1970s

  • Sadao Nakajima – Datsugoku Hiroshima satsujinshû AKA The Rapacious Jailbreaker (1974)

    1971-1980ActionAsianJapanSadao Nakajima

    Sadao Nakajima had made his name with Toei’s particular brand of violent action movie, but by the early seventies, the classic yakuza flick was going out of fashion. Datsugoku Hiroshima Satsujinshu (脱獄広島殺人囚, AKA The Rapacious Jailbreaker) follows in the wake of seminal genre buster, Battles Without Honour and Humanity, but also honours the classic Toei ganger movie past in its exploitation leaning, cynically humorous tale of a serial escapee and his ever more convoluted schemes to avoid the bumbling police force’s noose.Read More »

  • Bruce Brown – On Any Sunday (1971)

    1971-1980Bruce BrownCultDocumentaryUSA

    Quote:
    A documentary following the lives of motorcycle racers and racing enthusiasts, including actor Steve McQueen. First asking the question “Why do they do it?” this film looks at the people who devote (and sometimes risk) their lives to racing on tracks and off-road courses around the world.Read More »

  • Norman J. Warren – Terror (1978)

    1971-1980HorrorNorman J. WarrenUnited Kingdom

    Quote:
    Back in the 16th Century, a witch is burned by the local Squire but she returns to life to kill him and his wife, and curse all of his descendents. Three hundred years later, a film director, descended from the Squire, has made a film about the curse and is astonished to find that the witch’s hatred is still very much alive. Gradually, people connected with the film begin dying in bizarre circumstances and it begins to look as if no-one in London is safe from the curse.Read More »

  • Roberto Rossellini – Il Messia AKA The Messiah (1975)

    1971-1980ArthouseEpicItalian Neo-RealismItalyRoberto Rossellini

    Quote:
    Virtually unknown outside of Italy, Messiah (Il Messia) is historically important as the last directorial effort of Roberto Rossellini. In retelling the life of Christ, Rosselini harks back to the humanistic style he’d utilized on his many Italian TV projects of the 1960s. The director has no intention of depicting Jesus as being the vessel of divine providence. The Man from Galilee is shown simply as one who is unusually moral and of spotless character — the sort of person who’d be a natural leader no matter who his Father was. Co-scripted by its director, Messiah was completed in 1975, but not given a general release until 1978.Read More »

  • Frederick Wiseman – Hospital (1970)

    1961-1970DocumentaryFrederick WisemanUSA

    Quote:
    This 1970 Frederick Wiseman documentary was a 1994 National Film Registry selection by the National Film Preservation Board. In 1970, the 84-minute film won two Emmys-“Best News Documentary” and “Best Director.” Wiseman looked at life in a large urban hospital, detailing daily activities with his main focus on the emergency ward and outpatient clinic. Medical expertise, organizational considerations, availability of resources, and the nature of communications among staff and patients are all shown as factors in the delivery of appropriate health care. Pauline Kael (The New Yorker) wrote, “It is as open and revealing as filmed experience has ever been. You look misery in the eye…” ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie GuideRead More »

  • Carlos Aured – Los ojos azules de la muñeca rota AKA Blue Eyes of the Broken Doll AKA House of Psychotic Women (1974)

    1971-1980Carlos AuredGialloSpainSpanish cinema under FrancoThriller

    Sometimes its okay to judge a book by its cover and a film by its title. This blood-soaked cheapo Spanish horror film is a good example. Starring popular creepshow star Paul Naschy, it is the grim tale of three twisted sisters, a one-handed brunette, a wheel-chair bound blonde and a nymphomaniacal redhead who bedevil a handsome but hapless handyman whom they hire to fix up their decaying old house. Doffing his shirt to flash his muscular, hairy chest at every opportunity, Naschy soon finds himself encountering a bevy of beautiful, dead, eyeless (they were torn out by the killer) women laying about. When not sleeping with the redhead, Naschy attempts to solve the mystery and save his life. Actually, the literal translation of the Spanish title Los Ojos Azules de la Muñeca Rota, “The Blue Eyes of the Broken Doll” is far more intriguing.
    — Sandra Brennan (AllMovie)Read More »

  • Paul Vecchiali – L’étrangleur (1970)

    1961-1970CrimeDramaFrancePaul Vecchiali

    Quote:
    Unhappy women are being murdered by Emile (Jacques Perrin), a psychotic young man suffering from the delusion that his acts are mercy killings. The detective (Julien Guiomar) assigned to track down the killer resorts to seriously unorthodox and even unethical methods to get his man. In one instance, he impersonates a psychologist on a TV show he and Emile appear on together and attempts to provoke Emile into revealing himself.Read More »

  • Louis Malle – Le Souffle Au Coeur AKA Murmur of the Heart (1971)

    1971-1980ComedyDramaFranceLouis Malle

    As France is nearing the end of the first Indochina War, an open-minded teenage boy finds himself torn between a rebellious urge to discover love, and the ever-present, almost dominating affection of his beloved mother.Read More »

  • Tim Kincaid – Kansas City Trucking Co. (1976)

    1971-1980EroticaQueer Cinema(s)Tim KincaidUSA

    Quote:
    Hank (Richard Locke), a trucker, turns out new hire Joe on a long haul to the West Coast. The men masturbate together while on the road and participate in an all-male orgy at a truckers’ bunkhouse in Los Angeles. The film features several trucking related double-entendres such as “wide load”, “heavy load” and “men at work”.Read More »

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