Although Rock8man has probably already seen it, I’m also going to recommend Star Trek: The Motion Picture. OH YES I DID
Fine, the plot’s dull (also knocked-off from The Changeling), but Goldsmith’s magnificent score is worth the price of admission, and the whole vibe seems more reminiscent of 2001: A Space Odyssey (same FX guy, etc.) than the kind of blockbusters that were starting to be spawned in the wake of Star Wars.
The visual effects are arguably the best of any Trek film (I guess you could make a case for the post-Abrams reboot stuff, if you want) and it also has what IMO is the best scene in any Trek film. Now this is how you do fanservice.
And it’s the last time in recorded history that Kirk really looked like Kirk. Yes, that matters to me.
Oh yeah, also, it was directed by Robert Wise, who edited Citizen Kane. Any connection between Trek and Kane makes me happy.
I feel that STII is where the middle age paunch and floridity started to set in. Kirk from TMP still almost looks like he could have walked off the set of the TV show, to me, though the toupee is a bit different.
Agree 100%. It worked in both films, because in Wrath (my #1 as well) it is 5-10 years after the events of STTMP… The paunch and floridity are part of the theme.
I think it’s sort of implied that they went off on another 5 year mission after the events of TMP, though I don’t know that it’s explicitly stated anywhere. Dunno if there is any backing for this as ‘canon.’
You’re relating what I am aware of as well. They don’t give dates or anything, but they imply it. So they adventure, come back, Kirk gets behind a desk again.
I mean the Enterprise goes from being a refitted latest and greatest marvel, to a training ship.
And the theme is about aging and mortality in Khan. Kirk, Spock, all of them. The ship is a metaphor for all that.
To me this remains the ultimate 70s movie. That ending. . .
Phase IV - I’m not a huge fan personally, but it has strong points. It’s got a sort of understated vibe, and a lot of scenes feature no dialogue. The, ahh, decision the main scientist makes with regards of how to combat the threat is one of the most nonsensical things ever. OTOH, the movie (I don’t know if deliberate) has some nice callouts to Leiningen Versus the Ants. Honestly I would still recommend a watch even as I am not a fan.
**Duel ** - Very early Spielberg and a TV Movie to boot, it was still a sensation. Oh, since I decided to mention a TV movie, I guess I should also mention
I came to this topic late enough that most of what I could contribute has been men, none of y’all said a thng about Nicolas Roeg’s four incredible films of the 70s: Performance, Walkabout, Don’t Look Now, and The Man Who Fell To Earth.
Performance in particular was a groundbreaking film that literally every subsequent English gangster movie has been influenced by, from The Long Good Friday to Sexy Beast and Guy Ritchie’s career. It also has an astounding soundtrack.
Don’t Look Now is a spooky, creepy, very frightening movie that also features about the most effective sex scene ever filmed.
You have shamed me. I posted about Jorge Luis Borges in another thread, and forgot about Performance here. And I am a Bowie-phile and forgot about Man Who Fell.
Some love for the Eastern, in the form of the strangely famous Drunken Master, or the very strange, Italian horror feeling House.
I am trying to track down The Conversation (Coppola’s wannabe son De Palma had done a movie about that which I quite liked, so I am extremly curious about it), but without luck so far.
The Last Detail (1973), which has Randy Quaid’s best performance and a terrific turn by Nicholson in the middle of his early 70’s hot-streak as “Badass” Buddusky, is one of my favorites. Richard Linklater made an okayish spiritual-successor of sorts last year with The Last Flag Flying, an adaptation of Darryl Ponicsan’s (the author also worked on Cinderella Liberty, another Navy-themed movie, so I guess that’s his wheelhouse) sequel that didn’t touch the original. Then again, how could it without Hal Ashby, Jack Nicholson, and Robert Towne?
Yes, this is essential viewing. It uses film syntax in an entirely novel way to tell the story.
Yep, Ritchie never gets enough love. I’m surprised he hasn’t undergone a Hal Ashby-esque re-evaluation yet.
I love car chases too. And I loved the ones in Bullitt and Ronin. My main problem with the chase in French Connection is that as an audience member, I’m aware that the guy he’s chasing is a hired hitman, and he’s not a danger to the public around him. The only reason the bad guy is dangerous is because he’s being chased. If he’d just back off, the chase would be over, and more innocents won’t have to die. It’s the only chase scene I’ve seen where I’m rooting against the continuation of the chase. I’m not rooting for the good guy or the bad guy, I just want the chase to end so more innocents don’t die.
