☮️The 70s Show: Part 2: 1975-1979☮️
a.k.a. “The stewardess is flying the plane!”
The following movies have combined for 51 Oscar Nominations, 12 Oscar Wins, and a Special Achievement Oscar for Special Effects. None of those were for our first film.
Please fasten your seatbelts and return your tray table to its full upright and locked position…
Airport 1975 (1975)
We love you, Karen Black.
“You mean THE STEWARDESS IS FLYING THE PLANE?”
I know I’ll never be accused of being a movie snob because of my absolute love of movies like Airport 1975. I was a sucker for these all-star, over-budgeted, disaster epic messes from the start. And this is one of the best of that wild bunch.
This is one of the films parodied in Airplane! This is the movie Linda Blair wishes she was cut out of! This is the one where the stewardess flies the plane! This is brilliant!
From the “only in the movies” file: In Airport 1975 Effrem Zimbalist Jr. plays the pilot of the airliner that is struck by a plane piloted by Dana Andrews. This is the SECOND time planes piloted by Zimbalist Jr. and Andrews have collided in movies! You just can’t make this stuff up.
And Helen “I am Woman”Reddy is along for the ride as Sister Ruth the guitar playing nun. No notes!
Poster cheers: “Something hit us…the crew is dead…help us, please, please help us!”
A Boy and His Dog (1975)
“Well, I'd certainly say she had marvelous judgment, Albert... if not particularly good taste.”
This sci-fi cult classic stars a pre “Miami Vice” Don Johnson wandering around a post-apocalyptic wasteland with his telepathic dog, Blood.
This movie inspired George Miller to make Mad Max, so cheers to that! “The Underground” in the movie is flat out bananas. It’s a utopian land ruled by Jason Robards and everyone there seems to be wearing zinc oxide on their faces. Bizarro.
The best thing about A Boy and His Dog (other than the fact that it takes place in 2024!) is that Blood is played by Tiger of Brady Bunch fame. It adds even more to this surrealistic lunacy.
The final line, delivered by Blood, is cult classic gold.
Poster cheers: “The year is 2024…a future you’ll probably live to see.” Bonus cheers for: “an R rated, rather kinky tale of survival.”
Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
6 Oscar Nominations (including Picture, Director, Actor, & Supporting Actor) - 1 Win (Writing)
“I’m robbing a bank because they got money here.”
Directed by old friend of Cinema Wellman, Sidney Lumet, Dog Day Afternoon is one of the best bank robbery movies of all time. That’s saying a lot since the robbery does not go off well at all.
It stars 9-time Oscar nominee Al Pacino in his prime (before he started shouting all of his lines) along with the wonderful John Cazale. Great fact about Cazale; he only appeared in five feature films and ALL of them were nominated for Best Picture (The Godfather, The Conversation, The Godfather Part II, Dog Day Afternoon, and The Deer Hunter). That is a “Murderer’s Row” of film right there. We were cheated of more from Cazale due to his early death at the age of 43.
This film is extremely serious and, at the same time, is pretty damn funny. It’s based on a true story and it’s amazing to read the accounts of the real hostages. The bank’s manager said he had more laughs that night than he’d had in weeks, and a teller stated that if they were her houseguests, she would have had a great night.
Charles Durning is exceptional as Moretti, the police officer with way too much on his plate. The crowd is actually an additional cast member in this. It’s chaotic, it’s tense, it’s gritty, it’s 70s New York.
Poster cheers: “The robbery should have taken ten minutes. Eight hours later, it was the hottest thing on live TV. And it’s all true.”
The Eiger Sanction (1975)
“Yeah, jet setters, assorted zombies, come here to watch a climb. If they're lucky, they get to see a man die on the mountain.”
The Eiger Sanction is based on a novel I love written by Trevanian who also wrote “Shibumi.” I was delighted when I recently read that “Shibumi” was being made into a movie. But I digress…
This movie is about an assassin (who is also an art professor/collector), played by Clint Eastwood, who needs to carry out a hit during a perilous mountain climbing expedition.
This is a thriller from start to finish with a great supporting cast. George Kennedy again! The only actor to appear in all four Airport movies! The Eiger Sanction also features some fantastic scenery and harrowing mountain climbing sequences.
Poster cheers: “HIS LIFELINE - held by the assassin he hunted.”
Shampoo (1975)
4 Oscar Nominations (including Actor, Writing) - 1 Win (Supporting Actress - Lee Grant)
“Did he cut your hair?” “No. We didn’t get around to that.”
From our friends at IMDb: “On Election Day, 1968, a hairdresser and ladies’ man is too busy cutting hair and dealing with his various girlfriends and his mistress, whose husband he meets and finds out is having an affair with his ex-girlfriend.”
Yup. You kind of need a scorecard to keep up with Warren Beatty’s George, an L.A. hairdresser. This film is all about sex and who is having it with who and where and when and how. The trailer features a shot of one of George’s customers sitting in the chair at the salon. He’s standing directly in front of her and her head is bent down and in his crotch as he blow dries her hair. Pretty subtle, right? :)
Another amazing cast with Beatty, friend of Cinema Wellman Julie Christie, Goldie Hawn, Lee Grant, Carrie Fisher, and the always enjoyable Jack Warden. Directed by Hal Ashby, this is a frank look at how things were in L.A. in the 70s.
These shenanigans certainly never took place in my mom’s beauty shop!
Poster cheers: “Your hairdresser does it better.”
The Stepford Wives (1975)
“I'll just die if I don't get this recipe. I'll just die if I don't get this recipe. I'll just die if I don't get this recipe”
This is kind of a suburban Westworld. It’s one of Jordan Peele’s favorite films and influenced him to make Get Out. It’s also based on a novel by the author of Rosemary’s Baby, so you know it’s going to be dark.
The Stepford Wives centers around the women of Stepford, CT. The perfect women of Stepford, CT. The too perfect women of Stepford, CT.
If Westworld imagined a theme park where you could act on your every desire, The Stepford Wives brings that idea home and puts it in the kitchen and in the bedroom.
The reboot with Nicole Kidman was passable, I guess, but there’s no beating friend of Cinema Wellman Katharine Ross and Paula Prentiss in this original. And, yes, that’s Tina Louise from “Gilligan’s Island!” Worth a watch just for those hats!
This is a tasty, cautionary treat warning men to be careful what they wish for in their wives.
Poster cheers: “Something is happening in the town of Stepford. Where the men spend their nights doing something secret. And every woman acts like every man’s ‘perfect’ wife. Where a young woman watches the dream become a nightmare. And sees the nightmare engulf her best friend. And realizes that any moment, any second - her turn is coming.”
Pretty chatty for a poster, don’t you think?
Three Days of the Condor (1975)
1 Oscar Nomination (Film Editing)
“Maybe there’s another CIA. Inside the CIA.”
The list of people associated with this spy thriller is extremely impressive; Robert Redford, Faye Dunaway, Max Von Sydow, Cliff Robertson, director Sydney Pollack, not to mention that fugazi postman with the gun!
From IMDb: “A bookish CIA researcher in Manhattan finds all his co-workers dead, and must outwit those responsible until he figures out who he can really trust.”
Spoiler Alert: He can’t trust anyone.
Three Days of the Condor is a perfect example of the paranoia/conspiracy movies that proliferated 70s cinema, and this is truly one of the best of that bunch. The main character in over his head in a dangerous situation is straight out of a Hitchcock thriller, this one involving the CIA.
Redford and Dunaway are great together, and Von Sydow is sinister. That’s just how we like our Von Sydow, isn’t it?
This is a taut spy thriller that would be a great companion piece to The Parallax View (1974). Can’t miss with Redford and Beatty. Am I right?!
Poster cheers: “His CIA code name is Condor. In the next seventy-two hours almost everyone he trusts will try to kill him.”
Carrie (1976)
2 Oscar Nominations (Actress: Sissy Spacek, Supporting Actress: Piper Laurie)
“They’re all gonna laugh at you!”
I believe this is the third time Carrie has shown up in this blog in recent months! We can’t get rid of her! Actually, you don’t want to get rid of her. And you don’t want to cross her either, that’s for sure.
Even though I’ve covered Carrie recently, I couldn’t leave it off of this list. Start with a compelling “bullied beyond belief” story by Stephen King, add director Brian DePalma (in his thriller wheelhouse), and top that with two amazing performances by Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie (both earning Oscar nominations) and you have a very worthwhile 98 minute popcorn chomper.
DePalma uses split screen to perfection during the prom sequence which just adds to the overall visual effect he creates. This is creepy and scary and makes you hate bullies even more. How many kids saw this and wished they had Carrie’s abilities? More than we’d like to think…
Poster cheers: “If you’ve got a taste for terror…take Carrie to the prom.”
Logan’s Run (1976)
2 Oscar Nominations (Cinematography, Art Decoration-Set Decoration)
Won a Special Achievement Oscar for Visual Effects
“There is no renewal.”
Once again we have a 70s movie exploring a world of “total pleasure.” This is along the lines of The Stepford Wives and Westworld, but Logan’s Run is set much farther in the future. The year 2116, to be precise. And in 2116 everything is hunky-dorey until you turn 30. When you turn 30, you go to “carousel.” And in a utopian world where everyone is under 30, you can just imagine what “carousel” entails.
Not the first, or last, time movies have explored euthanasia in some form or other, but this one is fun because of the sets and the almost not there wardrobe worn by Jenny Agutter and new on the scene Farrah Fawcett. Unbelievably skimpy for a movie rated PG.
In any event, this is a fun time with now cheesy special effects, but it was pre-Star Wars, so cut it some slack!
I love these behind the scenes shots from productions. Like rubber-suit Godzilla chilling with his head off, or the apes from Planet of the Apes taking a smoke break!
We love you, Farrah!
Poster cheers: “Welcome to the 23rd century. The perfect world of total pleasure. …there’s just one catch.”
Marathon Man (1976)
1 Oscar Nomination (Supporting Actor: Laurence Olivier)
“Is it safe?”
I’m not sure how you feel about your dentist. I’ve actually had very good luck with dentists over the years. Dr. Migliorini is still a cult hero with my daughters, and the people who care for my teeth now at Lowell Tooth Docs are tremendous. Couldn’t be happier on the dental front.
I realize most people don’t feel the same way. Many people think dentists are evil sadists who exist to deliver pain with their assorted implements of doom. Which brings us to Marathon Man. And Nazi Dentist Sir Laurence Olivier.
From IMDb: “After the shocking murder of his older brother, a New York history student finds himself inexplicably hounded by shadowy government agents on the trail of a Nazi war criminal who is trying to retrieve smuggled diamonds.”
Dustin Hoffman is at his best as the history student, and Larry Olivier is off the wall evil as the Nazi war criminal. Marathon Man will have you pacing the room and cringing and watching through fingers held over your eyes.
The poster simply states; “A Thriller.” That is one of the biggest cinematic poster understatements in film history.
Poster cheers: “A thriller”
Network (1976)
10 Oscar Nominations (including Picture, Director)
Won 4 Oscars (Actor:Finch, Actress: Dunaway, Supporting Actress: Straight, Writing)
“I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore.”
Network truly is one of the most powerful, prescient movies ever made. Written by playwright/screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky and directed by Sidney “Dog Day Afternoon” Lumet, Network exposes media like no other film has. “If it bleeds, it leads” has never been more true.
I think this is one of the best casts ever assembled for a film. Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter Finch, Robert Duvall, Ned Beatty, and Beatrice Straight combine for an unforgettable look behind the scenes of network news.
Straight won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar even though she’s only on screen for five minutes and two seconds! Still an Oscar record!
Peter Finch and Faye Dunaway also won well-deserved Oscars for their performances.
There have been so many instances since 1975 where the media has gone off the rails and my first thought is this movie. It’s a drama, it’s a satire, but the crazier things get in the media, more and more of Network looks like a documentary.
Poster cheers: “Prepare yourself for a perfectly outrageous motion picture. Television will never be the same.”
Taxi Driver (1976)
4 Oscar Nominations (Picture, Actor: Robert De Niro, Supporting Actress: Jodi Foster, Music)
“You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? Then who the hell else are you talking... you talking to me? Well I'm the only one here..”
All you really need to know about Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver can be summed up with this photo of star Robert De Niro. Yep. That’ll do it.
Like so many others, I was totally blown away by this film the first time I saw it. Scorsese’s New York City is a filthy cesspool of degenerates and hustlers. This is NYC at its grimiest and nastiest.
De Niro is sensational as cabbie Travis Bickle whose downward spiral we’re in the back seat for. Harvey Keitel’s ultra-sleazy pimp Sport is so scummy, you’ll want to shower after every scene he’s in. And 14 year-old Jodi Foster is so believable as teen prostitute Iris, you’ll want to rescue her as much as Travis does. I was also 14 in 1976. I was in 8th grade, Jodie was making Taxi Driver.
Still stunningly violent even according to today’s standards, this tale of isolation and loneliness stays with you for a while.
Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets…
Black Sunday (1977)
“Cancel the Super Bowl?! That’s like canceling Christmas!”
Peril at a sporting event could be its own genre when you consider Black Sunday (terrorist @ Super Bowl), Two-Minute Warning (sniper @ Super Bowl), Sudden Death (terrorists @ Stanley Cup Finals), and The Naked Gun (brainwashed Queen Elizabeth assassin Reggie Jackson). Crowds in danger have always been low hanging fruit for movies, but that fruit is usually yummy.
This sports disaster thriller features one of the few times that a movie got approval from the NFL to use their teams and logos along with the sacred words “Super Bowl.”
It’s the Cowboys vs. the Steelers, Bruce Dern vs. Robert Shaw, and the Goodyear blimp vs. the Orange Bowl!
Can’t beat that combo for an entertaining suspense thriller!
Do they still do these types of publicity stills for movies? Love them!
Poster cheers: “It could be tomorrow!”
The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977)
“Moscow in flames, missiles headed toward New York. Film at eleven.”
The Kentucky Fried Movie is an assortment of skits and vignettes directed by John Landis that is highly inappropriate and highly entertaining.
Written by the people responsible for Airplane! (Jim Abrahams and the Zucker Brothers), The Kentucky Fried Movie plays like an uncensored SNL episode with links that are Monty Python-esque.
My favorite parts are the movie parodies A Fistful of Yen and Cleopatra Schwartz. Both pay homage to the source material with tongue planted firmly in cheek.
The final segment of a pervy news crew being able to see two kids making out on the couch while delivering the news is hysterical.
Watch this as a double feature with Amazon Women on the Moon. And catch See You Next Wednesday in “Feel-Around!”
Smokey and the Bandit (1977)
1 Oscar Nomination (Film Editing)
“Nobody, and I mean NOBODY makes Sheriff Buford T. Justice look like a possum's pecker.”
I’m not saying that Smokey and the Bandit should be hailed as cinematic brilliance. I’m not saying that it should be considered one of the top films of the decade. I’m just saying that it’s a lot of fun. It was supposedly a guilty pleasure of Alfred Hitchcock, so at least he agrees with me!
Say what you want about Burt Reynolds, but this was his time, and this role was absolutely perfect for him. He was the Bandit.
Sally Field is delightful as Carrie the runaway bride, and Jerry Reed is Bandit’s accomplice Snowman hauling Coors beer of all things for Big Enos and Little Enos (scenery chewing Pat McCormick and Paul Williams).
They are all wonderful, but my favorite part of this film is the legendary Jackie Gleason as Sheriff Buford T. Justice. He steals every scene as he pursues Bandit across the country in “hot pursuit!”
Brilliant!
Poster cheers: “What we have here is a total lack of respect for the law!.”
The Boys from Brazil (1978)
3 Oscar Nominations (Actor: Laurence Olivier, Film Editing, Original Score)
“You are infinite different. Infinite superior. You are born of the noblest blood in the world.”
This would be an interesting double feature with Marathon Man since both feature Nazis and Laurence Olivier. This time Olivier switches from Nazi dentist to Nazi hunter and Gregory Peck is infamous Nazi Dr. Josef Mengele. Peck overacts the hell out of this, but I still think he’s absolutely sinister.
When I was doing research for this post I watched Siskel & Ebert’s review of The Boys from Brazil and they both HATED it! Once again shows how much I know.
Something I do know is that I love to watch James Mason act. Doesn’t matter the role or the movie. Not even Siskel & Ebert can take that away from me.
Poster cheers: “If they survive, will we?”
Halloween (1978)
“He came home!”
I realize there have been what seems like hundreds of Halloween movies made since John Carpenter’s classic original was released 44 years ago, but this is still the best without a doubt.
Shot in only three weeks with a budget of $300,000, Halloween went on to gross over $47 million at the box office. It is still considered one of the most successful independent films ever made.
And it’s scary. It’s still scary after all these years.
On a personal note, it’s also important because it introduced me to Jamie Lee Curtis. I cannot thank John Carpenter enough for that.
Poster cheers: “The night he came home!”
All That Jazz (1979)
9 Oscar Nomination (including Picture, Actor: Roy Scheider, Director: Bob Fosse)
Won 4 Oscars (Art Direction-Set Decoration, Costume Design, Film Editing, Music)
“It’s showtime, folks.”
All That Jazz was one of the first movie musicals I really enjoyed. I had seen “old” musicals from the 40’s and 50’s, but this was current, so it caught my attention.
I now realize that one of the reasons I enjoyed it so much is that Roy Scheider, my Captain Brody from JAWS, was the star. Scheider could do no wrong in my eyes, and this was not the type of role I was used to seeing him in.
This is director/choreographer Bob Fosse’s life story directed by Fosse himself. Fosse is Scheider’s Joe Gideon, a chain-smoking, womanizing, drug-using dancer/choreographer, so it’s no surprise that he hits this one out of the park.
The music is amazing, the dancing is amazing, the choreography is amazing, the performances are amazing.
This is dazzling.
Poster cheers: “All that work. All that glitter. All that pain. All that love. All that crazy rhythm. All that jazz.”
Apocalypse Now (1979)
8 Oscar Nomination (including Picture, Actor: Robert Duvall, Director: Francis Ford Coppola)
Won 2 Oscars (Cinematography, Sound)
“I love the smell of napalm in the morning.”
I mentioned in an earlier blog that it’s a red flag whenever a documentary is made about how difficult a movie shoot was. In many cases, those movies are absolute duds. Apocalypse Now would be an exception to that rule.
This is an epic war movie that’s about much more than war. When you watch this movie you can’t help but think about how difficult it must have been to pull this off. It’s worth watching for that alone!
Filming was scheduled to take six weeks. It took 16 months. Director Francis Ford Coppola lost 100 pounds while making this movie. No wonder they made a documentary about the shoot.
Check that out as well, by the way. Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse. A phenomenal double feature. I’ve done it!
Hair (1979)
“Gliddy glup goopy, nibby nabby noopy la la la lo lo. Sabba sibby sabba, nooby abba nabba le le lo lo. Tooby ooby walla, nooby abba nabba. Early morning singing song.”
Another musical, and another “current” musical even though it was made in the late 70s about the late 60s. The music is fantastic and psychedelic and political and subversive. The story isn’t exactly like the original play, but its message is just as powerful.
Treat Williams is important to me because of this movie and Prince of the City. Talk about two divergent characters! Now that would be an interesting double feature! New York and Treat Williams being the connector.
I may have to do that someday…
On a somewhat related note, I saw the play twice. Once at the Colonial Theater in Boston in 1994 and again four years later in Cohasset, MA at the South Shore Music Circus. The Boston show was quite an eye opener as the cast was seated in the crowd as we arrived. When all were seated they got out of their seats and walked over the crowd on the armrests as they were singing! They then all went onstage and took off their clothes. All of their clothes. Like I said…it was an eye-opener!
Poster cheers: “Let the sun shine in!”
Mad Max (1979)
“That there is Cundalini... and Cundalini wants his hand back!”
This is the one that started it all. The movie that spawned The Road Warrior and Mad Max: Fury Road. It’s George Miller’s dystopian not too distant future smorgasbord chock full of amazing chase scenes and stunts.
I love the fact that one of the inspirations for this movie was A Boy and His Dog! It actually totally fits. There’s another double feature for the future!
I have no real idea how many times I’ve seen Mad Max, but it’s in the dozens. When The Road Warrior and Mad Max were both available on VHS, my friends and I would rarely watch one without the other. It kind of seemed wrong to watch just one.
Any movie that paid the extras in beer is worth a look.
Poster cheers: “The maximum force of the future”
The Warriors (1979)
“Warriors…come out and play...”
I know this was directed by Walter Hill, and kudos to Mr. Hill for a job well done, but this always seemed like a John Carpenter movie to me.
From IMDb: “A street gang known as The Warriors must fight their way from the Bronx to their home turf on Coney Island when they are falsely accused of assassinating a respected gang leader.”
The entire film is a chase sequence through the streets of New York City as the Warriors are pursued by gang after gang.
Here’s the complete roster of gangs who are hunting down the Warriors as they desperately try to get back to Coney Island. These fictional gangs have been inspiring Halloween costumes ever since:
The Gramercy Riffs
The Rogues
Turnbull AC’s
The Orphans
The Baseball Furies
The Lizzies
The Punks
The Boppers
The Hurricanes
The Hi-Hats
The Electric Eliminators
The Saracens
The Jones Street Boys
The Savage Huns
The Satans Mothers
The Boyle Avenue Runners
The Moonrunners
The Van Cortlandt Rangers
The Panzers
The Gladiators
How about that? Who says the Interwebs are useless?!?
“Warriors…come out and play...”
Poster cheers: “These are the armies of the night. They are 100,000 strong. They outnumber the cops five to one. They could run New York City. Tonight they’re all out to get the Warriors.”
And that’s a wrap for “The 70s Show: Part 2: 1975-1979.” I hope you enjoyed revisiting some old favorites or learned about something you think you’d like to see! Check out the platforms below to see if you have access. Thanks again for reading, we’ll be back next week!
Platforms:
Airport 1975 (1975): Amazon Prime
A Boy and His Dog (1975): hoopla, kanopy, freevee
Dog Day Afternoon (1975): Amazon Prime, tubi
The Eiger Sanction (1975): Amazon Prime, Starz
Shampoo (1975): Amazon Prime
The Stepford Wives (1975): tubi
Three Days of the Condor (1975): Paramount +
Carrie (1976): Not currently available😞
Logan’s Run (1976): Amazon Prime
Marathon Man (1976): Paramount +
Network (1976): Amazon Prime
The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976): Amazon Prime, TCM
Taxi Driver (1976): Criterion
Black Sunday (1977): Paramount +
The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977): kanopy, tubi
Smokey and the Bandit (1977): Amazon Prime
The Boys from Brazil (1978): Peacock, tubi, freevee
Halloween (1978): Amazon Prime
All That Jazz (1979): tubi
Apocalypse Now (1979): Amazon Prime
Hair (1979): hoopla, freevee
Mad Max (1979): tubi, pluto TV
The Warriors (1979): Paramount +
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Until next time…take care!
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