7 Films from the ’70s: Hits & Hidden Gems

The 1970s was a watershed decade for the motion picture industry.  Never before, nor since, have movies been made in the incomparable manner they were from 1970 to 1979. Here are seven films that made their indelible marks during the ‘70s. 

Brewster McCloud (1970)

Robert at his most “Altman-y”

Robert Altman delighted in the skewering of all things authoritative, pompous, or staid.  Never is this particular predilection more prominent than in the completely unhinged and unfathomable Boy Becomes Bird farce Brewster McCloud.

I’m not even gonna try to break it down, guys.  I couldn’t possibly do it justice.

And the ending.  Oh, this glorious Altmanesque ending.  You, like me, will be hard-pressed to recall any cinematic conclusion more zany, chaotic, deliciously dark, or bizarro. It’s Bob at his best.

The People Next Door (1970)

This is your Brain on Drugs

A teenage “good girl” decides drugs (lots of them, all the time) are the best way to cope with an unsatisfactory family life.

Until her brain breaks after being introduced to STP.  With damage so severe that she must be institutionalized.  Indefinitely. At 16.

Any questions?

Duel (1971)

A first glimpse at Greatness

Steven Spielberg’s debut feature film as a director is a tense made for TV back thriller, but thoroughly of theatre quality.

Duel tells the chilling tale of an unhinged Truck Driver (whose face we never see) weaponizing his tanker rig to do in traveling salesman Dennis Weaver, who is desperately driving to beat a deadline (pun intended) in his beater sedan.  A terrifying game of Cat & Mouse plays out viciously on remote stretches of sun-baked roads and barren desert.

This classic suspense story serves as the first in a long line of movies where Spielberg does what he does like no one else.  That is, masterfully transforming mundane circumstances into unforgettable and emotional cinematic experiences.

Let’s Scare Jessica to Death (1971)

Horror of It’s Time

Have you ever been curious about what defines quintessential horror from the early 1970s?  Watch the ’71 low-budget trip flick Let’s Scare Jessica to Death and won’t wonder any longer.

Sparse funding does not a feeble film make in this case.  The acting is okay, with Zohra Lampert as the troubled title character faring the best.  Her embodiment of a fragile former mental patient petrified that she’s losing it all over again is both challenging and poignant.

There are a lot of paths this super weird story appears to be leading us down at various points in the movie.  The way it all ends up may leave you joining me in asking this clarifying question regarding the ominous title, “Are we talkin’ corpse or killer?”

No, that’s not a spoiler.

The Exorcist (1973)

Horror that Holds Up

Here’s the thing with The Exorcist for me: the script, performances, production quality, and storytelling are so thoroughly first-rate that the film exposes so many other “horror stories” as little more than wannabes. William Peter Blatty’s screenplay (based on his original novel), chronicling the commandeering of a child’s soul by abject evil, is at once jarringly disturbing as well as genuinely thought-provoking.

Director William Friedkin gradually, purposefully ratchets up the shock and terror with each successive scene.  And as he does, you’re increasingly convinced that what you’re watching on screen could actually happen. Maybe that’s why I waited almost 40 years to finally see it.

The Goodbye Girl (1977)

Rom-Com at its most Resplendent
Neil Simon’s The Goodbye Girl probably would not have stood much of a chance without the richly deserved Academy Award performance of Richard Dreyfuss.  His frenetic and charming portrayal of the eccentric actor Elliot Garfield is one of the true treasures in motion picture history.  He simply steals the show.

Still, kudos to Marsha Mason as his romantic foil and (initially) reluctant roommate, and Quinn Cummings as her precocious young daughter.  Both do an excellent job keeping pace with Dreyfuss’s radiantly dazzling work.

Witnessing Dreyfuss turn the esteemed Shakespearean stage role of Richard The Third into “England’s first, badly dressed, interior decorator” is but one of many moments of inspired hilarity in The Goodbye Girl that’s bound to render you helpless with laughter.

I Spit on Your Grave (1978)

And even that’s too damn good for ya!

This is one of those movies that many of us had been aware of, and one which we felt we had to see at some point in our lives.  Especially if you were coming of age when it was released in the late ’70s.

Well, I’ve now seen I Spit on Your Grave.  I can’t say I’m glad I saw it.  I can tell you that it was a profoundly raw experience.  The no-name actors, seemingly pastoral country setting, and complete absence of music other than that produced to elevate the horror depicted make it unsettling. The filmmakers claim that their sickening story is based on actual events.

This is practically the only film star Camille Keaton ever did. With what she was put through in …Spit, even though it’s all pretense, one can hardly blame her for not wanting to stay in the movie business.

Ultimately this is a tale of vengeance.  Keaton’s character is abused as if she wasn’t even an animate creature.  I Spit on Your Grave drives home the “no evil deed goes unpunished” dictum in a disturbingly affecting manner unlike no other film had done before it.

Or, perhaps ever since.

-John Smistad

Photo: Getty Images