The 70s - The Very Best Movies!
Submitted by omni on Fri, 06/21/2002 - 11:52
Tags:
- 1) Chinatown
- 2) Nashville
- 3) The Godfather Part II
- 4) The Deer Hunter
- 5) The Godfather
- 6) Cries and Whispers
- 7) Badlands
- 8) Dirty Harry
- 9) Walkabout
- 10) Deliverance
- 11) Last Tango in Paris
- 12) Manhattan
- 13) Taxi Driver
- 14) Close Encounters of the Third Kind
- 15) Apocalypse Now
- 16) Aguirre, the Wrath of God
- 17) Star Wars
- 18) Annie Hall
- 19) Mean Streets
- 20) A Woman Under the Influence
I'm surprised to see DIRTY HARRY on this list. I think most film buffs would agree that its inclusion here needs defending. How about it?
There's NYPD Blue. There's Homicide. There's Prime Suspect, 48 Hrs, Heat, and Miami Vice. And then there is Dirty Harry, the film that almost directly affected every gritty police film and televison show that followed it.
It probably also beats them all. It is tight, suspenseful, and disturbing. Eastwood owns Harry more than any other character he ever did. If Dirty Harry would be contested on this list, buffs need to rent the new DVD and try this again.
How's that? What are your thoughts on Harry?
Good defense! My only quibble would be that I'd personally pick Homicide as the best of that lineup.
You and Les. He loved that show. I liked it, but Homicide is Homicide, and Dirty Harry is Dirty Harry. I rarely think that a television show - even a very good one - is as good as a movie. The Sopranos are a big exception.
Thanks. Maybe I will have to catch some more Homicide reruns on Court TV.
The only Homicide caveat I would add is that the later seasons, while still beating the pants off everything else they were up against, paled in comparison to the first several seasons. In fact, while I haven't seen enough TV to make such a bold statement, I'm going to make it anyway: The first season of Homicide was the finest single season of network television anywhere, anytime. Notice the clever and cowardly manner in which I side-stepped the problem of The Sopranos. As long as we're on the subject, I'd also suggest that Andre Braugher got screwed in each year he lost Best Actor to an NYPD Blue star. But I'm biased - NYPD Blue never really grabbed me.
Influential is not necessarily good; bad can be, and too often is, influential too. Not that ----- Harry is a *bad* movie, he just doesn't rate present company. Have you seen the scene in LAST ACTION HERO in which Big Arnie's character, a determined mega-macho cop, ignores orders from his lieutenant, insults the mayor, punches out the governor, and drop-kicks the vice president [slight exaggeration] on his way to severely busting the criminal? There's influence for you.
Influential is often horrible. Quality was where I said - It is tight, suspenseful, and disturbing. Eastwood owns Harry more than any other character he ever did. If Dirty Harry would be contested on this list, buffs need to rent the new DVD and try this again.
Dirty Harry is a great film, too often over-looked because of its genre and its disturbing portrait of police fascism.
I think.