I have said many times on this blog that the 1970s are my choice for the greatest decade of film. However, even the best decades can have their lesser years and vice versa. This isn't a lesser year, but rather a peak during such a monumental decade.
The one-two punch of 1974 and 1975 represents some of the finest output in the cinema world since the artform was evented. I admittedly had planned to write about 1974 last year for its 50th Anniversary but never got around to it. I am sure I will tackle it at some point, but for now I want to tackle 1975 as the breadth of its output is extremely eclectic and there are quite a few hidden gems.
Just to put this into perspective, I strongly considered about 15 films for a shot at a top 10 slot. My original draft of my top 10 is drastically different from the list you are about to read...and because the competition was so fierce, I decided to list 18 films as I didn't want to leave any of these out.
We will just consider this a snapshot of how I feel today.
=====================
#18 - MONTY PYTHON & THE HOLY GRAIL
Directed by Terry Gilliam & Terry Jones
Written by Gilliam, Jones, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Eric Idle, & Michael Palin
It might come as a surprise to some of you that I actually used to find Holy Grail to be overrated. Even now, I prefer Life of Brian to it.
BUT...no need to be a contrarian when it comes to the world of Monty Python. It is hard to deny that this film is an absolute laugh riot.
I think perhaps why I didn't respond to this film as strongly when I was younger was that I didn't care much for the world of knights, even in a comedic setting. It just felt like a shock to me that I was so cold on it at first because I had already been a rabid fan of Monty Python's Flying Circus and other projects that members from that group had worked on such as John Cleese's A Fish Called Wanda.
Alas, I was wrong...
I still prefer Life of Brian though, but a lot of that was due to the film tackling the maniacal cult trends within organized religion; a topic that I always love to see dragged through the mud.
________________________________
#17 - THE PASSENGER
Written & Directed by Michelangelo Antonini
Co-written by Mark Peploe & Peter Wollen
Along with Holy Grail, there will be a few films on this list that fall into a category that I like to call "Movies That Improved Over Time" by my standards.
And yes, The Passenger is another entry on the list.
I don't really talk about Antonini much on this blog, and that is why I love doing posts like these as it gives me a chance to delve into works of very respectable filmmakers who might not churn out the best film of the year but are consistently among the top 10 or 20.
I don't think The Passenger is his best work. His early 60s Holy Trinity of L'Avventura, La Notte, and L'Eclisse along with 1966's Blowup would be swirling around his top 4. I think what negatively effects The Passenger at first glance is that it seems too traditional and conventional by his standards, but this is certainly not the case.
Some of the sequences in this film, including the 10-minute continuous take at the end of the film and the scene in which Jack Nicholson's character Locke listens to a recorded conversation which then blends into a whole other scene entirely are both exquisitely done.
Much like many of his contemporaries, Antonini, along with his cinematographer Luciano Tovoli, were always able to paint gorgeous images.
I do feel compelled to revisit this one sometime soon as I admittedly have only seen it once, but I do think about it from time to time and have appreciated hearing reevaluations about it over the years.
_______________________________
#16 - WELFARE
Directed by Frederick Wiseman
When it comes to great documentarians, I think that Mount Rushmore of options would easily include that of Frederick Wiseman.
This guy just won't settle down. He turns 95 this year and in the last decade alone, he has made several documentaries such as 2015's In Jackson Heights, 2018's Monrovia, Indiana, and 2020's City Hall.
A documentary like Welfare, which is often considered his masterwork, is fascinating and tragic all at once. As you might expect, Wiseman is out to examine the American welfare system with a massive magnifying glass.
It is even more tragic when you see how the people behind the counter don't even consider these people worth their time. Not that this is any kind of surprise, but I shudder to think that this was pre-Ronald Reagan and the "welfare queen" stereotype that would lead to the gutting of the system that still persists.
I saw this film once in a class many years ago, and the gritty and unforgiving nature of it has always stayed with me. It is hard to become anything other than disenchanted with this country when you watch Welfare pan out and quickly realize it has only gotten worse.
_________________________________
#15 - THE PROMISED LAND
Written & Directed by Andrzej Wajda
Another filmmaker I've not talked about on this blog is Andrzej Wajda. To be honest, I haven't seen as many of his films compared to the other major Polish filmmaker, Krzysztof Kieslowski due to accessibility. Suffice it to say, I do think Wajda was a strong filmmaker and this might be my favorite film of his along with
Ashes & Diamonds.
The basic premise of The Promised Land could be the start of a cheap joke at first glance: a Polish man, a German man, and a Jewish man build a factory together...trouble is, they are struggling to do so in the midst of late 19th century.
I can always appreciate a film that takes on such a rampant stance against the corrupt world of capitalism. The Promised Land is gloriously progressive in how bluntly presents lack of humanity that happens when one gets too caught up in their greed.
The film's final moments might have the subtlety of a sledgehammer in its conceit, but the sad truth is that it feels like a sick reality and a metaphor all rolled into one.
_____________________
#14 - PRESSURE
Written & Directed by Horace Ove
Co-written by Samuel Selvon
If you go by Letterboxd, this is a 1975 film. If you go by Wikipedia, it is a 1976 film that also mentions it being a 1975 film in its release history.
I decided for all intents and purposes to deem Pressure a 1975 film. I also just want to call attention to it because it isn't a film I hear talked about much despite the fact it feels very potent in today's world.
Pressure was the first British film to predominantly feature a black cast and it had been originally shelved for 3 years because the film dared to show acts of police brutality.
Pressure has been described by its director Horace Ove as a depiction of "a generation in crisis". I honestly think it is multiple generations in crisis as the whole viewpoint of the elder black immigrants is that they are content with working hard and living under the law of the white people that rule society. This is a contrast to Anthony 'Tony" Waston (Herbert Norville), who is a second-generation British teenager whose parents immigrated from Trinidad and he shares a far less patriotic view of the UK than his parents do.
A film like Pressure felt far ahead of its time, and the sad truth is that considering when it was made, things would likely get worse for families such as these when Thatcher's premiership would begin just a couple of years later.
______________________________________
#13 - FOX AND HIS FRIENDS
Written & Directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Co-written by Christian Hohoff
I would love it if some conservative wacko tried to Google "Fox and Friends" and somehow gets treated to reading about this film and the brilliant filmmaker that was Rainer Werner Fassbinder.
That is if they don't turn to salt first and bemoan that they are now unclean.
Fassbinder was a groundbreaking filmmaker who was queer himself and insisted on telling stories about the queer world and became a leading voice in the New German Cinema movement that also included Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders, Margarethe von Trotta, and Wolfgang Petersen.
Karlheinz Bohm plays Franz, a working-class gay man who works at a carnival as the character Fox the Talking Head. He is in a relationship with Klaus, who owns the carnival but gets fired when it is revealed that Klaus was committing tax fraud.
Down and out, Franz decides to try his luck with a lottery ticket and ends up with 500k marks (roughly $300k). A month passes and we find Franz at a party with his new friend Max, an older antique art dealer. While there, Franz encounters an attractive younger wealthy man named Eugen who is first turned off by Franz's brash and unpolished manners...only to realize that he too has some money to his name.
Franz falls in love with Eugen, but there is more to Eugen than meets the eye.
As is the case with Fassbinder, he is brutal when it comes to the content of his stories. One could say that perhaps they fall under some kind of LGBT torture porn (another example of this is his 1978 film In a Year of 13 Moons), but I consider his works to be strong character studies that also offer a glimpse into what life was like for the queer community at that time.
I can't say that the film is an easy watch, but it is another strong outing from Fassbinder who bleakly tells us how sometimes love can just be seen simply as a commodity.
_____________________________________
#12 - COOLEY HIGH
Directed by Michael Schultz
Written by Eric Monte
Considered a major source of inspiration for filmmakers like John Singleton and Spike Lee,
Cooley High was a film that was crucial to advancing the concept of "black cinema" being the idea of "blaxploitation" which dominated the 1970s.
Set in 1960s Chicago, we follow the lives of two best friends: Leroy "Preach" (Glynn Turman) and Richard "Cochise" (Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs) who are high school seniors. Preach is more sensitive and has a desire to be a writer while Cochise is on track to have a career in basketball.
A lot of the film was shot around the infamous Cabrini-Green Housing Projects in North Chicago that would also serve as a backdrop in the 1992 movie Candyman. Like other films on this list, including some I haven't discussed yet, I think one thing that is very effective about Cooley High is the world building.
We find ourselves charmed by these characters and their lives and how they make do with what they have, only for the light-hearted nature to turn to tragedy by the end.
I actually came across this film as a fan of SNL. I had watched an interview and read a couple of books in which Garrett Morris spoke of how Lorne Michaels saw his performance in this film, and it led him to add Morris to the cast rather than only being a writer.
Say what you will about SNL, but as someone who followed that show's history, it can serve as a very solid steppingstone to finding out about other artistic properties.
_________________________________
#11 - LOVE & DEATH
Written & Directed by Woody Allen
I have said it multiple times on this blog, but I am of the firm belief that Woody Allen hasn't made a truly great film since 1989's Crimes & Misdemeanors. Basically, a good swath of his filmography prior to that film contains several first-rate efforts between 1973-1989.
Among those is Love & Death, which doesn't get as much attention, but it represents his last truly farcical film of sorts before he began his more mature slant with the film that followed it: Annie Hall.
Set during the Napoleonic Era, Allen stars with his muse Diane Keaton as Boris and Sonja. A lot of the film is set up around mock-serious philosophical debates which is more or less the bread & butter of what often makes up a typical Woody Allen film.
However, Allen manages to walk a fine line between taking on the darker philosophical sides with pure lunacy...particularly when dealing with the "death" aspect. I also can't help but love when he does an homage to Swedish director Ingmar Bergman's blocking composition such as the moment with Diane Keaton and Jessica Harper when they talk about being surrounded by wheat.
"Did you say...wheat?"
"Wheeeeeat."
I know Woody Allen is a pariah these days, but when the man was at his peak, he was immensely enjoyable. It is just a shame that he couldn't seem to sustain that quality which also coincided with his downfall beginning with the Mia Farrow breakup and marriage to Soon-Yi Previn.
_______________________________
#10 - ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST
Directed by Milos Forman
Written by Laurence Hauben & Bo Goldman
The fact that I have One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest at #10 is likely going to be considered too low for some, but I have never responded to the film as rhapsodically as most film fanatics do.
So much has been said or written about this film that I personally don't think I have much to offer in the discourse, but I will say this:
In terms of villains, Louise Fletcher's Nurse Ratched is rightly up there in the pantheon of truly compelling screen villains. Her vacant stare which can also turn into an evil, angry glare is one for the books...and Jack Nicholson as McMurphy gives one of the finest performances of his career surrounded by an amazing ensemble of actors like Brad Dourif, Christopher Lloyd, and Danny DeVito.
It isn't that I have anything bad to say about the film itself. I just never found the first half of the film to truly draw me in like many other films that year for me. What does make the film excel beyond the acting is that it has one of the greatest final acts of any film I can think of.
Everything in the film from Brad Dourif's Billy getting essentially blackmailed by Ratched up until the final moments where Will Sampson as "Chief" Bromden is able to fulfill on his goals with McMurphy, even if it isn't quite as any of us expected, makes for some of the finest cinema I have seen.
__________________________________
#9 - GREY GARDENS
Directed by David & Albert Maysles, Ellen Hovde, Muffie Meyer
Arguably one of the most beloved and discussed documentaries ever made, I can't help but be enamored by Grey Gardens and the life that the mother/daughter duo of Big Edie and Little Edie Bouvier Beale, who were the aunt and cousin of former First Lady Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis.
Living a life of seclusion in a decaying mansion in the Georgica Pond hamlet of East Hampton, this mother/daughter duo is as eccentric as the come. Some have questioned that the Maysles Brothers, Hovde, and Meyer exploited two people who were in desperate need of help. I still think it isn't untrue to consider that some exploitation was involved, but the film also holds a great amount of empathy for these two women.
These were two strong assertive women in control who had zero fucks to give about what others thought of them, and I am definitely grateful we got to have a glimpse of it.
I honestly don't have much to add about this one. It simply shows you the kind of glorious gems you can find when diving into the world of documentaries.
____________________________________
#8 - PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK
Directed by Peter Weir
Written by Cliff Green
We start to see a real emergence in Australian cinema once we reach the 70s that would grow more as we entered the 80s and 90s. Among that group, we see Peter Weir take off as he would go on to direct such beloved films as Witness, Dead Poets Society, and The Truman Show.
His third film was Picnic at Hanging Rock, a very chilling mystery that falls into a similar gothic/folk horror aesthetic that was recently ignited by Robin Hardy's The Wicker Man a couple years prior.
The setting is in Victoria on Valentine's Day 1900. A group of girls from a private school called Appleyard College are having a picnic at Hanging Rock (hence the title...haha) with two of their teachers.
When a couple of the girls climb the rock, they start to feel under the influence of something supernatural and fall asleep. Upon awakening, the girls walk into a hidden crevice seemingly in a trance.
The film's darker approach to the mystery along with refusing to cater to audiences about perceived expectations led it to be poorly received once it was screened in the US. Weir once stated in an interview that when the film was screened for an American distributor, he threw his cup of coffee and proclaimed that he wasted two hours of life because nothing felt resolved.
I suppose even in a decade like the 1970s, we still had a lot of growing to do in Hollywood at accepting fare that wasn't completely accessible to the masses.
______________________________
#7 - NASHVILLE
Directed by Robert Altman
Written by Joan Tewkesbury
Considering I watched a number of films at an age where I was likely too young to appreciate them, it does surprise me when I would respond to some of those kinds of films and not others.
I have already talked about Apocalypse Now in my 1979 post and how war films weren't really my cup of tea at the time, but an even more baffling example of this was Nashville, a film I remember watching on a blazing hot summer afternoon when I was around 13–14-year-old and I was just a bit like...eh?
Altman has never been one of my more passionate go-to filmmakers despite having admiration for a few of his films, but I never felt too deeply connected to them.
Nashville feels so unique in a lot of ways, but it feels like a world in which we don't see portrayed often in cinema...and growing up, I can't deny that I was around a lot of country music. In fact, to be completely candid, there are multiple home movies out there of me singing country songs and watching CMT from my toddler years until I was around 4-5 years old.
Altman and his frequent collaborator Joan Tewkesbury immerse us in the world of 1975 Nashville and the lives of various people in and around the country music industry...or in the case of Lily Tomlin, the most out of place southern gospel singer you can possibly imagine, but maybe THAT is the point when it is clear that the all black choir behind far exceeds her abilities.
The film features a main cast of roughly two dozen performers, tons of original music with some being written and performed by the actual actors in the film, and a buildup to a gala for a politician named Hal Philip Walker, a populist running for President on the Replacement Party ticket.
I have only seen Nashville twice. The second time was during my film rewatch blitz that occurred during the 2020 quarantine and while my opinion of it was still fairly muted after finishing it, I kept finding myself thinking about it more and more.
Watching a lot of these Altman ensemble films today, some might notice that the tradition has been carried on by such filmmakers as Wes Anderson and especially Paul Thomas Anderson who really tapped it with films like Boogie Nights and Magnolia. I still think Nashville stands out from the group because of its unique setting and how lived in the results are. It's an interesting slice of Americana that truly sneaks up on me whenever I begin to doubt its appeal.
______________________________
#6 - BARRY LYNDON
Written & Directed by Stanley Kubrick
I am sort of fascinated by the journey that Barry Lyndon has taken over the last 20 years or so. To put it into perspective, I was peak film bro during my teen years. During that time, one of my biggest obsessions was the work of Stanley Kubrick. Even to this day, I consider him my choice for the greatest English-language filmmaker.
It has almost become the cool thing in recent years to consider Barry Lyndon to be Kubrick's best film. When I first saw the film as a young teenager, I found it to be very stuffy and a little dull but incredible to look at. When I revisited the film back during the quarantine days of 2020 (just like Nashville), I found myself enjoying the first half a little more than I remembered but it was the second half that grabbed a hold of me and wouldn't let go.
And, not to mention, it is in contention of being the most beautifully photographed and designed film ever made.
I am about to be a little bitch, but it is kind of remarkable that this film is as successful as it is considering it is being headlined by the absolutely "mid" actor that is Ryan O'Neal. I think the fact that he is someone who tends to provide moments of solid acting amidst average banality, his energy was what was needed for the role of Barry since with that average banality came an ego larger than that of Europe. This is a man who is weaseling his way up the social ladder by marrying a rich widow...a classic tale of class that one might expect to occur in such a time period of the 1700s.
I think what really ended up standing out to me with the second half is when Barry's stepson, Lord Bullingdon, challenges him on his actions as he sees right through Barry's deception. As is expected, Barry responds to this with both physical and emotional abuse. We may tolerate Barry in the first half, but by the second half, I was fully ready to watch his downfall at the hands of his stepson.
Before I move on, I have to bring up the technical aspects of the film yet again because DEAR LORD. Kubrick may be a crazy exacting genius, but what he was able to accomplish in so many of his films was nothing short of extraordinary. The sets, the costumes, the natural lighting with candles for certain scenes, and how the cinematography was achieved using special 50mm lenses that had been used by NASA for the Apollo moon landings...it is all simply spectacular.
I still don't think I would call the film Kubrick's best as a whole, but I would call it his most remarkable technical achievement after 2001: A Space Odyssey.
_________________________
#5 - MANILA IN THE CLAWS OF LIGHT
Directed by Lino Brocka
Written by Edgardo Reyes & Clodualdo del Mundo Jr.
There are people who watch films looking for escapism, and then there are those of us who might be accused of being a bit stuck up in what we try to seek out when we watch films.
I am not saying I am constantly to watch darker content at the expense of something more lighthearted, but I do truly appreciate when a film doesn't shy away from telling a brutal story.
Manila in the Claws of Light was one of those films I stumbled across by happenstance when 20 years ago, for its 30th anniversary, I watched an airing of it on cable without much knowledge of it.
The film tells the story of Julio (Rafael Roco Jr.), a 21-year-old fisherman who comes to Manila as his girlfriend Ligaya (Hilda Koronel) is now living there. While the attention was for her to be getting an education, Julio discovers she was brought there to be put into a sex trafficking ring.
I always love when a film pulls you into its world with unrelenting force, and here, we see 1970s Manila during the heights of the Marcos regime. Director Lino Brocka, who also happened to be gay, was a dynamo in that he didn't give a fuck about Marcos. He takes on class struggle, prostitution, and the exploitation of the lower class and women without breaking a sweat.
This was, as Martin Scorsese, a film made for the people by someone was so eager to give marginalized people their voice. While the results may not necessarily what we would hope for, it does leave you with a lot to think about.
This is one of those gritty underrated gems I wish more people knew about.
_______________________________________
#4 - JEANNE DIELMAN, 23 QUAI DE COMMERCE, 1080 BRUXELLES
Written & Directed by Chantal Akerman
Here we are. I am ranking "The Greatest Film of All Time" as dictated by the BFI's Sight & Sound list as my #4 for 1975. Honestly, this isn't a slam towards the film by any means. I don't think I could go as far as calling it the best film ever made, but I do stand by the opinion that this film is one of the most fascinating and well-structured/directed/acted films I have ever seen.
I have seen a few memes going around in various film circles like FilmTwitter, some tongue in cheek and some flat out mocking the film talking about how we spend so much time watching Delphine Seyrig as the titular character doing chores, such as peeling potatoes. One could say that this borders on pretentiousness and that we are responding to it because we are told it is brilliant.
I am not saying this is a film I want to sit down and watch repeatedly. In fact, I have only seen it 3 times in the last 20 years or so, including yet another 2020 rewatch. I just think how Akerman and Seyrig are able to achieve this woman's subtle breakdown in which can delicately see her facade breaking is an astounding achievement.
Most of the film, as is usually the case with Akerman's work, is done with long continuous takes from a distance which can the experience slightly unsettling because it truly feels like we are being a voyeur in a way that isn't always the case when watching a film. Her belief on this was to give her character space for her to breathe...and while this is a choice that could further alienate some, I do think it is effective.
Needless to say, this won't be a film for everyone, but I do greatly admire Akerman as an artist and what she was able to achieve for women filmmakers.
________________________________
#3 - JAWS
Directed by Steven Spielberg
Written by Peter Benchley & Carl Gottlieb
Out of all the films on this list, Jaws is by far the one I have seen the most. I wouldn't be shocked if that was the same for many of you reading this aside from maybe Monty Python...or perhaps you might have a rabid obsession with Fox & His Friends.
Jaws is credited as being the first true summer blockbuster film as it was the first to gross over $100 million at the box office and even remained in the top 20 highest grossing list until as recently as the early 2000s.
It is crazy to think that there was a time when Best Picture nominees were consistently among the highest grossing films of the year. Instances like 2023 where we got Barbie and eventual winner Oppenheimer are exceedingly rare these days, but back in 1975, Jaws may have won 3 Tech Oscars, but it only got one additional nomination that it lost: Best Picture.
Some assumed that this was a bias against the film's tremendous success and that it was nothing more than a popcorn flick that some might consider on par with a Marvel movie today.
If that is what someone thinks about Jaws, I don't know if I could seriously value their opinion.
Yes, this is a movie about a man-eating shark. However, this is also a film with incredibly rich characters with a world that is totally lived in.
Considering the absolute nightmare of a shoot this was for relative newcomer Steven Spielberg, who was only 27 at the time if you want to feel like you haven't accomplished anything, it is remarkable how well this film turned out.
It also further improves upon the source material. While the script is co-credited to the novelist Peter Benchley, most of the script was a hodgepodge of material from various writers like Harold Sackler and Carl Gottlieb, who eventually got the shared screen credit.
It is the film's humor that helps make it so surprisingly effective, along with Spielberg's wise choice to use local residents and amateur actors to play the extras, particularly Lee Fierro who played Mrs. Kitner, the mom of young Alex who was one of the shark's earliest victims. Who can forget the scene in which she slaps Roy Scheider's Chief Brody in the face?
Even the background extras steal the show. I still can't help but think of the lady yelling "24 hours is like 3 weeks!!!!" when they are told the beaches will only be closed for 24 hours.
I haven't even talked about most of the acting yet!
Scheider as Brody is iconic. He was always an underrated actor; check out All That Jazz if you haven't seen it for his best work. Richard Dreyfuss' Matt Hooper seems to be perfect meeting between role and actor with the dry, snarky wit. Then you have Robert Shaw as fisherman Quint, a remarkable performance from a British character actor who had been known for playing more refined characters in period pieces like A Man for All Seasons and The Sting. His monologue about the USS Indianopolis is so exquisitely delivered that even 8-year-old me when I first watched the film knew I was witnessing something special.
The first true summer blockbuster was also a masterpiece that extended beyond the term "popcorn flick".
_________________________________
#2 - MIRROR
Written & Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky
Co-written by Aleksandr Misharin
Are you ready for a little bit of a mindfuck?
I am not going to sit here and tell you that I have Mirror all figured out as I don't think a lot of people could truly make that claim. What I do know though is that I might consider this to be the magnum opus of Andrei Tarkovsky's career, the abstract/surreal filmmaker who came to prominence during the peak of Soviet Russia from the 1960s to his death in 1986.
Writer Natasha Synessios once compared the film's structure to that of a musical piece rather than a narrative piece, saying that Tarkovsky "always maintained that he used the laws of music as the film's organizational principle...emphasis placed not on the logic, but the form, of the flow of events".
What truly sells Mirror is that a lot of his been more directly drawn from Tarkovsky's own life, from his childhood up to his first divorce. The throughline of the film, if you can call it that, is about an unnamed poet that we only hear via narration and just so happens to be voiced by Tarkovsky's father Arseny. He is ruminating over his life which, on paper, sounds like a concept we've seen countless times, but it all comes down to the execution.
You can count on Tarkovsky to take the execution to a whole other dreamlike level. He even said after making the film that the results were cathartic for him. In his own book Sculpting in Time, he was very candid about his take on Mirror: "The hero of Mirror was a weak, selfish man incapable of loving even those dearest to him for their sake alone, looking for nothing in return—he is only justified by the torment of soul which assails him towards the end of his days as he realizes that he has no means of repaying the debt he owes to life."
I feel like I am shortchanging the film in discussing it, but it is truly hard to put into words the kind of moods and aesthetics Tarkovsky can achieve. He is truly unmatched when it comes to what he can accomplish and he did it time and time again. He only made 7 feature films in his career which also included: Ivan's Childhood, Andrei Rublev, Solaris, Stalker, Nostalghia, and The Sacrifice which was released the same year as his passing at the young age of 54.
Admittedly, I have not seen The Sacrifice and I need to change that...but the small output he provided us was mighty and unique unto himself.
________________________________
#1 - DOG DAY AFTERNOON
Directed by Sidney Lumet
Written by Frank Pierson w/Leslie Waller, P.F. Kluge, and Thomas Moore
There are certain films where I can vividly remember when I watched them for the first time. I had rented Dog Day Afternoon from my local library during the summer of 2002. I was almost 14 years old.
On a day of scorching heat that felt just as overbearing as the one in the film, I found myself completely enthralled by what I was watching. By that age, I was already in love with the gritty NYC aesthetic of the 70s and there is an abundance of that in this film.
The film was based on a Life Magazine article called "The Boys in the Bank" that had been written by P.F. Kluge & Thomas Moore, which was based around the real life 1972 bank robbery/hostage situation led by John Wojtowicz and Sal Naturile at a Chase Manhattan Bank located in Gravesend, Brooklyn.
Wojtowicz is changed to Sonny Wortzik in the film and is played by peak-form Al Pacino while Sal is played by the late great John Cazale, the uniquely versatile character actor who had one of the briefest but strongest streaks in films before his untimely death in 1978.
I think the one key plot point that might ruffle some feathers in today's world is the reason in which Sonny and Sal are doing the robbery: to fund the sex reassignment surgery on his partner Leon (who in real life would go by Elizabeth Eden post-surgery).
I was not aware of this twist when I first watched the film, and I remember finding it to be an immensely compelling development that was unexpected. Granted, it was a true story, but I suppose you can chalk this up to a case of reality being more fascinating than fiction.
Writing about Dog Day Afternoon doesn't necessarily feel as deep or as profound as it would be writing about the works of Tarkovsky or Fassbinder, but there is a reason why I selected it as my #1 choice: it is simply the best film that blends every aspect perfectly from an artistic and entertainment value. It also doesn't hurt that Al Pacino was absolutely phenomenal as Sonny to the point where I would even consider this to be his finest performance. Although one couldn't help but battle that out with Serpico or The Godfather Part II.
The direction is tightly paced and has one of the most affecting atmospheres I have ever seen in a film, which I brought up earlier with the scorching summer heat blazing down on the concrete jungle of 1970s Brooklyn. The feels draining and exhausting and you feel the intensity in nearly every frame. Even in Pacino's quieter moments, you just watch him running a mile a minute.
Words cannot begin to express what a masterclass this film is in pretty much every respect.
___________________________
FINAL THOUGHTS:
I have been thinking about and structuring this post for a while now, even before I intended it to be a 50th Anniversary post. I do hope to tackle more posts like these in the coming months as I always consider it a joy to talk about a lot of these hidden gems and some that maybe aren't so hidden but deserve the praise anyway.
I do have some years of cinema in mind that I want to try to tackle next. I have been thinking about 1960 for the past year or so as I also consider it another prime example of a stellar year for (mostly international) films that doesn't get a lot of discussion. I also want to revisit 2020's output as well because we got a lot of great indie cinema that year in the spotlight considering everything shutdown due to COVID.
Be on the lookout for my updated Best Picture ranking as I hope to have those lists up soon as well!
Thanks for reading!
