1978--The Year in Review

Perhaps this is not the best year of the 1970s, but it's not a mediocre one at all. The top 20 films here scream out joyously and fantastically to the Earth. And the top choice, battered as it may now be, still stands as a prime example of world cinema. It shook me to my core then, and it still does today. And I cannot fail to hail my top director, who really establishes his lyrical voice here. Plus, nearly the best music documentary of all time, and terrific horror, comedy, thrillers, spoofs, war movies, documentaries, rock n’ roll (great year for that!), UK and US television, and the first notable comic book movie (though that now seems like a execrable curse, even as this one set the template). By the way, please check out Special Delivery, the seven-minute choice for Best Animated Short--you will NOT be sorry. Treat yourself! It’s marvelous. And, yes…also…I love Scorsese's The Last Waltz. A masterpiece, that! It makes me cry with utter ecstasy. But so does, ever so slightly more importantly, Michael Cimino's heartbreaking wartime story. NOTE: These are MY choices for each category, and are only occasionally reflective of the selections made by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (aka The Oscars). When available, the nominee that actually won the Oscar will be highlighted in bold. 

PICTURE: THE DEER HUNTER (US, Michael Cimino)
(2nd: The Last Waltz (US, Martin Scorsese)
followed by: Days of Heaven (US, Terrence Malick)
Interiors (US, Woody Allen)
Straight Time (US, Ulu Grosbard)
The Tree of Wooden Clogs (Italy, Ermanno Olmi)
An Unmarried Woman (US, Paul Mazursky)
Who’ll Stop The Rain (US, Karel Reisz)
Blue Collar (US, Paul Schrader)
Halloween (US, John Carpenter)
Gates of Heaven (US, Errol Morris)
The Silent Partner (Canada, Darryl Duke)
Midnight Express (UK, Alan Parker)
Coming Home (US, Hal Ashby)
The End (US, Burt Reynolds)
An Enemy of the People (US, George Schaefer)
Superman (US, Richard Donner)
National Lampoon’s Animal House (US, John Landis)
The Rutles: All You Need is Cash (US, Eric Idle and Gary Weis)
I Wanna Hold Your Hand (US, Robert Zemeckis)
Dawn of the Dead (US, George A. Romero)
Killer of Sheep (US, Charles Barnett)
Girlfriends (US, Claudia Weill)
Autumn Sonata (Sweden, Ingmar Bergman)
Koko: A Talking Gorilla (West Germany, Barbet Schroeder)
Watership Down (US, Martin Rosen)
Get Out Your Handkerchiefs (France, Bertrand Blier)
Scared Straight! (US, Arnold Shapiro)
Martin (US, George A. Romero)
Magic (UK, Richard Attenborough)
The Buddy Holly Story (US, Steve Rash)
A Wedding (US, Robert Altman)
Heaven Can Wait (US, Warren Beatty and Buck Henry)
American Boy (US, Martin Scorsese)
The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (Australia, Fred Schepisi)
Pretty Baby (US, Louis Malle)
Go Tell the Spartans (US, Ted Post)
The Brink's Job (US, William Friedkin)
Fingers (US, James Toback)
Summer of My German Soldier (US, Michael Tuchner)
La Cage aux Folles (France, Edouard Molinaro)
Big Wednesday (US, John Milius)
China 9, Liberty 37 (Italy, Monte Hellman)
Drunken Master (Hong Kong, Woo-Ping Yuen)
American Hot Wax (US, Floyd Mutrux)
Coma (US, Michael Crichton)
The Fury (US, Brian De Palma)
Up in Smoke (US, Lou Adler)
Death on the Nile (UK, John Guillermin)
The Lord of the Rings (US, Ralph Bakshi)
Stevie (UK, Robert Enders)
Foul Play (US, Colin Higgins)
Despair (West Germany, Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
The Legacy (UK, Richard Marquand)
The Boys From Brazil US, Franklin J. Schaffner)
Grease (US, Randall Kleiser)
Sextette (US, Ken Hughes))

ACTOR: Dustin Hoffman, STRAIGHT TIME (2nd: Anthony Hopkins, Magic, followed by: Robert De Niro, The Deer Hunter; Christopher Reeve, Superman; Richard Pryor, Blue Collar; Jon Voight, Coming Home; Gary Busey, The Buddy Holly Story; Elliott Gould, The Silent Partner)

ACTRESS: Jill Clayburgh, AN UNMARRIED WOMAN (2nd: Geraldine Page, Interiors, followed by: Jane Fonda, Coming Home; Ingrid Bergman, Autumn Sonata; Tuesday Weld, Who’ll Stop The Rain; Genevieve Bujold, Coma; Melanie Mayron, Girlfriends; Glenda Jackson, Stevie) 

SUPPORTING ACTOR: Christopher Walken, THE DEER HUNTER (2nd: John Cazale, The Deer Hunter, followed by: Yaphet Kotto, Blue Collar; Christopher Plummer, The Silent Partner; Dom Deluise, The End; Harry Dean Stanton, Straight Time; Bruce Dern, Coming Home; John Hurt, Midnight Express)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Maureen Stapleton, INTERIORS (2nd: Mary Beth Hurt, Interiors, followed by: Linda Manz, Days of Heaven; Theresa Russell, Straight Time; Meryl Streep, The Deer Hunter; Diane Keaton, Interiors; Maggie Smith California Suite; Wendy Jo Sperber, I Wanna Hold Your Hand)



DIRECTOR: Michael Cimino, THE DEER HUNTER (2nd: Terrence Malick, Days of Heaven, followed by: Martin Scorsese, The Last Waltz; Woody Allen, Interiors; John Carpenter, Halloween; Paul Mazursky, An Unmarried Woman; Alan Parker, Midnight Express; Paul Schrader, Blue Collar)



NON-ENGLISH-LANGUAGE FILM: THE TREE OF WOODEN CLOGS (Italy, Ermanno Olmi) (2nd: Autumn Sonata (Sweden, Ingmar Bergman), followed by: Get Out Your Handkerchiefs (France, Bertrand Blier); La Cage aux Folles (France, Edouard Molinaro); Drunken Master (Hong Kong, Woo-Ping Yuen))



DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: THE LAST WALTZ (US, Martin Scorsese) (2nd: Gates of Heaven (US, Errol Morris), followed by: Koko: A Talking Gorilla (West Germany, Barbet Schroeder); Scared Straight! (US, Arnold Shapiro); American Boy (US, Martin Scorsese))



ANIMATED FEATURE: WATERSHIP DOWN (US, Martin Rosen) (2nd: The Lord of the Rings (US, Ralph Bakshi)


 
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Michael Cimino, Derek Washburn, Quinn Redeker and Louis Garfinkle, THE DEER HUNTER (2nd: Paul Schrader and Leonard Schrader, Blue Collar, followed by: Paul Mazursky, An Unmarried Woman; Woody Allen, Interiors; Jerry Belson, The End)



ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Alvin Sargent, Edward Bunker and Jeffery Boam, STRAIGHT TIME (2nd: Judith Rascoe and Robert Stone, Who'll Stop the Rain?, followed by: Alexander Jacobs and Arthur Miller, An Enemy of the People; Curtis Hanson, The Silent Partner; Oliver Stone, Midnight Express)



ANIMATED SHORT: SPECIAL DELIVERY (Canada, Eunice Macauley and John Weldon) (2nd: Rip Van Winkle (US, Will Vinton), followed by: The Small One (US, Don Bluth); The Metamorphosis of Mr. Samsa (Canada, Caroline Leaf); Afterlife (Canada, Ishu Patel))

LIVE ACTION SHORT: HARDWARE WARS (US, Ernie Fossellus) (2nd: Within the Woods (US, Sam Raimi), followed by: Teenage Father (US, Taylor Hackford); Xenogenesis (US, James Cameron and Randall Frakes)

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Nestor Almendros and Haskell Wexler, DAYS OF HEAVEN (2nd: Michael Chapman, Laszlo Kovacs and Vilmos Zsigmond, The Last Waltz, followed by Vilmos Zsigmond, The Deer Hunter; Gordon Willis, Interiors; Dean Cundey, Halloween)

ART DIRECTION: INTERIORS, The Wiz, The Brink’s Job, Heaven Can Wait, Days of Heaven

COSTUME DESIGN: THE WIZ, Death on the Nile, Days of Heaven, Pretty Baby, Interiors



FILM EDITING: THE DEER HUNTER, The Last Waltz, Midnight Express, Straight Time, National Lampoon’s Animal House

SOUND: THE DEER HUNTER, The Last Waltz, Days of Heaven, Midnight Express, Superman



ORIGINAL SCORE: John Carpenter, HALLOWEEN (2nd: Giorgio Moroder, Midnight Express, followed by: John Williams, Superman; Jerry Goldsmith, The Boys from Brazil; Jerry Goldsmith, Magic)



SCORING OF A MUSICAL/ADAPTATION SCORING: Joe Renzetti, THE BUDDY HOLLY STORY (2nd: Neil Innes, The Rutles: All You Need is Cash, followed by: Louis St. Louis, Grease)



ORIGINAL SONG: “Hopelessly Devoted to You” from GREASE (Music and lyrics by John Farrar) (2nd: “Can You Read My Mind” from Superman (Music by John Williams, lyrics by Leslie Bricusse), followed by: “FM (No Static at All)” from FM (Music and lyrics by Donald Fagan and Walter Becker); “Last Dance” from Thank God It’s Friday (Music and lyrics by Paul Jabara); "Grease" from Grease (Music and lyrics by Barry Gibb); “Another Fine Mess” from The End (Music and lyrics by Paul Williams); “Ready to Take a Chance Again” from Foul Play (Music by Charles Fox, lyrics by Norman Gimbel); "Through the Eyes of Love" from Ice Castles (Music by Marvin Hamlisch, lyrics by Carole Bayer Sager))

SPECIAL EFFECTS: SUPERMAN

MAKEUP: THE WIZ, Dawn of the Dead, Superman

NYFF Review #5: The Robber

The Robber, by Germany's Benjamin Heisenberg, is an unfortunate dud. It's based on a true story about Johannes Rettenberger (taciturn Andreas Lust), a convict who trained day in and day out, running on the treadmill, throughout his spotless stay in prison. Upon his release, he starts up three projects: (1) a romance with the social worker who lands him a job (Franziska Weisz, the movie's best feature), (2) a career as a champion marathon runner, and (3) a continuation of a shadow career as a masked bank robber who couldn't care less about the money he's amassing (stonefaced throughout, Lust's Rettenberger lets loose only one smile, after winning his first marathon).

Sounds good, right? It's not. Not if you've seen Ulu Grosbard's Straight Time, an infinitely better look at a convict trying and failing to go square. This movie apes that one step for step for its first hour, and then tries to pull its fat out of the fire by showing us a lot of running, by a man who's as hooked on adrenaline as Dustin Hoffman's Max Dembo was in Grosbard's film. Only problem is, Rettenberger is a dead man through and through. He's healthier than all of us, but he's resigned himself to the grave. However, Dembo was a clever, dashing man who wanted to live. Hardy or not, it's very easy to die when you're a man who has no taste for life anymore, as Rettenberger is. (And, by the way, why the heck was this movie called The Robber? Wouldn't The Runner have been a more apt title?)

So, given that glaring misstep, what is it that director Heisenberg is having us watch? A hale lamb going to the slaughter? No thanks. As fascinating and questionable Rettenberger's disconnect might be, the movie fails to make me care how fleetly he can escape, or how how eloquently the camera can keep him in frame (and there are some exciting moments on that score). The Robber is still stands largely as a waste of time. Go and watch Straight Time instead. I'm almost sure you haven't seen it yet. And BONUS: you actually mind what happens to our antihero.

Film #44: Straight Time

Since 1972, Dustin Hoffman had been obsessed with making Straight Time, an adaptation of ex-convict Ed Bunker's novel No Beast So Fierce. It was meant to be the actor's directorial debut but, concluding that directing and performing were chores too big for him to handle in tandem, he brought in British director Ulu Grosbard to helm things behind the camera. Good move, because in 1978's sadly forgotten Straight Time Hoffman was obviously able to concentrate heavily on his
character. He's at his best as Max Dembo, a small-time thief who, upon his prison release, tries mightily to straighten up while fighting a bureaucracy that's cruelly written him off as a lost cause. Gary Busey (who appears with his then-young son Jake) is the lovable "Big Bear" whose kindness and slow-witted speed get the best of him. And Harry Dean Stanton hits a career high with a knotted-up portrayal of a restless ex-con who joins forces with Max in what is surely one of the most tense jewel heist scenes ever filmed. M. Emmett Walsh is a VERY assholish probation officer who gets his comeuppance. Kathy Bates (thin!) is Busey's long-suffering wife. And the crown of ALL these great performances here goes to the beautiful, smart, transfixing Theresa Russell, whose showing as Dembo's understanding---maybe TOO understanding--girlfriend was a career-maker. I could watch Russell all day, because there's something there behind those beautiful eyes!

The writer, Ed Bunker, also cameos quite stunningly in Straight Time as Mickey, one of Dembo's shadowy associates. People should know that the autobiographical novel this was based on was written by Bunker while he was still in prison (he wanted to give the cons out there something to read about, so he says)! Bunker followed this movie with appearances in Miracle Mile, The Running Man, Walter Hill's The Long Riders and, most famously, as the ill-fated, under-used Mr. Blue in Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs. With its accuracy, grittiness, intimacy and cruelty, his Straight Time is one of the greatest crime films ever made.