1975 – One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Time to catch up on some Best Pictures!
I’m not sure what initiated my aversion to Hollywood mental institutions and potentially horrifying neurological treatments that are so capitalized on by horror flicks, but I did not love this film. The movie’s tagline is “If he’s crazy, what does that make you?”
I have an irrational fear of all things old-and-sketchy-mental-hospital-ish. When I was in high school, there was an abandoned “home for mental defectives” in town that was rumored to be haunted by the children who were thought to be experimented on for sixty-some years. I cinched my chances of becoming cool by declining an invitation to sneak in and graffiti the place. Well, perhaps it’s not so irrational. Johnny Got His Gun, anyone?
Okay, this film wasn’t all that bad. After all, it was just the second of our Best Picture winners to win all five major Academy Awards (after It Happened One Night for Best Picture, Actor, Actress, Director, and Screenplay). Jack Nicholson is pretty crazy always, so he did an outstanding job as faking-crazy Randle McMurphy. McMurphy is soon challenged by the kindly-frightening Nurse Ratched — who I always thought was Nurse “Ratchet,” though the play on “wretched” does make more sense — and her general threatening power over all her patients. I rooted for McMurphy’s rallying of his fellow patients, only to hate Ratched’s tightening grip over them all. So I went through the emotions I was supposed to in that way. The ’70s must have been a terribly depressing decade with all the death and unhappy endings given high ratings in film.
I will say that I watched some of this film again more recently, and I was able to appreciate it more since I knew what would happen. And it is listed as a must-see on our National Film Registry, so you should probably make time for it. But its contribution to my distrust of hospital staff has not waned.
1974 – The Godfather Part II
After watching the first Godfather, I wanted to see Parts II and III immediately because I was so drawn into the Mafia world of the Corleone family. I was restrained by my husband wisely restrained myself to wait until after 1973′s The Sting, but I held great excitement for reuniting with the Corleone family soon.
Truth be told, it was kind-of a let down. Sequels have a tough break trying to live up to the original greatness of their predecessors, and this situation was no different. I had a hard time following the plot through characters and locations and backstabbing — and not just because the story hops back and forth between Michael’s control of the Corleone family in the years following Vito’s death and flashbacks to Vito’s younger days as a new emigrant before he became the legendary Godfather. The flashbacks, which were part of Mario Puzo’s book but not included in the first Godfather movie, were very enlightening. I would have liked to see an entire prequel movie dedicated to Vito’s earlier days. Robert De Niro portrays a very respectable yet unassuming Vito Corleone. He definitely lays the retroactive groundwork for Marlon Brando’s winsome Godfather creation. However the absence of Brando in this second film takes its toll. Marlon Brando trumps Al Pacino as lead any day. But, then, maybe that’s the message of this sequel—a son trying to live up to his father’s legacy.
Either way, I have yet to watch Part III.
Question for my fellow Godfather fans: Have you read The Godfather novel? How does it compare to the film? After falling in love with the characters, I think I’d like to read the inspiration behind it all.
1973 – The Sting
It won’t stick out as my favorite movie of all time, but I did really enjoy this film. I am fond of this genre of heist films in the vein of Maverick (1994) and Ocean’s Eleven/Twelve/Thirteen (2001/2004/2007), and in that realm, The Sting is certainly a best movie list standard.
Robert Redford (if you listen closely, you can hear my mother swoon) plays Johnny Hooker, a con man whose partner in crime is murdered by a mobster upset about one of their cons. Hooker then travels under the radar to Chicago to meet up with Henry Gondorff (actor Paul Newman, not to be confused with Gandalf), a quasi-retired, seasoned con man who teams up with Hooker to avenge their murdered friend by way of a long con. The story is split into the steps for carrying out a perfect con, almost as if you’re reading chapters in a book of live action. The plot sufficiently twists and surprises, as a good caper should, leading to a climactic flourish of incredibly well thought out swindling.
Oddly, the film’s musical theme is Scott Joplin’s “The Entertainer” from 1902, even though the film is set in the 1930s. Ragtime as a fad faded by 1920, but was revived in the early 1970s (thanks to this film), which may explain the overkill in a story removed from the theme’s relevance.
After winning seven Academy Awards in 1974, The Sting was appointed to the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry in 2005 for being “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant. The Sting is definitely not the first of its kind, trailing classic film noir by thirty years, but who can deny the magic of Robert Redford?
1972 – The Godfather
To tell you the truth, I was dreading this film. I thought it was all shooting and blood and guts and severed horse heads. But I was so wrong. I absolutely loved this film.
I adored Marlon Brando as Don Vito Corleone and now want to see all of his other films (Paramount nearly made a huge mistake refusing Brando the part). I enjoyed the constant focus on and presence of family, including children, such that each family member understood his/her purpose. I fell for the suits and cars and gender tension of the Italian-American 1940s — so sexy. I loved that any action scenes throughout the film were overshadowed by intense emotions and deep character development (despite Paramount’s attempts to generate a “hit” by squeezing in additional thrill sequences). And I like that men have been the primary advocates of this film, exposing tangible depth within the gender far more impressive than many stereotypes give them credit.
Don Vito Corleone, the Godfather, is head of the fictional Corleone family living in the Cosa Nostra (Mafia) world of New York City in the 1940s. The film is based on the 1969 novel by Mario Puzo, who also composed the screenplay. I won’t go into all the details because you really should see this film yourself. There are a lot of family members and friends of the family and enemies of the family and connections between them all, but Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola somehow make it possible to follow every detail. The deep drama that carries the viewer throughout is nearly palpable.
I don’t care who you are — if you don’t fall in love with Don Vito by the end, you weren’t paying attention. All the hype surrounding this film is well-deserved. See it.
