MALLINation

Our continued Flashbacks through pop culture history finds us landing in 1979, deep into the Carter malaise years of stagflation and diminished expectations. Here are  the best movies of 1979:

1. Apocalypse Now

It’s strange to put a film on a best of list when the last quarter of it is frankly lousy. Windy and pretentious, the climax the rest of the story builds to is more of an anticlimax, dominated by the lumbering, hammy hulk that was was once Marlon Brando. He is his own metaphor for the film’s Vietnam parable, like the United States a paragon of youthful vitality laid low by bloat and a clear loss of purpose. Thankfully the first three quarters are brilliant with highlights like Larry Fishbourne’s firefight acid trip and Robert Duvall’s near heist of the entire film as a surfing obsessed officer, the inspiration for The Clash’s “Charlie Don’t Surf.” Francis Ford Copolla had his own ‘Nam like experience making the picture for three years starting in 1977 but for the most part the results are onscreen. Pity about the ending. Avoid the director’s cut which adds superflous footage that does little to mitigate the inevitable letdown.

2. The In-Laws

Despite being poorly remade in a version starring Albert Brooks and Michael Douglas and cribbed from for the Meet the Parents movies the In-Laws continues to hold up as a delightful riff on middle class uptightness colliding with a certain kind of hustler who became all too common in the Nixon years. In it’s own way The In-Laws is a subtle riff on what happened when Americans like dentist Sheldon Kornpett (played to the neurotic hilt by Alan Arkin) were confronted with the slippery gray areas of their own government’s foreign policy embodied by Kornpett’s future in-law and possible CIA agent Vince Ricardo (Peter Falk at his charismatic best). The interplay of these two actors makes you wonder why they worked together so rarely, only teaming up again in the disappointing Big Trouble in 1985.  Part of what makes this movie so funny is the edgy realness to the humor – you do sense that anything could happen and are constantly thrown off guard either by a very real threat of violence or a lunatic performance like Richard Libertini as an unstable dictator with a fondness for Senor Wences.

3. Monty Python’s Life of Brian

My personal favorite Python film, this was criticized by religious groups for daring to poke fun at the story of Jesus. Oddly their portrayal of a Roman empire overrun with would-be prophets, saviors and messengers from god actually captures the historical reality of that time. Graham Chapman is wonderful as a put-upon Momma’s boy messiah and the “Bigus Dickus” sequence is priceless.

4. Manhattan

After the dour Interiors, Manhattan felt like the real follow-up to Woody Allen’s 1977 breakthrough Annie Hall, an omnibus love letter to the city he is identified so strongly with shot in luminous black and white by the legendary cinematographer Gordon Willis. Woody maybe gives more away then he needs to by playing a character who dates high-schooler Mariel Hemingway before falling for Diane Keaton (supposedly based on his relationship with actress Stacey Nelkin when she was a teenager). Rest assured the movie is very funny and genuinely romantic but the audience may share Woody’s sense of unease about the film. A real treat for lovers of New York City.

5. Alien

Alien is one of the greatest horror films ever made, juxtaposing scares with what Moon director Duncan Jones pointed out as a Cassavettes-like realism in the way characters talk and work together. There is no glamor in this vision of space travel, the antiseptic set design of 2001 shunned in favor of H.R. Giger’s Freudian nightmare alien designs and the stark industrialism of the Nostromo. Sigourney Weaver upends what had been the typical action adventure tropes, Ian Holm does one of his great creepy turns, and the likes of Tom Skerrit, Yaphet Kotto and Harry Dean Stanton bring a distinctly blue-collar tinge to the crew of the alien menaced spacecraft. Then of course there is John Hurt’s unfortunate scene in the mess, which brings a tongue-in-cheek new meaning to bringing up your lunch.

6. Being There

Call this one Alienated – Peter Sellers in a tour de force performance as Chance, a semi-autistic gardener thrust into the world and mistaken for a wise font of wisdom. Jerzy Kosiński’s political satire is adapted into a pitch perfect film by Hal Ashby, which also features great turns by Shirley MacLaine and Melvyn Douglas.

7. Mad Max

The movie that made Mel Gibson a star – in Australia. Mad Max wasn’t even released in the United States  until after it’s sequel, The Road Warrior, became an unexpected underground hit in 1981.  Mad max posits that favorite of sci-fiers, a post-apocalyptic future where road-based gangs are menaced by and i turn menaced by the police. Gibson is the officer who loses a partner and his family and in turn enacts revenge against the motorized gang responsible. Brutal and eminently watchable.

8. Breaking Away

From cars and motorcycles in Mad Max, we come to competitive bike racing which in the sweet sleeper hit Breaking Away can be almost as brutal. This combines the slobs vs snobs ethos laid out in Animal House with some great quirky offbeat humor, particularly Dennis Christopher as a 19-year old who is so obsessed with racing in Italy that he tries to be Italian. Dennis Quaid, Daniel Stern and Jackie Earle Haley are all great as his buddies as are Barbra Barrie as his mother and particularly Paul Dooley as his put-upon father.

9. Nosferatu: The Vampyre

Who better to remake Murnau’s German expressionist horror classic than Werner Herzog and his “best fiend” Klaus Kinski who goes the distance as a creepy feral looking Count Dracula. Bruno Ganz is Jonathan Harker and the lovely Isabelle Adjani is his fiance who naturally catches the count’s milky eye. The opposite of today’s jump-cut scares through editing, Herzog builds atmosphere with stunning visuals while transforming the classic story into an allegory of fascism. The more people fall under Dracula’s sway the more monstrous he appears to become.

10. The Warriors

1979 found New York in the grip of a crime wave that would peak during the following decade. In that atmosphere Walter Hill’s absurd gang fantasia The Warriors was not greeted with open arms by civic leaders, nor by most movie critics. Nevertheless it’s a rollicking action b-movie populated by gangs in uniforms that make them look like escaped employees from every misbegotten theme restaurant ever devised.

11.All That Jazz

Bob Fosse’s egotistical tour through the recesses of his mind and his failing heart, with an amazing Roy Scheider as our alter-ego tour guide. Great turns by Jessica Lange, Ann Reinking and Ben Vereen, great dancing, and fluid directing make this a classic.

12.Time After Time

Silliness played with tongue in cheek makes for a sublime experience as Jack the Ripper is followed to 1979 San Francisco by H.G. Wells. Malcolm McDowell, miles away from his edgy Clockwork Orange persona, nails Wells as a Victorian geek and proto-steampunk hero. David Warner is uitably creepy and Amy Irving is a hoot as the modern day liberated chick Wells falls for. Great fun.

13. The Black Stallion

An old -fashioned high adventure story directed with verve by Carroll Ballard and gorgeously shot by Caleb Deschanel. The story of the love between a boy, a horse, and Mickey Rooney is relentlessly compelling and features unforgettable sequences including a shipwreck and the climactic race. Rooney was never better, young Kelly Reno carries his scenes effortlessly and Terri Garr is great as the mom. The horse is, of course, fantastic.

14. The Jerk

Before he became a neutered family friendly star of dreck, Steve Martin was a stand-up superstar. The Jerk was his first film, and it captured his off-key slightly surreal sensibilities perfectly – an odd blend of smart and dumb, innocence and knowing. As Navin P. Johnson, a man searching for his “special purpose”, Martin goes on the quintessential rags-to-riches American dream story, but one in which maniacs shoot at cans, inventions go very wrong, and dominatrix circus performers have their way with you. His first and probably his best.

15. The Great Santini

It’s military man Robert Duvall versus resentful son and future Jackie’s husband on Roseanne Michael O’Keefe in this flick that was badly handled by the studio until Duvall started to get Oscar buzz and recieved a best actor nom. Duvall challenges our sympathy for him as a guy who can handle every challenge except his own family. One of his best roles.