"THERE IS NO AMERICA..." - The Best Films of 1976

After the insane high we had with both 1974 and 1975, I approach 1976 as a bit of a step down. I decided for this list I am only going to focus on the top 10 without acknowledging any Honorable Mentions. However, it still manages to net three films that will garner a 5-star rating from me and that is still a pretty solid number. I will say that it was a pretty good year for horror/thriller films such as The Omen, Carrie, and Marathon Man but I only selected one of them to make my top 10.

====================

#10 - CARRIE

Directed by Brian De Palma

Written by Lawrence D. Cohen

Carrie is one of those films that just seemed so dark and unsettling to me as a young kid, but I think a lot of that was not fully grasping the horrific nature of how religion is used for abusive and repressive tendencies which became more clear as I got older.

I am not here to say that Carrie is a masterpiece, but I do feel like Brian De Palma really immerses you in this world of 70s suburbia and the uncomfortable ease that being in high school was for a lot of people. From the opening moments where we see Sissy Spacek getting taunted for not knowing what her period is (thanks to that religious upbringing) to the end where that fanaticism leads to her nearly being murdered by her own mother, Carrie was quite possibly played the first key role in me recognizing from a piece of media how warped a supposed faith could be.

Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie both managed to receive Oscar nominations for their work as Carrie and Margaret White, and both were richly deserved. I actually think Laurie was truly worthy to win, because even though some want to bemoan that she is way over the top (she herself actually thought the film was a comedy, but that is also De Palma's fault), I actually think how she carries herself and even how she speaks isn't that far off from some of them more devoted members of the church I grew up in.

I do have to say that aside from the final act of the film, I do really love the moments leading up to the revenge scene where Spacek and William Katt are dancing as the camera swirls around them getting faster and faster and then the slow motion applause when they are announced as Prom King & Queen only for it to be a scam.

Honestly, Pino Donaggio's score should've been nominated too. It was a stellar year for scores from horror/thriller films.

____________________________

 #9 - LOST, LOST, LOST

Conceived/Directed by Jonas Mekas

One thing you have to commend Jonas Mekas for was how frequently and meticulously he would work on his projects. Some of his pieces could be as long as a few HOURS or as short as a few MINUTES.

His filmography is so vast that quite a few of works, the majority of them I have not seen, don't even have their own Wikipedia page and Lost, Lost, Lost is one of those.

Most of Mekas' work is intensely personal to him, often drawing from his own personal home movies. With this one, the content forms a diary film of footage shot between 1949-1963 which were the early years of Mekas' exile living in New York and trying to start a new life. 

Just to give you some quick info on Mekas' life, he and his brother Adolfas left Lithuania to avoid being captured by the Fascist regime after he had been forced to co-edit a far-right Nazi publication. They were captured and imprisoned in a labor camp for 8 months, but despite all of the hurdles, the two were able to get a job sponsorship in the States and they immigrated to Williamsburg, Brooklyn and Mekas lived in Brooklyn until his death in 2019 at the age of 96.

While a bit slow as it manages to be roughly 3 hours long, I think that Lost, Lost, Lost is an important glimpse into not just how Mekas was viewing the world in those early days as a NY resident, but the film also shows he was able to integrate himself into the burgeoning artist community that really came to life in the 50s and 60s. When it comes to the idea of finding your community, I do connect deeply with anything that relates to that of the arts.

______________________________

#8 - THE KILLING OF A CHINESE BOOKIE

Written & Directed by John Cassavetes

I sort of feel like John Cassavetes is a filmmaker who is always able to make fascinating films, even if the final product isn't always something I gravitate towards. 

The crazy thing about The Killing of a Chinese Bookie is that it seems to be a step up in terms of having a higher budget, but it loses a bit of the appeal at the same time. Come to think of it, I am dealing with that feeling when it comes to Noah Baumbach now but that is even more glaring.

While nowhere near his best work, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie is a film that is very glamorous in its unglamorous nature. Set in Los Angeles, we meet Cosmo Vitelli (Ben Gazzara), the owner of a strip club named Crazy Horse West who is rather fond of the women and the rest of his employees and respects what they do to keep his business afloat...but he also has a severe gambling problem and finds himself in hot water when the mafia gets involved when he owes money.

Considering Cassavetes was mainly known for films that really dived deep in the psychosis of relationships, so I will admit that it is nice to see him be rather effective at tackling a crime thriller and building tension.

__________________________________

#7 - SMALL CHANGE 

Written & Directed by Francois Truffaut

Co-written by Suzanne Schiffman 

My first introduction to Small Change was that of Roger Ebert. As I read through all of his (and Siskel's) top 10 lists from over the years, I remembered that Small Change was his choice for the best film of 1976.

At that time, I hadn't even seen any of Truffaut's work. The only thing I even knew Truffaut from was his role in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, so in terms of his filmography, Small Change was the first film of his I saw. While not as rapturous on it as Ebert, or even the far more prickly Pauline Kael, I do very much consider this one of his best films.

His debut film, and best film, The 400 Blows was his own semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story, but Small Change sees him revisiting that kind of environment as he follows the lives of two young boys named Patrick and Julien. The former is without a mother, and finds himself developing a burgeoning attraction to women, including his teacher while the latter is poverty-stricken and repeatedly abused by his parents to the point that bruises are covering his body but he tries to hide them in shame.

Truffaut and his colleague Suzanne Schiffman did prepare an outline but encouraged a lot of the dialogue to be improvised in the moment while working with the kids which is actually rather captivating considering how much it could've been a disaster.

It also helps that considering the truly tragic subject matter of child abuse could become relenting and oppressive for a film narrative, Truffaut gives the film a levity that doesn't make it a slog to sit through. It was a fine line, and he never crossed it.

_______________________________

#6 - CRIA CUERVOS

Written & Directed by Carlos Saura

I have to admit that Carlos Saura is a filmmaker whose work has escaped me somehow as I have only seen maybe 3-4 of his films, including the two that got nominations for Best Foreign Film at their respective Oscar years: Carmen in 1983 and Tango in 1998.

Cria Cuervos was not selected as a nominee which is a shame as I think this is truly one of those underseen gems that doesn't get talked about much.

The title comes from the first couple of words from a Spanish proverb that translates to "Raise ravens, and they'll gouge your eyes out!" The usage normally applies to parents who either have rebellious children or they parent them horribly.

Our main character is 8-year-old Ana (Ana Torrent), who is left orphaned with her two younger sisters Irene and Maite. Ana often imagines her mother Maria (Geraldine Chaplin) being present, but we also see Maria in flashbacks where we learn she was a very warm and loving mother in contrast to her aunt Paulina (Monica Randall). Ana is deeply affected by her parents' deaths as she watched her mother painfully die of cancer while she found her father dead in bed...which leads to a morbid fascination with death.

Cria Cuervos is one of those films that does benefit from knowing as little about it as possible, because the narrative and the weaving timeline seem to be relenting in making us wonder what exactly is going on. 

Young Ana Torrent is truly a marvel here; one of the finest child performances I have ever seen and one where she has to navigate truly dark and complex storylines. Perhaps some of its style is a little bit dated these days, but it basically works for me!

_________________________________

#5 - NEWS FROM HOME

Conceived/Directed by Chantal Akerman

    Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman moved to NYC in 1971 where she remained for roughly 2-3 years. While in the city taking various odd jobs, she befriended the previously mentioned documentarian Jonas Mekas along with cinematographer Babette Mangolte. Mangolte would go on to become a frequent collaborator of hers, not just on News from Home but also Akerman's seminal opus Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles.

News from Home feels like Akerman is capturing the spirit of Jonas Mekas as the film has Mangolte filming many locales around NYC while Akerman reads off the correspondence she had with her mother during this time. 

Akerman, not surprisingly, wasn't exactly living in luxury during this time. She referred to that era as living the life of "a vagabond". There is a truth to the idea of NYC being so busy and filled with people, but somehow you still feel incredibly alone. 

The images of 70s NYC are a relic of another era, to be sure, when the city was all at once brimming with life and decaying. Most of the shots chosen were areas that Akerman would walk to try to occupy her time, including areas that were likely not the safest such as the Times Square Subway Station.

Akerman, who died relatively young just a few years ago, seems to be getting more of resurgence these days thanks Jeanne Dielman getting chosen as the Greatest Film of All Time by the BFI (I am not sure I would agree with that, but I love the swing)...but I think so much of her work should be observed because she wasn't just an amazing female filmmaker who was an early pioneer, she was simply just an amazing filmmaker.

_______________________________

#4 - FACE TO FACE

Written & Directed by Ingmar Bergman

I think everyone should just accept that fact that if Ingmar Bergman made a film that year, sometimes even two, the odds of it being on my list are pretty foolproof.

Face to Face is one of his works that I think is highly respected but it doesn't get as much attention in comparison to stuff like Persona or The Seventh Seal. However, I think a lot of what makes this film work so strongly is the work of perennial Bergman muse Liv Ullmann.

Ullmann plays Dr. Jenny Issakson, a psychiatrist who is working at a mental hospital while her husband is on a trip to America and her daughter is at camp. She's also living with her grandparents while she plans to sell her home, but moving back into the room she grew up in begins to stir feeling of unease and anxiety, which begin to consume her.

I also love that Bergman brings Ullmann's Scenes from a Marriage co-star Erland Josephson back to work with her as Tomas, a divorcee who takes an interest in Jenny and she sort of takes the bait in her frail mental state.

Bergman diving into psychological horror is one of his specialties, and while it may not be at the same level of some of his earlier works, I do love seeing him tap into more abrasive imagery and content while also giving Liv Ullmann the opportunity to truly let loose. 

__________________________

#3 - ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN

Directed by Alan J. Pakula

Written by William Goldman

How nice it must've been to know that the President of the United States committed a crime and that he could be exposed and then viewed as a disgrace by the majority of the American public.

Yes...how nice that a President could be held accountable...

Sigh, anyways...

All The President's Men was certainly a hot ticket as it was based on the true story and eventual non-fiction book written by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward & Carl Bernstein and how their investigation helped unravel the Watergate Scandal that was the undoing of Nixon.

Perfectly cast with Robert Redford as Woodward and Dustin Hoffman as Bernstein, All The President's Men is a benchmark for the political thriller genre. Everything about this film feels like a seed had been planted for similar films to follow, with a truly taut and gripping script by William Goldman and very tense direction by the underappreciated Alan J. Pakula. 

You could consider it to be a film that embraces the heroism of journalism and the media which, ironically, the next film on this list would be the flip-side response to the affect media has on society.

_____________________________

#2 - NETWORK 

Directed by Sidney Lumet

Written by Paddy Chayefsky

The fact that a film like Network was presented as a dark satire in 1976, but is now almost tame by comparison to today's society is something I can't help but laugh at and then it makes me want to jump off the George Washington Bridge. 

We enter the world of the fictional 4th main broadcasting network, UBS. It happens to be dead last in the ratings after ABC, CBS, and NBC and as part of a major shakeup, news division president Max Schumacher (William Holden) has to tell his longtime friend and UBS Nightly News anchor Howard Beale (Peter Finch) that he is being let go due to the declining ratings.

Beale seems to take it more or less in stride until he announces his forced retirement live on the air along with the statement: "Since this is the only thing I've had going on in my life, I've decided to kill myself".

Needless to say, this statement gets him kicked off the air sooner than planned, but he goes on air one more time to apologize but instead doubles down by going on a "life is BS" rant. This makes primetime programming head Diana Christensen (Faye Dunaway) take notice and despite news not being her area of expertise, she wants to make Beale the head of his own nightly program in primetime and essentially exploit his nervous breakdown of sorts into must-see-TV.

Network could be seen as tame in today's world, but it still has a lot of bite...and perhaps a truly psychotic resolution. As far as screen villainesses go, Diana Christensen's greed and obsession are made so compelling by Dunaway. It is no surprise that she won the Oscar despite crazy competition from Liv Ullman and Sissy Spacek. 

Peter Finch became the first person to win a posthumous acting award for his work, and it was richly deserved. All of his passionate monologues presented with such fiery and bordering evangelical passion are the kind of performances awards are made of.

Then you have Beatrice Straight winning Supporting Actress for what remains the shortest performance ever to win an Oscar. She appears on screen for roughly 5 minutes and maybe 2-3 minutes of it are what nailed her the win. Maybe she wouldn't have been my vote, but what she does with her big monologue is a masterclass at making you care about a minor character as she seems like a real person amidst the mostly TV obsessed characters we meet.

One could argue that this is a film that borders on the melodramatic as Chayefsky's penchant for passionate monologues with purple prose make Aaron Sorkin look subdued my comparison, but somehow, this cast and Lumet guiding them make it a lot more bearable.

____________________________

#1 - TAXI DRIVER

Directed by Martin Scorsese

Written by Paul Schrader

What is about seeing NYC during the 1970s that feels so fascinating?

As someone who has lived here now for over a decade, I can attest that the city is not the crime haven that the right-wing wackos want to make it out to be. It also happens to be a city that is very expensive to live in and with a subway system that desperately needs a major overhaul.

Looking at 70s NYC is at once wistful and uneasy. There is no denying that the city was in pure disarray at that time when it came to crime. The vibes just seemed to scream neon and sleaze...especially if you were walking along 42nd Street where you could land yourself a hooker and a maybe a gram of cocaine right around where Madame Tussaud's stands today. It was a city that was a bit dangerous, but it was vibrant and had immense character...and it was way more affordable.

Perhaps one of the more indelible representations of NYC in the 70s is Taxi Driver, one of the earliest films of Martin Scorsese's career that showcased the brilliance and legendary flair that he would give us time and time again.

His frequent muse Robert DeNiro is Travis Bickle, a Vietnam vet who has taken to driving a taxi at night as a result of his insomnia. He frequents all of the peep show theaters that were synonymous with that era of NY, and considers himself appalled at the state of the city. Clearly a racist and with a bit of a superiority complex to say the least, he wishes to find a way to wash "the scum off of these streets".

We also watch him as he basically stalks Betsy (Cybill Shepherd), a campaign work for a Senator and Presidential Candidate named Charles Palantine. Her snarky colleague Tom (Albert Brooks) does seem to pick up Travis' skeevier tendencies.

While Travis does indeed fumble the bag with Betsy, he soon takes an interest in a 12-year-old child prostitute named Iris (Jodie Foster) and tries to convince her to stop prostituting herself and return home to her family. 

Travis Bickle is an ultimate example of the anti-hero. In many ways, he is clearly a despicable human being but it is also clear he needs serious help and does hope to help Iris escape from a life that is, to put it mildly, not good for her. 

The scene in which Travis goes on an all-out killing spree to save Iris from her pimp Scout (Harvey Keitel), which leads to violence so graphic that it caused an immense amount of controversy at the time, even to the point that the MPAA was adamant that Scorsese desaturate the colors to make the blood not as brutal. Despite the violence and the murders, charges are not brought to Travis and he is hailed as a vigilante hero by the press and is praised by Iris' parents letting him know she returned to Pittsburgh and is being acclimated back to normal life. 

Taxi Driver is one of those films where it is so clear that there are things wrong with the NY we are seeing and with Travis and how society ends up responding to a man who, little did they know, planned on assassinating Charles Palantine (oh yeah, I left that out earlier). I shouldn't even mention it but it was Jodie Foster in this film that became an obsession of John Hinckley and would lead to him stalking Jimmy Carter only to then attempt to assassinate Ronald Reagan as a means to impress Foster. 

There is something about this world that Scorsese and writer Paul Schrader immerses us in that had me pulled in from the moment I first saw the film at age 13. For a world that is supposed to be filled with so much sleaze, Scorsese shoots it with so much elegance.

Acting wise, DeNiro and Foster are both wonderful here, and the supporting cast is perfect.

However, one thing about this film that soars is the final score written by the legendary Bernard Herrmann. That opening piece with the saxophone is so chilling and uneasy but also jazzy and beautiful at the same time.

What a remarkable achievement, one that is worthy of this kind of ramble.

====================

FINAL THOUGHTS:

That year's Best Picture winner was Rocky, the iconic breakthrough film for star Sylvester Stallone both as an actor and as a writer. It winning was not exactly a complete shocker, but considering how stellar its competition was, I think it is a win that has aged horribly. I personally never cared that much for Rocky other than finding it a solid enough film but when you put it next to Taxi Driver, Network, All The President's Men, and even the mostly forgotten fourth nominee, the Woody Guthrie biopic Bound for Glory, I just don't understand its appeal other than the film seemingly just having an uplifting narrative.

Network won Best Original Screenplay that night, along with 3 acting prizes; only one of 3 films to achieve that acting honor.

Taxi Driver barely even made a dent because its nominations felt more like afterthoughts, plus Scorsese and Schrader didn't even receive nominations.

All The Presidents Men, which had been that year's prominent favorite amongst the critics award circles, managed to get Adapted Screenplay and Supporting Actor.

Rocky managed to win Best Picture with a Directing and Editing win...but I still think John Avildsen winning Director for that has got to be one of the most undeserving selections in the history of this category...especially with Lumet and Pakula there and Scorsese not even getting nominated.

Oh and side note - the other two nominees were Ingmar Bergman for Face to Face and the first woman to ever receive a nomination, Lina Wertmuller for Seven Beauties (it came out in 1975 originally so it didn't make this list). The fact that Avildsen got this while someone like Bergman remained without a Directing win just goes to show you how ridiculous the process is.

At any rate, 1976 may not have been as jam-packed a year as '74 or '75, but we do have some classics here that are heavily revered to this day. Now, we have 1977 coming up, and I will say, it is quite the eclectic year.