MC Yearly Consensus - 1978

[Kurosawa Fan]

KAPOW!!!


Submit your five favorite films from this year and in a week I will give you a top ten. IMDb dates will be used.

The point system is as follows

1st Place-5 points
2nd Place-4 points
3rd Place-3.5 points
4th Place-3 points
5th Place-2.5 points

There will be no restrictions on short films. A minimum of three films must be listed. You may edit your post freely up until the time that the thread is locked, which will be in about a week. I will give at least 24 hours warning before tallying votes.

You may begin now.

IMDB Power Search (http://www.imdb.com/list)

[Spinal]

KAPOW!!!


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/more/batman_kapow-765019.jpg

[Watashi]

1. Days of Heaven
2. Dawn of the Dead
3. Invasion of the Body Snatchers
4. Superman: The Movie
5. Grease

Yeah, that's all I got.

[Kurosawa Fan]

1. Halloween
2. A Wedding
3. The 36th Chamber of Shaolin
4. The Deer Hunter
5. Dawn of the Dead

[Spinal]

1. Halloween
2. Autumn Sonata
3. Dawn of the Dead
4. Days of Heaven

I think I will stop there.

[Watashi]

Man, 1977 and 1979 were such great years. What happened in between?

[Russ]

1. The Scenic Route
2. Halloween
3. Who'll Stop the Rain
4. Midnight Express
5. Dawn of the Dead

[Kurosawa Fan]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/more/batman_kapow-765019.jpg

I'm ashamed that I didn't think of that.

[Rowland]

I need to see Days of Heaven again, my first viewing was under less than ideal circumstances.

1. Halloween
2. Dawn of the Dead
3. Invasion of the Body Snatchers
4. Autumn Sonata
5. The Manitou (:lol:)

[Raiders]

1. In a Year of 13 Moons
2. Halloween
3. The Fury
4. The Driver
5. Blue Collar

Fassbinder, people. Fassbinder.

[Spinal]

1. In a Year of 13 Moons


Ah yes, this was #3 on my queue. I've moved it up to #1.

[Russ]

I really wish The Scenic Route was available on DVD, Spinal. It seems like it would be your kind of film. I think you'd love it.

[Spinal]

I really wish The Scenic Route was available on DVD, Spinal. It seems like it would be your kind of film. I think you'd love it.

No luck with the library, but it looks like Movie Madness in town has a copy. If I get over that way, I will look into it.

[Bosco B Thug]

3. The Fury This must mean you're a relatively rather big fan of this one then, huh? I saw it on TV a while ago and I remember thinking it was a cool genre film, but I didn't go so far as to bestow upon it serious artistic consideration. Of course, a revisit is in order.

[soitgoes...]

1. Halloween (John Carpenter)
2. Autumn Sonata (Ingmar Bergman)
3. The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (Chia-Liang Liu)
4. Interiors (Woody Allen)
5. Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick)

This really is a week year for me. I need to check out some Fassbinder at some point, it would seem.

[Boner M]

1. Les Rendezvous D'Anna (Akerman)
2. Days of Heaven (Malick)
3. Dawn of the Dead (Romero)
4. In a Year of 13 Moons (Fassbinder)
5. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Kaufman)

6. Halloween (Carpenter)
7. The Tree of Wooden Clogs (Olmi)
8. The Fury (De Palma)
9. The Driver (Hill)
10. Blue Collar (Schrader)

More people oughta see Akerman's masterpiece.

[EyesWideOpen]

1. Watership Down
2. 7 Grandmasters
3. Invasion of the Body Snatchers
4. Dawn of the Dead

[ledfloyd]

1. The Last Waltz
2. Dawn of the Dead
3. 36 Chambers of teh Shaolin
4. Halloween
5. Superman

[Lazlo]

1. Days of Heaven
2. Halloween
3. The Last Waltz
4. National Lampoon’s “Animal House”
5. Grease

[Spinal]

Top Songs of 1978:

1. "Shadow Dancing", Andy Gibb
2. "Night Fever", Bee Gees
3. "You Light Up My Life", Debby Boone
4. "Stayin' Alive", Bee Gees
5. "Kiss You All Over", Exile
6. "How Deep Is Your Love", Bee Gees
7. "Baby Come Back", Player
8. "(Love Is) Thicker Than Water", Andy Gibb
9. "Boogie Oogie Oogie", A Taste Of Honey
10. "Three Times A Lady", Commodores

source: musicoutfitters.com

[Spinal]

Time Man of the Year for 1978:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/more/230px-Deng_Xiaoping_TIME.jpg

Deng Xiaoping

[Spinal]

The following television programs debuted in 1978:

Dallas
Card Sharks
20/20
World News Tonight
Taxi
Mork and Mindy
Battlestar Galactica
WKRP in Cincinnati
Diff'rent Strokes

The #1 program in the Nielsen ratings for 1978:

Laverne & Shirley

[Spinal]

Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year for 1978:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/more/NicklausOpen.jpg

Jack Nicklaus

[Stay Puft]

1. The 36th Chamber of Shaolin
2. Dawn of the Dead
3. Halloween

[Yxklyx]

1. Midnight Express (Alan Parker)
2. The Tree of Wooden Clogs (Ermanno Olmi)
3. Halloween (John Carpenter)
4. The Deer Hunter (Michael Cimino)
5. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Philip Kaufman)

6. Newsfront (Phillip Noyce)
7. Go Tell the Spartans (Ted Post)
8. Get Out Your Handkerchiefs (Bertrand Blier)
9. Animal House (John Landis)
10. Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick)

[Yxklyx]

Man, 1977 and 1979 were such great years. What happened in between?

Filmmakers took the year off it seems.

[Russ]

1. Midnight Express (Alan Parker)
Really hope this makes the cut.

[Melville]

1. Days of Heaven
2. Watership Down
3. The Deer Hunter
4. Autumn Sonata

[Llopin]

1. In a Year of 13 Moons (Fassbinder)
2. Préparez vos mouchoirs (Blier)
3. Despair (Fassbinder)
4. Perceval le Gallois (Rohmer)
5. Bilbao (Luna)

[monolith94]

1. Autumn Sonata
2. Dawn of the Dead
3. Animal House

[baby doll]

1. In a Year of 13 Moons (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
2. Perceval le Gallois (Eric Rohmer)
3. Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick)
4. Soundings (Gary Hill) [video]
5. Interiors (Woody Allen)

[Mysterious Dude]

1. Invasion of the Body Snatchers
2. Dawn of the Dead
3. Midnight Express
4. Interiors
5. A Wedding

[MadMan]

Can I give Grease -5 points to counter act people who put it on their lists? :P

I haven't seen much from this year:

1. Dawn of the Dead
2. Halloween
3. Animal House
4. Jaws 2
5. Piranha

For the time being I'm absolutely serious about the last two. #4 is good campy fun, and there is a decent film hidden in there. Had a better director made it, the film would have been great. Funny enough #5 is an entertaining gory parody of Jaws.

[Qrazy]

Days of Heaven
In a Year of 13 Moons
Halloween
Watership Down
Deer Hunter


Once I see it, I'm almost certain Tree of Wooden Clogs will make the cut.

[origami_mustache]

1. Days of Heaven
2. Dawn of the Dead
3. Halloween
4. Animal House
5. Attack of the Killer Tomatoes

[Grouchy]

1. Dawn of the Dead
2. The Deer Hunter
3. Halloween
4. Invasion of the Body Snatchers
5. Game of Death

[Yxklyx]

Can I give Grease -5 points to counter act people who put it on their lists? :P

Yes you may.:) Oh noes, Dawn of the Dead at #1? Nothing like Annie Hall or Apocalypse Now this year?

[Qrazy]

Yes you may.:) Oh noes, Dawn of the Dead at #1? Nothing like Annie Hall or Apocalypse Now this year?

Days of Heaven.

[Eleven]

1. The Tree of Wooden Clogs
2. The Last Waltz
3. Halloween
4. National Lampoon's Animal House
5. Dawn of the Dead

HMs: Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Fury, The Buddy Holly Story, Who'll Stop the Rain, Autumn Sonata (lol Qrazy).

Gotta rewatch Days of Heaven.

[Philosophe_rouge]

1. Dawn of the Dead
2. Watership Down
3. The Last Waltz

[baby doll]

Can I give Grease -5 points to counter act people who put it on their lists?Word. If you haven't seen five movies you really like, don't pad your list.

[MadMan]

Word. If you haven't seen five movies you really like, don't pad your list.Yeah I agree, although I was really just hatin' on Grease.


Yes you may.:) Oh noes, Dawn of the Dead at #1? Nothing like Annie Hall or Apocalypse Now this year?Another Grease hater? Cool.

[Grouchy]

Word. If you haven't seen five movies you really like, don't pad your list.
I really like Grease.

[dreamdead]

1. The 36th Chamber of Shaolin
2. Halloween
3. Deer Hunter
4. Midnight Express (soundtrack awesomeness here, people)

[Raiders]

4. Midnight Express (soundtrack awesomeness here, people)

Yes, but the film is rather lame.

Speaking of lameness, so is your rating for Polanski's film.

[Spinal]

Speaking of lameness, so is your rating for Polanski's film.

It's the spelling that I find objectionable.

[Russ]

4. Midnight Express (soundtrack awesomeness here, people)

Yes, but the film is rather lame.
Is it because of the liberties taken with Hayes' book? I thought the film was pretty great, tho admittedly given a bit of a "for commercial consumption" gloss. I think it's definitely Parker's best, with Birdy a close second.

[Raiders]

Is it because of the liberties taken with Hayes' book? I thought the film was pretty great, tho admittedly given a bit of a "for commercial consumption" gloss. I think it's definitely Parker's best, with Birdy a close second.

It very much plays into a lot of stereotypes regarding the Turkish soldiers that irritated me to no end, and I'm never one for Courtroom dramatics, and Billy's speech had me rolling my eyes as much as it affected me. I have heard people call the film racist, something I'm not sure is true, but I think a viewing of the film under an untrained, unknowing mind could very well perpetrate racial bias.

It has been a few years so there may be more nuance to the film than I am giving it credit for. I do like Parker in general (Shoot the Moon is tops for me), though he is also the man responsible for the truly awful The Life of David Gale.

[Russ]

I was just going to qualify my remarks with "I have yet to see Shoot the Moon" and then I saw your post...:)

I never picked up on any hint of racism, tho I probably need a rewatch too. It's been many years since my last viewing.

[SirNewt]

Yeah I agree, although I was really just hatin' on Grease.


*In this scene Kurosawa Fan is tallying the votes for match-cut's favorite films of 1978*

Kurosawa Fan: Hey, there's a vote for Jaws 2 here. OK, who was just padding out their list again?

[MadMan]

*In this scene Kurosawa Fan is tallying the votes for match-cut's favorite films of 1978*

Kurosawa Fan: Hey, there's a vote for Jaws 2 here. OK, who was just padding out their list again?Here's the problem buddy: I actually like Jaws 2. Maybe someone should have actually taken the time to read my first post in this thread containing my Top 5 list. I mean come on I know I don't really contribute anything of actual value to this site, but have the human decency man! :P

[SirNewt]

Here's the problem buddy: I actually like Jaws 2. Maybe someone should have actually taken the time to read my first post in this thread containing my Top 5 list. I mean come on I know I don't really contribute anything of actual value to this site, but have the human decency man! :P

No, I know. I was just giving you a hard time. I don't like Grease either if that makes you feel any better.

[MadMan]

No, I know. I was just giving you a hard time. I don't like Grease either if that makes you feel any better.Heh, I know (hence the jokey, snarky post). And anyone who doesn't like Grease is okay with me. I do plan on using this thread to get more recommendations from 1978 though as I haven't seen much from that year.

[Qrazy]

Heh, I know (hence the jokey, snarky post). And anyone who doesn't like Grease is okay with me. I do plan on using this thread to get more recommendations from 1978 though as I haven't seen much from that year.

It was a pretty weak year all told.

[Sycophant]

1. A Wedding
2. Days of Heaven
3. Interiors

[Spinal]

1978:

Median Household Income: $15,064.00
Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.13 ($0.15 as of 5/29/78)
Cost of a gallon of regular gas: $0.63
Cost of a dozen eggs: $0.82
Cost of a gallon of Milk: $1.71

source: 1970sflashback.com

[SirNewt]

Heh, I know (hence the jokey, snarky post). And anyone who doesn't like Grease is okay with me. I do plan on using this thread to get more recommendations from 1978 though as I haven't seen much from that year.

Oh, I thought I might've actually pissed you off. I hate being new to forums it always makes me nervous about other peoples toes.

[baby doll]

It was a pretty weak year all told.I don't know about that. In addition to my five favorites, I didn't have room for Rober Breer's LMNO and Peter Greenaway's Vertical Features Remake (it's been too long since I've seen Autumn Sonata), and I still have to see Youssef Chahine's Alexandria... Why?, Paul Schrader's Blue Collar, Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Despair (not to mention his segment from Germany in Autumn), James Toback's Fingers, Chantal Akerman's Les Rendezvous d'Anna, Ermano Olmi's The Tree of Wooden Clogs and Paul Mazursky's An Unmarried Woman.

[MacGuffin]

I don't know about that. In addition to my five favorites, I didn't have room for Rober Breer's LMNO and Peter Greenaway's Vertical Features Remake (it's been too long since I've seen Autumn Sonata), and I still have to see Youssef Chahine's Alexandria... Why?, Paul Schrader's Blue Collar, Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Despair (not to mention his segment from Germany in Autumn), James Toback's Fingers, Chantal Akerman's Les Rendezvous d'Anna, Ermano Olmi's The Tree of Wooden Clogs and Paul Mazursky's An Unmarried Woman.

...And if all those movies suck?

[baby doll]

...And if all those movies suck?I'll have to see that for myself. Also, I forgot to mention Francois Truffaut's La Chambre vert, Manoel de Oliveira's Doomed Love and Orson Welles' Filming 'Othello'.

[Qrazy]

I'll have to see that for myself. Also, I forgot to mention Francois Truffaut's La Chambre vert, Manoel de Oliveira's Doomed Love and Orson Welles' Filming 'Othello'.

Autumn Sonata is an absolute piece of garbage. I haven't seen a Truffaut film I've cared about aside from Day for Night, his first three and a couple Doinel's. Even with Clogs and a handful of those others (if they turn out to be any good), I'd still be pressed to make a top 10 let alone a top 20, which is closer to a number I'd say would make a good year.

[Weeping_Guitar]

1. Days of Heaven
2. The Last Waltz
3. Autumn Sonata

[baby doll]

Autumn Sonata is an absolute piece of garbage. I haven't seen a Truffaut film I've cared about aside from Day for Night, his first three and a couple Doinel's. Even with Clogs and a handful of those others (if they turn out to be any good), I'd still be pressed to make a top 10 let alone a top 20, which is closer to a number I'd say would make a good year.I lean towards quality more than quantity; give me eight really strong titles.

[Qrazy]

I lean towards quality more than quantity; give me eight really strong titles.

Reasonable.

[MadMan]

Oh, I thought I might've actually pissed you off. I hate being new to forums it always makes me nervous about other peoples toes.Ah that's understandable (its been a long times since I've been new to a fourm so I forgot that feeling). It takes a lot to piss me off. We're cool man. Groovy if you want to use that term even :lol:

[Robby P]

1. Days of Heaven (see avatar)
2. Blue Collar
3. The Deer Hunter
4. Foul Play
5. Dawn of the Dead

[Yum-Yum]

1. Dawn of the Dead
2. Halloween
3. Invasion of the Body Snatchers
4. Coach
5. Malibu Beach

[Kurosawa Fan]

I'll keep this open until tomorrow morning. I'll be adding things up and posting results then.

[Kurious Jorge v3.1]

1. Days of Heaven
2. In a Year of 13 Moons
3. Autumn Sonata

[Kurosawa Fan]

Voting is closed. I'll do my best to get the results posted by the end of the day, but work is pretty busy. If not by tonight, I have tomorrow off, so I'll make time in the morning/afternoon.

[Spinal]

KF, do you require assistance?

[Raiders]

In a Year With 13 Moons (Fassbinder, 1978) ***
Doctor Zhivago (Lean, 1965) ***1/2

:: weeps ::

:: drink ::

[MadMan]

KF, do you require assistance?I think he's fallen and he can't get up :P

[Kurosawa Fan]

KF, do you require assistance?

No thanks. Sorry it took longer, I was invited to opening day of the Loons (Dodgers A team) so was out of commission most of yesterday. I'm tallying as we speak. Or type.

[Spinal]

:: weeps ::

:: drink ::

I'm still sort of absorbing the experience, but I'm leaning towards moving the rating one notch lower. I found a lot of it off-putting honestly. The goofy astrological opening had me skeptical from the beginning and the long slaughterhouse sequence was a chore. Fassbinder is always wordy, but some of these scenes seemed to drag on forever, particularly the scene with the nun. I thought the central performance and the conflict with the guy in the tennis outfit was strong. Also, I found the encounter with the suicidal man haunting, albeit bleak. But, I don't know. I just didn't get much out of it. I'm probably giving him a 'benefit of the doubt' three stars. I think I just talked myself into a two-and-a-half star rating.

[Raiders]

Oh well. I figured you'd love it, but considering my luck in March Madness, my espn is struggling. I understand the off-putting remark, but I think what many find rather bizarre and grotesque I find very intimate and revealing. I think Fassbinder's own personal hell is very much reflected in the scenes of Elvira's hulking presence, standing apart awkwardly from society. I love the slaughterhouse scene because it subverts the expected emotions of her emotional speech by having us focus more on the medical procedure, the grueling and harmful way we exert our will over the flesh. The celestial opening is a bit on-the-nose, but I use it almost as a warning. It is a film that makes Elvira feel like an outcast, a character rejected by society for being different the same way a year with both 13 moons and a lunar year is: it has the enormous heft of carrying both idiosyncrasies, thus singling it out as a traumatic event.

I guess it is a film where you need to buy into the rhythm, and it had me from the start.

[Kurosawa Fan]

#10 (TIE)
http://img374.imageshack.us/img374/6349/animalhousezu6.jpg
Animal House
John Landis

Larry Kroger (Tom Hulce) and Kent Dorfman (Stephen Furst) are freshman in college in 1962 and want to join a fraternity. After visiting several, including the snobby Omega house, they come to the Delta house pledge party. Here they meet handsome, compulsive womanizer Otter (Tim Matheson), his adventurous best friend Boone (Peter Reigert), Boone's girlfriend Katy (Karen Allen), the daring thrill-seeker D-Day, the responsible Hoover, and the unforgettable Bluto. They are accepted into the fraternity and join in on the wild toga parties, road trips, and pratical jokes. But Dean Wormer is determined to have Delta kicked off campus and its members expelled, so he enlists the help of Omega house and its leaders Doug Neidermyer and Greg Marmalard and new pledge Chip Diller (Kevin Bacon). Yet, Delta won't go away quietly.

The movie was set to be filmed at the University of Missouri until the president of the school read the script and refused permission. It was filmed at and around the University of Oregon in Eugene instead. The President of the University of Oregon only allowed this movie to be filmed on that campus because he decided he did not know how to read screenplays. In 1967 he had received the screenplay for a movie but had denied it permission to film there. That movie was The Graduate (1967) and he liked that movie so much that he decided he didn't want to miss another opportunity, so he allowed "Animal House" to be filmed on the University of Oregon campus. One bit that was written in the original script but never filmed included a parade bust that was destroyed at the climax of film. The bust was of John F. Kennedy, the US President in 1962, and the gag was Kennedy's head was punctured in the same way the real Kennedy would be shot the next year. Landis cut the idea because he felt the tone of the gag was wrong.

"The movie is vulgar, raunchy, ribald, and occasionally scatological. It is also the funniest comedy since Mel Brooks made "The Producers." "Animal House" is funny for some of the same reasons the National Lampoon is funny (and Second City and "Saturday Night Live" are funny): Because it finds some kind of precarious balance between insanity and accuracy, between cheerfully wretched excess and an ability to reproduce the most revealing nuances of human behavior." - Roger Ebert

[Spinal]

Oh well. I figured you'd love it, but considering my luck in March Madness, my espn is struggling. I understand the off-putting remark, but I think what many find rather bizarre and grotesque I find very intimate and revealing. I think Fassbinder's own personal hell is very much reflected in the scenes of Elvira's hulking presence, standing apart awkwardly from society. I love the slaughterhouse scene because it subverts the expected emotions of her emotional speech by having us focus more on the medical procedure, the grueling and harmful way we exert our will over the flesh. The celestial opening is a bit on-the-nose, but I use it almost as a warning. It is a film that makes Elvira feel like an outcast, a character rejected by society for being different the same way a year with both 13 moons and a lunar year is: it has the enormous heft of carrying both idiosyncrasies, thus singling it out as a traumatic event.

I guess it is a film where you need to buy into the rhythm, and it had me from the start.

Yeah, I can see all you are saying here. I certainly felt how personal the film was. Alarmingly so. I confess that I mostly just focused on the subtitles during the slaughterhouse scene, so I didn't get much out of it. I just wanted it to be over. I admire the film on some level because I can see intellectually what he's doing here and I think it's very bold. But I also have to face up to the fact that I really wasn't engaged through much of it, although some sections were undoubtedly captivating. When I try to express my appreciation, I find that I am working a lot harder than when I express my disappointment, so I suppose that says something.

[Spinal]

Another 10th place tie? Bah. Top 11s are so ungainly.

[Kurosawa Fan]

#10 (TIE)
http://img380.imageshack.us/img380/626/watershipdownmz4.jpg
Watership Down
Martin Rosen

In the Sandleford warren, Fiver, a young runt rabbit who is a seer, receives a frightening vision of his warren's immenient destruction. When he and his loving brother, Hazel, fail to convince their chief of the need to evacuate; they set out on their own with a small band of others who heeded the warning and barely manage to elude the Warren's military caste. What follows is a perilous journey in which the band faces dangers of all varieties like predators, humans and even their own kind.

Most of the locations in this movie either exist or were based on real spots in Hampshire, England and surrounding areas. The film was originally directed by John Hubley, who died in 1977. His work can still be found in the film, most notably in the "fable" scene. The voicing of Kehaar was the last film work for Zero Mostel.

"Released in 1978, a period that many could call animation’s nadir, Watership Down took many by surprise, not least down to its expert storytelling and provocative themes. Though, by nature of being a screen adaptation, events have to be omitted from the source material, Rosen keeps the important points in, resorting to some character merging and rearranging of proceedings in order to keep them relevant to their place in the screenplay. Most commendably, there is always a feeling of foreboding throughout the film, which is superbly set up in the film’s opening and remains even with the viewer after the credits have rolled." - Ben Simon

[Kurosawa Fan]

Another 10th place tie? Bah. Top 11s are so ungainly.

That's not the only tie. I was going to break the other tie by giving the edge to the movie that received more first place votes. Would that be okay, or would you rather I leave it a tie? The only reason I didn't do that for 10th was that I didn't want one of the movies to not make our list and be a mere honorable mention.

[Spinal]

That's not the only tie. I was going to break the other tie by giving the edge to the movie that received more first place votes. Would that be okay, or would you rather I leave it a tie? The only reason I didn't do that for 10th was that I didn't want one of the movies to not make our list and be a mere honorable mention.

No, just leave it. Don't want to start rewriting the rules this far in.

[Kurosawa Fan]

#9
http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/162/lastwaltzgs1.jpg
The Last Waltz
Martin Scorsese

Thanksgiving, 1976, San Francisco's Winterland: the Band performs its last concert after 16 years on the road. Some numbers they do alone, some songs include guest artists from Ronnie Hawkins (their first boss, when they were the Hawks) to Bob Dylan (their last, when as his backup and as a solo group, they came into their own). Scorsese's camera explores the interactions onstage in the making of music. Offstage, he interviews the Band's five members, focusing on the nature of life on the road. The friendships, the harmonies, the hijinks, and the wear and tear add up to a last waltz.

The Band's management had overbooked the show. Two days before the show, they tried to have Muddy Waters taken off the bill. Levon Helm, The Band's drummer, threatened not to play the show if Muddy Waters was asked to leave. Muddy Waters is in the final cut of the film. Guitarist Robbie Robertson's microphone is off through most of the show. He is seen singing at full strength, but no vocal from his microphone ends up in the film. The infamous cocaine drop hanging from Neil Young's left nostril was airbrushed out by Martin Scorsese.

"The Last Waltz has inexplicably been called the greatest rock documentary of all time. Certainly that would be Woodstock, which heralds the beginning of the era which The Band gathered to bury. Among 1970s contemporaries of The Band, one senses joy in the various Rolling Stones documentaries, in Chuck Berry's Hail! Hail! Rock and Roll and in concert films by the Temptations or Rod Stewart. Not here. In The Last Waltz, we have musicians who seem to have bad memories. Who are hanging on." - Roger Ebert

[Kurosawa Fan]

No, just leave it. Don't want to start rewriting the rules this far in.

Okay. No problem.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Oh, and in honor of Roger Ebert's return to his post, I'll be using his quotes whenever possible.

[Kurosawa Fan]

#8
http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/8213/36thchamberhi0.jpg
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin
Chia-Liang Liu

The anti-Ching patriots, under the guidance of Ho Kuang-han, have secretly set up their base in Canton, disguised as school masters. During a brutal Manchu attack, Lui manages to escape and devotes himself to learning the martial arts in order to seek revenge. In a short period of time he masters the deadly use of his fists, feet and palms, along with such weapons as swords, sticks, and lances. With his learning complete, he takes on the Manchus.

Despite the US title for the film (The Master Killer), the idea of taking a life would be abhorrent to a real Shaolin or Bhuddist monk. The movie won the Best Martial Arts Award at 24th Asian Film Festival and was the 1978 Top 10 Box Office Hits in Hong Kong.

"Although I think Liu and Lau made better, or more accomplished films together (Challenge of the Masters, and Heroes of the East come to mind), The 36th Chamber has charm and charisma like no other. While watching the film, one gets that same feeling as when watching Star Wars for the first time – the viewer can witness pure creative energy and talent captured on film and oozing off the screen." - D_Davis

[Kurosawa Fan]

#7
http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/8813/deerhunteriy3.jpg
The Deer Hunter
Michael Cimino

Michael, Steven and Nick are young factory workers from Pennsylvania who enlist into the Army to fight in Vietnam. Before they go, Steven marries the pregnant Angela and their wedding-party is also the men's farewell party. After some time and many horrors the three friends fall in the hands of the Vietcong and are brought to a prison camp. Their experiences there affect their lives in vastly different ways, but each struggles to leave the war in the past.

Robert De Niro claims this was his most physically-exhausting film. He prepared for his role by socializing with actual steelworkers. When introduced by his hosts to the steelworkers as Bob, no one recognized him. John Cazale was very weak when filming began, and for this reason, his scenes were filmed first. 'Michael Cimino' knew from the start that Cazale was dying from cancer, but the studio did not. When they found out, they wanted to replace Cazale. When Meryl Streep learned of their intentions, she threatened to quit if they did. Cazale died shortly after filming was completed. Jan Scruggs, a Vietnam veteran who became a counselor with the U.S. Department of Labor, thought of the idea of building a National Memorial for Vietnam Veterans after seeing a screening of the film in spring 1979, and he established and operated the memorial fund which paid for it.

"The game of Russian roulette becomes the organizing symbol of the film: Anything you can believe about the game, about its deliberately random violence, about how It touches the sanity of men forced to play it, will apply to the war as a whole. It is a brilliant symbol because, in the context of this story, it makes any ideological statement about the war superfluous." - Roger Ebert

[Kurosawa Fan]

#5 (TIE)
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Autumn Sonata
Ingmar Bergman

After having neglected her children for many years, world famous pianist Charlotte visits her daughter Eva in her home. To her surprise she finds her other daughter, Helena, there as well. Helena is mentally impaired, and Eva has taken Helena out of the institution where their mother had placed her. The tension between Charlotte and Eva only builds up slowly, until a nightly conversation releases all the things they have wanted to tell each other.

The film was shot in Norway, during Ingmar Bergman's exile from Sweden due to an accusation of tax evasion. This was Ingrid Bergman's final theatrical film appearance, and the only time she worked with Ingmar. While Ingrid Bergman portrays Charlotte the pianist, the person we really see and hear playing is Ingmar Bergmman's ex-wife Käbi Laretei, an acclaimed concert pianist. She even acted as Ingrid's body double at the keyboard.

"Casting a star like Ingrid Bergman in a naturalistic drama like this one has a certain perverse genius to it, particularly in the part of Charlotte. Ingrid Bergman seems a little out of place, a little too theatrical, like casting Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard." - Matthew Dessem

[Grouchy]

Oh, and in honor of Roger Ebert's return to his post, I'll be using his quotes whenever possible.
I hope it's not so possible.

[Kurosawa Fan]

#5 (TIE)
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In a Year of 13 Moons
Rainer Werner Fassbinder

This drama follows the last few days in the life of Elvira (formerly Erwin) Weisshaupt. Years before, Erwin told a co-worker, Anton, that he loved him. "Too bad, you aren't a woman," he replied. Erwin took Anton at his word. Trying to salvage something from the wreckage love has made of his life, he now hopes that Anton will not reject him again.

In a Year of Thirteen Moons was explicitly personal to Fassbinder, and was a reaction to Armin Meier's suicide. Meier was Fassbinder's lover from '74-'78. In addition to writing, directing, and editing, Fassbinder also designed the production and served as cameraman. Volker Spengler (playing Elvira Weishaupt) improvised the Dialogue on the Tape towards the end completely alone.

"Humiliated by her lover, Elvira befriends a prostitute named Zora (Ingrid Caven) and together they go to a slaughterhouse where Elvira (then Erwin) used to work as a butcher. There, Elvira discusses her crippling loss of self, but rather than linger on Spengler's face, Fassbinder shockingly and cynically subverts her castration anxiety by showing a group of cows being cut open, decapitated, and subsequently skinned. Throughout this notorious sequence, Fassbinder means for us to think of the medical procedure that turned Erwin into Elvira but, more importantly, the degrees of free will human victims have over their own brutal slaughters." - Ed Gonzalez

[Kurosawa Fan]

#4
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Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Philip Kaufman

The first remake of the paranoid infiltration classic moves the setting for the invasion from a small town to the city of San Fransisco and starts as Matthew Bennell notices that several of his friends are complaining that their close relatives are in some way different. When questioned later if they themselves seem changed, they deny everything. As the invaders increase in number they become more open and Bennell, who has by now witnessed an attempted "replacement" realises that he and his friends must escape or suffer the same fate. But who can he trust to help him?

According to the commentary on the DVD, director Philip Kaufman said they paid Robert Duvall for his cameo by giving him an Eddie Bauer jacket.
Donald Sutherland insisted on performing his own stunts in the film's climax. His scenes at the pod factory were filmed without harnesses or nets. In the shot of a fireball erupting from the factory, Sutherland barely missed it. However, an extra missed his cue and was seriously injured from the explosion. Donald Sutherland was hit by a blue Volkswagen beetle while filming the scene in which Matthew drops off his laundry in Chinatown. He fell onto the windshield and was able to see the driver saying "Oh, my God! Not you!"

"W.D. Richter's script, especially in he early, expository going, is often laughably literal, and therefore incapable of establishing an air of mystery as people start becoming strangely abstract and distant. Director Philip Kaufman unwisely gets too close to the pods, trying to show just how the transformation works. He would have been wise to let our imaginations run riot on this matter rather than permitting his special effects people to do so, since all they come up with is some grimly gunky stuff, not nearly as suggestive as the sudsy goo that the 1956 pod people emerged from. He would also have been wise to quick-march past a lot of the story's inherent illogicalities." - Richard Schickel, Time Magazine

[Rowland]

"W.D. Richter's script, especially in he early, expository going, is often laughably literal, and therefore incapable of establishing an air of mystery as people start becoming strangely abstract and distant. Director Philip Kaufman unwisely gets too close to the pods, trying to show just how the transformation works. He would have been wise to let our imaginations run riot on this matter rather than permitting his special effects people to do so, since all they come up with is some grimly gunky stuff, not nearly as suggestive as the sudsy goo that the 1956 pod people emerged from. He would also have been wise to quick-march past a lot of the story's inherent illogicalities." - Richard Schickel, Time MagazineI'm guessing you didn't like it? :lol:

[Grouchy]

"W.D. Richter's script, especially in he early, expository going, is often laughably literal, and therefore incapable of establishing an air of mystery as people start becoming strangely abstract and distant. Director Philip Kaufman unwisely gets too close to the pods, trying to show just how the transformation works. He would have been wise to let our imaginations run riot on this matter rather than permitting his special effects people to do so, since all they come up with is some grimly gunky stuff, not nearly as suggestive as the sudsy goo that the 1956 pod people emerged from. He would also have been wise to quick-march past a lot of the story's inherent illogicalities." - Richard Schickel, Time Magazine
Huh, you couldn't find even one good review?

[Kurosawa Fan]

#3
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Days of Heaven
Terrence Malick

Bill and Abby, a young couple who to the outside world pretend to be brother and sister are living and working in Chicago at the beginning of the century. They want to escape the poverty and hard labour of the city and travel south. Together they find employment on a farm in the Panhandle, Texas. When the harvest is over the young, rich and handsome farmer invites them to stay because he has fallen in love with Abby. When Bill and Abby discover that the farmer is seriously ill and has only got a year left to live they decide that Abby will accept his wedding proposal in order to make some benefit out of the situation. As time moves on the farmer doesn't pass, and jealousy and impatience bubble to the surface, setting forth a disastrous chain of events.

After filming for a short time, Terrence Malick threw out the script altogether and filmed for a close to a year allowing the actors to "find the story" for the film as they went along. The shot of locusts ascending to the sky was shot in reverse with the helicopter crew throwing peanut shells down, and actors walking backwards. Terrence Malick spent two whole years editing this film. After a year of editing, Terrence Malick called Sam Shepard to Los Angeles to shoot inserts. Close-ups of the actor shot under a freeway overpass were cut into the final film. John Travolta auditioned for and won the lead role of Bill, but ABC-TV wouldn't let him out of his contract for his series "Welcome Back, Kotter" (1975), and the part was eventually given to Richard Gere.

"Days of Heaven is above all one of the most beautiful films ever made. Malick's purpose is not to tell a story of melodrama, but one of loss. His tone is elegiac. He evokes the loneliness and beauty of the limitless Texas prairie. In the first hour of the film there is scarcely a scene set indoors. The farm workers camp under the stars and work in the fields, and even the farmer is so besotted by the weather that he tinkers with wind instruments on the roof of his Gothic mansion." - Roger Ebert

[Kurosawa Fan]

I'm guessing you didn't like it? :lol:

:lol:

I've actually never seen it, I just usually like to throw in a negative response to one of the films in the top ten. That was the first link I clicked, so I figured that was our winner this time around.

[Kurosawa Fan]

#2
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Dawn of the Dead
George A. Romero

Following the events of Night of the Living Dead (1968), we follow the exploits of four survivors of the expanding zombie apocalypse as they take refuge in an abandoned shopping mall following a horrific SWAT evacuation of an apartment complex. Taking stock of their surroundings, they arm themselves, lock down the mall, and destroy the zombies inside so they can eke out a living--at least for a while. Tensions begin to build as months go on, however, when they come to realize that they've fallen prey to consumerism. Soon afterward, they have even heavier problems to worry about, as a large gang of bikers discovers the mall and invades it, ruining the survivors' best-laid plans and forcing them to fight off both lethal bandits and flesh-eating zombies.

There is great dispute over the film's alternate ending, where Peter shoots himself in the head and Fran commits suicide by sticking her head up into the blades of the copter. Some, such as makeup artists Tom Savini and Taso N. Stavrakis, maintain that the scene was filmed, while director George A. Romero used to be adamant that it wasn't. However, in the documentary _Document of the Dead (1990)_ which was shot during the making of this film (and is included on some DVD copies), Romero clearly states to Frumkes, as they walk around the mall set, that they did indeed film the alternative ending, although he never filmed the effects shot. Gaylen Ross had a head mold made for the effects scene, and Savini did not want to see it go to waste, so he dressed the head up as a bearded African-American man, and that is the head that is blown off by a shotgun blast at the beginning of the film. To create the exploding head effect, Savini cleared the set and had the head shot at with an actual shotgun. Romero decided that this conclusion would be too depressing (after the horrors that have occurred) and, partially at the suggestion of his future wife, Christine Forrest, gave Peter and Fran a little bit of hope.

"If you can see beyond the immediate impact of Romero's imagery, if you can experience the film as being more than just its violent extremes, a most unsettling thought may occur to you: The zombies in Dawn of the Dead are not the ones who are depraved. They are only acting according to their natures, and, gore dripping from their jaws, are blameless. The depravity is in the healthy survivors, and the true immorality comes as two bands of human survivors fight each other for the shopping center: Now look who's fighting over the bones! But "Dawn" is even more complicated than that, because the survivors have courage, too, and a certain nobility at times, and a sense of humor, and loneliness and dread, and are not altogether unlike ourselves. A-ha." - Roger Ebert

[Kurosawa Fan]

#1
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Halloween
John Carpenter

On a cold Halloween night in Haddonfield, Illinois in 1963, six year old Michael Myers brutally murdered his teenage sister after she had sex with her boyfriend. Michael is then locked inside Smith's Grove Warren County Sanitarium where he is placed under the care of Dr. Sam Loomis who is the only one who sees the pure evil within the soul of Michael. In October 1978, Michael escapes from the sanitarium. After witnessing the escape, Dr. Loomis heads back to Haddonfield where he knows Michael will kill again on Halloween night. Michael begins stalking three teenagers, Laurie Strode and her friends Annie and Lynda. With the help of the town sheriff, Loomis hunts for Michael and hopes to put an end to his grisly murder spree.

As the movie was actually shot in early spring in southern California (as opposed to Illinois in late October), the crew had to buy paper leaves from a decorator and paint them in the desired autumn colors, then scatter them in the filming locations. To save money, after a scene was filmed, the leaves were collected and reused. However, as Jamie Lee Curtis and John Carpenter note on the DVD audio commentary, the trees are quite full and green and even some palm trees can be seen. Due to its shoestring budget, the prop department had to use the cheapest mask that they could find in the costume store: a Captain Kirk (William Shatner) mask. They later spray-painted the face white, teased out the hair, and reshaped the eye holes. Carpenter approached Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee to play the Sam Loomis role (that was eventually played by Donald Pleasence) but both turned him down. Lee later said it was it was the biggest mistake he ever made in his career. Many of the character names in the films are refereneces to characters in other films, such as Tommy Doyle (Rear Window), Sam Loomis (Psycho), and Marion Chambers (two names from Psycho).

"It's easy to create violence on the screen, but it's hard to do it well. Carpenter is uncannily skilled, for example, at the use of foregrounds in his compositions, and everyone who likes thrillers knows that foregrounds are crucial: The camera establishes the situation, and then it pans to one side, and something unexpectedly looms up in the foreground. Usually it's a tree or a door or a bush. Not always. And it's interesting how he paints his victims. They're all ordinary, everyday people -- nobody's supposed to be the star and have a big scene and win an Academy Award. The performances are all the more absorbing because of that; the movie's a slice of life that is carefully painted (in drab daylights and impenetrable nighttimes) before its human monster enters the scene." - Roger Ebert

[Kurosawa Fan]

Final Scores:

1. Halloween - 68
2. Dawn of the Dead - 63
3. Days of Heaven - 62
4. Invasion of the Body Snatchers - 27
5 (Tie). In a Year of 13 Moons - 26
5 (Tie). Autumn Sonata - 26
7. The Deer Hunter - 23
8. The 36th Chamber of Shaolin - 20.5
9. The Last Waltz - 20
10 (Tie). Watership Down - 16
10 (Tie). Animal House - 16

Honorable Mentions:
11. Interiors - 12
12. A Wedding - 11.5
13. Midnight Express - 10
14. A Tree of Wooden Clogs - 9

[ledfloyd]

Wow, nice horror one two punch there at the end. I didn't expect Romero to do so well. Rock on.

[Boner M]

Yeah, I was pretty sure Days of Heaven had it in the bag. Nice to see my personal #2-6 make the top five (Akerman's underseen gem had no way of making it).

[Rowland]

Interesting results, very horror-centric, which may say more about us than the year itself. I'm just happy The Deer Hunter didn't break the top five.

[MadMan]

I for one love that the top two films for 1978 were horror. Also I really think that the ending to Dawn of the Dead is quite depressing, although not as depressing or as ninhistic as the ending to Night of the Living Dead(1968).