The Dawn Of An Era

By the 1970s, Hollywood had thrown off the shackles of the Code and started making serious films with adult subjects.  The heyday of such films as major studio releases didn't last the decade, but it was a special time.

Let's imagine we're still in 1970, and no one knows what will happen next.  Jesse Walker has a top ten list for that year.

https://jessewalker.blogspot.com/2020/12/the-year-your-humble-blogger-was-born.html

Here it is:

1.  Five Easy Pieces

2.  MASH

3.  Gimme Shelter

4.  Le Boucher

5.  The Honeymoon Killers

6.  Investigation Of A Citizen Above Suspicion

7.  Hospital

8.  Bed And Board

9.  The Conformist

10.  Le Cercle Rouge

Five Easy Pieces certainly announces Jack Nicholson is a star.  It'd probably make my top ten list, though at times the film seems as aimless as the protagonist.

MASH, the surprise blockbuster that made Robert Altman (and broke a lot of people who bankrolled him through the rest of the decade), is top ten material.

Gimme Shelter is a compelling documentary by the Maysles.  Really nothing quite like it.  Hospital is another fascinating doc by Wiseman about an institution.

I still haven't seen Le Boucher, though I plan too.

I don't think much of The Honeymoon Killers.  I don't mind the low budget--in fact, if this weren't low budget, I don't think it would be have a cult.

Investigation Of A Citizen Above Suspicion is pretty good, and I, like Jesse, place it above The Conformist.

Bed And Board is minor, though enjoyable, Truffaut.  I'd put Le Cercle Rouge above it.

Here are Jesse's honorable mentions:

11.  La Rupture

12.  Claire's Knee

13.  Woodstock

14.  Chicken Real

15.  Wanda

16.  Donkey Skin

17.  Tristana

18.  Deep End

19.  Little Big Man

20.  Original Cast Album: Company

Lotta French films in the top 20 this year.

Alas, I haven't seen 11, 14, 16 or 18.  12 would make my top ten, and I'm sorry to see it's dropped out of Jesse's.  13 is well shot and captures a major event, though it's a bit long.  Probably top twenty material.  15 I can also see in the top twenty.  17 might make it into my top ten.  I was going to say 19 hasn't aged well, but was it that good to begin with?  20 might make my top ten, though it helps I'm a big fan of the show, and the album.  (It's also been parodied well on Documentary Now!)

Here are some other films from the year I like, at least in part:

Airport (perhaps the most influential film of the year), The Boys In The Band, Diary Of A Mad Housewife, Even Dwarfs Started Small, Hi Mom (particularly the "Be Black Baby" sequence, which I used to think was a left-wing guerilla theatre fantasy, but I now realize is straightforward documentary), Joe, Let It Be, Multiple Maniacs, The Rise And Rise Of Michael Rimmer, Start The Revolution With Me, The Twelve Chairs, Where's Poppa?

Other films of interest:

Alex In Wonderland, The Angel Levine, The Aristocats, The Baby Maker, The Ballad Of Cable Hogue, Beneath The Planet Of The Apes, Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls, Bloody Mama, The Boatniks, Brewster McCloud, Catch-22, Chariots Of The Gods, The Cheyenee Social Club, Chisum, The Christine Jorgensen Story, Le Cochon, Cockeyed Cowboys Of Calico County, Cottom Comes To Harlem, Cromwell, Darling Lili, Dirty Dingus Magee, Elvis: That's The Way It Is, The End Of The Road, Entertaining Mr. Sloane, The Garden Of The Fitzi-Continis, Getting Straight, The Go-Between, The Great White Hope, Hercules In New York, House Of Dark Shadows, Husbands, I Love My Wife, I Never Sang For My Father, I Walk The Line, Kelly's Heroes, The Landlord, The Liberation Of L.B. Jones, Little Fauss And Big Halsy, The Little Theater Of Jean Renoir, The Longest Most Meaningless Movie In The World (if you've got two days to spare), Lovers And Other Strangers, Loving (amazing ending), The Lustful Vicar, A Man Called Horse, Le Mans, The Music Lovers, Myra Breckinridge, Ned Kelly, On A Clear Day You Can See Forever, The Only Game In Town, The Out-of-Towners, The Owl And The Pussycat, Patton, The Penal Colony, Performance, The Phantom Tollbooth, The Private Life Of Sherlock Holmes, Pufnstuf, Quackser Fortune Has A Cousin In The Bronx, Rabbit Run, Rio Lobo, Ryan's Daughter, Scrooge, Sometimes A Great Notion (great scene for Richard Jaeckel), The Strawberry Statement, Tell Me That You Love Me Junie Moon, ...tick...tick...tick..., El Topo, Tora! Tora! Tora!, Trash, Two Mules For Sister Sara, WUSA, Watermelon Man, What Do You Say To A Naked Lady?, Which Way To The Front?, What Does Herr R. Run Amok?, The Wild Child, Zabriskie Point