RE: Rawlinson & Elab's top 50s of the year 1977

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RE: Rawlinson & Elab's top 50s of the year 1977 - 15/5/2011 9:33:24 PM

elab49

Posts: 51544
Joined: 1/10/2005

quote:

ORIGINAL: fernetcontonica

I Just watched Spinollio and I have to say I liked it quite much. The take on the story is a bit cynic and it marks it very well from the moment the cricket is chewed off by the cat. The animation style really strenghtens the tone and it is filled with many small and cool details to catch.

I really want to see that PIF "The finishing Line". Apaches, which I saw listed somewhere here was really suspenseful and involving, not really short of crudeness at all and given its intention and nature stands as a somehow weird but fascinating piece of filming. The freesbe one is another one I saw and it is almost sick. As films oriented to warn about dangers I feel they are awesome and have that spirit of showing things crudily and straightforwardly that I blame on having a great role in the overall coolness of the seventies.

Those warning people in the 70s certainly wanted to go the whole hog and terrify people! Glad to hear you enjoyed Spinnolio

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RE: Rawlinson & Elab's top 50s of the year 1977 - 15/5/2011 9:47:22 PM

TRM

Posts: 4756
Joined: 20/10/2006
From: Bristol

quote:

ORIGINAL: elab49

Ditto, although mine were on LP rather than vid (I also had a much played LP of Disney songs)

I meant top 5 Bonds, although I'd put both at the top 3 so it doesn't really make any difference to the question! My Bond top 5 isn't really fixed except for Russia and Spy, the others can swap around. It's easier to note what it doesn't include - Octopussy, For Your Eyes Only, Die Another Day, Quantum of Solace which are, IMO, the worst 4. THe World is Not Enough isn't great either, for me, but I do like bits - lots of Judi and Coltrane, eg. Do you remember that knockout contest that was done ages ago for Bonds? I was trying to remember how I ranked them before.

Did you have a top 3/5?

I was trying to remember how I ranked them as well. I tend to find them pretty interchangeable within groups of about 5/6 films, so it would be something like:
top - Goldfinger, Live and let die, The spy who loved me, The living daylights, License to kill, Goldeneye
second - On her majesty's secret service, The man with the golden gun, Moonraker, Casino Royale, From Russia with love
third - Diamonds are forever, You only live twice, For your eyes only, Octopussy, The world is not enough, Tomorrow never dies,
fourth - Dr. No, Thunderball, A view to a kill, Die another day, Quantum of solace

I did see the knockout contest I think. Thats quite a while ago now!

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Post #: 452

RE: Rawlinson & Elab's top 50s of the year 1977 - 15/5/2011 9:52:28 PM

elab49

Posts: 51544
Joined: 1/10/2005

Ages ago

I do kind of agree on View to a Kill but it's also kind of mad and dumb and I have a bit of a soft spot for it. Unlike most of my bottom ones what it isn't, I think, is boring - which in a Bond film is a cardinal sin. You must really dislike No and Thunderball though!

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Post #: 453

RE: Rawlinson & Elab's top 50s of the year 1977 - 15/5/2011 9:56:37 PM

chris_scott01

Posts: 2976
Joined: 5/1/2006

Ah good, someone else who rates TMWTGG quite highly. A slower, easier going Bond outing but I do enjoy it a lot.

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RE: Rawlinson & Elab's top 50s of the year 1977 - 15/5/2011 10:02:21 PM

TRM

Posts: 4756
Joined: 20/10/2006
From: Bristol

quote:

ORIGINAL: elab49

I do kind of agree on View to a Kill but it's also kind of mad and dumb and I have a bit of a soft spot for it. Unlike most of my bottom ones what it isn't, I think, is boring - which in a Bond film is a cardinal sin. You must really dislike No and Thunderball though!

A View to a Kill is comfortably the best in that bottom bunch

I think its reputation is a bit unfair as pretty much the worst Bond. It is turn your brain off fun and Walken is entertaining. The final shot of May Day going into the mine is really impressive as well.

Dr. No I just find outside of a couple of great scenes, really tedious. The look of it has dated really badly against even the other Bond films as well, which doesnt help.

As for Thunderball, I think I would only place Die Another Day below it. Its far too long, the underwater scenes dont work (and they take up far too much screen time), Bond looks ridiculous throughout, the women are annoying, and worst of all its really dull. I just wish it didnt have some of the best one liners in the series

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Post #: 455

RE: Rawlinson & Elab's top 50s of the year 1977 - 15/5/2011 10:09:00 PM

elab49

Posts: 51544
Joined: 1/10/2005

I've not seen Thunderball in ages I don't think. TMWTGG was on the other day and I was thoroughly enjoying it before I had to turn my attention elsewhere - for the most part these days Bonds seem to be half watched. So it was a joy to just be able to sit through the first few for my course the other year and call it work (even though for the most part it kind of turned watching films into work). I still really enjoy Dr No, and a lot of that is spotting the template being put in place. But even more, there's From Russia - still kind of the odd one out where they tried something a bit different then decided to go with the Dr No format. Which just makes From Russia even more special

< Message edited by elab49 -- 15/5/2011 10:10:37 PM >

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Post #: 456

RE: Rawlinson & Elab's top 50s of the year 1977 - 16/5/2011 1:56:39 AM

Gimli The Dwarf

Posts: 73439
Joined: 30/9/2005
From: Central Park Zoo

Woohoo! James Bond!

From Russia With Love
Casino Royale
Tomorrow Bever Dies
Live and Let Die
Goldeneye
Quantum Of Solace
You Only Live Twice
The Man With The Golden Gun

Goldfinger
Diamonds Are Forever
Dr No
Thunderball
The Spy Who Loved Me
The World Is Not Enough
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
Octopussy

Die Another Day
For Your Eyes Only
The Living Daylights
License To Kill
Moonraker

A View To A Kill

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RE: Rawlinson & Elab's top 50s of the year 1977 - 16/5/2011 9:14:05 AM

matty_b

Posts: 12839
Joined: 19/10/2005
From: Outpost 31 calling McMurtle.

Top five Bonds -

On Her Majesty's Secret Service
The Living Daylights
From Russia With Love
For Your Eyes Only
Casino Royale

And the rest go roughly in this order from great to decent enough -

The Spy Who Loved Me
Goldfinger
You Only Live Twice
The World Is Not Enough
Live and let Die
GoldenEye
Licence To Kill
Dr. No
Tomorrow Never Dies

And then from poor to shocking -

Moonraker
Quantum of Solace
Thunderball
A View to a Kill
Octopussy
Die Another Day
The Man with the Golden Gun
Diamonds Are Forever

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Post #: 458

RE: Rawlinson & Elab's top 50s of the year 1977 - 16/5/2011 9:20:52 AM

elab49

Posts: 51544
Joined: 1/10/2005

quote:

ORIGINAL: matty_b

Top five Bonds -
For Your Eyes Only

Crikey, really? At the time the only interesting thing I could think of about the film was the big sensation over the singer appearing in the credits for the first time. Is it a nostalgia thing, or is there a bit you really like?

I know Moonraker isn't good but I love the Jaws mini-story and I like Michael Lonsdale (gorgeous voice) and Gilbert keeps it as light as it needs.

< Message edited by elab49 -- 16/5/2011 9:22:26 AM >

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RE: Rawlinson & Elab's top 50s of the year 1977 - 16/5/2011 12:00:34 PM

matty_b

Posts: 12839
Joined: 19/10/2005
From: Outpost 31 calling McMurtle.

I genuinely think it's a great addition to the Bond mythos.

It's Moore's finest performance in the role, downplaying the jokes, rejecting the advances of a girl far too young for him and the moment where he kicks the assassin off the cliff in his car - that's a coldness he sadly showed far too little of.

I love the opening at Tracey's grave, which ties in neatly with Carole Boquet's desire to revenge her murdered parents (it's one of the few Bond films that has a thematic undercurrent and is actually 'about' something), the car chase is fantastic and the location shooting is superbly utilised.

Yep, definitely a fave and the one Moore should have bowed out on.

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RE: Rawlinson & Elab's top 50s of the year 1977 - 16/5/2011 12:36:04 PM

great_badir

Posts: 4172
Joined: 6/10/2005
From: A breaking rope bridge in the middle of the jungle

Ceddo -

Sounds interesting, though.

The Spy Who Loved Me - I'm not a Bond fan at all. I genuinely like Live and Let Die - best song, best villains, Jane Seymour when she didn't make you want to tear your face off (in terms of here "talent", I mean), amazing speedboat chase and train scrap with Tee-Hee, genuine laughs, Clifton James, and I think it stands on its own as a good film. Casino Royale (the Craig one) is okay, but basically rips off Bourne, which annoyingly rarely seems to get mentioned. I have a soft spot for the original Casino Royale, but I appreciate that it's not really a Bond film. Goldfinger's quite good (I do love the end where the day is saved by a faceless technician simply flicking a switch, whilst Bond sweats himself to an early grave) and I have time for The Man With the Golden Gun (mainly for the great stunts and Clifton James, again). The rest - meh, or outright don't like. The worst for me have to be either Moonraker (sorry elab), Octopussy, or The World Is Not Enough (but a big metal pipe is) - didn't we see all that in Austin Powers?!?!?! The Spy Who Loved Me, though, is probably the one I've seen the least, so perhaps a rewatch?

View to a Kill IS rubbish, but Christopher Walken is one of the all time great Bond villains. And I had a little thing for Grace Jones back then too...

Some interesting Bond factoids (which I have mentioned on the forums before):

My mate "Tall" Ken is in Octopussy (he even gets a close up in the US theatrical version) as one of the guys loading up the train in "Russia" (look for the tallest guy in that scene and that's him). He got on famously with Roger Moore, Kabir Bedi and Steven Berkoff (all three would quite often hold court with the crew and extras over some bevvies), whilst Maud Adams was apparently completely stuck up and Louis Jordan was professionally aloof.

I once met Richard Kiel, who was an incredibly nice chap. He told me to clasp both my hands together, which I did. He then closed ONE of his fists around both my hands and pretty much covered both of them. I have quite small (perhaps even lady-like) hands anyway, but that was just really freaky.

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RE: Rawlinson & Elab's top 50s of the year 1977 - 16/5/2011 12:49:24 PM

matty_b

Posts: 12839
Joined: 19/10/2005
From: Outpost 31 calling McMurtle.

quote:

ORIGINAL: great_badir

Casino Royale (the Craig one) is okay, but basically rips off Bourne, which annoyingly rarely seems to get mentioned.

Unless that's very, very subtle sarcasm you have clearly not been on the internet for about six years.

I like your Bond factoids, though.

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RE: Rawlinson & Elab's top 50s of the year 1977 - 16/5/2011 1:00:28 PM

great_badir

Posts: 4172
Joined: 6/10/2005
From: A breaking rope bridge in the middle of the jungle

quote:

ORIGINAL: matty_b
Unless that's very, very subtle sarcasm you have clearly not been on the internet for about six years.

Sorry - that wasn't sarcasm (subtle, or otherwise), I just didn't really substantiate my point properly. Obviously internet folk HAVE mentioned that fact time and again, but I don't recall EVER seeing it mentioned or spoken of in any TV, magazine or newspaper review. Basically I meant that no critics have really said it, at least not that I've seen.

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RE: Rawlinson & Elab's top 50s of the year 1977 - 16/5/2011 1:47:39 PM

matty_b

Posts: 12839
Joined: 19/10/2005
From: Outpost 31 calling McMurtle.

Fair enough.

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RE: Rawlinson & Elab's top 50s of the year 1977 - 17/6/2011 2:38:22 PM

elab49

Posts: 51544
Joined: 1/10/2005

Play for Today � Scum (Clarke, 1977)

"I will have no violence in this institution. There is no violence here"

Well the Beeb didn't agree � as well known for being banned as being great, the original TV play didn't reach TV screens until a 1991 Channel 4 season on censorship (nearly a decade after the theatrical film, made in 1979, turned up on the same channel). Minton and Clarke's decision to critique the violence in the existing borstal system "by showing it" resulted in its removal from the transmission schedule. Of various concerns a brutal rape sequence seems to have been the most serious (and I doubt the borstal system would have been entirely happy at the enjoyment of it by one of the screws, more so in the play than the film where it looks as if he's on the point of joining in).

The film, then, is an uncompromising indictment of the then borstal system. Organised with a juxtaposition of prison and public school terminology (governors, matrons and house-masters, the inmates numbers not people) the borstal endorses and incites a system of violence by attempting to institutionalise and control the 'daddys' � the 'leaders' who come through the pack and who, by violence and intimidation, control the other inmates. One half of the film follows the story of Carlin (Ray Winstone) � a hard man who arrives from another borstal and gradually takes control in his new home. The key moment is a scene where, during his ascent of the power structure, it is made clear he is being given privileges in return for keeping control and when the prisoners refuse to eat at the end it is to Carlin they look to lead the others to behave.

The problems with the set-up are put in the mouth of Archer, an older, more intelligent inmate who plays the irritating grit in the eye of the system � vegetarian, varying religious outlooks, demanding books, all completely by the rules. The most deliberate part is the discussion with Mr Duke during the half hour every week a screw has to babysit him as he refuses to go to chapel (currently considering Islam � god-botherer governor seriously dischuffed). Archer argues the pointlessness of the system and Duke's role of it, undermining the guard's world view and putting himself back into the bad books. He can't help himself � partly because he knows he's right. In his own way Carlin respects Archer's approach to incarceration and even though the characters get on they provide a very pointed contrast.

A major problem with choosing awards like 'best actor' is the sheer range that is required by different roles � it's only really credible if you watch the 5 actors play the same role and see what they do (which is hardly feasible). It kind of is here though. Although many actors reprise their original role in the 1979 film (most prominently the excellent Ray Winstone), the second key role of Archer is recast and Mick Ford takes over from David Threlfall. Ford is fine but seems to see the character as too much of a lad � but Threlfall's genuine oddball is far superior.

One of the best plays made under the Play for Today banner, Scum isn't quite the highest TV film in my list. But it's a perfect demonstration of the work of Alan Clarke, one of Britain's greatest and, sadly, least known directors.

< Message edited by elab49 -- 17/6/2011 2:39:10 PM >

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Post #: 465

RE: Rawlinson & Elab's top 50s of the year 1977 - 18/6/2011 2:55:56 PM

elab49

Posts: 51544
Joined: 1/10/2005

Man of Marble (Wajda, 1977)

Mateusz Birkut is a young worker at Nowa Huta (a new socialist built city in Poland) whose attitude would give Boxer the horse a run for his money. Coming to national attention after a record breaking brickbuilding shift, his rise and political fall is traced by a young TV filmmaker who wants to crown her piece on the building of an idol with an interview with the man himself.

As well as being a bloody good film, Man of Marble is also a pretty brave one (which may be partly why it took well over a decade before filming started). This was 1970s Poland and Solidarity wasn't formed until a couple of years later. So a film that was essentially an indictment of the false idols created by post-war Soviet communism, via the myth-making use of the titular statue and created around a simple and rather dim worker seems like something that must have been difficult to get made. One of the characters in the film is an internationally lauded film director whose status seems to give him something of a freedom, with added cynicism, so perhaps that was something of a comment on what helped Wajda go forward with this subject matter. It was this character who helped to create the 'story' around Birkut, with documentary techniques Robert J Flaherty might be familiar with.

There is something quite familiar about the structure, quite Kane-esque in fact. The multi-faceted picture we are given of Birkut is constructed through others � the archive of footage, the visits to former close friends, workmates and the coincidentally alcoholic ex-wife. It's never absolutely complete however, although there is less ambiguity in the portrait put together. Like Kane, however, we never meet the protagonist or get a firm answer � Agnieszka (Krystyna Janda) never quite reaches her goal. But I think the similarity in the approach Wajda took is deliberate, referencing another film that looks at a myth created in a slightly different way.

The most impressive part of the film is the central character � the filmmaker Agnieszka. Modern, single-minded and absolutely determined, she breaks rules in her focus on finding her answer, not just for the film but for herself, putting so much of herself into the work the dead end they hit nearly breaks her. She is almost always moving, walking through discussions, travelling laden down with bags and equipment wherever her story is taking her, impressing her helpers with her technical work but also bluntly ignoring interviewers drifting stories to focus solely on her own narrative. Her story continues in the 'sequel' Man of Iron, although she only appears 2/3rds of the way through. At that point Man of Iron takes up the story exactly where we left it in Man of Marble � a confident stride down the production centres corridors.

Dealing with politics and censorship, Wajda crafts a hugely enjoyable film and surely influenced, e.g. Kieslowski's Camera Buff, etc. Man of Marble can be watched on its own, which might be necessary over here as, although Man of Iron has a release, Marble doesn't (but you can find it English subbed on youtube if you can't play the R1 release). I guess the more obvious involvement in the actions of Solidarity on show in the latter film made it a more attractive release. But I'd very much recommend watching both.

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RE: Rawlinson & Elab's top 50s of the year 1977 - 8/4/2012 5:28:16 PM

Miles Messervy 007

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Wait, you guys never finished this? How did that happen? Did I miss something?

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RE: Rawlinson & Elab's top 50s of the year 1977 - 20/1/2013 8:06:00 PM

elab49

Posts: 51544
Joined: 1/10/2005

Just a quick finish to this list so I can pretend I've finished all of two

5. Our Day Out (James 1977 - Willy Russell)

The remedial class school trip - running wild, raiding a zoo and some painful truths at the beach. The analogy between the animals trapped with no future and these back street kids is never overplayed and is powerful enough to bring tears amongst the laughter. Emotional performances all round from the kids with an excellent Alun Armstrong in the lead. Last I looked Willy Russell was hosting this on his own site.

4. The Chess Players (Ray, 1977)

Another parallel on screen as Mir and Mirza determine to play chess while the Nawab and General Outram play out real-life strategy and war. Ray's beautifully composed film perfectly balances the humour of one situation with the nation-changing gravity of the other. Attenborough's last great acting performance of which, for those who tend to think of him as the smiling luvvie, he actually has very many.

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Post #: 468

RE: Rawlinson & Elab's top 50s of the year 1977 - 20/1/2013 8:23:31 PM

elab49

Posts: 51544
Joined: 1/10/2005

3. The Late Show (Benton, 1977)

Giving us one of the most wonderful detective duos in film, The Late Show takes detective fiction tropes of a PI, a dead partner, and a convoluted case and creates a joyful piece of cinema. The best thing Benton did (or Altman was involved with

) it subverts and plays and makes the most of its older protagonist. Art Carney had a decent long career and then in the 1970s (in his 50s) gave a couple of career best performances, winning (and deserving) the Oscar for Harry and Tonto. And Lily Tomlin is also magnificent. As usual.

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Post #: 469