Tuesday, February 07, 2017

5 off My Head: Siri Says 1973

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Happy Tuesday, everybody - and I do mean everybody. Young or old, rich or poor, fat or thin, so on and so forth. This morning I have asked my phone to once again to choose us all a number between 1 and 100, and today she came back at me with the number 73. So today we look at The Movies of 1973. A good year for the movies. A scary year. My favorites are a dark and spooky bunch. I suppose one could argue something about the big black clouds of Vietnam and Watergate polluting the air, if one felt up to arguing such things. I'm just gonna get to my list though. Here they are...

My 5 Favorite Movies of 1973

(dir. William Friedkin)
-- released on December 26th, 1973 --

(dir. Terrence Malick)
-- released on October 13th 1973 -- 

(dir. Alejandro Jodorowsky)
-- released on November 29th, 1973 -- 

(dir. Robin Hardy)
-- released on October 16th 1973 --

(dir. Nicolas Roeg)
-- released on December 9th, 1973 --

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Runners-up:  Paper Moon (dir. Peter Bogdanovich), Westworld (dir. Michael Crichton), Soylent Green (dir. Richard Fleischer), Sleeper (dir. Woody Allen), The Spirit of the Beehive (dir. Victor Erice)...

... Day For Night (dir. Truffaut), Charlotte's Web (dir. Charles Nichols), Fantastic Planet (dir. René Laloux), Theatre of Blood (dir. Douglas Hickox), Coffy (dir. Jack Hill), The Crazies (dir. George Romero), Last Tango in Paris (dir. Bertolucci), Le Magnifique (dir. Philippe de Broca)

Never seen: Mean Streets (dir. Scorsese), 
Scenes From a Marriage (dir. Ingmar Bergman), 
Serpico (dir. Sidney Lumet)

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What are your favorites movies of 1973?

3 comments:

joel65913 said...

Well that is a dark bunch, I haven't seen Holy Mountain but the others are on the good but grim side.

This was a rich year in cinema so I think I'll have to go with ten:

The Way We Were-The best Streisand has ever been, even if she doesn't sing
The Last of Sheila-A great puzzle of a picture with a fantastic 70's cast
The Day of the Jackal-SO much better than the crappy 90's redo.
Day for Night
The Sting
The Exorcist
The Three Musketeers
The Paper Chase
Theatre of Blood
A Touch of Class

I didn't care much for Mean Streets but Serpico is a fine film and would finish somewhere just below these ten for me. I have yet to see Scenes from a Marriage.

I'd also recommend Scarecrow, Bang the Drum Slowly and Cries and Whispers.

Pierce said...

Joel has an excellent list, because 1973 was a terrific year for movies:

Paper Moon, a lovely reminder of classic comedy in the style of Preston Sturges
The Sting, remarkable, classy movie with Redford and Newman
Serpico, Pacino's performance is outstanding.
Don’t Look Now, creepy, entertaining movie, based on Du Maurier's short story, and starring Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland
The Wicker Man, still one of the best, scariest movies ever made.
The Day of the Jackal, superb thriller
The Way We Were, Besides Funny Girl, Barbra Streisand's greatest performance onscreen.
The Last Detail, Jack Nicholson's versatility is very much on display in this movie.
Badlands, Terence Malick's marvelous, violent drama.
Sleeper, not classic Woody Allen, but certainly it has its creative sequences
The Paper Chase, I was in college. Who couldn't relate to this one?
Day for Night, another of Truffaut's best with Valerie Cortese giving a superb performance.
Fantastic Planet, Wonderful, eerie animated science fiction film
The Last of Sheila, written by Anthony Perkins and Stephen Sondheim, directed by Herbert Ross and wonderfully performed.
Theater of Blood. along with House of Wax, my favorite Vincent Price movie, and it costars Diana Rigg!
Charlotte’s Web, lovely musical adaptation of E.B. White's book and far superior to that ridiculous live action remake.
Murder on the Orient Express, great director (Lumet), great cast, Agatha Christie, it's an exciting movie, although, frankly, I prefer the David Suchet version.

par3182 said...

badlands
jesus christ superstar
the last of sheila
paper moon
papillon