Category: 1970s

In the distant future, Sean Connery is an enforcer whose job it is to make sure other Brutals are toiling to provide food for the privileged Eternals. Hitching a ride on the giant Zardoz head that moves between the two communities, he unwittingly awakens a revolution when he is discovered in the lands of the Eternals. Connery’s enforcer costume is iconic and really sets the mood for this weird piece of 1970s science fiction. The Eternals inherited some strange ideas with regards to masculinity and sex. Seeing Sean in his thigh high boots, long braided hair, and red loincloth seems to throw it all for a loop most of them weren’t prepared for.  

In a poor neighborhood in Galveston, Texas, a gang of teenagers sets out to solve the murder of a well-liked beat cop before the killer comes after the only witness, the five year old brother of one of the members. It’s an interesting blend of Blaxploitation and amateur detective mystery that is unique in the young age of the protagonists. The last act shows that the cop, while good to the youths, was not always kind to other disenfranchised groups which shines an important light onto other unfortunately more acceptable prejudices.    

During World War II, disgraced former lieutenant Clint Eastwood learns from a German prisoner that there is a large stash of gold being held in an occupied area of France. With no love for the Army, he gathers together a motley crew to acquire the gold. It’s very weird to see a World War II movie where the Allied characters are not good guys nor part of a noble cause. There are other bizarre choices from the catchy, but oddly psychedelic poppy theme song and Donald Sutherland also broadly playing a hippie in an era almost thirty years before they existed.  

After going against the orders of his mob boss, gangster James Fox goes into hiding in a hippy haven. There he meets Mick Jagger, a former rock star, and the two’s experiences gradually meld their personalities. I admittedly didn’t get much out of this at all, but there are definite explorations of identity of all sorts going on. The first half is hyper violent while the latter scenes in the hippy household are explicitly sexual.

In 1971, An American Family, considered by many to be the first reality show, aired on PBS. This film is a spoof on that concept. Albert Brooks, as a version of himself, is intent on filming the activities of an ordinary American family of four, headed by Charles Grodin, 24 hours a day for an entire year. Rather quickly this intrusion into the family’s lives disintegrates whatever bonds the family originally had and the project itself implodes. It’s an amusingly quaint view of what reality shows could potentially come told from the naïve views of someone who couldn’t even comprehend how intrusive, outlandish, and ubiquitous they would become.  

Directed by and starring the late great Sidney Poitier, here he is a widowed American doctor vacationing in London with his daughter. There he meets beautiful, but mysterious Ester Anderson who it turns out is the niece of an African ambassador. The two fall in love, but there are a number of complications to get in the way of their happiness. It reminds me a lot of Autumn in New York, except it’s actually good. The leads are both appealing characters and they have fantastic chemistry with each other. I love the 1970s costume design and touches of ambiguous, generic ‘African’ culture. The only weak point is the child actor, but they unfortunately often are.