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.