The Movie Journal

Annie Hall (1977) Annie Hall was 1977’s Best Picture winner at the Oscars. I don’t think it should have been. It was a solid movie for sure, but I couldn’t buy the movie as the best film of 1977. While Woody Allen’s Bananas was a screwball comedy, this film does mark Allen’s most mature film up to this point. The comedy is still there, but the movie is deeper than in Allen’s previous efforts. Allen cited advancing age for his more philosophical views (as he turned forty in 1975 which gave him strong opinions about death.) These philosophical views involves what it means to be romantic, Jewish heritage, the ideas of getting older, the banality of life, and of course as in most Allen’s film, a love story to the great city of New York. It also has been told that the movie resembles the personal life of Woody Allen. I wouldn’t find that surprising because he did date the star of the film, Diane Keaton at one point. I thoroughly enjoyed the philosophical views that Allen had in the ...

Star Wars: Episode IV- A New Hope (1977) A cultural revolution. That is what perfectly describes Star Wars: A New Hope . Movie historians have longed said that Steven Spielberg and George Lucas gave cinema a rebirth. The early 70’s were a period for American and arthouse films, but these two men allowed movies to become fun again. According to Lucas, who created THX-1138 and American Graffiti , the purpose for this movie was just for movies to become fun again. What he did for cinema today, well we have this man to thank for it. This small low-budget sci-fi film spawned six more movies with many more to come. Star Wars has now spread across three generations, three generations of love. I love hearing stories from people who saw this when it came out in 1977. They tell me how much this cultural phenomenon impacted their lives. My father is a mega Star Wars fan, and it’s safe to say this is one of his favorite movies. How could such a small movie impact the movie business the way...

Smokey and the Bandit (1977) If you ever wanted to see what The Fast and the Furious would look like in the 1970’s, look not further than this 1977 feature, Smokey and the Bandit. The movie is filled to the rim with cars, more cars, and even more cars. The movie also displays a good amount of vehicle destruction, which is common in the forementioned Fast and Furious series. The cars were quite impressive to look at, even though I am not a big fan of car watching. If it has an engine and a steering wheel, that is okay by me. But seeing these 1970’s models was actually pretty cool. The main car was a 1977 Pontiac Trans Am, and that is my kind of ride. So if you’re into cars, then this wouldn’t be a bad film to check out. When these cars are put into action….look out! I desperately wanted to hate this movie. I refused to watch the movie for years because it did not seem so appealing. But my love for the Fast and Furious franchise got me curious to check this film out. Color me ...

A Bridge Too Far (1977) An admirable effort. That is what I can call this 1977 Richard Attenborough feature A Bridge Too Far . This movie had all the ingredients to become a war classic. A great director, an all-star cast (and that is putting it lightly), a World War Two story that no one seems to know about, and the promise of Nazis being destroyed. The thing is, the film does not live up to its full potential. In that sense, the movie is a slight disappointment. I wanted to really enjoy the movie, but I mostly got mild entertainment. Based on from what other people say, my opinion seems to be what the majority thinks. A good war movie, but it could have been much better. Now why exactly isn’t this movie heralded as an all-time favorite? I actually think the main reason lies in the story itself. The story is interesting, but it is about an Allied failure. People don’t want to see that, especially since the time of this mission was occurring as the Nazis were loosening their h...

The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) The James Bond franchise is one of those franchises that will never die. It has been going strong since the first movie rolled out in the early 1960’s, and new James Bond movies are still produced today. What makes this series unique is they use multiple actors to play the titular character over the years. They all bring their own gravitas to the role, and each Bond is a different man when compared to each other (although the martini, shaken not stirred and the beautiful women among other things remain a constant.) So my first James Bond review for this blog is 1977’s The Spy Who Loved Me. This wasn’t my first look at the series, but it was my first look at the older movies. I really liked what I saw. This is an old-fashioned story that combines a spy drama and an action-packed war movie into one package. Like many of the older Bond movies, the story can get borderline preposterous. The cheesiness of the plot did come to grow on me after awhile, even...

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) I said it before and I’ll say it again, but Steven Spielberg is a freakin’ movie-making genius. Even in the infancy of his career, you could see he was destined for big things in Hollywood. Well, he struck gold with Jaws (see my review), and now he returns with his science-fiction feature Close Encounters of the Third Kind . Along with Star Wars , you can credit this movie for bringing sci-fi back into the realm of filmmaking. That is just one of the variety of reasons why I love this movie. It is an honest, mysterious movie about extraterrestrial life. The film gives off a sense of aura of mystery and wonder that will stay with you long after the movie is over. Unlike most aliens in movies, I love how Spielberg created these beings as peaceful, friendly aliens, and that Spielberg gave his human characters that sense. In other words, no one is hell-bent on annihilating these aliens. With a wonderful cast and crew behind him, Spielberg c...

The Gauntlet (1977) If you like preposterous, over-the-top action movies, Clint Eastwood’s The Gauntlet may just be for you. Eastwood knows how to direct action, perhaps maybe too well. While the movie is often entertaining, some of the action sequences are so unrealistic that it brings me out of the movie at points. Even though the movie doesn’t take the action too seriously, it can be jarring to watch. There are two such sequences that come to mind. The first sequence is when the characters of Clint Eastwood and Sondra Locke are at a house. They are on the run from law enforcement, but it seems like the entire police force comes out to shoot the entire house down. The second sequence is perhaps the final twenty minutes of the film. Essentially, these two characters enter town in a bus with seems like the entire police force on the West Coast gunning them down. What makes everything crazy is that these characters are not even fighting back! While all of this was fun to watch, it...