1979 in film.

Top ten box-office films of 1979:

1. Kramer vs. Kramer
2. The Amityville Horror
3. Rocky II
4. Apocalypse Now
5. Star Trek
6. Alien
7. 10
8. The Jerk
9. Moonraker
10. The Muppet Movie

What are your top three films for 1979? We will keep a running tally and eventually have some sort of bracket. For me it would be:

1. Stalker
2. Apocalypse Now
3. Being There

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

 

Stalker is probably the perfect balance between Tarkovsky's exploration of deeper themes versus the need to tell a conventional story.

 

1. Apocalypse Now
2. Stalker
3. Alien

Tough for anything else to fight those three imo

 

1. Apocalypse Now
2. Alien
3. Rocky II

Wish I liked Stalker more.

 

1. West Indies
2. Being There
3. The Marriage of Maria Braun

The Tin Drum, The Brood, and Vengeance is Mine are quite good too, any of them could have taken that 3rd spot. The First Error Step is a really cool Taiwanese Black/B Movie I got a chance to see late last year - really gritty/seedy stuff. Basically a biopic of an ex gangster starring the actual guy as himself. Lino Brocka’s Jaguar is another good one but I’ve only been able to see it in a rough looking VHS rip. Eisenstein’s Que Viva Mexico! is attributed to 1979 (per Letterboxd) and is for me maybe his most interesting project but it feels weird to rank alongside actual films from 1979. Would have to take another look at Stalker, it’s been years and I’ve always preferred many of his others over it.

 

1. Alien
2. Stalker
3. Wise Blood

 

1. Stalker
2. Apocalypse Now
3. Alien

Its hard to leave off being there, but one and two are all-timers, and I think I just appreciate top tier horror and Alien is in that class.

 

One day I’ll finish Stalker

 

1. Apocalypse Now
2. All That Jazz
3. Alien

 

Another stacked year and once again the desire to put a Monty Python film in my top three is strong but outside of the great jokes and iconic scenes it isn't a film I can enjoy no matter the circumstance but the following three are such films -

1. Alien
2. Apocalypse Now
3. The China Syndrome

Other favorites from the year include; Being There, Time After Time, Last Embrace, Hardcore, Escape From Alcatraz, The Brood, Mad Max, The Warriors, Zombie Flesh Eaters, Phantasm, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and Moonraker.

 

1. The Muppet Movie
2. The Warriors
3. Alien

Movies I really like:
Apocalypse Now
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
The Black Stallion
Manhattan
Breaking Away
Life of Brian
Kramer vs. Kramer
Being There
All That Jazz
Real Life
Rock and Roll High School
The Jerk

Good ones:
Norma Rae
Stalker
Meatballs
A Little Romance
Tess
The Marriage of Maria Braun
1941
Nosferatu the Vampyre
"10"
Hair

Solid/fine:
Rocky II
The Tin Drum
Mad Max
Christ Stopped at Eboli
The Rose
Starting Over
The Great Santini
Time After Time
...And Justice for All
Moonraker
The China Syndrome
The Black Hole

 

1. Alien
2. Stalker
3. Apocalypse Now

 

1. Apocalypse Now
2. Nosferatu the Vampyre
3. The Magnificent Butcher

Apocalypse Now is Apocalypse Now - just an absolute masterpiece. I can't keep track of which versions there are, and which for sure I've seen, but a phenomenal film.

Nosferatu is Herzog's fairly faithful adaptation of Murnau's silent classic. The film is quiet and unhurried, happy to let moments of dread and terror play out slowly. Like lots of vampire myths, Kinski's Dracula is eroticised to some degree, with the film's conclusion of him sucking the neck of his victim in what feels like super slo-mo is a classic example.

The Magnificent Butcher is another HK martial arts film directed by Yuen Woo-ping, and starring Sammo Hung, who simply has the absolute best face for comedy - it's like an exaggerated Greek mask, all exaggerated facial expressions and ludicrous wide eye poses, and manages to eke out laughs in basically any scene he's in, which is a huge talent. As a pure physical comedian, I think he's deeply underrated, he's an absolute scene-stealer in anything he appears in, just from the raise of an eyebrow. This film contains a brilliant calligraphy fight, which is worth watching (just ignore the bad dubbing).

Stalker I need to re-watch. I think I watched Tarkovsky's films too young, but I'm due a re-watch for sure.

Other great stuff from this year would be Hardcore, Life of Brian, Alien and The Brood. I watched The Brood for the first time recently, and the scene at the end where the wife reveals her body (and what's become part of it...) is absolutely revolting and brilliant. Pure Cronenberg.

For some great other HK martial arts films this year, we have Fearless Hyena, a pretty typical Jackie Chan film. Knockabout - directed by Sammo Hung and I think Yuen Biao's first starring role, and The Shadow Boxing, which is an early film featuring Jiangshi, the hopping vampires that would dominate Hong Kong popular cinema about a decade later.

 

1. Apocalypse Now
2. The Jerk
3. Alien

Need to watch Stalker

Honorable mentions:

Life of Brian
The Muppet Movie
Rocky II
Time After Time

 

1. Alien
2. Nosferatu the Vampyre
3. Phantasm

 

Apocalypse Now wins it with 22 votes. Alien was in second place with 19 votes. Apocalypse Now will move on to the bracket.