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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 Rocky, 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), Star Wars (1977) and The Exorcist (1973) all made it to
the box office a second, third and sometimes even fourth time
round.
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). |
