Top 10 (or 11) films of … 1978

I’m doing a personal review of the top ten (more or less—usually more) movies from every year since the one I was born. This week … it was the year we all believed a man could fly. Or perhaps you didn’t. Perhaps you weren’t even born then? Meanwhile, these days we have movie characters flying off left right and centre. It must all seem so perfectly normal. Well, if either of those are you, come with me, grab your Superman crotch popcorn bucket and let’s take a walk through the past with a recap of the top movies of 1978.

Let’s kick off with a few changes to the format. Firstly, I’ve tweaked the IMDB listing to only show movies that have a certain number of ratings and are above a certain score. I’m still not sure how IMDB calculates ‘popularity’ but this modest filtering will hopefully prevent the Swedish Nympho Slaves scenario from happening in future.  

Second: given this is a personal reflection I’ve also opted to shuffle the way I list the movies below to vaguely reflect how significant they are to me (previously the order was roughly aligned with the chart listings). It’s never going to be as straightforward as my favourite movie being at the top and my least favourite at the bottom. Movies can be important to me without necessarily being titles I’d watch again and again. Nevertheless, you can view my ordering as a vague indication of preference.

Anyway, let’s go!

Superman

This is one of the few films on the list here that I saw at the cinema during its original release. Several times, if I recall correctly. The most memorable occasion was when a relative brought his family for a trip to London. My mother and I were invited to join them for dinner one evening, and that evening culminated with a visit to see Superman at one of the big Leicester Square cinemas. No idea if it was my first time seeing the film or not, but it was by far the most spectacular. Even now I remember how my little seven-year-old heart would break when Lois Lane carked it.

For my money this remains one of the best superhero movies ever made. Of course, there was a time when I thought it was a bit dull compared to the multi-Kryptonian action-fest that is Superman II, but I made my way back to the original in time (and this was all well before I learned about the behind the scenes shenanigans).

My son studied this movie for ATAR English last year, which gave me yet another opportunity to revisit it, and to enjoy his thoughts on it. I always remember the epic feel that the movie had, ranging from Kal El’s birth to Superman’s first steps into adulthood and his double life and, finally, his victory over Lex Luthor. It fascinates me now how economical those early scenes are. Far from being something of a short movie in its own right, the Krypton and Smallville scenes only take up about 20 minutes of the running time. Marlon Brando was famously paid millions for just a few minutes of screen time but was worth every penny. Those opening scenes, and Brando’s gravitas, perfectly set the tone for the rest of the movie.

I only wish that Christopher Reeve’s superb, iconic portrayal of the man of steel hadn’t been so wasted on increasingly inferior sequels. Gone too soon.

Halloween

And here we come to what I’m fairly comfortable viewing as the commercial birth of the slasher genre (building on creative blocks that were well established over the preceding years). I suspect when I first saw Halloween I semi-dismissed it as just a good example of a slasher movie, only coming to appreciate its standing in later years. I have seen many, many slasher movies in my time since and most of those make it very easy to see how effectively John Carpenter crafts this breakthrough movie. Perhaps it’s one of those merry confluences of low budget and limited creative interference but this is a good example of a simple story, well told. It doesn’t rush, but it gets the job done.

I watched this most recently on 4k with my wife, who had never seen it before. She was the first person who pointed out to me that, despite the film being set in fall, and the gardens being suitably littered with brown leaves, the trees in every scene otherwise remained a defiant, bright green! I’d literally never noticed before. It turns out that filming took place in Spring. The brown leaves were not only handmade but were painstakingly gathered up after each scene because there was no money to replace them. I guess this explains why there are several scenes that make a big point of featuring fall leaves swirling around the characters. In my case, at least, it was enough to sell the season.

Invasion Of The Body Snatchers

One of my top ten favourite films (so why isn’t it at the top of the list, you ask). I first saw this on a TV broadcast with my Dad, and I’m pretty sure it was during a visit with the extended family. Certainly an interesting movie to watch while in the company of a range of family members.

For a time I thought this was a slightly schlocky retelling, compromised by the limitations and kitsch vision of seventies film-makers. I was, quite naturally, wrong. I rediscovered this through Alex Cox’s Moviedrome series, and later when it was first released on DVD (complete with a fascinating commentary by the director). There are so many things about this film that are so effective, and done so well, that I can’t possibly list them here without taking over this entire post, but let’s just settle for the fact that it drips with unease right from the start. You don’t quite know what’s wrong, but you know that something is. Every single person in the cast is perfect and it’s particularly refreshing to see Leonard Nimoy in a non-Spock role. And, this being a seventies thriller, there’s no guarantee that everything’s going to be ok in the end.

Grease

I remember the charts being absolutely dominated by songs from Grease, and I’m pretty sure I even owned the cassette tape of the soundtrack. As such I knew the songs long before I finally sat down to watch the movie sometime (perhaps) in my early twenties. 

I was sold instantly. The title song starts the movie with a huge burst of energy, with the animated title sequence further helping to get you right in the mood, and it barely lets up for the first twenty minutes or so. We get to have a bit of a breather, another handful of hits, and then the movie ends with one of the best pop songs ever written and rompacious musical finale. It still blows my mind that You’re The One That I Want was written specifically for the film and wasn’t part of the original stage musical.

It also makes me chuckle that Stockard Channing—who, as Rizzo, is easily my favourite character in the film—was well into her thirties when she filmed this despite being cast as a school-aged teen. I guess it gave her world-weary performance a degree of authority that worked for the character.

National Lampoon’s Animal House

Now this is a film I haven’t revisited for quite some years. It was a favourite of mine through my twenties, and I would still say it’s one of the archetypical frathouse comedies (would we have American Pie without Animal House, for example?). However, for all its great and memorable moments it was a raucous and edgy film even for the seventies, so how is it going to play now when our sensibilities are so very different and some of the jokes may go down about as well as a red baseball cap at an LGBTQ+ parade?

It’s likely that same edginess that drew me to Animal House in the first place—that sense that you’re watching something a little bit forbidden. For all that, though, I think the reason the film remains a favourite is that it does have some heart to it. One of its themes really is about those moments where children take their first faltering steps into independence and adulthood—and those steps can go in very different directions. It’s got a fascist getting their comeuppance, which is never a bad thing. It’s also got the very brilliant Richard Vernon as the school dean, utterly unable to comprehend and unwilling to accept how these humans he is responsible for can be quite so deranged. It’s even got Donald Sutherland in a memorable role, even though his screen time barely amounts to a cameo.

In the end it’s a brilliant confluence of casting, script and other elements that made this, in my opinion, the best of the National Lampoon movies and pioneering example of the teen comedy.

The Deer Hunter

This has been sitting on my rewatch list for quite some time, mainly because I want to introduce my older son to it as another iconic example of the seventies movie (following on from our Godfather viewing). At the time of its release this is what I might term one of those ‘playground movies’. It was a film that got heavily discussed at school, typically in the playground, among my peer group, even though none of us were old enough to see it. These discussions would often be spawned from someone who had an older brother or sister who had been to see the movie and had revealed all. In this case it’s, of course, the iconic russian roulette scene that caused The Deer Hunter to be such a hot topic.

I studied this one at University but I don’t think that was the first time I saw it. It’s a tricky film. Too long and meandering, not to mention tough, to be truly enjoyable, yet so perfectly crafted that you can’t help but get lost in it. It’s got the dream seventies cast, including Meryl Streep in a breakout role and John Cazale in his final performance—the two were partners at the time; Cazale had been diagnosed with terminal cancer, and Streep largely took the role to be close to him. In fact, when the film’s producers were unable to secure insurance for Cazale (due to the likelihood of him dying during filming) de Niro stumped up the money so Cazale could remain in the movie. It’s a tragic underpinning that entirely works with the themes of the film.

Robert de Niro anchors the film with a character performance that’s an absolute 180 from Travis Bickle, while Christopher Walken and John Savage sell the psychological cost of the Vietnam War on those who were made to fight it. One to watch at least once.

Dawn Of The Dead

Arguably one of the best and most important zombie movies ever made? This sits perfectly between the frequently allegorical seventies movies that carved out the standards and tropes of the horror genre, and the eighties entries that turned its popularity up to eleven, boosted by all the gory tricks that modern special effects could deliver. Stylistically it seems to bear almost no relation to its predecessor, Night Of The Living Dead, even though it takes a similar premise: a group of mismatched survivors holed up in a single location trying to withstand the onslaught of hungry zombies. It doesn’t need to work as a sequel, though: it’s entirely its own film.

I’ve only seen this one a few times (and the 4k version I stumped up silly amounts of cash for a few years ago is still on the rewatch list). Having encapsulated it in my head as a movie centred around a shopping mall, I was surprised on a recent(ish)viewing to find that there’s quite a bit of setup. It’s a bit like discovering a secret extra part of an already excellent movie, plus you get that awesome scene of a zombie being scalped by a helicopter. 

Of course you can’t escape the commentary on capitalism baked into the movie, which is no less relevant today—perhaps more so—than it was back in the seventies when the idea of focusing all of your spending in one convenient location was fairly new (it might have been fun to set this in a department store instead, but that seems so fifties in comparison). You can read it any way you want—are the zombies the mindless shoppers determined to get at the goodies held inside the store, or are they the relentless forces of capitalism, coming to swallow us all? Either way, it still works. It’s bleak, thoughtful and exhilarating, in the way that George Romero is so good at.

Watership Down

I saw this one at the cinema. I guess my mother thought it would be a cute cartoon about rabbits, not suspecting that it would traumatise my entire generation. Or, perhaps, she thought it would be entirely up my alley given she bought me the glossy photonovel book as well—I would spend hours poring over that book and I wish I still owned it today. The graphic design was excellent and you’d never believe you could make a bunny rabbit look so terrifying.

The film has had a fairly modest history on home video, and I can’t recall ever seeing it on TV. As such I’ve quite possibly not seen it since the original cinema release. Even then, images from it are seared into my brain (thanks, again, to that book) and I think about it often. 

Update: I just noticed this was available on one of my streaming services so I decided to give it a rewatch. I did not retraumatize myself, fortunately, but this does belong to that seemingly extinct breed of children’s movies that didn’t shy away from the horror. The brutality of General Woundwort, and especially his final showdown with the farm dog, still packs a punch. There’s an early scene of the rabbits escaping through a forest at night that does everything it can to scare the crap out of tiny viewers. Even the opening narration features a peaceful grazing pack of rabbits being turned into bloody corpses. There’s a more recent 2018 version (a two episode TV adaptation) that I now feel compelled to check out for comparison.

Heaven Can Wait

I went to the cinema to see this, possibly on a rerelease. Either way, this means a preteen version of me voluntarily took himself to the cinema to see a romantic comedy about Warren Beatty’s premature death. I remember not disliking it and even being quite absorbed in the premise. I was particularly curious about how Beatty’s character could get reincarnated in someone else’s body and still look like Warren Beatty (of course, by the time Quantum Leap came about this sort of thing all became fairly routine). I’ve never rewatched it since and, even though it’s pretty highly regarded, I do feel there are plenty of other films for me to watch first.

Days Of Heaven

This is in the basket of films that I feel I should probably like far more than I do. I’ve seen it precisely once and, despite the critical praise lavished upon it, have never managed to muster much enthusiasm for a repeat viewing. It’s Terrence Malick’s second film and the last one he would make until The Thin Red Line, twenty years later. Famously, so the story goes, it was filmed entirely during golden hour—the short period in the day when the sun has dipped behind the horizon but there is still light … and no shadows. That’s less than 30 minutes per day. And it seems that Malick abandoned the original script and more or less made it up as he went along. A unique filmmaking process to be sure.

About all I remember of the final film is that it starred Brooke Adams, who I recognised from Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (I guess this was a busy year for her) Almost nothing about the story has remained with me, and even the visuals—likely diminished by watching in DVD quality—didn’t prove especially memorable. I imagine it’s a movie I would appreciate a lot more now so I’ve added it to the “top ten rewatch list” and I will update this post if and when I get around to that rewatch.

In the meantime, why not watch Alex Cox’s Moviedrome introduction.

Jaws 2

My first experience of this mostly acceptable sequel was on VHS. My father and I were visiting friends one weekend and the decision was made to rent a movie (I guess the adults were all tired of talking to one another). This is back when renting was still quite new and exciting. The video shop was full of posters for Alien but sadly I was deemed too young for that one so we ended up renting Jaws 2 instead. (Based on the release dates, this would have probably been around the middle of 1981).

When we reached the finale of the shark being electrocuted and bursting into flame, eyeballs and all, I exclaimed that I wished I could see that again. I was used to the cinema, or TV, where you were one and done, no rewind, no repeat. Our host obligingly grabbed the remote and rewound the scene which meant I got to see it backwards as well! This was a huge revelation for me and may well have been that first trigger that eventually made collecting movies on video such a major part of my life.

And the rest of the film was ok too. Probably.

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The Unseen

Of the unseen I have little interest in seeing Hooper. There’s just something about these generic Burt Reynolds movies that holds virtually no interest for me. I might have seen Every Which Way But Loose (I‘ve certainly seen one of the movies in which Clint Eastwood co-starred with an orang-utan) but I don’t remember it. I’ve almost certainly seen Revenge Of the Pink Panther but since I remember literally nothing about it I’ve opted to include it down here.

I am interested in watching Death On The Nile sometime, mainly because I had quite a good time watching the recent Kenneth Branagh remake. I should probably let a bit more time pass first, however, to avoid unfair comparisons (on either side). Same deal for Murder On The Orient Express for that matter.

The Notables

No real notables outside of the top tens listed above for me but it would be negligent of me not to call out Piranha. I rented this on VHS back in the day and thoroughly enjoyed it. What’s not to love about a movie featuring killer piranha (even the remake was pretty good fun). It has been some years since I last watched it but I’m sure it’s just as entertaining as I remember (and given I still love The Howling and Gremlins, two other Joe Dante titles, that’s probably a fairly safe bet).

UK Top Ten

1. Star Wars
2. Close Encounters
3. Superman
4. Grease
5. Saturday Night Fever
6. Game Of Death
7. Revenge Of The Pink Panther
8. The Wild Geese
9. Herbie Goes To Monte Carlo
10. The Stud

A few changes in the UK top ten but it’s mostly noteworthy for that ongoing phenomenon of last year’s US hits becoming this year’s UK box office toppers. There’s also quite a distance between the top five entries, all bona fide blockbusters, and the next five movies which seem to illustrate the slightly different tastes over in the UK. Those Herbie movies really were popular when I was growing up!

A special shout out for The Wild Geese, which I watched with my mother on its UK TV premiere and it had quite an impact on me. It’s a rollicking war-themed adventure story, but it’s also a pretty gritty tale that nicely reflected the artistic sensibilities of UK cinema at the time (which seemed to veer between tawdry sex comedies and often brutal thrillers). I dug this out again a few years back (I’d more or less forgotten about it) and it remained good fun, and a world away from the more self-glorifying breed of US military thriller.

Next time: in 1979 no one could hear you scream …