Category: 1970s

The son of an owner of a rundown plantation, Perry King, purchases Ken Norton to be a prize fighter. Highlighting the very worst of slavery in the United States, it is a violent, exploitive soap opera of a film, but it is also an uncompromisingly, honest one. Women and those held in bondage have almost no agency in the Antebellum South and the intersectionality of those two establishes a hierarchy even among the oppressed. Regardless of situation they are almost always punished severely if they try to use the little power they have. King is initially presented as a sensible, almost sympathetic figure, with a harsh and ragged James Mason for his father, but the deep rooted layers of cruelty are slowly pulled back one by one until his true brutality shines during the vicious climax.

On the same day that Verdi died in Milan, two boys are born on opposite sides of the economic and social spectrum, growing up as close friends. When adulthood descends upon them, they become Robert De Niro, a wealthy landowner whose family supports the fascist regime, and Gerard Depardieu, a socialist who fights for workers’ rights on the plantation. Despite being a simplified version of Italian politics, it is a riveting epic through its over five hour runtime. There’s more homoeroticism than I’ve ever seen in a film outside of porn and also features a completely sadistic Donald Sutherland, a sharp contrast to the many other hippie characters I’ve seen out of him during this era.

Someone is stalking Kathleen Beller, leaving her ominous notes in her locker at school and crank calling her even at the home where she’s babysitting. I had really expected this to be a slasher flick, similar to When a Stranger Calls or Black Christmas , but it’s actually a poignant made for television depiction of rape and the gaslighting and disbelief that almost every single person surrounding Beller have with regards to her concerns. Things aren’t much better now, but it’s incredible what 1970s culture had to offer when this young girl, who anticipates what is awaiting her, asks and then begs for help. Every man in her life, except maybe her new boyfriend who tries to be understanding, is toxic and the women around them support it. 

Another battle in his child custody fight with his mentally disturbed wife Samantha Eggar, Oliver Reed investigates the institution where she resides when their daughter comes back from a visit covered in scratches and bruises. The child-like creatures that appear to seemingly do Eggar’s bidding are both strange and scary, selling the horror of the film. The ending is off-the-hook bizarre and repulsive, made more so when discovering that this was director David Cronenberg’s way of working through feelings over his own bitter divorce. 

Enjoying his life working as a lifeguard since he was a teenager, thirty-something Sam Elliott reevaluates his priorities after reuniting with a high school girlfriend at his fifteen year high school reunion. There’s a lot of awful misogyny and a really problematic sexual relationship, which some might be able to wave it off as being of a particular time. I had a hard time doing so, but it really speaks to the cool of Elliott that he still manages to be a charming protagonist despite all that.

Bud Cort is the titular character, a young man who lives alone in a fallout shelter beneath the Houston Astrodome whose primary goal in life is to take flight. As Bud prepares himself for his mission, Houston experiences a series of strange murders that all have an inexplicable connection to birds. Typical of many Altman films, there is an expansive cast which includes Sally Kellerman, Shelley Duvall, René Auberjonois, and Margaret Hamilton who finally gets her own ruby slippers. It’s all very expansive and rambly with a lot of details to catch and ponder on while still maintaining a general focus on Cort and his objective.

In post-World War IV United States, a teenaged Don Johnson and his dog companion scavenge the desert while fighting for survival. The dog has been genetically engineered for telepathy, which also somehow makes him unable to forage for his own food, so he uses his keen sense of smell to find the rare woman for Johnson to rape in exchange for food. It’s all as gross and strange as it sounds, getting stranger after Johnson follows a conquest to her underground community that harkens back to the day when America was supposedly ‘great’. The descriptions of this film I had read really downplay/don’t even mention the rape and commodification of women aspects otherwise I can’t imagine I would have checked it out. The dog is a great character, a tough survivalist who has little patience of the nonsense of humans except for what they provide him.