Category Archives: 1971

1971 Recap and Favorites List

Posted on by
3

I have now watched 38 films from 1971.  Some of those I did not rewatch for this exercise.   I ended at six weeks on October 21 and feel perfectly satisfied with the streamlined schedule.  A list can be found here.  Here’s the list of my 10 favorites in no particular order:

The Last Picture Show – Directed by Peter Bogdanovich

Duel – Directed by Stephen Spielberg

The Emigrants – Directed by Jan Troell

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory – Directed by Mel Stuart

Directed by John Ford (1971) – Directed by Peter Bogdanovich

McCabe & Mrs. Miller – Directed by Robert Altman

Harold and Maude – Directed by Hal Ashby

A New Leaf – Directed by Elaine May

 

Walkabout – Directed by NIcholas Roeg

10  Rillington Place – Directed by Richard Fleischer

 

 

Play Misty for Me (1971)

Posted on by
4

Play Misty for Me
Directed by Clint Eastwood
Written by Jo Heimsc and Dean ReisneR
1971/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Evelyn: I did it because I LOVE YOU!

Clint Eastwood’s directorial debut is a solid thriller with a few real scares.

Dave (Eastwood) is a DJ at a radio station in Carmel-by-the-Sea, a picture-postcard tourist village on the California Coast.  He hosts the late night show, playing mellow jazz and taking requests.  Dave has a wandering eye.  His biggest fan is Evelyn (Jessica Walter).  She calls most nights to request that Dave play Errol Garner’s “Misty” for her and he obliges  Finally she tracks him down to a bar and makes advances leading to a one-night-stand.  After this Evelyn is crazy in love (she was already crazy) and she begins to act like the female half of the most passionate affair of the century.  Dave tries to let her down gently but Evelyn doesn’t have a subtle bone in her psyche.

The situation gets even more complicated when Dave’s sometime-girl friend and true love decides to give him another chance.  This Evelyn is one seriously messed up chick.

For my final film of 1971 I had to chose between The Hired Hand one and this one which I saw before years ago.  I’m glad I picked this one though I will remain curious about the other.  Clint started out as he meant to continue – making workmanlike entertainment as concisely as possible.  This first one has some pretty darn scary jump shots and a dynamite performance by Jessica Walter.  There’s also an awesome jazz score which includes Roberta Flack’s “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.” Clint just acted like Clint.  There’s some of those flowery slo-mo romance shots that seem to plague movies of this era but not too many of them.

 

The Go-Between (1971)

Posted on by
Reply

The Go-Between
Directed by Joseph Losey
Written by Harold Pinter from a novel by L.P. Hartley
1971/UK
First viewing/YouTube rental

 

“The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.”
― L.P. Hartley, The Go-Between

Pinter meets period piece meets illicit passion in the English countyside.   And it all comes together beautifully.

The plot is told as a long flashback during a meeting between 50-somethings Leo Colston (Michael Redgrave) and Marian (Julie Christie in age make-up).  They discuss the summer of 1900, the eventful season when Leo (Dominic Guard) turned 13.

Leo spent the summer at the grand estate of Mr. (Michael Gough) and Mrs. (Margaret Leighton) Maudsley as a guest of their son Marcus.  But Marcus gets ill and Leo finds himself with time on his hands.  Leo is just starting puberty and develops a massive crush on Marian.  This makes it easy for her to inveigle him into becoming a sort of top-secret messenger between her an hunky tenant farmer Ted Burgess (Alan Bates).

Then Leo finds out Marian’s parents are about to announce her marriage to aristocrat Hugh Trimmington (Edward Fox).  Marian has no intention of abandoning her double life until her wedding day.  Marcus recovers and Leo begins to feel it wrong to aid and abet the lovers. Ted bribes him with a promise to explain to him the mechanics of sex.  And here I will end my summary.

This is actually as much a coming of age story as it is a romance.  I iked it a lot.  The production and cast are both great and a beautiful score by Michel LeGrande adds to the atmosphere.

Margaret Leighton was nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance as a gracious matriarch with a heart of stone.

Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971)

Posted on by
2

Sweet Sweetback’s Baadassss Song
Directed by Melvin Van Peebles
Written by Melvin Van Peebles
1971/US
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Tagline: You bled my Momma–You bled my Poppa–But you won’t bleed me.

This may be historic, revolutionary and all that but I hated almost everything about it.

A boy (Mario Van Peebles) is raised in a brothel.  When he is about 13, he is initiated into sex by one of the prostitutes.  We watch at length as the little boy mounts a woman twice his size and gets to work.  His prodigious endowments earn him the nickname “Sweetback”.  Sweetback grows up to be Melvin Van Peebles and he is now the main attraction of a live sex show. We get to watch some of the “acts”.

Eventually white LAPD officers raid the club and coerce its owner into supplying a man who can be temporarily used as a suspect in a case the police are getting nowhere with.  He is assured the man will not even be handcuffed and will be returned in a couple of days.  Sweetback is the patsy. He escapes later after killing a couple of cops.  Now he is the subject of a major manhunt and will make his way to Mexico for the rest of the film.  If you think the graphic sex stops during this part you would be wrong.

From the unsimulated sex, to the amateur acting, to the murky photography, to the graphic violence, this movie had nothing to offer me.  The score is by Van Peebles and the band Earth, Wind, and Fire.  They sound nothing like they did when they began to sell records.

Fun Facts:  Bill Cosby lent Van Peebles $50,000 to make this thing.  The director also reportedly collected worker’s compensation from the Director’s Guild for contracting gonorrhea during one of the sex scenes.

A rev

Shaft (1971)

Posted on by
10

Shaft
Directed by Gordon Parks
Written by Ernest Tidyman and John D.F. Black from Tidyman’s novel
1971/US
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

 

Who’s the black private dick / That’s a sex machine to all the chicks? / SHAFT! / Ya damn right!
Who is the man that would risk his neck / For his brother man? / SHAFT! / Can you dig it?
Who’s the cat that won’t cop out / When there’s danger all about? / SHAFT! / Right On!
They say this cat Shaft is a bad mother… / SHUT YOUR MOUTH! / I’m talkin’ ’bout Shaft. / THEN WE CAN DIG IT! – Theme from Shaft, Lyrics by Isaac Hayes

Solid but routine crime/thriller is lifted by its attitude, its photography, and its iconic score.

John Shaft (Richard Roundtree) is a private detective working the streets of Harlem.  He has a quick wit and attitude to spare.  He’s not good at tolerating BS or following orders.  Some of his clientele need to stay as far away from cops as possible.  So a gang lord in Harlem hires Shaft to rescue his teenage daughter, who has been kidnapped by people who did not leave a ransom note.  Shaft’s first lead is to members of a black radical organization. This does not pan out but the group is in need of money and agrees to help Shaft locate and rescue the girl.

Then NYPD Lieutenant Androzzi, with whom Shaft frequently wrangles, wants info on Shaft’s case. Androzzi finally reveals that the Mafia is trying to take over territory run by black organized crime in Harlem.  Androzzi fears that a mob war will be perceived by the public as a race war.  There is plenty of bloodshed on the way to the crime’s solution.

We’ve seen this story hundreds of times but not with this film’s cool.  The parts I liked best were gazing at Roundtree, the streets of New York from around the time I first saw the city, and that wonderful score.

Isaac Hayes won the Oscar for Best Music, Original Song.  He was nominated for Best Music, Original Dramatic Score.

Amazing fully orchestrated and live

Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)

Posted on by
4

Two-Lane Blacktop
Directed by Monte Hellman
Written by Rudy Wurlitzer and Will Corry
1971/USA
IMDb page
First viewing/Netflix rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

 

G.T.O.: If I’m not grounded pretty soon, I’m gonna go into orbit.

I came in expecting one thing.  I got something different, and better.

None of the characters in this movie has a name so I’ll be referring to them by the actors’ names.  James Taylor and Dennis Wilson own a souped-up 1955 Chevy hot rod.  Taylor is the driver and Dennis is the mechanic.  They are the kind of guys who don’t speak unless strictly necessary and when they do it’s usually to reveal the solution to some mechanical puzzle they’ve been working out in their heads.  They survive by challenging other hot-rodders to drag races for money.  They pick up bedraggled but pretty hitchhiker Laurie Bird but pay her far less attention than she would like.

As the story goes on, our heroes meet up with Warren Oates who is the proud owner of a new orange GTO.  After much banter, the three agree to race cross-country to Washington DC.  The stakes will be the pink slips to their vehicles.  We spend the rest of the film watching the unorthodox proceedings.  Oates constantly picks up hitchhikers so he can regale them with tall tales and lies about his very colorful fantasy life.

Well, I thought this was going to be a movie about drag racing.  In fact, there is hardly any racing in it.  And after the “race” with Oates begins, the other car frequently lets him catch up.  It’s the journey that is the point. The story has much to say about alienation, obsession, aimlessness, and looking for America.  It’s 1971, man.  I liked this a lot.  Oates is utterly fantastic.

 

Klute (1971)

Posted on by
4

Klute
Directed by Alan J. Pakula
Written by Andy Lewis and David E. Lewis
1971/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Bree Daniel: Don’t feel bad about losing your virtue. I sort of knew you would. Everybody always does.

Jane Fonda inhabits her role as a super-smart call girl with a problem in this solid thriller.

John Klute (Donald Sutherland) is a private detective in small town USA.  The family of a missing man hire Klute to find out what became of him in New York City.  The only link to the crime is Bree Daniel (Fonda) a call girl who received a typewritten obscene letter purporting to be from the man and disturbing phone calls from an unknown source.  Bree has other problems.  She is an aspiring actress who is not finding work without experience and can’t get experience without work.  She is seeing a therapist to try to figure out why she cannot seem to leave the life, which she enjoys because of the control she feels she has over her clients.

Initially, Bree considers Klute to be a hick, a meddler, and a “cop”.  But gradually as the killer seems to close in, the two tentatively begin a romance.  I love the ending to this movie.  With Roy Scheider as Bree’s former pimp/boyfriend.

Fonda’s performance really deserves to be seen.  It’s also a nice gritty entertaining thriller.

Minnie and Moskowitz (1971)

Posted on by
2

Minnie and Moskowitz
Directed by John Cassavetes
Written by John Cassavetes
1971/US
IMDb page
First viewing/Netflix rental

 

Minnie Moore: Seymour likes cars. He’s very happy with cars.

A romantic comedy from John Cassavetes?  Who’d have thought it?  And it’s amusing too!

Minnie Moore (Gena Rowlands) works as a curator at an art museum.  Her relationship with abusive married man Jim (Cassavetes, uncredited) is not satisfying and ultimately falls completely apart.

After Seymour moves to New York for a new start, he gets work as a parking lot attendant.   He is the epitome of a free spirit with a kind heart.  When Seymour encounters the beautiful Minnie by chance,  it’s love at first sight for him.  It’s not as easy for her to get with the program.  With Timothy Cary as a bum.

Well, another comedy to break up all the soul searching in 1971!  And by John Cassavetes no less.  This is another of the “odd couplings” I’ve watched in 71 and like Harold and Maude and Henry and Henrietta, Minnie and Moscowitz were made for each other.  This was done in Cassavetes customary improvisational style and there were times I wished I had sub-titles but it was really worth sticking with.  Recommended.

 

Death in Venice (1971)

Posted on by
3

Death in Venice (Morte a Venezia)
Directed by Luchino Visconti
Written by Luchino Visconti and Nicola Badalucco from the novel by Thomas Mann
1971/Italy
IMDb page
First viewing/Netflix rental

 

Alfred: You have achieved perfect balance: the man and the artist are one. They have touched bottom together.

Mann’s novel of decay and decadence is turned by Visconti into an operatic travelogue with gorgeous costumes

The setting is early 20th Venice. Aging and ailing composer Gustav von Aschenbach (Dirk Bogarde) has arrived at a beach resort for a sort of rest cure.  It seems not only his illness but also his music could use a good shot in the arm.  Gustav spends much of his time musing (in flashbacks) about his artistic frustrations (his best friend is also his worst critic) and happy times at home with his wife and children.  In appearance, Gustav looks shot all to hell.

Then Gustav spots angelic blonde Polish teenager Tadzio (Björn Andresen) who is vacationing with his mother (Silvana Mangano) and two sisters.  Gustav starts stalking the innocent Tadzio from afar.  He is obsessed with the idea of such perfect beauty existing in a debauched world.  They never exchange anything more than glances.  Eventually, Gustav must leave to fetch his luggage.  When he returns to Venice, everything has changed.

I love Dirk Bogarde.  So you will understand when I say his performance is not worth watching the movie for I need not write much more. Bogarde is fine but nothing special in a story that doesn’t particularly require much from him.  Or maybe it’s just the way the story is told.  It seems to be more of an excuse to hang  beautiful scenery, costumes and settings on.

Bananas (1971)

Posted on by
2

Bananas
Directed by Woody Allen
Written by Woody Allen and Mickey Rose
1971/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental

 

Howard Cosell: Sir, you’ve been shot! When did you know it was all over?

Back when Allen was influenced by the Marx Brothers more than Bergman, he made some zany, funny farces like this one.  And it’s funny almost 50 years later.

Nebbish Fielding Melish (Allen) is not exactly setting his profession as an industrial products tester on fire.  One day he meets Nancy (Louise Lasser)  who is collectiong signatures on petitions for radical causes.  Her heros are the rebels against the dictatorship that governs San Marcos, a fictional Latin American country. They date but Nancy finds “something missing”.and eventually dumps Fielding.  Despondent, Fielding heads to San Marcos determined to prove himself to Nancy.

Well, the second half is pretty complicated so let’s just say that Fielding has many misadventures that turn out A-OK.  With Howard Cosell, fantastic as a sports announcer that gives a play by play of the action of certain key scenes of the movie.  If you pay attention you will see Sylvester Stallone, uncreditied, as one of the thugs on the subway.

In an interview with Robert B. Greenfield of Rolling Stone magazine in 1971, Woody Allen said: “They say it’s a political film but I don’t really believe much in politics. Groucho Marx has told me that The Marx Brothers’ films were never consciously anti-establishment or political. It’s always got to be a funny movie first”.

This movie has everything going for it — nothing but fun and foolery – and it is short.  It’s nice to look back at Woody’s beginnings.  Here, he will do anything for a laugh.