Category Archives: 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Rocky
Directed by John G. Avildsen
Written by Sylvester Stallone
1976/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Apollo’s Trainer: He doesn’t know it’s a damn show! He thinks it’s a damn fight!

Americans have always loved a good rags-to-riches story.  Sylvester Stallone came up with a perfect one to celebrate the country’s 200th birthday.

Rocky Balboa (Stallone) is a small-time boxer on the Philadelphia scene.  He wins a few and he loses a few.  His day job is as a collection agent for a loan shark. He is scary enough physically to coerce payment but at heart he is a softie.  He has a crush on mousey pet store salesgirl Adrian (Thalia Shire).  He tries to chat her up but she is too shy to respond.  Rocky is also friends with her loser brother Paulie (Burt Young).  His trainer Mickey (Burgess Meredith) throws the clothes from his locker at the gym out into the street to give the locker to a better prospect.

Concurrently, heavyweight champion Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) is determined to have a championship bout in Philadelphia on July 4, 1976 as a kind of bicentennial celebration. His intended opponent is injured and his management is unable to find a worthy opponent for that date.  Undeterred, Apollo flips through some photos and decides that Rocky “The Italian Stallion” would make an appealing underdog for the fight.  Apollo is basically Mr. Show Business and figures he will not even have to go into training.

Rocky, on the other hand, takes the matter deadly seriously.  Mickey is suddenly anxious to train him once again.  We watch as Rocky trains and visibly becomes more and more fit.  He also wins the heart of Adrian.  Paulie, feeling threatened with the loss of his live-in housekeeper, thinks this is his opportunity to cash in.  He provides access to the carcasses in the meat packing establishment he works at for use as punching bags and brings in the press.

The climactic fight is thrilling and unforgettable.  Well, actually I did forget the result, so I won’t spoil it here.  When I left the theater on original release, I felt pumped up with victory.

Rocky is a simple story that has been told umpteen times throughout film history.  Between the writing, directing, and acting, it works and it works perfectly.  And that music! Highly recommended.

Rocky won Academy Awards in the categories of Best Picture; Best Director; and Best Film Editing.  It was nominated in the categories of Best Actor; Best Actress; Best Supporting Actor (Meredith); Best Supporting Actor (Young); Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen (Stallone); Best Sound; and Best Music, Original Song (“Gonna Fly Now”).

Trailer

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Barry Lyndon
Directed by Stanley Kubrick
Written by Stanley Kubrick from the novel by William Makepeace Thackeray
1975/UK/US
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

End Title card: EPILOGUE: It was in the reign of George III that the aforesaid personages lived and quarreled; good or bad, handsome or ugly, rich or poor they are all equal now.

Kubrick’s sumptuous production of 18th Century Europe is a must-see.

Richmond Barry (Ryan O’Neal) is an Irish young man of humble origins who lives with his widowed mother in the countryside.  He is having a romance with his cousin Nora.  But Nora’s family is deeply in debt and is trying to marry her off to a British officer of fortune. Nora does not appear to mind.  The alway reckless Barry challenges the officer to a duel which he appears to win.  He is shipped off to Dublin to avoid the law carrying his mother’s life savings.  Barry is promptly stripped of this plus his horse and firearms by highwaymen.

Barry’s best remaining option is joining the English army which is fighting the Seven Years War.  He is not cut out to be a soldier and takes the opportunity to desert when he is able to pilfer the uniform of an officer.  He travels through Europe in this guise pretending to be carrying a dispatch to a British General.  His ruse is quickly seen through by a Prussian captain and Barry is forced to enlist in the Prussian army.  His fortune changes when he saves the captain’s life.  He is then sent on a mission to spy on the Chevalier du Balibari, whom the Prussians believe to be a spy.  But Balibari is actually an Irishman and the two become friends and fellow card sharks.

After a few years of cheating his way through Europe, Barry decides he is ready for the high life and sets upon seducing Lady Lyndon (Marisa Berenson), the wife of an extremely wealthy elderly English aristocrat.  Fortune smiles of Barry when the Lord promptly dies and his wedding to the widow soon follows.  With the widow, comes her young son Lord Bullington (Leon Vitali).  Soon the pair have a son of their own whom they name Bryan.

Barry treats his wife like so much furniture and cruelly whips Lord Bullington for any indiscretion.  Bullington grows to hate Barry heartily.  Barry occupies the next several years with lavish purchases, gambling, and debauchery.  The only love in his heart seems to be for his son Bryan.  Barry richly deserves a comeuppance and will get a devastating one.

Every aspect of this movie is exquisitely beautiful. John Alcott’s cinematography, done using mostly natural light, is stunning.  The story is interesting and well-told, though I wish Kubrick had picked up the pace a bit.  Ryan O’Neal’s acting is very good but he seems oddly miscast to me.  His flat American accent is jarring in this context.  That said, every movie-lover should make a point of seeing this splendid production.  Highly recommended.

Barry Lyndon won Oscars in the categories of Best Cinematorgraphy; Best Art Direction-Set Decoration; Best Costume Design; and Best Music, Scoring Original Song Score and/or Adaptation.  It was nominated in the categories of Best Picture; Best Director; and Best Writing, Screenplay Adapted From Other Material.

Re-release trailer

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Picnic at Hanging Rock
Directed by Peter Weir
Written by Cliff Green from a novel by Joan Lindsay
1975/Australia
Repeat viewing/Criterion Channel
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Michael Fitzhubert: I wake up every night in a cold sweat just wondering if they’re still alive.
Albert Crundall: Yeah, well the way I look at it is this: if the bloody cop, and the bloody Abo tracker, and the bloody dog can’t find them, well no one bloody can.

I have tried to love this gorgeous, well-acted film. But there’s only so much dreamy, romantic, schoolgirl lethargy that I can take.

It is February 14, 1900, somewhere in rural South Australia at a girl’s boarding school, Appleyard College.  It begins with the girls changing from their white nightgowns to their white dresses.  They tend to each other lovingly.  Miranda’s doting roommate Sara has written her a love poem.  Miranda warns Sara that she should find someone else to love as Miranda will not be around too much longer.

As a special Valentine’s treat, the girls and most of the teachers are going on a picnic near the “Hanging Rock”.  Mrs. Appleyard (Rachel Roberts) has taken a dislike to the defiant Sara- mostly because her fees have not been paid – and forbids her from joining her classmates.

All of the girls are dressed in billowy white with gloves, corsets, etc, hardly mountaineering attire.  They are warned that the rock is extremely dangerous and is inhabited by venomous snakes and poisonous ants.  Everyone’s timepiece stops at 12 noon when they arrive at the site.  The girls spend the afternoon lounging and sleeping.  Near the end of the appointed time Miranda, Irma and Marion get permission to climb the rock a short distance.  The fat whiny Edith is allowed to tag along.  Then teacher Miss McGraw starts climbing the mountain.  The girls are spotted by Michael Fitzhubert, a young English aristocrat as he is on a stroll of his own.  He follows for a bit but turns around.

Edith returns screaming from the mountain after the other three girls ignore her pleas not to enter an interior recess.  The class arrives back to the school hours late.  The coachman reports that Miranda, Irma, Marion and, Miss McGraw never returned from the Hanging Rock and a search failed to locate them.

Michael is obsessed with locating Miranda and searches independently with his valet Bertie.  On the last search expedition Michael spends the night alone on the rock.  When Bertie comes looking for him the next day, he finds him battered and delirious.  Bertie finds an unconscious Irma by following Michael’s trail.  Irma  doesn’t remember anything of what happened.

None of the other girls or Miss McGraw is ever located.  Their disappearance looks likely to destroy the school.  A couple of other vaguely mysterious deaths follow.

The gorgeous imagery just isn’t enough in this case, not for me anyway.  I read somewhere that it is considered a “horror” film.  So this time around, I tried to view it in that context.  I failed to see anything horrifying about it.  The film does have some good points to make about the futility of trying to living up to Victorian manners and values in a wilderness.  I’m sure somebody could make a compelling movie about an unsolved mystery but the endless drippy pronouncements of sleepy adolescents just get on my nerves.  I know I am in the minority on this and it is probably worth seeing once.

Manila in the Claws of Light (Maynila sa mga kuko ng liwanag)
Directed by Lino Brocka
Written by Clodualdo Del Mundo Jr. from a novel by Edgardo Reyes
1975/Philippines
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Pol: A girl who’s used to dried fish will be thrilled with smoked fish. But give a girl smoked fish when she’s used to ham and it’s all-out war. Poor girls are easy to please.

This is a well-made, well-acted look at third-world poverty.

Ligaya Paraiso and Julio Madiago are young lovers living in a coastal village, where Julio works as a fisherman. One day, a Mrs. Cruz arrives in town recruiting girls for what she says will be well-paid factory work in Manila. She dangles educational benefits as a extra incentive. Ligaya’s family is short on money and her mother encourages her to go. Ligaya promises to return in two years and Julio promises to wait for her. Julio gets one letter and then nothing more is heard of her.

So Julio takes off to Manila in search of her. He catches up with Mrs. Cruz and follows her to a seedy Chinese import business in the red light district. The proprietors deny that Ligaya has ever been there. But Julio patiently waits day after day in hopes that she will appear.

Living conditions and working conditions for the poor in Manila are abysmal. Julio gets a job as a laborer on a construction site. Occupational health and safety laws do not seem to have made it to the Philippines. The foreman basically steals a portion of the workers’ pay. Julio loses his job and access to the camp where homeless workers sleep.

He is helped along the way by other poor people. Finally, he reluctantly tries male prostitution but can’t go through with it.  Life for a poor boy is one series of abuse and exploitation.  We will learn that the situation for poor girls is even worse.

This heartbreaking story is not something you will want to pull out if your faith in humanity is at a low ebb.  I also thought it dragged a little bit. It’s worth seeing though for a glimpse at another world. One which the majority of folks on the planet have to contend with every day.

Dog Day Afternoon
Directed by Sidney Lumet
Written by Frank Pierson from a magazine article by P.F. Kluge and Thomas Moore
1975/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Angie: I know you can’t stand me to say I’m fat: but, I can’t stand you being a bank robber, Sonny. That’s what love is.

Great writing and directing capped off by several powerhouse performances make for an off-beat crime classic.

Sonny Wortzik (Al Pacino) is a mad man with a death complex.  He likes to yell a lot.  He is unemployed.  He has a wife and two children.  He also underwent a marriage ceremony with his gay lover Leon (Chris Sarandon).  Leon wants sex change surgery.  Sonny wants whatever Leon wants.

So Sonny decides to rob a bank.  He brings along his certifiable, gun crazy friend Sal (John Cazale).  They are inexperienced and expect everything to go smoothly.  The bank employees are cooperative.  But the bank has very little money since its cash was recently picked up.  Somehow this triggers Sonny to take the manager and tellers hostage and all hell breaks loose.

Soon enough Sonny gets a call from Detective Moretti (Charles Durning) informing him that the bank is surrounded by cops and he should surrender.  Instead,  Sonny goes out in the street and launches into a tirade ending with the famous “Attica!” chant.  Sonny’s antics attract a crowd and numerous TV cameras.  Sonny demands a helicopter to fly the robbers and hostages to a jet that will take Sonny and Sal to a foreign country.  Sal suggests Wyoming.  Sonny prefers Algeria.

As Moretti is building up a tentative sort of rapport with Sonny, the FBI shows up.  The agents are not big on talking or doing favors.

I’ve seen this movie more than once and never thought of it as a black comedy.  But in many ways it is.  The script just crackles.  Pacino is fabulous as are Cazale, Sarandon, and Durning.  Highly entertaining and recommended.

Dog Day Afternoon won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.  It was nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor (Sarandon), Best Director, and Best Film Editing.

Fox and His Friends (1975) (Fustrecht der Freiheit)
Director Ranier Werner Fassbinder
Ranier Werner Fassbinder and Christian Hohoff
1975/West Germany
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Di\

Max: [referring to Franz] He’s not the sort of guy whom money makes rich.

Fassbinder give us a savage critique of gay culture, materialism, and class division.

Franz Biberkopf (Fassbinder) works at a carnival as a talking fox head during a girlie show. He’s a simple working class guy who buys a 5 mark lottery ticket each week, usually by turning tricks.  One week he is short of money and picks up the elegant Max (Karl-Heinz Böhm – Peeping Tom (1960)). Max refuses to front the money and Franz ends up swindling it from a gay florist.

A month later Max invites Franz to a party with his cultivated gay friends.  Franz is immediately attracted to the snobby Eugen Thiess (Peter Chatel), who won’t give Franz the time of day until he finds out Franz has won 500,000 DM in the lottery.  The two eventually move in together in a ritzy apartment and Franz gets a job at Eugen’s father’s factory in exchange for a large loan to the business.  Even then Eugen is constantly criticizing Franz’s lack of manners, hygiene and lowly origins.  Everybody lives the high life until the money runs out.  There is one brief scene of non-sexualized full-frontal nudity.

This is the old old story set in a modern gay milieu.  Fassbinder always makes visually striking movies.  I prefer the more melodramatic ones but this is quite OK.

No sub-titled trailer so an analysis with numerous clips

Jaws
Directed by Steven Spielberg
Written by Peter Benchley and Carl Gottlieb from Benchley’s novel
1975/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Quint: Farewell and adieu to you, fair Spanish ladies. Farewell and adieu, you ladies of Spain. For we’ve received orders for to sail back to Boston. And so nevermore shall we see you again.

The 27-year-old Spielberg produced a classic of action and suspense and the ultimate summer blockbuster in only his second feature film.

Surely everyone knows the plot but I need to put some text between my photos!  Amity Island is a New England beach resort community with a short tourist season that peaks on the 4th of July.  As the film begins, a couple of teenagers are out for a moonlight swim.  Menacing music is heard and the girl starts flailing and is dragged under the water.

Brody (Roy Scheider), the island’s Chief of Police, is alerted to partial remains found on shore.  The mayor (Murray Hamilton) and business community desperately want this the death to have been the result of a motorboat accident.  Brody calls in shark expert Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) who quickly determines it to have been a shark attack.

Then a shark attacks a young boy in front of a whole beach packed with tourists.  At a meeting to discuss the situation, the Mayor reluctantly agrees to close the beach for one day.  An old-timey fisherman named Quint (Robert Shaw), who speaks like a 19th century whaler, offers to catch the shark for $10,000.  This offer is declined.  Local fishermen catch a large shark.  Problem solved!  That’s what the Mayor and town businesses prefer to believe.  The Mayor refuses to let Hooper do a post-mortem to see if it is the man-eater.

A fisherman’s boat is attacked.  Still not enough to convince the town fathers and the  beach opens for the 4th of July. But a tourist sights the shark heading to an estuary and another life is lost.  Finally the Mayor is convinced to hire Quint and Quint goes out to sea with Hooper and Brody to do battle with the beast.  Many minutes of scary thrills ensue.

Hooper: I’m not going to waste my time arguing with a man who’s lining up to be a hot lunch.

Jaws, a parable for our times, with Richard Dreyfuss as Dr. Anthony Fauchi.  You have to get rid of the shark before you reopen the beach.

Well, I have to call another movie absolutely perfect for what it is.  I especially like the way the screenplay takes the time to develop the characters and its use of humor and family dynamics.  The acting is all wonderful.  I particularly  enjoy Robert Shaw in this film, so salty and sly.  The score is classic.  It looks great.  And time disappears as the story builds to an unforgettable climax.  A must-see.

Jaws won Academy Awards in the categories of Best Sound; Best Film Editing; and Best Original Score (John Williams).  It was nominated for Best Picture.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Directed by Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam
Written by Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam and Michael Palin
1975/UK
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

French Soldier: I don’t want to talk to you no more, you empty-headed animal food trough wiper! I fart in your general direction! Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!

If you like Monty Python’s mixture of silliness and cheek, you will love this.

There is not exactly a plot.  There is a premise.  The story takes place in 900 A.D. England. King Arthur is recruiting knights for his Round Table at Camelot.  After several adventures the appropriate number are found and Camelot is almost reached.  Then God pops in to send them on a quest for the Holy Grail.

Arthur and his knights face one comic and surreal obstruction after another en route to their goal.  With Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Michael Palin, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones in multiple roles.

Monty Python’s first feature film is a ton of fun and anarchy.  I had forgot the killer bunny!  I wasn’t a huge fan of Monty Python’s brand of humor back in the day but they have grown on me and I thoroughly enjoyed watching this.  The gags come so fast that if one doesn’t work the next one will crack you up the next minute.

Derzu Usala
Directed by Akira Kurosawa
Written by Akira Kurosawa and Yuriy Nagibin from a novel by Vladimir Arsenev
1975/USSR
IMDb Page
Repeat viewing/Criterion Channel
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Dersu Uzala: Fire angry, forest burn for many days. Fire get angry, frightful. Water get angry, frightful. Wind get angry, frightful. Fire, water, wind. Three mighty men.

This is a beautiful movie about how different cultures view the wilderness.  I doubt I’d guess it was directed by Kurosawa if I didn’t already know.

The year is 1902. Captain Arsenev and a small troop of soldiers are on a mission to explore the Siberian wilderness.  At the beginning of their trek, they run into Dersu Uzala an indigenous trapper and hunter.  He is immediately enlisted as a guide.  A good thing too as his survival skills save the Russians more than once.

Dersu has a pantheistic belief system in which the natural world is treated with the utmost respect.  He is terrified of a menacing spirit currently represented by a tiger.  The Russians go home to their families.

Later, Arsenev leads a larger and more extensive exploration of the same area.  He soon reunites with Dersu.  However, the years are catching up with his friend.  His vision is failing and he can no longer hunt as well.  He agrees to return to the city with Arsenev but finds life there is not for him.

The scenery is beautiful and Kurosawa gets to exercise his love for wind and rain.  The story is a good one too.  I don’t know if I’d call this a must-see but it is enjoyable.

Dersu Uzala won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

Trailer is dubbed for American audiences.  Version I watched was in Russian with subtitles.

Nashville
Directed by Robert Altman
Written by Joan Tewkesbury
1975/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Instant
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Albuquerque: Now, if we don’t — we don’t live peaceful, there’s gonna be nothin’ left in our graves except Clorox bottles and plastic fly swatters with red dots on ’em.

Altman and Tewkesbury cram 24 characters and almost that many subplots in one movie. That we care about all these characters  is a testimony to their mastery of the craft.

As the movie begins, a plane lands in Nashville bearing Hal Phillip Walker, a populist candidate for President representing the Replacement Party, along with his campaign staff.  He drives around town in a van with a bullhorn spouting his folksy political philosphy.  His is a grassroots campaign popular with young people.  His supporters will be seen carrying signs and handing out flyers throughout the film.  The finale of the candidate’s day will be a rally with free country entertainment.

Others are arriving to perform at the Grand Ole Opry or to seek fame as country musicians. All these people become interrelated in some way in the many threads woven through the film.

One of the stories involves Linnea (Lily Tomlin), a white singer in an all-black gospel choir, who is raising two deaf children without much support from her husband Delbert, who is working as the lawyer for the Hal Phillip Walker campaign.  One of the groups in town, Bill, Mary and Tom, is a folk-rock trio.  Tom is a serial philanderer who sees Linnea as a challenge.  The other girls approach him and he does not resist.

A second thread is the return of star Barbara Jean to the stage after an accident.  She is still frail and it’s up in the air whether she can stand up to the pressure.  With Henry Gibson as an arrogant phony country legend; Barbara Baxley as his pixilated Kennedy-loving wife; Geraldine Chaplin as a perfectly hilarious BBC documentarian; Keenan Wynn as a man whose wife is dying and cannot get ditzy groupie niece Martha (Shelley Duvall) to show any interest; Karen Black as Barbara Ann’s rival; Gwen Welles as a wannabe; and Barbara Harris as another wannabe.  We also get cameos by Eliott Gould and Julie Christie.

This is one of my favorite movies.  I know it’s kind of messy and misanthropic but that doesn’t matter much to me in this case.  I can’t think of a movie in which a cast the scope and size of this one in which every minute is made to count.  Unfortunately, human nature has not changed for the better in the years since this came out.  I always break out in chills when Barbara Harris belts out  “It Don’t Worry Me.”  Recommended.

Keith Carradine won the Academy Award for Best Music, Original Song for “I’m Easy”.  The film was nominate in the categories of Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress (Tomlin), Best Supporting Actress (Blakely), and Best Director.

Trailer (spoilers)