70's Film & Culture Overview

It has been a strange couple of months. There were ups, there were downs. I got to see good movies from a great time in history. Throughout the confusion and the turmoil, people found ways of shining through. Directors were emerging and showing how they felt about everything through their art. Everything from blaxploitation, gay rights, womens rights, anti-war sentiments, jobless, homeless, crime, gangs, drugs, sex, and rock and roll were expressed in film. Over the past few months a group of us were taken on a journey through all of it.

Although this class took place during an extremely busy time in my life, I still found ways to enjoy it. Even though at times I felt as though the movies were a little over thought, there was validity to the discussions. I feel as though the directors during the time put a lot into their movies because of their passion about certain topics, or maybe things just appeared to have meaning but during the time, that is just how people thought. Us being distanced from this era and somewhat desensitized might be looking back and analyzing things in a way that the directors did not intend. They may have wanted to say something in a subtle way, but not have their audience dwell on it.

Ambiguous endings have their place, but for me, I cannot stand them. We as artists are ultimately story tellers, for me, the story is just not complete without an ending or closure. Unfortunately, the 70's were a time of prominence with this set up.

Overall I loved the class and I feel as though I have learned something about this country's culture that should never be forgotten.

Assault on Precinct 13 (1975)

Assault on Precinct 13 was the story of a police officer who had to take over control of a station that was being relocated for one night. The station was in a bad neighborhood of Los Angeles and showcased the ruthlessness of the gangs there. During the stay, a prisoner transport has to relieve a sick man and another man rushes into the station unable to speak. Gangs had followed the man and commenced their assault on the station. The story was about their survival for one night with hopes of someone coming to their aid.

Although I was slightly confused about the movie, I thought it was good. The cheesy lines of one of the prisoners was welcome in this dark situation that the remaining staff of this station found themselves in. The gangs were depicted as evil beings with no humanity. In fact, I believe that only one gang member had a single line. I felt that this helped distance the audience away from attaching themselves to the gang in any way. And even though this movie was in all actuality a horror or thriller movie, it did have the slight feeling as that of a country movie.

I actually want to see the new rendition of this to see if the original flair is still there. I would enjoy seeing this again.

An Unmarried Woman (1978)

An Unmarried Woman was about the struggles and confusion of a woman who just lost her trust in her husband after finding out that he has been cheating on her. She realizes that she has to become independent and finding out how to do so is a strange concept to her. Along the way she meets a man whom she feels genuinely attached to and in love with but she has lost her faith and trust in men. Now she has to decide what is best for her.

I thought this movie was HORRIBLE. Hands down. The woman, even though confused snapped at every single thought of a man making a pass at her. She took everything the wrong way instead of thinking of the possibility that the man did not actually make a pass, but was being friendly and sincere in her time of need. I found myself annoyed throughout the the entire movie. Although there was one good thing that happened. Towards the end, her ex-husband revealed that his affair was over, and that he would like to get back on good standing with his ex-wife, she did not take him up on his offers, which, to me, is what should have happened. Unfortunately, this was not enough to even remotely redeem this movie.

I hope to never see this again.

Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

Dog Day Afternoon, a movie portraying the level of stress that two people experienced and their way of showing the world that enough is enough. Al Pacino plays as Sunny, who, with his friend Sal, decides to rob a bank. Once inside the police respond and a standoff ensues. Although Sunny never wants to hurt anyone, he is pushed to a point where he feels this is the only thing that he can do. Jobless because he is not in a union, married to a man and a woman, and now having to keep a group of trigger-happy police officers at bay, Sunny makes his move and tries to resolve peacefully what he started with force.

I personally loved this movie. I think it really shows the extent of what some people were driven to during this time. The movie also portrays the ignorance of people against gays and also the normality of it. As wrong as Sunny was, I think that many people would have liked to see Sunny go free at the end.

I will definitely watch this again.  

Saturday Night Fever (1977)

Saturday Night fever with John Travolta as Tony Manero depicts a time when disco was a way of life for some. The movie shows how even though many people move away from their home and try to be something that they are not, they still have a piece of where they are from in them. Tony never really tries to pretend that he is something that he is not and the only thing he lives for is Saturday nights at the Odyssey. In the end he decides that this is not the only thing in life and wants to expand his horizons.

I loved this movie. Hands down. It really kept the audiences attention with the constant flow of the story with very few uneventful times, it seems as though everything in the movie was necessary and I cannot recall any scene that I found irrelevant. The soundtrack is amazing and most of the music even to this day is still recognized even by generations that did not grow up during the time. Even though the movie has its low notes and shows the ignorance of men and how mistreated women were at the time, the movie is a staple in american history about a time that cannot and should not ever be forgotten.

I look forward to the day that I get to see this movie again.

Taxi Driver (1976)

Robert DeNiro as Travis Bickle, Cybill Shepherd as Betsy, and Jodie Foster as Iris play in Taxi Driver. This movie is about a war vet who comes back to New York and gets a job as a taxi driver and sees the city as a disgusting cesspool of filth and degenerate people. As he tries to find out what his role in the world is he decides to take out a corrupt politician but is thwarted and goes vigilante to take out a group of pimps.

I found the movie hard to follow and throughout the movie I do not know what to think about Travis. At first I thought of him as a creep and all around uneducated idealist. To this day I do not know what to think of him even though towards the end he is depicted as a vigilante hero who saved a young girl from the downward spiral of becoming a prostitute. Once again, in a lot of movies from this time, there are many scenes that have a deeper meaning that is left to the viewer to determine what the director is trying to convey. I am not a fan of this because there can be so many different things that the director can be trying to say and I like to think that they do it for their own personal reason and us as an audience just need to accept it and move on, it is, after all, their opinion and message about a confusing time. I like the movie, but like I said, I am still confused about the main character.

I would definitely watch this again.

Jaws (1975)

A shark decides to make an area outside of a small town his hunting grounds during one of the busiest tourist seasons for a nearby small town. The mayor gets fed up and sends the sheriff, a scientist, and an old fisherman to exact revenge on the shark. Their hunt does not go as planned and now they are fighting for their survival in an area where no one will hear you if you call for help.

I loved the movie for what it was. The sheer terror of the swimmers and the graphic violence really blossomed in this movie and violence of this nature was rarely seen before this time. I have a lot of respect for Steven Spielberg for going the distance and showing something that was not looked highly upon in film at this time.

I can see this movie any day of the week and it would never be enough.

Shaft (1971)

Shaft to me was about a black detective during the 70's that really felt at home in his environment. He knew the streets and he knew the language. Basically he walked the walk and he talked the talk. Shaft was charged with finding the daughter of a gangster in the midst of a gang battle for control of Harlem. The Italian Mafia was moving in and decided to use the daughter as leverage. Shaft must track the mafia down and rescue the gangsters daughter, otherwise, who else will?

I went into this movie with a different mindset. I have never seen the movie before but I knew about all of the different references from the movie used in various other media. I was thinking more along the line of an action movie instead of a detective flick with a little action on the side. Maybe something more along the lines of Starsky & Hutch. I do like how the characters seemed more real and less like they were models behind a window from us. The characters were believable for the most part.

Overall I liked the movie and I hope to see it again.

The Conversation (1974)

Once again, another conspiracy movie. This time, though, focuses on spying and secretly recording conversations by any means necessary. Harry Caul (Gene Hackman) is one of the best buggers in the world, but his paranoia of his personal life or history becoming more public than his wishes it to be suggests that he is slowly going crazy. He seems to feel that nothing is as it seems and there are others trying to gain the information that he was contracted to acquire. Harry's past also comes into play when he discovers that peoples lives are in danger with the information that he holds. Does he give in and fulfill his contract and release the information to his client, or does he destroy the evidence and potentially save lives?

I thought this movie was a lot more thought out than the previous one. Coppula definitely understands his audience better and knows that to divulge and what not to. I feel as though I am decently perceptive but this movie had me at the end. I was not expecting what happened.  Although there was an ambiguous ending, I feel as though there was enough closure to where I can accept the events of the story, it leaves me wondering what happened, but I didn't feel cheated by the movie.

I would watch it again.

The Parallax View (1974)

The Parallax View with Warren Beatty is a conspiracy theory movie about a newspaper reporter (Joe Frady) who feels that he has stumbled upon a secret society of assassins who ultimately control the fate of the government from the shadows. The plot begins with a senator's assassination and over the years following, almost every person associated with that specific event mysteriously ends up dead. Joe stumbles across a recruitment paper but he is not ready for what he is about to experience.

I felt that the idea behind this movie was solid, but I found the delivery more annoying than anything at all. Excessively long shots left me sitting there saying to myself, "Really? Is this really necessary?" I felt as though the director, Pakula, was trying to instill tension in the audience but I do not believe that he succeeded. I think he made more people annoyed from this that what was needed. There is also a propaganda film in the middle of the movie that skewed the line between enemy and country, family and the love for them, among many other things. The scene itself was excessively long and made me feel like I was going to have an epileptic attack.

Ultimately, I respect what the director was aiming for, but I felt that in his early years of directing that he was trying too hard and was not completely experienced and I think that those faults shone through his overlaying plot and intent.

I hope to never see this movie again.

Coming Home (1978)

Coming Home is about a woman whose husband is deployed to Viet Nam. During his deployment she volunteers at a VA hospital and comes into contact with an old High School friend. His legs were paralyzed and after many weeks of her nursing him she realizes that she has fallen in love with him. Her husband finally comes home and realized that she has been unfaithful and is confused about the whole situation.

I thought the movie was a lot better done than the previous movies that we watched.The story was well thought out and many plot twists and difficulties presented themselves that the characters seemed to overcome. We talked about what we thought the ending could have symbolized and in my opinion I think that the husband goes into the ocean to die. His only goal in life was to be a war hero and that was taken from him in an unfortunate accident on his own part. His wife was unfaithful so I believe that he felt that he had nothing to live for anymore and decides to end his life on his own terms. Overall I thought the movie was good.

The Long Goodbye (1973)

The Long Goodbye was a mystery movie about a private eye who's friend asks him to take him to Tijuana after having a tussle with his wife. Soon after police arrive at the private eye's house and begins questioning him about the death of his friends wife and asks where his friend is. A lot of money was involved with his friends leaving and he ultimately finds himself solving a mystery for a client that ties directly in with the death of his friend and his friends wife.

The first thing that I thought when I was Elliot Gould in this movie was Spike Speagle from Cowboy Bebop. His 'I don't care' attitude and smoking habits, along with his non chalant way of going about everything is a direct tie in with the character from this anime series. Anyways, I thought the movie was extremely well done and held my interest throughout. Even though the main character was seemingly uncaring about everything, one could tell that he was set on his goal of finding out what exactly happened.

Five Easy Pieces (1970)

Five Easy Pieces, starring Jack Nicholson was about a troubled man running away from his past. In the movie, he is depicted as having a dead end job with a ditsy girlfriend that is overly attached to him even though he does not love her the way that she loves him. He tried to rid himself of her when he decides to go back home to his family to see his ailing father. He ends up going back to see his past and face it down.

I thought the story was well put together, but the movie itself seemed shoddy and low budget. Maybe it was and the limitations on technology in the early 70's. Either way, I think the sound quality could have been greatly improved upon. The story itself kind of left you wondering what he was really thinking at the end, and where he is going to end up. Will he ever face his past and come to terms with it? Will he ever settle down in one spot and stop running away from his problems? These are questions that were running through my head after the movie.

Like I said, I thought the movie was good, and very thought provoking.