Were Film Better Fifty Years Ago? (Yes, They Were)

Wow, still one a day--another Jesse Walker top ten movie list, this time for 1973.  I don't think we'll post one tomorrow, but eventually we'll get back to the 60s, 50s and so on.

The Perpetual Three-Dot Column (jessewalker.blogspot.com)

Okay, let's see his top ten:

1. F For Fake

2. The Long Goodbye

3. Badlands

4. The Last Detail

5. Charley Varrick

6. The Friends Of Eddie Coyle

7. Mean Streets

8. Paper Moon

9. Day For Night

10. Sleeper

Quite a list.  And mostly Hollywood.  Which makes sense, since the early 70s was a golden age of experimentation, even in the mainstream.  New ideas and styles (often influenced by the rest of world cinema), different types of stars, and no censorship had up-and-coming directors and writers doing some of their best work. (Though it's a bit surprising how many of these titles are crime films.)

F For Fake is by an old master, of course.  While some of these films represent the start of careers, F For Fake essentially meant the end of Orson Welles' career.  It got almost no attention at the time and had to be rediscovered. (I still wouldn't put it at #1, though I have friends who say it's his best.)

Robert Altman was on a tear in the first half of the 70s, and The Long Goodbye, his modern take on Philip Marlowe, is one of his best.

Badlands seemed to come out of nowhere from Terrence Malick, and it's possible he never surpassed it.

The Last Detail, directed by Hal Ashby, written by Robert Towne, is the sort of well-done character study that seems almost impossible to imagine being made today.

Charley Varrick is one of my favorite action movies from the era, though action then meant plenty of character development and great dialogue, not just lots of explosions.

The Friends Of Eddie Coyle is a pretty good, gritty, late-era Robert Mitchum film.

Mean Streets, from young filmmaker Martin Scorsese, shows promise, but the story doesn't hold together too well and has plenty of slack moments.

Paper Moon was yet another hit from Peter Bogdanovich.  His last for a while, actually, but who knew at the time he'd hit his peak?

Day For Night (French title translates to "American Night"--much better) is a charming film by Truffaut that is also deeply felt.

Sleeper is one of Woody Allen's funniest comedies and should probably be ranked higher.

Here are Jesse's honorable mentions:

11. Scenes From A Marriage

12. Don't Look Now

13. Wattstax

14. Serpico

15. Juvenile Court

16. Frank Film

17. High Plains Drifter

18. The Sting

19. My Name Is Nobody

20. Hell Up In Harlem

11 is good Bergman but not great Bergman.  12 is creepy in a way most films can't manage, but I still wouldn't call it a classic.  As for 13, what's not to like (assuming you like the music)? 14 is okay, but not the classic some consider it to be. 15 is another Frederick Wiseman doc that always seem to make it onto Jesse's lists--haven't seen it.

16 is a (good) short.  17 is good for Clint Eastwood, but overrated.  18 is delightful--should be in the top ten (even if it did win the Best Picture Oscar). Haven't seen 19, though I'd watch it if I had the chance. Haven't seen 20, though I did once meet Larry Cohen.

Other films that would make my top ten (or twenty):

American Graffiti (would make top five)

O Lucky Man! (would make top twenty)

Other films of the year that I liked:

Electra Glide In Blue, Enter The Dragon, Fantastic Planet, Heavy Traffic, Let The Good Times Roll, Love And Anarchy, The Mad Adventures Of Rabbi Jacob, The Paper Chase, That’ll Be The Day, The Three Musketeers

Of films of interest:

40 Carats, Bang The Drum Slowly, Battle For The Planet Of The Apes, Black Caesar, Blume In Love, Cahill U.S. Marshall, Charlotte’s Web, Cleopatra Jones, Coffy, The Day Of The Dolphin, The Devil In Miss Jones, Digby: The Biggest Dog In The World, Dillinger, Don’t Play Us Cheap, Emperor Of The North Pole, The Exorcist, Five On The Black Hand Side, Godspell, Godzilla Vs. Megalon, The Golden Voyage Of Sinbad, The Harrad Experiment, Harry In Your Pocket, The Homecoming, The Iceman Cometh, Jeremy, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, The Last American Hero, The Last Of Sheila, The Laughing Policeman, Live And Let Die, Lost Horizon, The Mack, Magnum Force, The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing, Oklahoma Crude, Papillon, Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid, Save The Tiger, Scarecrow, Schlock, The Seven-Ups, Shaft In Africa, Sisters, Soylent Green, Superdad, The Thief Who Came To Dinner, Tom Sawyer, A Touch Of Class, Walking Tall, The Way We Were, Westworld, White Lightning, The Wicker Man, The World’s Greatest Athlete