Wednesday, April 3, 2019

My Actual Top Ten Films of 1979

This is part of my continuing series looking back on films from the years before I began this blog. The ten films below are unranked and listed in no particular order. Enjoy.  

Really, this time.

Apocalypse Now - Francis Ford Coppola's journey into the heart of darkness of the Vietnam War had a famously disastrous production.  However, the resulting film is easily the most iconic screen depiction of the folly of America's misadventures in Southeast Asia. Even now, mere mention of the Vietnam War tends to conjure visions of napalmed jungles, helicopters flying to Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries," and the bald visage of a hulking Marlon Brando.  "Apocalypse Now" helped to define an era of American war films and American filmmaking that we're still seeing the influence of to this day.

Real Life - Before reality television really got off the ground, Albert Brooks made a spoof of "An American Family" that was pretty prescient as to where the entertainment industry was going.  In his attempts to capture "real life," Brooks' ambitious documentarian just ends up manufacturing drama left and right. The buildup is gradual, and the laughs are on the gentler side, but there's some fantastic skewering of the media and American social norms.  And as we all know, life under the microscope of constant surveillance has only grown more pervasive and more destructive in the Internet age.

Kramer vs Kramer - Parenthood is not for the faint of heart,  and it's a rare film that really captures the frustrations and the hard-fought rewards of caring for small children.  Though often billed as a legal drama, this is really a character piece, one that is the most effective when it charts the transformation of Dustin Hoffman's character from distant workaholic to loving and involved father.  It's not a pleasant transformation either, full of raw emotions and constant conflict. The notorious offscreen frictions between Hoffman and Meryl Streep are very apparent throughout - to the film's benefit.

Lupin the Third: The Castle of Cagliostro - Though Hayao Miyazaki's version of Lupin III has been criticized for straying too far from the source material, there's no question that "The Castle of Cagliostro" is the best piece of Lupin media ever made.  Full of delightful set-pieces and bits of zany comedy, the animated caper film shows the early Miyazaki at his most energetic and creative. However, what makes it so memorable is this underlying sweetness to the adventure and the film's worldview. Lupin and Zenigata may be mortal enemies, but they're on the same side when it counts.    

Stalker - I get a rare feeling of accomplishment after finishing a Andrei Tarkovsky film, because it feels like I've been somewhere tangible and I've experienced something profound, even though I can't put it into words. The trip to the Zone in "Stalker" is one of Tarkovsky's most unforgettable, the best example of his treatment of filmmaking as "sculpting in time."  The astounding cinematography, and the use of sound and color, create an otherworldly place using very few resources. The narrative is so sparse, the film almost feels experimental at times. And yet, the film's mysteries remain deep and compelling.

Nosferatu the Vampyre - Werner Herzog's homage to Murnau's masterpiece is a great film in its own right.  With Isabelle Adjani and Klaus Kinski's performances, a drastically reworked story, and a tiny crew, Herzog is able to summon up an atmosphere of fantastic dread and mystery.  I especially adore Kinski's take on the creature, a menacing but pitiful vampire who is so fundamentally strange. He looks like the Max Shreck original, but Kinski delivers a performance that is entirely his own.  Of the three major "Dracula" adaptations released in 1979, the new "Nosferatu" is by far the most successful.

All That Jazz - The greatest and most personal of Bob Fosse's films is eerily prescient in retrospect.  The main character, Joe Gideon, is a flawed genius with a load of unresolved personal issues and bad habits.  However, his inner world is full of joyous creativity, as illustrated by some of the most exquisitely staged musical numbers of all time.  Roy Scheider gives the performance of his career, singing and dancing and emoting with everything he had. One of my favorite moments in all of cinema is that final fantasy number that sends him off into the unknown with a feat of magnificent spectacle.  

Monty Python's Life of Brian - The Pythons don't exactly spoof the life of Christ here. They were quite careful to be respectful, and keep him mostly offscreen.  However, they have no compunctions about skewering Christianity and religion in general, using the Christ-ish figure of Brian, who is mistaken for the Messiah. Full of naughty irreverence, gleeful absurdity, sly satire, and ending with a cheerful crucifixion song number, "Life of Brian" is nothing if not nervy.  However, it is also such a thoughtful and occasionally even profound film, with a keen intelligence that keeps viewers on their toes.

The Black Stallion - While the latter parts of the film that take place in civilization are engaging enough, the early scenes of the boy and the horse shipwrecked in the wilderness together are truly sublime.  There's almost no dialogue, but we see their friendship develop onscreen through their interactions, aided by lovely cinematography and music. Surely there has never been another silver screen horse who has displayed so much personality while retaining such a sense of wildness and unknowability.  And there have been precious few films with the same degree of empathy for its animal characters.

The Muppet Movie - Another cornerstone of my movie-loving childhood.  The big screen debut of the Muppets is one of their best outings. It has the best songs, the best jokes, and a heart so big that thinking about the film's ending never fails to make me smile.  It was also quietly a great technical achievement, full of clever special effects that allowed a puppet frog to ride a bicycle, and a bear to drive a Studebaker across America. The film' references and cameos don't play so well anymore, but  the warmth and the spirit of the fuzzy heroes hasn't aged a day.
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