Overlooked 70s pictures?

[brunny78]

I'm a particular fan of 1970s cinema, can anyone recommend any not so well known classics (films like The Warriors/Assault on Precinct 13/The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 as opposed to the more well known Taxi Driver/Godfather/Jaws etc.)?

[GregB]

Weirdly enough the 3 films I would have recommended are the one you mention.

A couple of others worth a mention are

Westworld
The Parallax View

More when I think of them

[mr_woo]

i would also recommend The Conversation with Gene Hackman.

Excellent film with Gene Hackman (as usual) giving an excellent performance.

Definitely an underrated classic as a lot of people i know (with the exception of my father who first introduced me to the film......bless him :D ) have never heard about the film.

Damn that reminds me, must get the dvd....... :)

[John Hodson]

I'll try to keep it to movies where I know the DVDs are decent;

Two Lane Blacktop with James Taylor, Dennis Wilson and Warren Oates; fantastic road movie by Monte Hellman, and a superb DVD too.

Junior Bonner is something of an overlooked Sam Peckinpah movie, bitter sweet, with Steve McQueen. A little bare bones on DVD, but a great movie, and good picture.

I'll second The Conversation; excellent DVD presentation, with a decent Coppolla commentary. If you haven't seen them, Hackman is also stunning in both French Connection movies, and the boxset is cheap, and well presented.

---
So many films, so little time...

[BenH]

I'll add Monte Hellman's Cockfighter to the list.

Awesome movie, still effectively banned in this country, with arguably Warren Oates` best performance. The Anchor Bay disc has a lovely 16:9 transfer, hour long doc on Warren Oates, and commentary with Hellman.

[McD]

Stallone's masterpiece (writer/director/star) Paradise Alley is almost forgotten now. It would make my Top 10 of the 70's, a hard list to get into if ever there was one.

[UOOceania]

Vanishing Point
:D
Great road movie starring Barry Neuman as Kowalski from the old 70's petrocelli TV series ( Sorry for the spelling)

[Mike]

Sadly not on DVD yet, but Arthur Penn's "Night Moves" is a magnificent thriller with one of Gene Hackman's best performances.

John Milius's "Big Wednesday" is out soon from Warners and is a beautifully poignant rites of passage film.

Walter Hill's "Hard Times" (AKA "The Streetfighter") is excellent and contains a surprisingly good performance from Charles Bronson.

Michael Cimino's first film "Thunderbolt and Lightfoot" is a very quirky movie with Clint Eastwood and Jeff Bridges.

I love John Boorman's "Zardoz" but not many other people do.

Sam Peckinpah's most outrageously insane and personal film "Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia" is fabulous but perhaps not for all tastes.

Also recommended, if you can find them, Jerry Schatzberg's "Scarecrow", Robert Altman's "Three Women", Sidney Lumet's "The Offence", Michael Richie's "Smile" and Hal Ashby's "Harold And Maude".

[Ol' Blue Eyes]

Kentucky Fried Movie, an early collaboration by John Landis and the Airplane / Naked Gun team. The Enter The Dragon parody is sheer brilliance. (R1 DVD by Anchor Bay)

The Longest Yard (aka The Mean Machine), great Burt Reynolds American football film / prison flick, vastly superior to the slavish Vinnie Jones remake. (R1 DVD by Paramount)

American Graffiti, George Lucas's best film in my opinion and I love Star Wars. The best teenage movie and the best nostalgia movie ever and the inspiration for the almost-as-good Dazed & Confused. (R2 DVD by Universal)

[Toothy]

Porridge:The Movie :D :D

[majella2000]

5 * classic:
Little Big Man (sadly not available on dvd)

Notable mentions inc:
Culpepper Cattle Company
Bad Company
Ulzana's Raid
Killing of a Chinese Bookie

[Mark Orme]

Marathon Man and Sleuth are two of my favourites.

[Hendrik]

...so many...

- Five Easy Pieces (1970)

- The Conformist (1970)

- Fellini Roma (1970)

- The Butcher (1970)

- Cries And Whispers (1972)

- Performance (1972)

- The Hot Rock (1972)

- O Lucky Man (1972)

- Day For Night (1973)

- The Day Of The Jackal (1973)

- The Last Detail (1973)

- The Day Of The Locust (1974)

- Shampoo (1975)

- The Story Of Adèle H. (1975)

- Network (1975)

...and so on...

. . . :o . . .

[Guiness]

Silent Running

[huge]

Originally posted by UOOceania
Vanishing Point

Another vote for this powerful road movie, hell Primal Scream loved it so much they named an album after it!

[Napoleon]

A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square
Silver Bears
11 Harrowhouse

[psmac27]

Keoma. A genuine spaghetti western and a genuinely fine film - despite numerous flaws.

[Snuffy]

Musts to check out.

Soylent Green
McCabe and Mrs Miller
Three days of the Condor

[A²]

IGNORE, FOUND DEDICATED THREAD HERE (http://www.thedvdforums.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=790469#post790469)

[Off Topic]
Originally posted by Mike
John Milius's "Big Wednesday" is out soon from Warners and is a beautifully poignant rites of passage film.

Oooh! Top film. Been after that since I first got a player! Any details on the release? (Region, aspect, anamorphic, sound, extras?)

Also - Does anyone know if this is the 129 minute original cut, or the 104 pay-cable edition?

[/Off Topic]

Cheers!

A²

IGNORE, FOUND DEDICATED THREAD HERE (http://www.thedvdforums.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=790469#post790469)

[SimonInd]

I'd add Hal Asby's 'Coming Home' which although a little sentimental, has excellent performances from Jane Fonda, Jon Voigt and Bruce Dern and a fantastic soundtrack.

Walter Hill's 'Driver' is a thoroughly enjoyable re-make of Le Samourai with some of the best car chases ever.

Finally, I remember 'Klute' as being rather good, but I haven't seen it for years...

Simon

[Creamstick]

Harold and Maude.

[desmondc]

Not to every one's taste but I really like:

A Boy and His Dog (1975)

Journey to the Far Side of the Sun (1969) Ok 1 year out, but a good film

Dark Star (1974)

Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)

The Killer Elite (1975)

Dawn of the Dead (1979)

[Narshty]

The Driver
Blood for Dracula
Quadrophenia
Let Sleeping Corpses Lie
Female Trouble
The Last Wave

Except for The Driver, all have fantastic DVD presentations.

[desmondc]

Hello Narshty I just got hold of a Danish copy of The Driver R2, it has nice anamorphic widescreen print (1.85:1), english language, With removable subs. A Bio on all the main actors.

Available from DVDoo.dk (http://www.dvdoo.com/dvdoo/start.asp) it cost about £9 delivered

[davey1970]

harold & maude - one of the best films ever.

not on r2 though as far as i know.

d

- it is now :-)

[dunkrag]

Another vote for Klute. I'd never seen it but it has just been released on R1 and you can pick it up quite cheap. Astonishing performance from Sutherland - Fonda's not bad either (and I am not a Fonda fan).

It jumped straight into my fav movies list. Interesting little Doco about filming in New York on the disc too.

[Poop]

Following on from Vanishing Poin and Two Lane Blacktop ...

What about Steve McQueens "Le Mans" ?

And (not 70's though) Grand Prix

Any new on these 2 ?

[stefmcd]

Don't know why so many are heist movies but here are my favourite lesser known 70s flicks -

Dollars - Beatty/Hawn

The Anderson tapes - Connery/Cannon

The Conversation - Hackman

The Choirboys - this film is universally trashed by critics - I just love it and read the source novel after seeing it.

The Hot rock - Redford/Segal

[wong fei hong]

Some real gems being mentioned... but not mentioned so far:
Dirty Harry
Play Misty For Me
Get Carter
Deep Red (Profondo Rosso)
The Man Who Fell To Earth
Manhattan

[Dave Lawrence]

Originally posted by wong fei hong
Some real gems being mentioned... but not mentioned so far:
Dirty Harry

Is Dirty Harry really overlooked? :D Anyway, another vote each for the magnificent Night Moves and The Conversation from me and I'll add All the President's Men since it seems to have been forgotten about as of late.

Also two from Sidney Lumet - Serpico and Dog Day Afternoon which contain, for my money, two of Al Pacino's greatest performances.

[wong fei hong]

Originally posted by Dave Lawrence


Is Dirty Harry really overlooked? :D

Hmmm. Not round these parts - but I think that Dirty Harry is too often lumped in with it's half-hearted, formuliac sequels, and rarely talked about in the same terms as The Godfather and its ilk. Still, point taken. :D The same could be said for the rest of my list too - everybody already said the really cool ones... :mad: ;)

[John Hodson]

Originally posted by Poop
Following on from Vanishing Poin and Two Lane Blacktop ...

What about Steve McQueens "Le Mans" ?

Love Le Mans. And maintaining the theme, the excellent Electraglide in Blue, surely worthy of an Anchor Bay special.

---
So many films, so little time...

[JamieC460]

MY particular favourites from the 70's which seem to be overlooked by most people include

Juggernaught
Quadrophenia
Tommy
Damnation Alley
Zeppelin
Dracula A.D.1972
Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter

:clap:

[pompeyfan]

Pyscomania
Orca
Clash of the Titans
The Lord of the Rings
The Exterminator

[Dave Lawrence]

Originally posted by wong fei hong
The same could be said for the rest of my list too - everybody already said the really cool ones... :mad: ;)

The trouble with lists like these is how you qualify the term "overlooked" - overlooked by whom? For instance I've seen/am familiar with the majority of the movies mentioned in this thread, and in my experience with other movie fans, Assault on Precinct 13 is almost as well known as Taxi Driver.

So, to be fair, maybe the original poster doesn't know Dirty Harry or the other movies you mention. :)

[wong fei hong]

Much like Mr M Loaf, you took the words right out of my mouth. :clap:

[P1]

Charley Varrick

[Barney_Tabasco]

Originally posted by P1
Charley Varrick

What's her from Ground Force got anything to do with it?

[tinder]

Electra Glide In Blue (1973)

[Fred2002]

Well I would certainly say The Taking of Pelham 123 (MUST BUY DVD!) Juggernaut and North Sea Hijack if only for the fantistic if nearly unobtainable soundtrack.

Special mention to The Cassandra Crossing (Richard Harris again!) which wins awards hands down from me for the number of railway continuity and technical errors (watch for the number of times when the electric loco intermitently has no electrical supply and the buffet car keeps pointing in different directions!)

Can I also throw in Raise The Titanic! Great novel, lousy film adaptation though, but one of John Barry's greatest sountracks and much better than that overlong cack Titanic!

French Connections 1 and 2 (the fish gutting joke in the Police Station forecourt still raises a chuckle every time I think about it) and one of the greatest car chases of all time.

There are others but these are the ones I grew up with on Sunday afternoons and early evenings and evn now I make time to watch when they come on the TV (Cassandra Crossing next week on BBC1 I believe!)

[saltysam]

Charley Varrickuniversal are finally releasing this in region 1 in a full screen transfer
:mad:

[cure]

One of my favs from the 70's, Philip Kaufman's sublime take on pod people and man-dog thingys Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
It's that good I even forgive the appearance of a young Jeff Goldblum.
An actor who has the power to make my teeth ache.

[anephric]

universal are finally releasing this in region 1 in a full screen transfer
:mad:

Sky Cinema are showing this in OAR at the mo...

[anephric]

Noticed someone namechecked Harold and Maude featuring the enigmatic Bud Cort:

in a similar vein, the loopy Brewster McCloud: excellent, off-the-wall stuff.

[taylora98]

Try the original Rollerball with James Caan. Way ahead of it's time in terms of its "globalization" worldview.

[Maringo]

Brian De Palma's "The Fury", "Obsession", "Sisters" and "Home Movies"
French sci-fi animated feature "Fantastic Planet"
"They Might Be Giants"
Bob Clark's "Black Christmas"
Aldo Lado's "Short Night of the Glass Dolls"
Sam Peckinpah's "Cross of Iron"
Robert Fuest's "The Final Programme"
Basil Dearden's "The Man Who Haunted Himself"
George Romero's "Martin"
Mike Hodges' "The Terminal Man"

[Rabbi of Caerbannog]

Some good films listed here. Here are the ones that I would like to add
Omega Man
Death Race 2000
Eating Raul (I know 1982, but close enough for me :p )
Eiger Sanction
Rollerball
Boys from Brazil
Odessa File

[Mike]

De Palma's "Home Movies" is overdue for a revival. Watched it last year and loved it - especially Kirk Douglas's self-parody performance.

[stefmcd]

Noticed someone namechecked Harold and Maude featuring the enigmatic Bud Cort:

in a similar vein, the loopy Brewster McCloud: excellent, off-the-wall stuff.
Ignore - I'm talking mince.

:)

[DennyL]

Two Michael Ritchie films:-

The Candidate
Smile

[Mike]

And another... "Prime Cut", a fantastic thriller with Lee Marvin and Gene Hackman. I'm rather fond of his raving mad "The Island" as well.

[stefmcd]

The Anderson tapes.

Always thought this stylish thriller was underrated. Perfect match for Parallax, The Conversation and 3 days of the Condor as paranoia piccies with advanced surveillance.

:)

[Person A]

Oh my god there are literally hundreds - this is arguably the finest decade for cinema output.

Top answer your question here are 3 fantastic films by great 70's US Directors that often overlooked in favour of some of their more well known work.

The Long Goodbye - Robert Altman (Elliott Gould is terrific as Philip Marlowe - a man caught out of time in seventies America)

The King of Marvin Gardens - Bob Rafelson (my favourite Jack Nicholson role)

The Offence - Sidney Lumet (Sean Connery as you never seen him before)

[DrZarkov]

I agree that 70's were great for movies
My top five to go for are - All The Presidents Men, The Sting, Kellys Heroes, A Bridge Too Far and Smokey And The Bandit.....yeeee hah

[DennyL]

'The Offence' is a terrific film. Ages since I saw it.

[MaxNutter]

so many have been mentioned, so i'll throw Peter Sellers "Being There" as an excellent, touching movie ...

[Steve Parkinson]

Yep, definitely anything by Hal Ashby. And pretty much anything with Jack Nicholson.

Oh, and any of John Carpenter's films (oh to be back in the 70's eh, John?).

[Mike]

Recently rewatched "Looking For Mr Goodbar". Not so sure about the film - my view on it changes every time I watch it - but Diane Keaton's performance is absolutely stunning.

[Kit_Taylor]

I'd go for Sam Peckinpah's german POV WWII movie Cross of Iron.

It's jolly gritty but it's also involvingly sentimental, romantic and warm, which makes violent scenes horrifically so. It also captures that terrible sense of exhaustion soldiers must feel.

Very good technically too, especially considering Sam was allegedly off his head on blow and booze. The punchy editing, handheld camera and well deployed slomo mean it's aged well, it has a quite modern, high energy feel that I don't associate the 70s.

The fact the the colour and tone of the film makes it look like stock footage from the Vietnam war gives it extra resonance too.

Oh, for a good DVD release!

[cure]

Ooh well done I loved Cross of Iron.I only watched it a few months ago,caught it on TV at some ungodly hour and couldn't go to bed until it finished.
I wouldn't say it is a overlooked 70's gem but at this point I must mention my particular Peckinpah fav if it hasn't been mentioned already - Straw Dogs which again I only watched pretty recently and found it to be a real edge of your seat nail biter with fantastic performances from Hoffman and err Susan George.
How this film was banned for so long in the UK is nothing short of criminal IMO.It does include a controversial rape scene but IMO nothing you wouldn't see on Brookside or Hollyoaks After Hours.
Err not that I've ever watched Brookie and Hollyoaks After Hours that is...honest!

[Cornelius]

Freebie and the Bean
Fantastic planet
Vanishing Point

[Edmund]

I like 'The Warriors'.

[Tullamore]

I know someone has already mentioned Prime Cut. Amazing film. Very violent but pure class. Of course there is the Turner movie standby The Outfit, Seconds with Rock Hudson, Point Blank(?) with Lee Marvin - supposedly coming out soon on DVD, again mentioned but Walter Hill's Charlie Varrick...aren't these all the films they used to show on the BBC years ago but now seem to have just dried up? Turner still plays a few thank god.

[Mike]

I agree about the film, but "Charley Varrick" is the work of Mr Donald Siegel.

[anephric]

the work of Mr Donald Siegel.

The best bartender the world ever did see...

[John Hodson]

Point Blank(?) with Lee Marvin - supposedly coming out soon on DVD.

Tullamore; there's been absolutely no word on Point Blank from Warners (well, unless you count 'no, we have no plans...') - you seen anything different? :)

[anephric]

Freebie and the Bean


I like FatB (dagnammit) but its obtuse '70s stereotypes of gayness and overabundant machismo make me ache inside...

'Spesh when Caan and Arkin are so obviously gay for each other. Ah well. Great snappy dialogue. Whatever happen to Richard Rush? The Stunt Man then... a dire Bruce Willis movie.

Such is Hollywood.

[Mike]

Indeed. As much wacked-out fun as "Color of Night" is, with surely one of the greatest trash movie casts ever assembled in one place (alongside the equally dire "Escape From LA") it's got nothing to suggest that it was directed by the same man who produced "The Stunt Man", which is some kind of masterpiece. Mind you, his purported experiences with trying to direct Bruce Willis might well have made Mr Rush reluctant to ever step behind a camera again.

Just thought of a couple of other movies worth a mention. Richard Fleischer's "Ten Rillington Place", with a spectacularly creepy performance from Sir Dickie - among the best work that tear-sodden old buffer ever did in any of his various fields - and Peter Sykes's "Demons of the Mind", for my money the most deranged yet successful attempt by Hammer to find a new audience and even weirder than "Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires". Any film in which Michael Hordern gets to impale Robert Hardy on a burning cross is a winner as far as I'm concerned.

I've also thought of "The Mechanic", one of the few halfway decent films ever to emerge from the unique creative talent that is Lord Michael of Winner. It largely works because of a good script and effective use of Bronson's impassivity, but Winner deserves a modicum of credit for keeping it taut and low-key.

I'd also like to echo John - if we're getting the great "Point Blank" then when ??? I've been waiting to see this on DVD for the best part of six years.

[jordanash]

The 70s had loads of good two man cop movies, including "The Laughing Policeman" with Walter Matheu and Bruce Dern, played (despite the title) very straight. The gritty look of a lot of these movies often gets tidied up on DVD (as with the disappointingly hippyish "Serpico").

[anephric]

I've also thought of "The Mechanic", one of the few halfway decent films ever to emerge from the unique creative talent that is Lord Michael of Winner. It largely works because of a good script and effective use of Bronson's impassivity, but Winner deserves a modicum of credit for keeping it taut and low-key.


The first ten mins or so of this are actually some quite impressive filmmaking...
I remember feeling a bit dirty for admiring it. :suspect:

Even more impressive since it has the bargain-basement version of Clint Eastwood (Jan Michael Vincent) in it...

http://www.weht.net/WEHT/Jan_Michael_Vincent.html

[anephric]

as with the disappointingly hippyish "Serpico").


Love Serpico and its attenuated '80s cousin Prince of the City.

I'm prolly in the minority for PotC though...

[Mike]

Nah, I'm with you on that one. "Prince of the City", although incredibly long, is so fanatically detailed that it draws you into the inbred, endemically corrupt mileu of the 1970s NYPD. I like Lumet on cops, whether American, British or, sanctioned by the police, Belgian...

[stefmcd]

Ok - may get blown out of the water but I've always found a lot of pleasure in ...............

The Choirboys.

Great cast inc. a young James Woods, the ever reliable Charles Durning and a fairly fresh faced Randy Quaid. I think this film achieved what Police Academy didn't i.e. longevity!

:)

[Mike]

I like "The Choirboys" too. It's mean, brutal, cynical, bigoted, socially irresponsible... and I think it's wildly, obscenely funny. I always preferred it to the book, personally. Mind you, I'm a huge fan of Robert Aldrich and I even like most of his unpopular films (although I draw the line at "The Frisco Kid")

[John Hodson]

I like "The Choirboys" too. It's mean, brutal, cynical, bigoted, socially irresponsible... and I think it's wildly, obscenely funny. I always preferred it to the book, personally.

I read the book first and was disappointed with the film (as people invariably are). I did however, prefer both The New Centurions and The Blue Knight to the books.

Oh, and smack me with a wet kipper, but I too have enjoyed The Mechanic whilst repeating softly 'THIS is a Michael Winner film? This is a Michael...'

[Vulcan101]

I quite like Nickleodeon (1976), whilst it is often derided as a bad movie I just can't agree. I watched it again recently - I taped it ages ago off BBC and found the tape when I got rid of a lot of old videos.

It tries (and seems to capture) the spirit of early Hollywood when people were still trying out things ot see what worked and what didn't and before filmmaking became a business where the bottomline is everything.

I would definitely say it was a flawed classic but still a damn good movie.

I would also put a good word in for Gumshoe - one of my all time favourites, cynical and tough in its way - British Kitchen sink drama meets film noir excellent.

Oh and if anyone is interested Little Big Man is out on DVD in a anamnorphic transfer (at least on R1).

[Mike]

Sadly, "Little Big Man" only contains a rather horrible remixed 5.1 track and not the original mono.

[trosper]

Emperor of the North Pole (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070030/).

When oh when oh when oh when oh sob.

[anephric]

Hmm... I never knew that was the full title: only ever seen it as Emperor of the North...

You learn something (or two things actually) every day...

[Wendell Armbruster]

So much blokeish stuff on this thread! I'd pitch in with two utterly wonderful Sean Connery films - the elegaic Robin and Marian and Milius's rousing Wind and the Lion (on R1) with a great commentary. And is Kubrick's Barry Lyndon overlooked? A masterpiece that gets better and better as the years roll by. And did anyone see the long 140-odd-minute version of Robert Aldrich's Twilight's Last Gleaming? A pretty radical, political thriller with Burt Lancaster's finger on the nuclear button, like Seven Days in May but in colour. A movie that begs to be released and reassessed.

[Mike]

I suspect "Barry Lyndon" is beginning to find an audience. Scorsese's pitch for it as "one of the most overwhelmingly emotional films I've ever seen" in his documentary on American cinema clearly didn't hurt. I think it's Kubrick's finest film.

I saw "Twilight's Last Gleaming" on its first London showing but shortly afterwards, it was cut down for regional release and didn't get anything like the audience it deserves. Aldrich was always very upset that the short version made it a lot less politically controversial and, I suspect, this may have encouraged him to go overboard in the macho humour of "The Choirboys".

Personally, and I know this is 1981 and consequently off-topic, I've always loved Aldrich's final film "All The Marbles". Very, very funny and beautifully performed by Laurene Landon and the great Peter Falk.

Anyway, a couple of other candidates. Robert Fuest's stylish and very funny "And Soon The Darkness", written by Brian Clemens as if practising for his "Thriller" TV series, and Pete Walker's completely insane "House of Mortal Sin", which has lots of healthy anti-Catholic sentiment and some great murder scenes.

[Wendell Armbruster]

Yeah, I think Barry Lyndon is Stanley's greatest. It's just mesmerising. The Shining (long version) gets better every day, too, while others like Clockwork Orange and Jacket and even 2001 seem more one-dimensional, though 2001 in the year 2001 at the Bradford Cinerama theatre was a real treat and led me to believe that 2001 should only be seen on a curved screen with six-track sound.

[Mike]

I saw that showing too. :) Absolutely marvellous. The Bradford 'Widescreen Weekend" is always worth the once-over.

[Wendell Armbruster]

And also at Bradford, How The West Was Won. That made we weep buckets, when Debbie Reynolds starts singing "Away, away come away with me..." and it's in Monument Valley and Cinerama and . . . sorry about that. Now, what about The Choirboys?

[Gary Couzens]

Just thought of another - <i>Inserts</i>. Is that available on DVD anywhere, particularly the longer UK version, which plays out in real time if I remember rightly? (Saw it a dozen years ago at the NFT.)

Very interesting movie, though a box-office bomb in its day. Mind you, a MPAA X-rating didn't help. Has a cast of about five and a single set.

[anephric]

I saw Inserts years ago on Sky in the wee hours... it's a very strange movie... and you get more than an eyeful of Veronica Cartwright's topiary...

Dreyfuss is impressively manic in it. I was left with an odd feeling it was a pointless endeavour, though. From my recollection you'd be right about the diagetic time (it charts the course of Dreyfuss trying to film a rubbish "chap" film in an afternoon, doesn't it?). Bob Hoskins shows his face too.

[Mark Orme]

Sadly, "Little Big Man" only contains a rather horrible remixed 5.1 track and not the original mono.

This was £7.99 in Woolies. I was tempted. Don't think that I've seen it at all.
The only reviews I could find were of the R1, but I think it's the same. Would you reccomend it as a film, aside from the remixed soundtrack?

The only western I've got on DVD is Silverado. Sacrilege!

[anephric]

Silverado's tops, mind.

[Mike]

Hate every minute of "Silverado". Got about as much to do with the West as an episode of NYPD Blue with a cast of actors who look like lawyers on a training exercise. Thankfully, it's 1985 and I don't have to think about it in this forum.

"Little Big Man" is a very interesting film with a lot of flaws. It's one of Dustin Hoffman's most daring performances though and the cinematography is consistently magnificent.

[anephric]

I like the character interplay of Silverado; I don't much care about its genre.

[Mike]

...which is your fair and proper right in a democratic society.

[Lontano]

if it hasn't already been considered, antonioni's 'the passenger' should be - one of the most significant films of the 70s although it's difficult to see because jack nicholson [who owns the rights] won't release it despite supposedly professing his admiration for antonioni and the film.

[anephric]

...which is your fair and proper right in a democratic society.

I thank you. God bless Voltaire.

[rainbird]

Looking back over the last five pages I think many of the movies people are nominating are far from being overlooked, :thinking: but whatever...

Anyway, my five:

Would You Kill A Child (1977), tense Spanish horror thriller about two tourists (Lewis Fiander and Pru Ransom) trapped on an island in which the local children have suddenly attacked and slaughtered all the adults. This was one of the first horror movies I ever saw at my local fleapit. I'd love to see it again. Directed by Narciso Ibanez Serrador.

The Moonshine War (1970), Elmore Leonard's all but forgotten adaptation of his own novel, with Patrick McGoohan as the government agent on the trail of bootleggers during prohibition Kentucky. Remembered for the dramatic emphasis placed on the hefty case lugged around by McGoohan. All concerned assume it must be some lethal piece of weaponry to deal with the bad guys, but it's actually .... ah, can't tell you, of course. Directed by Richard Quine.

Unman, Wittering & Zigo (1971), David Hemmings stars as the schoolteacher who discovers his predecessor was murdered by his own pupils. He and his wife (Carolyn Seymour) then become targets. It's no classic but it is an interesting and vaguely unsettling tale with some striking camerawork by Geoffrey Unsworth. Directed (not badly) by The Long Good Friday's John Mackenzie.

Slither (1972), highly amusing crime-comedy cum road movie cum shaggy dog story. Splendid performances by James Caan (playing successfully against his usual tough guy image), Sally Kellerman and Peter Boyle as the misfits on the trail of hidden loot. Directed by Howard Zieff.

Hearts of the West aka Hollywood Cowboy (1975), Zieff again, this time directing a charming, gentle comedy in which Jeff Bridges givs a lovely performance as the bumbling innocent who inadvertently becomes a stuntman in 1930's Hollywood.

[anephric]

By your own yardstick, Slither's hardly obscure... indeed it has a healthy cult reputation.

[rainbird]

By your own yardstick, Slither's hardly obscure... indeed it has a healthy cult reputation.

I disagree. Even by cult standards 'Slither' is fairly obscure. When was the last time you read a critical appreciation of either the movie or its director Howard Zieff? I think it's fair to describe it as an overlooked movie. At any rate, it's clearly overlooked on DVD - unlike most of the films mentioned in this thread.

EDITED TO ADD: I note the IMDB has a whopping total of 5 reviews devoted to 'Slither'. Gee, you're right, anephric, it's not as overlooked as I thought!

[anephric]

It crops up on tv all... the... time...

In fact it was on the other night (on TCM). I watched it. And I've read a fair few articles "rediscovering" it.

Regardless.

[anephric]

EDITED TO ADD: I note the IMDB has a whopping total of 5 reviews devoted to 'Slither'. Gee, you're right, anephric, it's not as overlooked as I thought!

How many do you need? Hustle's only got six on IMDB. Is that obscure? Not really.

[Gary Couzens]

Okay, here are a couple more:

<b>End of the Road</b> - cheating slightly as the copyright date is 1969 but its US release was in 1970. Aram Avakian's adaptation of the John Barth novel (Barth did not approve) is very much of its time - rather scattershot and not above shock tactics (e.g. a brief scene depicting bestiality, a first and probably only for a US major-studio release in a serious context) but frequently very interesting. It carried a MPAA X-rating in its day and had a brief British release without a BBFC certificate. To the best of my knowledge it has never been shown on TV. The cast is headed by Stacy Keach, James Earl Jones and Dorothy Tristan. It was Gordon Willis's debut as DoP.

I have a NTSC video copy (which took me two attempts and six months to order from Amazon, five years ago) and I'm willing to bet I'm one of very few people to have seen this film in the UK since 1970. One person who has surely seen the film is Nicolas Roeg - you can see a brief clip on one of David Bowie's TV sets in <i>The Man Who Fell to Earth</i>.

<b>Tropic of Cancer</b> (1971)
Rejected by the BBFC in 1974 (though passed by the GLC) it remains banned as no-one has resubmitted it, though it would get a 18 certificate with no difficulty today. Sky showed it in circa 1990, which is how I got to see it. As far as I know Paramount still have the rights. Now would be a good time to release Joseph Strick's Henry Miller adaptation, particularly as other Stricks (The Balcony, Ulysses, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man) have recently or will have DVD releases, likewise the other Miller adaptation shot at the same time, Quiet Days in Clichy. Rip Torn and Ellen Burstyn are excellent, though the film is rather leisurely and character-led.

While we're on banned movies that could be resubmitted and passed nowadays, how about Dusan Makavejev's <i>Sweet Movie</i>, which I've never seen?

[anephric]

Wow. I'd like to see Tropic of Cancer. Never knew it existed (*gulp*).

I can "see" Torn being good in it: he possesses the sort of Norman Mailer/Henry Miller sexual machismo that's necessary.

I've seen both versions of Quiet Days in Clichy and don't like either of them much: Nigel Havers? Please.