The Turning Point
The Turning Point was a well-respected film of 1977 nominated for 11 Oscars, winning zero. But 1977 was a turning point for film, maybe the biggest since 1927 and The Jazz Singer, for the year saw the release of three of my favorite films ever, including the one that changed everything, Star Wars.
Let's see what my friend Jesse Walker thinks of 1977.
2. Equus
3. Martin
4. The Last Wave
5. 3 Women
6. That Obscure Object of Desire
7. Slap Shot
8. God Told Me To
9. The Sand Castle
10. Citizens Band
I can't argue with Annie Hall in the top slot. Most can agree it's Woody's masterpiece (though not all would agree with me it's his last great film).
I'm not even sure if Equus holds up as a play, but I'm shocked to see anyone defend it as a movie. (I do remember Richard Burton getting his seventh and last nomination for the Best Actor Oscar. He'd never won, and they opened the envelope and announced "Richard...Dreyfuss." I've always wondered how he felt.)
Considering the kind of films I see, it's shocking I've never caught Martin.
The Last Wave I like, though probably not enough for the top ten.
3 Women is Altman in a dreamy mood. Good, but not great.
That Obscure Object Desire would make my list, though I don't think it's necessarily top tier Bunuel.
Slap Shot is a lot of fun and would make my top ten.
Haven't seen 8 or 9.
Citizens Band is pretty good, probably top twenty.
11. Eraserhead
12. Suspiria
13. The Finishing Line
14. Dog's Dialogue
15. House
16. Take the 5:10 to Dreamland
17. Perfumed Nightmare
18. La Soufrière
19. Bead Game
20. The Mallet
I don't think Lynch has ever topped 11. It would be one of the three films battling for my top spot, so I'm sorry to see it missed the top ten. Don't think that much of 12, but generally like 15. I like 16, but it's a short. To my surprise, I haven't seen any of the others. As for 18, there's another film by Herzog this year that I expected to see.
The Goodbye Girl
The Kentucky Fried Movie
Smokey And The Bandit (the smart set prefer Handle With Care, but this is the real thing)
Star Wars (I refuse to add the episode title)
Desperate Living
The Devil Probably (great ending)
Pumping Iron
Soldier Of Orange
Stroszek (great ending)
Other films of note:
posted by LAGuy @ 7:36 AM
14 Comments:
The ending to Stroszek was *almost* enough to get it onto my list. It's one of the greatest endings ever.
I'm with you on refusing to add A New Hope. The movie is called Star Wars, dammit.
In fact, you've inspired me to add a note to my post about Stroszek's ending. That deserves a shoutout.
The Chicken Chronicles does NOT hold up. I saw it that year, and thought it was absolutely hilarious when I was 15, but when I was 25 and saw it again on video, I realized it was just dreck. The best movie that year was Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Taxi Driver was '76.
I am one of the few people who saw The Chicken Chronicles when it was released. It's weird what you remember--the main thing I recall from that movie is Phil Silvers serving rancid cole slaw.
I've never really liked Close Encounters, though it has some nice moments. I had high hopes for it, but my main feeling back then was it's no Star Wars. I've seen it a number of times since and it's still no Star Wars.
Sorry about Taxi Driver. You're right. I'm going to remove it and now we'll have this record in the comments of something that doesn't exist.
It was suggested that I post this here, so here goes:
Based solely upon Jesse's/PajamaGuy's lists, I took a few minutes and
made my own list for '77. I may go back and do '87 and '97 as well. PJ
Guy originally had Taxi Driver listed, but that's '76. I will have to assume his
other films are listed correctly.
1. Annie Hall (arguably Allen's best, though I prefer Manhattan)
2. 3 Women (arguably Altman's best)
3. That Obscure Object of Desire
4. Strozek (hey, it'd make a great double feature with It's a Wonderful
Life)
5. Citizens Band a/k/a Handle With Care
6. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (deeply flawed but still pretty
terrific)
7. Julia
8. The Last Wave
9. Saturday Night Fever
10. Equus (works better as a play, but I'll defend the movie, too)
Hon. Mentions in no particular order:
The Turning Point
Star Wars (HATED it when I first saw it, as I was expecting/hoping for
something more similar to THX-1138)
Eraserhead
The Goodbye Girl
High Anxiety
The Late Show
Looking for Mr. Goodbar
New York, New York
I'll throw in A Little Night Music just for the music and Diana Rigg. I
remember Pauline Kael's review, where she said Hal Prince directed as if
he'd never seen a movie before. I'd amend that to: he directed as if he
were making a Super 8 home movie.
And now I see that we apparently left out at least two or three which would make my top 10: Providence, The Man Who Loved Women, and perhaps F for Fake, although I believe Jesse has it under a different year.
I've always seen F FOR FAKE listed as a 1973 movie.
Maybe you know the story that the crew of Stroszek hated the stuff with the dancing chicken so much that they refused to shoot it, so Herzog had to do it himself.
I have a certain fondness for The Late Show. Perhaps I should have put it in the category of films I liked. (I sort of like many of the films in the final category, but I just don't remember them strongly enough to put them higher.)
I rewatched New York New York last week. That a major studio would give Martin Scorsese a huge budget to make such a film shows how different things were in the 70s.
I think it was finished in '73, shown somewhere outside the US in '74, had a European release in '75, a small US release in '76, and a larger US release in '77. I know I didn't see it till then, on my last trip to New York before I moved there.
Yes indeed...
IMDB says it screened in Spain in '73: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072962/releaseinfo
Seems appropriate that the "actual" year of release is clouded. Pick a card, any card...
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