THE DECADE OF THE CLASSICS
Widely hailed as Stan Kubrick’s most brilliant and daring film, transferring Anthony Burgess socialist novel to the screen was indeed a brave venture. But one Kubrick could pull with relish and ease. The story of a young lad obsessed with “Ultra-violence” and Beethoven music. Soon the boy is arrested and is “reprogrammed” by government officials trying to put a stop to his horrific behavior. Will he be cured?
The film, now finally available after a lengthy BBFC ban, is still an unnerving movie and the violence is disturbing but it is handled in a non-judgement way. No bias. It makes you make up your own mind.
See it, love it, see it again, then make your mind up.
After recently discussing this film in a pub a friend of mine called this film excellent except “the wedding scene is too long”. I like the whole film and think the wedding shows the characters feelings for each other, their surroundings and the sadness for if they will ever see ‘home’ again. Rob De Niro, Christopher Walken and John Savage are three Pennsylvanian steelworkers about to go off to fight in Vietnam for their country. They have to leave behind job, home, lovers and wonder if they will ever see it again. We discover their strong loving friendship before, during and after the war. A beautifully shot stirring anti-war drama/love story is wonderful and the haunting John Williamson theme tune is unforgettable.
If you ever wondered how Francis Ford Coppola ended up directing ‘Jack’ with Robin Williams you just have to realize how difficult he found filmmaking. His three most famous works are also his three most troubled, just watch ‘Heart of Darkness’ the Apocalypse Now documentary and witness how mad he became. But the trouble all started on this masterpiece the ultimate gangster trilogy. The studio thought Coppola was stupid and was just wasting a lot of film, it seemed to the studio he had caused his own problems: Over three hours long!
But his story of the Don and his family, from their point of view, was absolutely great. An outstanding performance from young newcomer Al Pacino. Also the restaurant scene, the horse head, Brando, the hospital siege and the sequel.
The title and movie poster (Travolta in dance pose in white suit) is very misleading. My mother remembers going to see the film at the cinema and she was surrounded by children with their parents, expecting to see a lovely fluffy dance film. There are no Fred Astaire moves in this film; ultimately resulting in everyone leaving the surrounding’s of my mother and complaining to the staff. The film introduces us to John Travolta. By day a normal angst-ridden paint selling teen that only he understands and by night a cool, stylish disco dancer. The film has practically everything sex, drugs, death, tragedy, comedy, flares and disco. It is a ridiculously simple tale- teen boy rubbish at everything, except dancing, meets girl, becomes dance partner, enter contest as underdog, they win (similar to Rocky)- but done so well.
An angry young taxi driver with an unhealthy passion for army fatigues is tired of his streets been awash with ‘scum’. He decides to take action and when Travis Bickle gets mad, boy does he get mad. This Martin Scorsese masterpiece is a definitive 70’s classic. An unforgettable film containing career best performances from De Niro, Keitel, Foster and the beautiful Cybill Shepard. Never has a city been more effected than New York thanks to this film. The possibility that any number of mental people are wondering the streets had never been seen on screen before and it shocked a lot of people. Still fresh, dangerous and horrific 24 years on.
John Boormans classic about survival and friendship in the deep south should really be remembered more for its brilliant performances by all involved, and less for the “squeal, squeal” moment. At times the film borders on unwatchable to some, as tension and the will to survive really grab hold of the viewer and never let go until you think its all over. This is one of those movies were the score will most likely be familiar to those who haven’t seen it, the classic Dueling Banjoes. This film shows Burt Reynolds charisma as a leading man and no doubt helped build his career even more helping him become one of the biggest stars in America.
William Friedkin’s film of demonic possession is easily one of the most notorious movies of all time. Based on the novel by William Peter Blatty, it tells the story of Regan (Linda Blair) who becomes possessed by a demon that says it is the devil himself. Awe inspiring performances from the two lead priests, Max Von Sydow and the brilliant Jason Miller as Father Karras, who believes he is losing his faith. The film had people fainting and throwing up on its first release back in 1973, and is still powerful today. The film was recently re-released in the UK after its unnecessary ban.
Bruce Lee’s first lead role in an American movie has all of the right ingredients, comedy, brilliant choreography and well developed characters that have almost become blue prints for any other tournament movie or computer game. Telling the story of Lee who goes to a remote island to attend a secret martial arts contest to uncover a drug operation run by evil bad guy, Han. This film would have propelled lee into absolute superstar status as a leading action hero in America if it had not been for his untimely death. But this film still gained Bruce the proportion of his world wide fan base, which is still active today.
Where do I start with Star Wars, the ultimate sci fi space opera. With its simple but oh so effective story of good versus evil, Star Wars quickly became one of the most popular movies of all time. I think a main point behind its popularity the first time around was the casting, the majority of our heroes were pretty much unknowns at that time, so really, it wasn’t hard to accept that they were from another galaxy and doing all of this stuff. Really though, if you haven’t seen Star Wars you must have been hiding in a vacuum for the past twenty odd years.
When I first saw this movie I was expecting full on gore with a chain saw mentalist. But I was surprised at how little blood there actually is contained in the film. You see its all about the power of suggestion with Massacre, although the violence is shown, its never shown in way where you’re right in there with the meaty chunks, the camera kind of skids around the carnage, only giving you a brief taster of what’s going on. Which in some cases is a lot better than giving you everything on a platter. The film made the main Chain saw protagonist, Leatherface (Gunner Hanson) a cult figure in the horror genre, and the film has produced three sequels to date, 2+3 are rather good too, and a fifth installment is apparently currently being worked on by Tobe Hooper.
