1974 in film.

Top ten box-office films of 1974:

1. The Towering Inferno
2. Blazing Saddles
3. Young Frankenstein
4. Earthquake
5. The Trial of Billy Jack
6. The Godfather Part II
7. Airport 1975
8. The Longest Yard
9. The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams
10. Murder on the Orient Express

What are your top three films for 1974? We will keep a running tally and eventually have some sort of bracket. For me it would be:

1. The Godfather Part II
2. Scenes from a Marriage
3. Chinatown

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 Texas Chainsaw Massacre
2. A Woman Under the Influence
3. The Godfather: Part II

Really great year, Texas Chainsaw is just a perfect horror film, holds up flawlessly. All three of these are amazing.

Haven't actually seen the movie version of Scenes from a Marriage but I'm assuming if I had it would make my list since the tv version is incredible.

 

I was surprised how much less money The Godfather Part II made compared to the original, but reviews at the time were much more mixed. It is the greatest mainstream American film ever made, though.

 

I have only seen the full television version, but whenever those situations exist I usually just watch the full miniseries versions. The same goes for Fanny and Alexander, The Trip series, and Carlos.

 

1. Texas Chainsaw Massacre
2. Godfather pt 2
3. Phantom of the Paradise


TCM is the greatest horror film ever

 

1. The Godfather Pt. II
2. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
3. Chinatown

tough year, kinda wish TCM could have gone to the bracket, it’s worthy.

 

1. The Godfather II
2. Young Frankenstein
3. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

mel brooks rules

 

Godfather Part 2
Young Frankenstein
The Parallax View


The fact that Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein released the same year is some truly impressive shit

 

Also let’s not forget that legendary “Sean Connery in a Red Diaper” classic Zardoz came out in 1974

 

1. The Godfather II
2. Chinatown
3. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

a couple of game changers in their respective genres and the best sequel ever made

 

Scenes from a Marriage is the only acclaimed Bergman that I haven't seen. For those of you that have seen the full version, is it episodic, or does it feel like a long film broken down into segments?

 

Episodic which I thinks works perfectly for the material.

 

This year was clearly the peak of the disaster genre during the 1970s as not are only three of them in the top ten at the box office but the number one film for that year is also mine but the two others I have picked aren't far behind and they are -

1. The Towering Inferno
2. The Taking of Pelham One Two Three
3. Young Frankenstein

Other notable films from that year for me are; The Yakuza, Murder on the Orient Express, The Conversation, Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla, Foxy Brown, The Gambler, Chinatown, and Madhouse. I also have some affection for the likes of Juggernaut, Airport 1975 and Earthquake despite their obvious flaws.

 

Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla

I just enjoy b films (if TCM could be considered as a ‘b film’ of its time).

 

1. The Godfather Part II
2. Chinatown
3. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul

Godfather II is the obvious pick, but it's obvious for a reason. Probably the best sequel ever made, and if they didn't make the third it would probably be the best ~7 hour story in film history.

Chinatown is Polanski's incredible take on film noir, with biblical allusions and contemporary political relevance, with the most satisfyingly dissatisfying conclusion and finale that I can think of. Makes you want to tear your hair out every time you watch it. A deeply cynical film, that I love.

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul is Fassbinder's sensitive and tragic tale of discrimination and ostracization, in it's various forms. Brilliantly performed, and while he's not a subtle film-maker, I find this is him at his most moving.

Some other stuff I like in particular this year includes The Enigma of Kasper Hauser, Alice in the Cities, Lady Snowblood Part II (better than The Godfather perhaps???), Texas Chainsaw Massacre & School of the Holy Beast.

 

For an underrated or barely seen film from this year, I watched and was puzzled by "About Some Meaningless Events" recently, a Moroccan film that's part documentary and part fiction, but it's not clear exactly which is which. Screened once in Paris in 1975, then banned in Morocco and subsequently forgotten about for forty years. The original negatives were discovered in an archive in Barcelona in 2016, leading to it's re-release earlier this year on MUBI.

A really odd and intriguing little film that looks at Moroccan cinema and society, and adds these curiosities and meta-fictional stuff within the narrative. A bit of a head scratcher, but if you can track it down, I enjoyed the puzzle of it.

 

1. Godfather pt. 2
2. Young Frankenstein
3. Texas Chainsaw Massacre

 

The scene I always think about in The Godfather Part II is when Michael openly accuses Tom Hagen of trying to leave and threatens his career and marriage. His divorce of Kay and murder of Fredo are much more explicit shows of Michael's descent, but here he seeks to openly humiliate and intimidate Tom. He does it with his men around and he springs it on him in a meeting called for other business. It is even more heartbreaking when you compare it to the way Michael and Tom had reconciled early in the film after Michael had stripped him of most of his power. Fredo is a noted fool and Michael's men are hired guns, so Tom is the voice of reason, as he had been for both Sonny and Vito Corleone, and Michael dresses him down for even thinking about leaving the organization. It is why Michael never commanded the loyalty his father did.

 

Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Young Frankenstein
Chinatown

 

1. Godfather Part II
2. Chinatown
3. Texas Chainsaw Massacre

 

1. Edvard Munch
2. Scenes from a Marriage
3. Celine and Julie Go Boating

Close calls: Alice in the Cities, Le Pélican (this one is criminally under-seen, Olivier Assayas programmed it as his carte blanche pick when they brought him in for a retrospective a few years back. A deft work of formalism directed by the early Nouvelle Vague actor Gérard Blain), The Silk Tree Ballad, Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, Je Tu Il Elle, Phantom of the Paradise.

Michael Snow’s Rameau’s Nephew by Diderot (Thanx to Dennis Young) by Wilma Schoen is a towering work of 70s avant-garde - a playful, sprawling, episodic experiment of sound and image. At 4.5 hours, I would only recommend it to the most adventurous of viewers but it’s eccentricity and sketch comedy-like construction makes it a lot approachable than most straight up AG work.

Also want to recommend this early short by James Benning and Bette Gordon which I discovered when it was leaving the Criterion Channel last year. Another highly playful work of avant-garde.

 

1. Young Frankenstein
2. The Conversation
3. The Godfather Part II

Movies I really like:
Chinatown
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul
Lenny
A Woman Under the Influence
Blazing Saddles
The Towering Inferno

Good ones:
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three
The Front Page
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot
The Sugarland Express
Celine and Julie Go Boating
Thomasine and Bushrod

Solid/fine:
Murder on the Orient Express
The Parallax View
The Man with the Golden Gun
The Longest Yard
Harry and Tonto
Foxy Brown
The Land That Time Forgot
Claudine

Not a fan:
The Great Gatsby
Earthquake
Airport 1975

 

Blazing Saddles

 

1. Blazing Saddles
2. The Godfather Part II
3. Chinatown

 

Young Frankenstein is my clear favorite, too many others to narrow it down easily. A Woman Under the Influence, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Black Christmas, and California Split all stand out as fair options that get a lot of love and could always use more. Godfather Part II is obviously a classic but it’s not one that I have a particular connection to.

I recently fell in love with The Tamarind Seed. Julie Andrews and Omar Sharif in a Cold War romantic drama/thriller from Blake Edwards, who really should have done more completely serious films. It has an incredible title sequence and beautiful costumes and color choices throughout, and the central relationship is very well written and handled as far as dealing with the stakes that would be involved if they got together.

Burley is a wonderful Pinter film where Alan Bates gives one of his best performances. I’m a sucker for theatrical adaptations generally, especially if they only have a few characters in limited sets to really show off the script. Very painful but worth getting into to see why he was so acclaimed in the original production.

Conversation Piece is kind of a mess but has a great performance from Burt Lancaster and some interesting themes/visuals.

The Parallax View is my least favorite of the Paranoia Trilogy but still great and unfortunately in the same realm as Network when it comes to being right about where we were headed and only gets more and more accurate in its predictions.

Phantom of the Paradise is the only De Palma that I love. Paul Williams is incredible and the music is perfect. It’s such a wild trip.

Also Zardoz happened.

Another huge year. I kept thinking I was done looking through the list and then would find another handful. I also left off a few that I used to love but can’t bring myself to recommend or watch ever again, or this list would have been even more difficult.