Critics Club III: Film of the Year 1977

[Neon Ignition]

Elvis bites the big one and Jimmy Carter takes the White House which means it's...


1977




Vote for your favourite films of 1977 and discuss the years movies in general

[Atticus]

At one stage my favourite would have been An New Hope ... but the sheen has dulled on Star Wars.

Suspiria gets a vote for being utterly amazing. One of the most original horror films of all time.

But my ultimate fave is Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Spielberg's films just get better and better every time I see them. I hadn't seen Close Encounters since I was a kid and watching it again last year I hadn't realised how much pain Roy and his family go through. So much emotion in the film ... and an ending that doesn't cop out one bit.

[QualityChimp]

But my ultimate fave is Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Spielberg's films just get better and better every time I see them. I hadn't seen Close Encounters since I was a kid and watching it again last year I hadn't realised how much pain Roy and his family go through. So much emotion in the film ... and an ending that doesn't cop out one bit.

That's really interesting to hear, because I watched it fairly recently and came away enjoying it less because I just couldn't get over Roy abandoning his family. Once they leave about halfway through, he's free to carry on making models of mountains without anyone hassling him.

It's something Spielberg has addressed, saying he didn't have kids at the time and would write it differently after becoming a father, but it's just crazy how they're not mentioned again and he doesn't even hesitate at the end of the film.

I'll have a think about the list, but in the meantime, here's the amazing "Bond '77" played live:

[QualityChimp]

For me, it's going to be "The Spy Who Loved Me".

I love TMWTGGun, but this, for me, is a perfect Bond, with so many great elements.
The opening parachute stunt, ace gadgets (the watch), the locations, the terrifying henchman (Jaws was really scary in the Egyptian sections), ridiculous underwater base, megalomaniacal bad guy, gorgeous yet sassy Bond girl and that Lotus Esprit chase.

[Neon Ignition]

Paid for itself just for this scene:

[Atticus]

That's really interesting to hear, because I watched it fairly recently and came away enjoying it less because I just couldn't get over Roy abandoning his family. Once they leave about halfway through, he's free to carry on making models of mountains without anyone hassling him.

But he's being driven by something beyond our comprehension.

[Atticus]

Paid for itself just for this scene:

Golden

[QualityChimp]

But he's being driven by something beyond our comprehension.

Pffft, you try using that excuse on your missus when you roll in steaming. Good luck with that.

[Zaki]

Pffft, you try using that excuse on your missus when you roll in steaming. Good luck with that.

(builds mashed potato boobs) This means something...

[QualityChimp]

Paid for itself just for this scene:

That's not the end of the beginning. The end of the beginning goes like this: glang! Glanalangalangalangalangalang! Glanalang, langalangalanga, nobody does it better - and I'm a naked woman in silhouette with a gun, spinning round - Makes me feel sad for the rest. Nobody does it - ooh, bit of nipple - quite as good as you. Baby, you're the best. Da, da, da - and now a really big bounce right over and I land on my feet. Da, da, da, da, da, der. I wasn't looking, so now you found me... ooh, bit of bush, er - I tried to hide from your love life - and a woman swinging on a Luger, a giant Luger; ooh, look at that... Like heaven above me - and now another naked woman walking along the top of a gun, completely Billy Bollocks... The spy who loved me is keeping all my secrets safe tonight - and then one more big swing from the woman; legs go right up - ooh, what was that? Too late... Nobody does it half as good as you, baby you're the best!

To be fair, it is a blinding theme

[Asura]

To be fair, it's no theme from Licence to Kill.

[wakka]

QC is your favourite film from every year just the Bond film?
[MENTION=4034]Atticus[/MENTION]

Yes, I agree, it's one of the things that I like about Close Encounters. It's an unusual element in what's ostensibly a family film, his abandonment of his own wife and children in this obsessive, irrational pursuit.

I've not seen as many films from this year, but the obvious highlight is Abba: The Movie.

I jest. I hadn't actually heard of Abba: The Movie. Looks like it's a Hard Day's Night type thing though.

For me it's between Close Encounters and Suspiria, both very original films which stand up well today.

[Neon Ignition]

For me, though it's often said, having reached 1977 and gone through the films that released up until this point it really truly is remarkable just how much impact in a small time Star Wars went on to have in changing movie tastes. Other than that film the main one, unexpectedly, that I recall is A Bridge Too Far

[QualityChimp]

QC is your favourite film from every year just the Bond film?

It does look like it, but no.

70 - I didn't vote
71 - The Andromeda Strain
72 - Deliverance
73 - Enter The Dragon
74 - Golden Gun
75 - Jaws
76 - Precinct 13
77 - Spy Who Loved Me

Yes, I agree, it's one of the things that I like about Close Encounters. It's an unusual element in what's ostensibly a family film, his abandonment of his own wife and children in this obsessive, irrational pursuit.

I still think it's an amazing film that's a masterclass in storytelling and directing, it's just the abandonment stood out more to me than when I was a kid.

To be fair, I get hung up on the wrong things. As Roy tries to sneak to Devil's Tower, roadblocks stop him from driving any closer, so he abandons his car and sets off on foot.

I worry about what happens to the car. I mean, it's going to be a nightmare for the other drivers getting around it once the roads are opened again. I mean, does his estranged wife need that car? Maybe she needs to sell it now that her husband has disappeared and is no longer paying for half of the mortgage and has kids to feed.


Imagine if the car was stolen, then used in a bank robbery. Roy's wife was in the bank pleading not to have her house repossessed, and she got shot. Now the kids are orphans.


One of the kids, enraged at being orphaned, ends up in an orphanage, falls in with the wrong kids and starts a life of crime, climbing the ladder of organised crime, killing anyone that stands in their way to get to the top.


Another uses their hatred of aliens to join a military weapons group but ends up building a weapon that threatens the Earth, not extra terrestrials.


The other kid dies from a drug overdose. I can't remember how many kids they had, it seems like loads.


All of this because Roy left his car on the side of the road.

[JazzFunk]

For me, it's going to be "The Spy Who Loved Me".

I love TMWTGGun, but this, for me, is a perfect Bond, with so many great elements.
The opening parachute stunt, ace gadgets (the watch), the locations, the terrifying henchman (Jaws was really scary in the Egyptian sections), ridiculous underwater base, megalomaniacal bad guy, gorgeous yet sassy Bond girl and that Lotus Esprit chase.

Quoted for truth.

A verrrrrrrry close tie betwixt this and SW. Two absolute MOVIE MEGABUSTERS that year, both movies proper rocked my world as a kid but I've always remembered how strange and funky and cool the soundtrack to TSWLM was, it stays with one. "Bond '77" FTW!!!

BTW, Suspiria's 1976, innit? It's a bit overrated, anyway.