100 Greatest Movies of the 70's: 41. All the President's Men

93. Lenny

The chronology hops, skips and jumps between Lenny Bruce in his prime and the burned-out, strung-out performer who, in the twilight of his life, used his nightclub act to pour out his personal frustrations. We watch as up-and-coming Bruce courts his "Shiksa goddess", a stripper named Honey. With family responsibilities, Lenny is encouraged to do a "safe" act, but he cannot do it. Constantly in trouble for flouting obscenity laws, Lenny develops a near-messianic complex which fuels both his comedy genius and his talent for self-destruction. Worn out by a lifetime of tilting at Establishment windmills, Lenny Bruce died of a morphine overdose in 1966

 

92. Save the Tiger

Save the Tiger is a 1973 film about moral conflict in contemporary America. It stars Jack Lemmon, Jack Gilford, Laurie Heineman, Thayer David, Lara Parker and Liv Lindeland. The film is adapted from the novel of the same title by Steve Shagan, (the first book by the author of The Formula and other thrillers, and generally regarded to be his most successful novel by literary standards).

Jack Lemmon plays Harry Stoner, an executive at a Los Angeles apparel company on the edge of ruin. Throughout the film, Stoner struggles with the complexity of modern life versus the simplicity of his youth. He longs for the days when pitchers wound up, jazz filled the air, and the flag was more than a pattern to put on a jock-strap. He wrestles with the guilt of surviving the war and yet losing touch with the ideals for which his friends died. To Harry Stoner, the world has given up on integrity, and threatens to destroy anyone who clings to it. He is caught between watching everything he has worked for evaporate, or becoming another grain of sand in the erosion of the values he once held so dear.


Save the Tiger is a bleak story that depicts an outwardly successful man questioning the value of the material prosperity he's desperately trying to maintain. Lemmon plays Harry Stoner, an executive at an apparel company close to ruin. With no legal way to keep the company from going under, Stoner considers torching his warehouse for the insurance settlement. Meanwhile, he drinks, laments the state of the world, and tries his best to keep the business rolling as usual. This last task is complicated when a client has a heart attack in the arms of a prostitute provided by Stoner. With nerves still bristling, Stoner takes the stage at the premiere of his company's new line, only to be overcome by war memories. He ends the day spontaneously deciding to go home with a young, free-spirited hitchhiker, whose ignorance of his generation underscores his isolation from the world around him. At the end of the film, Stoner walks by a Little League game and attempts to act as pitcher to the children. One child shouts out, "You can't play with us, Mister!", leaving Stoner yet again isolated from another part of society

 

IMO, Dustin Hoffman is miscast as Lenny.

"Save the Tiger" is the sort of movie that gives the 70's a bad name. It doesn't miss a zeitgeist cliche. That's one problem. The other one is that it features late Lemmon (which is everything after 1970.) Middle Lemon is just after "Some Like It Hot" (in which he is brilliant)to 1970. Generally he is *extremely* variable in Middle Lemmon. Lemmon started milking the olde pathos in "The Apartment" and in late Lemmon it frequently slides into bathos, which is what I think you have here. He got an Oscar for it and not SLIH, because Hollywood is an idiot.

 

91. The Goodbye Girl

The Goodbye Girl is a 1977 American comedy film. Directed by Herbert Ross, the film stars Richard Dreyfuss, Marsha Mason, Quinn Cummings, and Paul Benedict. The original screenplay by Neil Simon centers on an odd trio?an egotistical struggling actor who has sublet a Manhattan apartment from a friend, the current occupant (his friend's ex-girlfriend, who has just been abandoned) and her precocious pre-teen daughter.

Paula McFadden (Marsha Mason) learns she has been dumped by her boyfriend Tony and he has sublet their apartment. Shortly thereafter, the neurotic, but sweet Elliot Garfield (Richard Dreyfuss) shows up unexpectedly in the middle of the night expecting to live there. Since she cannot return Elliot's rent money, Paula has no choice but to let him move in with her and her 10-year-old daughter Lucy (Quinn Cummings). However, she makes it very clear from the start that she considers him extremely annoying and unlikeable.

Paula struggles to get back into shape to try to resume her career as a dancer. Meanwhile, Elliot has his own problems. He has landed the title role in an off-off-Broadway production of Richard III, but the director, Mark (Paul Benedict), wants him to play the character as an exaggerated stereotype of a homosexual, in Mark's words, "the queen who wanted to be king." Many theater critics from television stations and newspapers in New York City attend opening night, and they all savage the production, especially Elliot's performance. The play quickly closes.

Despite their frequent clashes, Paula and Elliot fall in love. Then, Elliot is offered a fantastic opportunity for a role in a movie that he cannot turn down. The only catch is that the job is in another city and Elliot will be gone for four weeks. Paula is scared that Elliot is leaving her, never to return, like all the other men in her life. At the last minute, however, Elliot invites Paula to go with him while he is filming the picture and suggests Lucy stay with a friend until they come back. Paula declines, but is happy because she knows Elliot's invitation is evidence that he loves her and will come back to her.

 

Not if he's smart.

This movie is not unlike "The Graduate" in one way; you know this relationship is doomed. In this case because Mason makes Dreyfus responsible for keeping her happy, an impossible project. Whine, whine, everybody else left me! And you can see exactly why they did, too.

On the plus side, Dreyfus gives a very engaging performance that soars into greatness in the scene after his disaster on Broadway. Quin Cummings is also good. Mason has an awful role, and doesn't display any charm, a necessary ingredient to make this movie work.

 

This is one this movie's great scenes.


Mark: You're unhappy Elliot?
Elliot Garfield: Unhappy? No. I am freaking petrified. The critics are going to crucify me, Mark. And Gay Liberation is going to hang me from Shakespear's statue. By my genitalia. You gotta help me, Mark.
Mark: What do you want, Elliot?
Elliot Garfield: I want my hump back! I want my club foot. I want a little paralysis in my right hand! I don't mean a lot, just a little, two stiff fingers, I need a little motivation.
Mark: I see. You want to play it safe, eh? You want to give us your standard, conventinal Richard. Well, I can't argue with that Elliot they've been doing it that way for 400 years.
Elliot Garfield: Listen, what do I know? I'm lucky to get the part I know that. I come from Chicago. We do things a little bit differently out there. We do the play as written. That doesn't go over in New York? Terrific. I respect you, Mark, I do. You've done off Broadway I haven't. I'm not a quitter. You want me to do Richard the Third like Tatum O'Neal I'll do it but just don't make me look foolish out there.
Mark: And you feel foolish.
Elliot Garfield: I feel like an *******! I passed foolish on Tuesday.
Mark: Hey, I was never going to let you do it like that.
Elliot Garfield: Oh, thank God!
Mark: But do you see where I'm heading.
Elliot Garfield: I, I'm trying, Mark.
Mark: Richard was gay there's no doubt about it. But let's use that as subtext. We'll keep it but now we can put back the hump and the club foot...
Elliot Garfield: And the twisted fingers.
Mark: If you like them.
Elliot Garfield: Like 'em? I love 'em! I'm crazy about 'em!
Mark: Then use them, baby, and you will see what I am after. Just try it my way, bubala. I will never let you go wrong.

 

Very funny and endearing film. I disagree with Nevermind's assessment of the Marsha Mason character and performance as "whiney" and the relationship as therefore doomed. I think Paula is adorable; needy, sure, but that can be attractive too. Mason was nominated for Best Actress, so her peers in the Academy believed her performance was a winning one, as I do.

 

I enjoyed it quite a bit. Dreyfuss is very good, particularly in the scenes about his disastrous Richard III.

 

90. The Poseidon Adventure

The Poseidon Adventure is a 1972 American action-adventure disaster film based on the novel of the same name by Paul Gallico. It concerns the capsizing of a luxurious ocean liner by a tsunami caused by an under sea earthquake and the desperate struggles of a handful of survivors to journey up to the bottom of the hull of the liner before it sinks.

It won the Academy Award for Best Song for "The Song from 'The Poseidon Adventure'" (also known as "The Morning After"), which became a hit single for Maureen McGovern, as well as winning an Academy Award for Special Achievement in Visual Effects. Shelley Winters was also nominated for an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actress for her role in the film, and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress in a film for the role. The cast of the film includes five past Academy Award winners - Winters, Gene Hackman, Jack Albertson, Red Buttons and Ernest Borgnine. Parts of the movie were filmed aboard the RMS Queen Mary.

The plot centers upon the fictional ocean liner SS Poseidon, an aged luxury liner from the golden age of travel, on its final voyage from New York City to Athens before being sent to the scrapyard. On New Year's Day, it is overturned by a tsunami caused by an underwater earthquake. Passengers and crew are trapped inside and a rebellious preacher attempts to lead a small group of survivors to safety.

A huge box office success, "The Poseidon Adventure" was the number one movie of 1973, doing twice as much business as the number two film, "Deliverance". By the end of 1974, "The Poseidon Adventure" ranked among the six most successful features in film history, along with "Gone With The Wind," "The Godfather," "Love Story," "Airport," and "The Sound of Music." (re-release pressbook by Fox) The success of this film is in the vein of other all-star disaster films in the 1970s such as Airport (1970) and later films like The Towering Inferno (1974), and Earthquake (1974). A sequel, Beyond the Poseidon Adventure (1979), had an equally star-studded cast, but was a box-office and critical failure. The film was remade twice, first as a television special in 2005 with the same name, and a theatrical release with the name Poseidon in 2006.

The SS Poseidon, an ocean liner slated for retirement and dismantling, is making its way across the Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea from New York City to Athens. Despite the protests of Captain Harrison (Leslie Nielsen), who fears for the ship's safety in troubled waters, the representative of the Poseidon's new owners, Mr. Linarcos (Fred Sadoff), insists that the ship makes full speed towards its destination, meaning that it is not allowed to take on additional water ballast.

Detective Lieutenant Mike Rogo (Ernest Borgnine) and his former-prostitute wife Linda (Stella Stevens) ?seasick, like many of the passengers ? receive an invitation to the captain's table. Reverend Frank Scott (Gene Hackman), a minister questioning his faith and believing God helps those who help themselves, delivers a sermon at Mass. Susan Shelby (Pamela Sue Martin) and her younger brother Robin (Eric Shea) are traveling to meet their parents. Robin is interested in how the ship works and frequently visits the engine room. Retired Jewish hardware store owner Manny Rosen (Jack Albertson) and his wife Belle (Shelley Winters) are going to Israel to meet their two-year-old grandson for the first time. Haberdasher James Martin (Red Buttons) is a love-shy, health-conscious bachelor. The ship's singer, Nonnie Parry (Carol Lynley) rehearses for the New Year's celebration with her band.

That evening, New Year's Eve, passengers gather in the dining room to celebrate. Captain Harrison is called to the bridge because of a report of an undersea earthquake. Harrison receives word from the lookout that there is a huge wave heading towards them. He issues a mayday and commands a "hard left" turn, but it is too late. The wave hits the bridge, drowning Harrison, Linarcos and the other ship's officers on the bridge. With its lack of

 

Only Gene Hackman could play a renegade priest.

I enjoyed The Poseidon Adventure quite a bit, but The Towering Inferno is the "masterpiece" of the genre. "We May Never Love Like This Again" over "The Morning After" any day of the week.

 

I saw it recently and the cheesiness was overwhelming.

 

It's cheesy, all right. But Hackman is brilliant.

 

He looks around and sees that scenery-chewing is the only way out. He doesn't even spit it out.

 

He has the courage to swallow it and with lines like these, that's quite a bit of courage. He breaks the throttle. You'd think he was in King Lear or something, his conviction is so strong.

 

Ever the tortured agnostic, I have to love any movie that casts God as the villain.

In fact, I want my death to mirror Hackman's priest: cursing the Almighty Sadist on the way down to the infernal fires.

Bless you, Gene Hackman.

 

May your wish be granted? [face_unsure_how_to_respond]

 

The truly astounding thing is that this masterpiece of cheese is Oscar-worthy compared to the two remakes done in the last ten years.

 

It actually won one. And I think Petersen's thing got a nomination.

I've not seen Petersen's film. I'm too much of a fan of Das Boot to want to see just how far he's... sunk.

 

Petersen's remake stunk, but it was really no worse than the majority of soulless, assembly-line extrusions that have emerged from Hollywood in the past decade.

As for the original...it's no masterpiece, that's for sure, but its kitschy grandeur is oddly appealing. There's something cozy about such a sublimely silly endeavour; it's the sort of sprawling, empty-calorie spectacle that leaves you feeling a bit bloated but otherwise quite satisfied.

 

This is a curious example of why some movies can't be remade. Improving the technical aspects of the film is actually counter-productive.

 

This was also remade/ripped off as Sylvester Stallone's terrible "Daylight".

 

89. Julia

Julia is a 1977 film made by 20th Century Fox. It is based on Lillian Hellman's book Pentimento, a portion of which purports to tell the story of her relationship with her lifelong friend, "Julia," who fought against the Nazis in the years prior to World War II. The film was directed by Fred Zinnemann and produced by Richard Roth, with Julien Derode as executive producer and Tom Pevsner as associate producer, from a screenplay adapted by Alvin Sargent.

The young Lillian and the young Julia, daughter of a wealthy Jewish family being raised by her grandparents in the U.S., enjoy a childhood together and an extremely close relationship in late adolescence. Later, while medical-student/physician Julia attends Oxford and the University of Vienna and studies with such luminaries as Sigmund Freud, Lillian suffers through revisions of her play with her mentor and sometime lover, Dashiell Hammett (Jason Robards) at a New England beachhouse.

After becoming a celebrated playwright, Lillian is invited to a writers' conference in Russia. Julia, having taken on the battle against Nazism, enlists Lillian en route to smuggle money through Nazi Germany which will assist in the anti-Nazi cause. It is a dangerous mission, especially for a Jewish intellectual on her way to Russia.

During a brief meeting with Julia on this trip, Lillian learns that her friend has a child named Lily, living with a baker in Alsace. Shortly after her return to the United States, Lillian is informed of Julia's murder. The details of her death are shrouded in secrecy. Lillian unsuccessfully looks for Julia's child in Alsace and also discovers that Julia's family wants nothing to do with the child, if she exists, probably for financial reasons

 

I'm not all that convinced of Julia's worth. Nicely acted, nicely shot, but that's just it. It's all very nice. The film has no bite, and it absolutely should. It's as dull as dishwater, and it's very obviously Oscar-bait. And it worked - Robards won a second Oscar that he arguably didn't deserve. Zinnemann was a purveyor of fine Oscar bait, but he always knew how to elevate the material above the intentions of a given studio and make it memorable. Not so with Julia, methinks.

It also provided Vanessa Redgrave an opportunity to make an idiot out of herself, but I suppose I should be thankful, since that in turn gave Paddy Chayefsky yet another opportunity to be awesome.

 

Haven't seen this one.

 

88. Sounder

Sounder is a 1972 film starring Cicely Tyson, Paul Winfield, Kevin Hooks, Carmen Mathews, Taj Mahal, and Eric Hooks. It was adapted by Lonne Elder III and directed by Martin Ritt from the 1970 Newbery Medal-winning novel Sounder by William H. Armstrong and spawned a sequel, Part 2, Sounder (1976

The Morgans, a loving and strong family of Black sharecroppers in Louisiana in 1933, face a serious family crisis when the husband and father, Nathan Lee Morgan, is convicted of a petty crime and sent to a prison camp. After some weeks or months, the wife and mother, Rebecca Morgan, sends the oldest son, who is about 11 years old, to visit his father at the camp. The trip becomes something of an odyssey for the boy. During the journey he stays a little while with a dedicated Black schoolteacher