 What was the Seventies? A decade that had Nicolas Roeg and
Donald Cammell's psychotropic Performance, with its gender
confusions and personality crises breaking down the walls of
society at one end, and Francis Coppola's Apocalypse Now at
the other end.
What happened in between? That was some journey. . .
Hollywood changed radically in the 1970s in an attempt to
snatch its audience back from the grip of television. It resorted
to extremes and cinema in the seventies was chock full of icons -
From the big shark in Jaws to the even bigger magnum of Dirty
Harry. It was also the decade that brought us Rollerball
and Mad Max. This was not a decade of understatement.
New trends developed, old ones were cast aside and, most
significantly, a breed of young movie directors launched
themselves and the rest of us towards the glittering world of
Oscars and sci-fi blockbusters.
Special effects took over from stars as the main attraction.
The ultimate effect was the 40 minute triumph to technology in Close
Encounters of the Third Kind - the gigantic alien mother ship
towering over (and landing in) mid-America.
 For some bizarre reason, as the Seventies dawned, people
decided that they wanted to be frightened. Seriously frightened!
So much so, that they would pay good money to sit together in
darkened rooms and watch films that threatened to scare the living
daylights out of them (arguably the most powerful cinematic
experience was provided by The Exorcist in 1973).
The 70s was also the decade of the Disaster Movie - Buildings
burst into flames (Towering Inferno), shook to the ground (Earthquake)
or had planes crashing in or around them. Winning formulas hit the
screen again and again . . . and again. Rocky (1976), The
Godfather (1971), Superman: The Movie (1978), The
Omen (1976) and Star Wars (1977)
all made it to the box office a second, third and sometimes
even fourth time round.
 Paul Newman and Barbra Streisand were the most popular movie
stars of 1970, but audiences also flocked to see George C Scott
command a tank battalion in Patton,
Dustin Hoffman age a century in Little
Big Man, and Jack Nicholson order a chicken salad sandwich
in Five Easy Pieces.
The decidedly anti-war M*A*S*H
starred Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould as a pair of
irreverent US Army surgeons serving in the Korean War. Airport
started the vogue for all-star cast disaster movies that would
last through to the end of the decade.
Written by future film critic Roger Ebert, Beyond
The Valley of the Dolls was Russ Meyer's raunchy morality
tale about an all-girl rock band trying to make it to the top -
and with everyone in sight.
But the year's biggest smash was Love
Story, based on Erich Segal's best-selling novel. Ryan
O'Neal and Ali MacGraw were perfectly cast as the film's tragic
lovers.
1971 was the year that 'Blaxploitation'
films - action pictures geared towards black audiences - began to
appear regularly, led by Gordon Parks' Shaft
and Melvin Van Peebles' Sweet
Sweetback's Baad Assss Song. Billy
Jack, starring writer-director Tom Laughlin as a
half-breed karate expert who faces off against The Man was another
massive low-budget hit.
Pricier, but just as silly, was Boris Sagal's The
Omega Man, starring Charlton Heston as the last living man
in Los Angeles fighting off an army of zombies. Heston grimaced
meaningfully and watched endless re-runs of Woodstock.
Watch out for the brown acid, Chuck!
Superfly (1972), directed by
Gordon Parks Jr (the son of the man who directed Shaft) starred
Ron O' Neal as a nattily attired coke dealer looking to make one
last big score before getting out of the business.
In addition to further fanning the flames of the Blaxploitation
fad (1972 also produced Barry Shear's Across
110th Street and William Crain's Blacula),
the film presaged the infiltration of cocaine and flashy pimp
clothes (platform shoes, flare-collared shirts, wide lapelled
suits) into the mainstream.
Marlon Brando gave a memorable performance as Don Vito Corleone
in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather, while Liza
Minnelli received rave reviews for her role in Cabaret.
Dirty Harry, Don Seigel's fast-moving drama about a
rule-breaking cop, turned journeyman actor Clint Eastwood into a
film icon, and his "Feel lucky, punk?" line into a
popular catchphrase.
Burt Reynolds also saw his career take off in 1972 when he
received critical raves for his adrenaline-soaked performance in Deliverance
- although it was a nude spread in the April issue of Cosmopolitan
that really increased his popularity.
Linda Lovelace received plenty of notoriety for her performance
in Deep Throat, the first
hardcore porn film to be released in commercial cinemas. Lovelace
cheerfully made the rounds on the talk-show circuit (and even
showed up at the Academy Awards) to promote the film, which
ushered in a brief period where porn flicks were treated with the
same curiosity and respect afforded to foreign art films.
Years later, Lovelace published a book claiming she was forced
into the porn business by her abusive husband/manager.
Given the downcast state of affairs by 1973, the success of
period films like Paper Moon
and The Sting made perfect sense.
People were looking to escape to another time and place, and the
simpler the better.
George Lucas' American
Graffiti, with its big cars, teenage traumas and
soundtrack of late 50s/early 60s rock & roll classics,
provided a bittersweet snapshot of a time only ten years past, yet
seemingly centuries away.
Martin Scorsese made a name for himself with Mean
Streets, a memorably intense film about two-bit hoods in
New York's Little Italy, starring little-known actors Harvey
Keitel and Robert De Niro. Almost as gritty and exciting was Serpico,
starring Al Pacino as a cop battling corruption in his won
department.
Westworld (about robotic
rebellion at a fantasy resort) and Soylent
Green (in which the US government solves the
overpopulation problem by turning people into food) were the years
two most popular science fiction flicks, while the film
adaptations of God-rock musicals Godspell
and Jesus Christ Superstar
provoked endless arguments about who was the best Jesus - Victor
Garber or Ted Neeley.
But for the most part, if movie-goers weren't lining up to see
Marlon Brando butter up Maria Schneider in Last
Tango In Paris, they were watching Linda Blair vomit pea
soup in The Exorcist. Blair became famous overnight as the
12-year-old girl possessed by the devil, even though Mercedes
McCambridge (voice) and Eileen Smith (body) deputised for her
during the possession scenes (both actresses had to sue to get
screen credit).
After many years as a star in Hong Kong, martial arts expert
Bruce Lee made Enter The Dragon
and then promptly died of a mysterious brain oedema at the age of
32. The movie was a box-office smash.
The Seventies saw the decline of the two movie companies most
clearly identified with traditional family entertainment - MGM and
Disney. The Disney organisation became more involved in its
various non-film activities (such as Disneyland and Disney World)
while MGM devoted its new investment to the hotel and casino
business.
On the other hand, Universal Pictures - for many years the
"also ran" among the major companies - made a dramatic
comeback.
The fortunes of United Artists were more variable. It won three
Best Picture Oscars in consecutive years - One Flew Over The
Cuckoo's Nest (1975), Rocky (1976) and Annie Hall
(1977) - but it shared only to a limited extent in the 1979 boom,
and was ill-prepared for the debacle of Michael Cimino's doomed
western epic Heaven's Gate (1981).
The issues of the Seventies provided fertile ground both for
Hollywood and Europe. A whole series of films reflected the
preoccupations of the world. The war in Vietnam was the subject of
many films, notably The Deer Hunter and Apocalypse Now.
The China Syndrome was released almost on the day that news
broke of the disaster at Three Mile Island nuclear reactor.
But Hollywood was changing. Tinseltown was invaded by a new
wave of directors - foremost amongst them were Francis Ford
Coppola, Brian de Palma, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Martin
Scorsese.
Between them they directed a fistful of films that made
enormous money at the box office and were critical successes.
This is by no means an attempt at an exhaustive listing of
movies from the 70s. It is a recollection of some of the movies
which are either personal favourites, or which are particularly
representative of the era (without necessarily being critically
acclaimed).
¤
Games That Lovers Play
¤
Gator
¤
The Gauntlet (1977)
¤ Get Carter (1971)
¤
Gimme Shelter (1970)
¤
Go Ask Alice
¤
The Godfather (1972)
¤
The Godfather: Part II (1974)
¤
Godspell
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¤
The Golden Voyage Of Sinbad
¤
Gone In 60 Seconds
¤
The Goodbye Girl (1977)
¤
Grease (1978)
¤
The Great Gatsby (1974)
¤
The Great Waldo Pepper
¤
Groupie Girl
¤
Gumshoe
¤
Gus
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¤
Ice Castles
¤ Ilsa, She Wolf Of The SS
¤
Interiors (1978)
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Invasion Of The Body Snatchers
¤
Island At The Top Of The World
¤ I Spit On Your Grave
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¤
Napoleon And Samantha
¤
Nashville (1975)
¤
Ned Kelly
¤ Network (1976)
¤
Newsfront
¤
New York, New York |
¤
Nightmare In Badham County
¤ The Night Porter
¤
No Deposit, No Return
¤
The North Avenue Irregulars
¤
Not Now Darling
¤
Now You See Him, Now You Don't |
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