1973 in film.

Top ten box-office films of 1973:

1. The Exorcist
2. The Sting
3. American Graffiti
4. Papillon
5. The Way We Were
6. Magnum Force
7. Last Tango in Paris
8. Paper Moon
9. Live and Let Die
10. The Devil in Miss Jones

What are your top three films for 1973? We will keep a running tally and eventually have some sort of bracket. For me it would be:

1. F For Fake
2. Paper Moon
3. Badlands

What are some of the forgotten gems from the year? What is overrated? What did you discover at a young age and what did you discover later?

YEARS IN FILM • forum.chorus.fm

 

This was the hardest year for me. Nothing screamed number 1, but there were seven films I wanted to include: F For Fake, Paper Moon, Badlands, The Exorcist, Mean Streets, Don't Look Now, and Amarcord. I could have just as easily put the seven in any order. I assume The Exorcist will win, so I decided to try to highlight some other films.

 

1. Enter the Dragon
2. Papillon
3. Robin Hood

Don't feel super strong about any of the movies this year.

 

1. The Exorcist
2. Mean Streets
3. Enter the Dragon

the exorcist might be the best horror ever?

 

1. Mean Streets
2. Badlands
3. Friends of Eddie Coyle

 

1. Badlands
2. The Long Goodbye
3. Mean Streets

Terry and Marty! Also my favorite Altman

 

F is for Fake and Paper Moon are also excellent, and I love Serpico. Sidney Lumet hasn’t been represented enough yet but we started post-12 Angry Men and pre-Serpico/Network/Dog Day Afternoon so I hope he nets a win along the way.

 

1. The Exorcist
2. Don't Look Now
3. Mean Streets

 

1. The Exorcist
2. Badlands
3. Paper Moon

hey the first year where box office #1 matches my #1. I wish I could go back to 1973 to sit in a packed theatre and observe people watching The Exorcist on opening weekend.

 

It is actually two years in a row for you.

It is such a fascinating phenomenon. I knew all about the blockbuster boom post-Jaws and Star Wars but people just had much better taste in general back then.

 

A big reason for the change might be how films were released back then. Most theaters were one or two screens so wide releases did not really become common until the 1980's. Before that, films would usually have limited releases and expand if they were successful. This probably helped films with strong word-of-mouth, while now films can dominate an opening weekend before people forget they ever saw them.

 

Mean Streets
The Sting
Enter The Dragon

I personally don't love The Exorcist but I do love Marty, Newman & Redford, and Bruce Lee

 

1. Day For Night
2. Ganja and Hess
3. Don’t Look Now

 

This is a highly difficult year for me to pick just three as even though two are quite obvious the third is a little bit more difficult to pick but that said the following are my current favorites from 1973 -

1. Don't Look Now
2. The Long Goodbye
3. The Offence

Can we also acknowledge what a great year for horror this was as well because outside of the obvious pick of The Excorcist we also had The Wicker Man, Theatre of Blood, The Crazies, and my number one pick. Others I would recommend are; Serpico, Westworld, Soylent Green, Coffy, The Day of the Jackal, and High Plains Drifter.

 

That’s a strong list of films in the box office top 10 this year.

1. Mean Streets
2. The Wicker Man
3. Duvidha

Mean Streets might well be my favourite Scorsese some days, but it's certainly my favourite DeNiro performance. I absolutely love the scrappy and loose energy he brings to Johnny Boy, a note perfect and what feels like improvised performance, and how much of an absolute pain in the arse he is.

I rewatched The Wicker Man for the first time in a decade ish last night, so it may be a benefit of recency bias, but I thought it was superb. A chilling and wonderfully unsettling atmospheric British folk horror, featuring almost no blood or gore, and leads up to an absolutely pitch perfect finale. Love the way it draws on specific British folklore and traditions.

Duvidha is an Indian film about a woman who's absent husband is replaced by a (literal) ghost husband. It uses a huge amount of still photography to tell the story, not dissimilar to La Jetee, and it's a really transfixing watch. Probably not the third best film of the year, but I thought this was wonderful, and it's been playing in my head ever since I watched it. Really worth seeking out.

Some other great stuff from this year for me includes The Exorcist, The Long Goodbye, Fantastic Planet, Badlands, Don't Look Now, Sex and Fury and Lady Snowblood.

 

The Devil in Miss Jones, the only porno to ever be on the They Shoot Pictures 1000 (to my knowledge) placing in the top 10 box office. What a weird time.

 

1. Live and Let Die
2. The Sting
3. The Three Musketeers

Movies I really like:
American Graffiti
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid
The Last Detail
Sleeper
The Exorcist
Godspell
Paper Moon
Papillon
Don't Look Now
The Spirit of the Beehive
F for Fake

Good ones:
The Long Goodbye
Day for Night
Save the Tiger
The Way We Were
Serpico
Badlands
The Day of the Jackal
Amarcord
Cinderella Liberty
Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams
Robin Hood
Mean Streets
Enter the Dragon
Ivan Vasilyvich: Back to the Future
Charlotte's Web
Coffy
Turkish Delight

Solid/fine:
The Paper Chase
Fantastic Planet
The Wicker Man
Touki Bouki
Jesus Christ Superstar
Tom Sawyer

Not a fan:
A Touch of Class
Bang the Drum Slowly
The Day of the Dolphin
The Mother and the Whore

 

This year is another one that’s going to hurt. Before I do my list I have to shout out Save the Tiger and The Last Detail from yours. Finally saw Save the Tiger a couple years ago and it’s one of my favorite Jack Lemmon performances ever now. And The Last Detail is another in that flawless run Hal Ashby had in the 70s. Just got a special edition blu ray of it a month or so ago and it was wonderful to revisit it in high quality.

 

This really might be the best year for horror ever. The Exorcist, Don’t Look Now, Ganja & Hess, and The Wicker Man all at once is ridiculous.

 

American Graffiti is a top 20 movie for me

 

1. The Holy Mountain
2. The Wicker Man
3. Turkish Delight

The Holy Mountain is probably my favourite 70's film. Just a wild ride unlike anything else I've ever seen.

 

1. American Graffiti
2. The Exorcist
3. The Long Goodbye

I dunno about 3, maybe it’s Holy Mountain, The Crazies, Sleeper (ugh), Westworld or Badlands. But I watched the Maltese Falcon and Capricorn One this week so The Long Goodbye is the one today.

I don’t think Society Of The Spectacle is top 3 for me, but it’s a must watch for discerning folks:

 

Mean Streets wins it with 13 votes. The Exorcist and Badlands came close with 9 and 8 votes. Mean Streets will move on to the bracket.

 

My favorite film of ‘73 has to be Enter the Dragon. No way around it.

 

Too late but I wouldn't have swayed anything anyway:
1. Paper Moon
2. The Last Detail
3. Serpico