1978 in film.

Top ten box-office films of 1978:

1. Superman
2. Grease
3. Animal House
4. Every Which Way But Loose
5. Heaven Can Wait
6. Hooper
7. Jaws 2
8. Up in Smoke
9. Revenge of the Pink Panther
10. The Deer Hunter

What are your top three films for 1978? We will keep a running tally and eventually have some sort of bracket. For me it would be:

1. Days of Heaven
2. The Deer Hunter
3. Killer of Sheep

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

 

1. The Deer Hunter
2. Autumn Sonata
3. The 36th Chamber of Shaolin

 

Days of Heaven was an easy number one for me. Badlands is great but Days of Heaven is where Terrence Malick really took off into the next level of filmmaking. The Deer Hunter is still tragic. I thought about Dawn of the Dead for the third pick, but Killer of Sheep is a great small film that didn't receive a release for thirty years because of music rights nonsense.

 

Days of Heaven, Halloween and Dawn of the Dead were all close runners up for me.

Picking between The Deer Hunter and Autumn Sonata was difficult, both fantastic but very different in scope.

 

1. Halloween
2. Dawn of the Dead
3. Heaven Can Wait

Eventually I need to watch the Deer Hunter seeing as I work in the area it was filmed. There's even a giant mural I drive by all the time.

 

1. The Last Waltz
2. Comes a Horseman
3. Days of Heaven

Movies I really like:
Halloween
Coming Home
Superman: The Movie
Interiors
Dawn of the Dead
An Unmarried Woman
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Foul Play

Good ones:
The Deer Hunter
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin
The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith
Grease
Midnight Express
Up in Smoke
La Cage Aux Folles
Piranha
Hooper
The Five Venoms
The Buddy Holly Story
Killer of Sheep
Every Which Way But Loose

Solid/fine:
Blue Collar
Same Time Next Year
Revenge of the Pink Panther
California Suite
The Tree of Wooden Clogs
Ice Castles
Heaven Can Wait
The Boys from Brazil
The Wiz

Not a fan:
Death on the Nile
The Swarm

 

1. Killer of Sheep
2. Days of Heaven
3. Blue Collar

love Superman, the Driver, Grease, Dawn of the Dead, and Deer Hunter as well. But Killer of Sheep is an essential document, Terrence Malick is Terrence Malick, and Blue Collar is a gritty heartbreaker that speaks well to my pro-Union, metro Detroit background. Paul Schrader pretty much nailed that one.

 

I was stunned how good Richard Prior is in that one

 

1. Autumn Sonata
2. The Deer Hunter
3. Snake in the Eagle's Shadow

Autumn Sonata might well contain one of my favourite performances in all of cinema from Liv Ullmann, with the scene where she confronts her mother, I think she's absolutely wonderful. I also like how Bergman looks at being good, not great, with the mother's ability as a concert pianist overshadowing her daughter.

I haven't seen The Deer Hunter since I was about 16, when I watched it lots and loved it. Would be keen to revisit this, and see what my feelings are now, but I thought it was phenomenal half a lifetime ago.

A Snake in the Eagle's Shadow is one the two breakthrough Jackie Chan films that he did with director Yuen Woo-ping, along with Drunken Master. What I love about this, is how they blend comedy with martial arts and find ways to make scenes that aren't kung fu, feel like kung fu, like this.

There's two great Sammo Hung films from this year too, Warriors Two and the very silly Enter the Fat Dragon. There's also the iconic 36th Chambers of Shaolin as well. We're about to start a bit of a golden age of HK cinema here, so plenty of great stuff coming up.

Other honourable mentions include The Boys from Brazil, Days of Heaven and Long Weekend. This year also has the extremely difficult to watch I Spit on Your Grave, which would influence a lot of other films within that exploitation / grindhouse / B-movie / Video Nasty realm.

 

1. Halloween
2. Grease
3. Days of Heaven

Halloween is a perfect film. Linda Manz is a great actress. More people should check out Out of the Blue if they haven't. I saw it for the first time this year.

Grease 2 might have better songs than Grease. I had the first one's soundtrack as a child but watched the 2nd one more.

 

1. Days of Heaven
2. The Deer Hunter
3. Halloween

 

Been rather torn between my head and my heart over this year to be honest because while my head says go with the likes of Blue Collar and Halloween since the former aligns with my politics and the latter is highly influential but ultimately I think my heart wins out with the following -

1. The Driver
2. Dawn of the Dead
3. Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Other favorites from the year that I haven't mentioned are; The Inglorious Bastards, The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, Watership Down, Death on the Nile, Superman, The Fury, Straight Time, Revenge of the Pink Panther, Jaws 2, The First Great Train Robbery, and Force 10 from Navarone.

 

1. Les Rendez-vous d’Anna
2. Days of Heaven
3. The Tree of Wooden Clogs

 

It’s probably because of how much I liked the book but I could NOT get down with Death on the Nile

 

Sup with the abundance of rock n roll movies in 1978?

Renaldo And Clara
The Wiz
Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band
Rockers
The Buddy Holly Story
The Last Waltz
I Wanna Hold Your Hand
FM
Just A Gigolo

 

That is understandable but as someone with zero connection to the book and living in a country that has those types of films ingrained in our popular culture I just really enjoy them.

 

1. Straight Time
2. Dawn of the Dead
3. Days of Heaven

 

1. Days of Heaven
2. The Deer Hunter
3. Killer of Sheep

I really need to see Blue Collar, but this is a solid top 3. Nice to see Malick enter the chat.

 

1. The Deer Hunter
2. Halloween
3. The Last Waltz

 

Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick)
Superman: The Movie (Richard Donner)
Jubilee (Derek Jarman)

 

Days of Heaven wins it with 19 votes. The Deer Hunter was in second place with 14 votes. Days of Heaven will move on to the bracket.

 

Just watched I Spit in Your Grave. What trash.