Category: Ramble Page 1 of 56

It was the year of Star Wars and The Sex Pistols—two pop culture phenonema that couldn’t be further apart which but had a lasting impact on film and music. It was a year that encapsulated escaping from things past and launching boldly into whatever was going to come next. Even NASA was playing the game, launching various test flights of its new, future-facing space shuttle. It was the year of the Queen’s silver jubilee and the UK went crazy for it; I remember street parties and celebrations. I remember my Mum dressing me up as a cavalier (cool costume!) and we went to Windsor for what I assume was the lighting of the bonfire at Snow Hill on June 6. It was also the year that I started going to see movies at the cinema.

And what was Hollywood up to …?

This marks the first year that I can finally access global box office stats. As such I won’t be using the North America box office top ten any more. While I expect the majority of the films that appear in the top ten will still be US-produced, I’m far more comfortable having a list that comes a little closer to reflecting what people around the world were paying to see at their local cinemas. However, there is also something a bit wrong in the IMDB top ten … which will be made plain if you inspect the number six entry up there. Given the ‘best films of the year’ is always going to be highly subjective, I think the IMDB list is as useful a barometer as any even if there’s something a bit skewiff with its algorithm. Either way, using both list allows me to see how the most popular contemporary films of the year relate to the most popular retrospective films of the same year.

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1976 was the year of the big summer heatwave in the UK, which I have a vague memory of as “that one time we actually got summer”. I expect I spent a lot of time in my paddling pool. It was also the year that Apple Computer Company formed and released its first computer (handy, given their name) and a space shuttle called Enterprise was unveiled. Like the real Enterprise it couldn’t actually go into space, but it was a cool bit of publicity all the same. Meanwhile, the UK and Iceland ended that third cod war, much to the relief of political superpowers across the globe.

For a while there I thought 1976 might be the year I finally saw some of these movies in the cinema: I distinctly remember watching King Kong and The Pink Panther Strikes Again on the big screen. However, given both of these movies were released on Boxing Day 1976 in the UK I very much expect I wouldn’t have seen them until the subsequent year (remember, movies hung around a lot longer back in those days!)

While neither of those movies are particularly memorable, it was otherwise an exceptionally solid year for cinema—just look at that IMDB top 5! And plenty of quality picks lower down in the list too. Let’s get into it. 

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It’s the hump year of the seventies, the year that Bill Gates and another guy [Paul Allen: let’s give credit where it’s due] founded a company called Micro-Soft and the Vietnam War ended with the fall of Saigon. Meanwhile, the UK and Iceland, obviously thinking there weren’t enough wars in the world, began their third war over cod. Finally, actor Pedro Pascal, best known for his bit part in a season 5 episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, was born. Also, some films came out. Let’s talk about those.

I can’t recall the very first time I visited the cinema. I do remember going to see various Disney rereleases (such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) and I do remember my local Odeon doing a Saturday morning cinema thing. There was at least one occasion where I decided it was more fun to run up and down the aisles than to watch the film, much to the annoyance of some of the other cinemagoers. Hopefully the fact that I remember this moment means I quickly took it to heart and was less disruptive at future screenings.

All of that’s just a roundabout way of saying that 1975 might be the year I first went to the cinema but it also might not! That said, I can definitely confirm that I didn’t see any of the movies we’re about to discuss in the year of their release. Let’s move on.

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It’s 1974—the year that Nixon resigned, ABBA won Eurovision (down in sunny old Brighton, no less), and an English teacher called Mr King published his first novel, entitled Carrie. Now, join me as we talk about none of those things.

We’re not even halfway through the seventies and we can already see one of the genres that defined the decade peaking, as well as Mel Brooks more or less single-handedly elevating the satire to blockbuster status. Not only that but we get a number of titles that could comfortably wear the title of Best Film Ever in their respective genres. It might not be my personal best year ever for cinema but it could be a pretty strong contender.

So, without any more waffle … what’s good? What’s not? What’s unseen? What’s missing? Read on!

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I’m blogging about the top ten (more or less) movies of every year since I was born. This week it’s time to delve into 1973 where things are starting to pick up.

As per above I’m using two sources for my top ten lists. First is IMDB filtered by year and sorted by Popularity (doing this with User Rating, which would seem the sensible way to go produces … unexpected results). Finding reliable box office rankings is a bit tricky, so for 1971 thru 1976 I’ll be using the North America box office published on The Numbers. From 1977 I’ll be able to use worldwide box office, which will be a bit less geographically biassed. Either way, the goal here is not to provide definite statistics, but simply to provide a nominal list of top movies from the year, both contemporary and retrospectively, with which I can then embarrass myself by revealing how many classic works of modern cinema I’ve failed to see!

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I’m blogging about the top ten (more or less) movies of every year since I was born. This week we delve into 1972.

With a couple of notable exceptions it looks like 1972 was not so much of a banner year for cinema. That being said, we’re certainly in an interesting transitional stage—budding blockbuster giants like The Godfather, The Poseidon Adventure and more traditional titles such as What’s Up Doc and Jeremiah Johnson share the stage with subversive fare like Pink Flamingos, Deep Throat while Last Tango In Paris further blurs those boundaries. We’re definitely moving … somewhere.

Unsurprisingly, this is a year of movies that I remember my parents talking about, and directly introducing me to in a few cases. Despite that, it’s remarkable how few of the titles listed above I’ve actually seen. So let’s get into it.

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I’m blogging about the top ten (more or less) movies of every year since I was born. It’s gonna take a while …

Inspired by my friend Clay’s roundup of the top 25 movies of 1999 I’ve decided to blog about the top ten (sorta) movies from every year since I was born. I won’t be fully reviewing each movie because that would be ridiculous, instead I’ll briefly share my personal connection with the movie … including whether or not I’ve even seen it! Since biggest doesn’t necessarily mean best, I’ll be working from both the box office stats for the year and the IMDB rankings. In researching this project I’ve discovered that detailed box office records aren’t available prior to 1977.

My preference going forward will be to use the worldwide box office top 10 as reference, but for 1971 through to 1976 I only have access to the US data. If anyone can point me to a better source than the above listings then please let me know in the comments.

So, 1917 was the year I was born – no, wait—1971. Obviously I didn’t go to the cinema at all that year … at least as far as I know … but I’ve definitely seen several of its movies. Read on to find out what I’ve seen, what I’ve not seen, and what I think is also worthy of note. Let’s begin!

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