Great Years in Film: 1973

This is a new entry that might become a regular entry dealing with a year of films that are particularly love. These are not top ten so there is no fixed order. The 70s is probably my favourite decade of any- Scorsese, Coppola, Spielberg, Altman where all making great work. Even actors such as De Niro, Pacino, Nicholson and Beatty where making excellent work. Anyway on with the list...

Badlands

It's a shame Terence Malick as only ever made 3 movies since his debut. The film is based upon the the real life murder spree of Charles Starkweather and his girlfriend Caril Anne Fugate. The film casts Martin Sheen (in the Starkweather role as Kit) and Sissy Spacek (in the Fugate role as Holly- the film is narrated from her perpestivce). The film is a terrific piece of work. The film was clearly an influence on Quentin Tarantino in his scripts for Natural Born Killers and True Romance (the music is very similar to Carl Orff's terrific score as well as the narrator being female).

Enter the Dragon

Not really a brilliant film, some of the scenes are hokey and laughable but this would have been the film to make Bruce Lee a star if he hadn't died at the age of 33 weeks before the films American premier. Once as to wonder what Bruce Lee's subsequent career would have been liked: He'd have likely completed Game of Death (and we wouldn't have THAT 1978 movie) and would likely have had a Jackie Chan length career (hopefully without teaming up with Chris Tucker). Lee though was clearly something special obviously an excellent martial artists (who would dispute that) but he had a special charisma and that's why stands out. Watch for some cool fighting scenes and a great performance from Jim Kelly. It is kind of a Kung Fu James Bond.

Don't Look Now

This is perhaps one of the most disturbing movies I have ever seen. I don't think any other horror movie as so brilliantly dealt with grief. Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie are a married couple who after the death of their daughter who drowns in a tragic accident at their home they take a working vacation in Venice. The riverbanks of Venice help give me the film an eerie surroinding. Nicholas Roeg's best work.

Mean Streets

I love Scorsese's work from the early years to the later years, he is truly a master of cinema who deserves to go down down in history. The film clearly shows the makings of a wonderful talent at work and features a blistering wonderful performance from Robert De Niro in their first film together. A truly superb piece of cinema.

The Exorcist

It was banned in Britain in Britain about 1981 (arond the Video Nasties era) until 1998. Everybody knows the plot and many of the scenes perhaps without even seeing the movie. I think the movie gets people than a lot more horror cause it's linked to apparently real case. Linda Blair was never better as the possessed Regan and ended up in low grade b-movies by the end of the 70s it's a shame because her performance is something special in this movie.

Serpico

Al Pacino made Serpico in between making the first two Godfather movies. I like the movie cause Frank Serpico refuses to partake in police corruption making him one of the good guys but there is something in his style and demeanor that those qualities you wouldn't associate with him.

American Graffiti

George Lucas is obviously known as the man behind Star Wars -champion of our childhood memories/raper of our childhood memories- but this his second feature (after THX-1138) is an extremely likeable nostalgia trip. With great performances by the young cast (you can't always say that about the Lucas directed Star Wars films), wonderful period music and the use of Wolfman Jack's disc jockey. It was clearly the catalyst for Happy Days (the Love and Happy Days episode from Love, American Style -the pilot of Happy Days- predates this) due to the success of this movie. The Wicker Man

I love, love, love the Wicker Man. Love it so much that even the idea of the Nicolas Cage remake fills me with horror. There's something so unique about this movie it's hard to describe it as a horror film, I think it gets tied down to the horror genre because of the ending and casting Hammer stalwats Christopher Lee and Ingrid Pitt, this film is so much more then a horror: a psychological thriller, a musical- oh yes the music, composed by Paul Giovanni with a solid hint of pre-Christian pagan European culture and it varies between tradionatal songs and Giovanni originals, solid songs like Tinker of Rye, Landload's Daughter and Sumer is Icumen In. The performances are excellent- Edward Woodward, never completely gets the recognisition he deserves, Christopher Lee is of course the legend and Britt Ekland elegantly beatufiul. The ending is also brilliant. LOVE THIS FILM.

Live and Let Die

Roger Moore plays James Bond for the first time and deals with voodoo. I seem to be one of the few people who actually like Roger Moore as James Bond, sure he's no Sean Connery but Moore is still good in the role. I absolutely love the beginning of this film- a man is watching a full prossesion of some sort with sombre music, the man asks somebody "whose funeral is this?" the reply "Yours!" the man is killed and put in the casket which was empty and everybody goes into a happy dance. A top James Bond film that's a bit underappreciated.

Theater of Blood

I love this film: From Vincent Price's wonderfully over the top performance. Price's Edward Lionheart takes revenge on a circle of critics who badmouth his Shakespearian work and kills them off one by one in realition to the deaths of Shakespeare work. The film is wonderful black humour, you can't wait to see what the next death would be from somebody getting fed their own poodles to an unfortunate "accident" at an hairdressers. There is also room for a duel right in the middle of the film which doesn't oddly seem out of place. Classic British cinema.