Say goodbye to the 1970s, everybody! This morning when I asked my phone to give me a random number between 1 and 100 and Siri replied with the number "72" she chose the last year of the 1970s that we hadn't yet done for
our "Siri Says" series here. The 60s and the 80s are both getting close to completion too, but the 70s - the decade that many
straight white men people point to as the height of the cinematic form - beat 'em to it. And now for your clicking convenience I'll link 'em all up:
Here are my five favorite movies of
1970
Here are my five favorite movies of
1971
Here are my five favorite movies of
1973
Here are my five favorite movies of
1974
Here are my five favorite movies of
1975
Here are my five favorite movies of
1976
Here are my five favorite movies of
1977
Here are my five favorite movies of
1978
Here are my five favorite movies of
1979
So onto some talk about
The Movies of 1972 now then. Or the
context of the movies of 1972 first anyway - this was the year that Richard Nixon won re-election and the massacre happened in Munich during the Olympics so, you know, it was kind of a shitty time to be alive. It was a dark year. (It feels familiar in that way!) Seriously though, some of the great directors (Hitchcock and Bertolucci and Bergman) were putting out
very dark films and horror films (like Wes Craven's
Last House on the Left) were going very dark indeed. I suppose it was the Charles Manson Effect?
Anyway the biggest box office hit was also the year's biggest critical hit (when does that happen anymore?) with Francis Ford Coppola's
The Godfather, which, sigh, I like just fine... but you're not going to see me writing any
Muriel's Wedding type shrines to any time soon.
But speaking of the box office I was shocked to see two titles in the year's Top 10 - the fourth biggest movie of the year was the porn film
Behind the Green Door starring Marilyn Chambers. I knew it crossed over in that sleazy 70s way (I use that "sleazy" with longing) but I had no idea it made 50 million dollars! And the second surprise on the box office of the year sits at number nine, where the "horror docu-drama"
The Legend of Boggy Creek sits. The film is a low-budget piece of garbage (I found it nearly unwatchable
when I reviewed it in 2009) but it supposedly scarred a ton of children at the time, and it made a whopping 20 million bucks (something like 130 million now). It's also the grandfather of the "found footage" genre, inspiring the makers of
The Blair Witch Project.
So that's way more introduction than I usually do
for these things - let's get to the meat of it!! Here are...
My 5 Favorite Movies of 1972
(dir. Bob Fosse)
-- released on February 13th 1972 --
(dir. John Waters)
-- released on March 17th 1972 --
(dir. Werner Herzog)
-- released on December 29th 1972 --
(dir. John Boorman)
-- released on July 30th 1972 --
(dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
-- released on October 5th 1972 --
-------------------------------------------
Runners-up:
The Godfather (dir. Coppola),
The Poseidon Adventure (dir. Irwin Allen),
The Last House on the Left (dir. Craven),
Frenzy (dir. Hitchcock),
Last Tango in Paris (dir. Bertolucci),
Cries & Whispers (dir. Bergman),
Tales From the Crypt (dir. Freddie Francis)...
...
The Canterbury Tales (dir. Pasolini),
Dracula A.D. 1972 (dir. Alan Gibson),
The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (dir. John Huston),
Baron Blood (dir. Mario Bava),
Dr. Phibes Rises Again (dir. Robert Fuest),
Frogs (dir. George McCowan),
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (dir. Luis Bunuel),
The Merchant of Four Seasons (dir. Fassbinder),
Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Sex... (dir. Woody Allen)
Never seen:
The Getaway (dir. Sam Peckinpah),
What's Up Doc? (dir. Peter Bogdanovich),
Jeremiah Johnson (dir. Sidney Pollack),
Solaris (dir. Tarkovsky),
Sleuth (dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz),
Play It Again, Sam (dir. Herbert Ross),
Lady Sings the Blues (dir. Sidney J. Furie),
Ben (dir. Phil Carlson),
Fritz the Cat (dir. Ralph Bakshi),
Fata Morgana (dir. Herzog)
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What are your favorite movies of 1972?
.
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