. While these things I deplore are still common, there are so many great movies that are nearly totally free of it - think of it - Pirates of the Carribean, Les Miserables, most of the super hero movies, Lord of the Rings trilogy, Narnia trilogy. Many more delve into these things for historical accuracy - Enemy at the Gates, Zero Dark Thirty, and others.

Perhaps you can understand why, from my narrow perspective, the golden era of film making was '30 to '50s and '90s to present, while the '70s were bad.

I like the old stuff too-especially the noir films of the 40s and 50s. I still start sniffling whenever I see the end to Casablanca. (Allergies, I assure you.)

Just watched the Thin Man with Myrna Loy. One of the last films made before the Hays
Commission barred the door. Myrna Loy was crazy funny and so beautiful it hurts. And, some of the outfits she wore just made me blush....

[yubari]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel
One big reason I'm opinionated about movies is that I detest gratuitous sex,

Yes, I agree about the gratuitous bit. It really is quite hard to find a TV program nowadays without gratuitous f***ing in nowadays, taken to an extreme level by "Game of Thrones". Hey, why have just plot explanantion on screen when you can have plot explanation at the same time as fairly hardcore porn.

Last days of Rome.....

[JocMeister]

The Godfather pt. I and pt. II are probably two of the best movies ever made! (IMO and all that). Both from the 70s!

[JeffroK]

Good 70's movies

One flew over the cuckoos nest, American Graffiti, Enter the Dragon.

You're right, there isn't a lot.

[Encircled]

Cross of Iron
Serpico
The life of Brian

love "A boy and his dog"!