My Favorite Films of 1978

"I spent eight years trying to reach him, and then another seven trying to keep him locked up, because I realized that what was living behind that boy's eyes was purely and simply... evil."

Directed by John Carpenter
Written by John Carpenter and Debra Hill
Music by John Carpenter
Cinematography by Dean Cundey
Editing by Charles Bornstein and Tommy Lee Wallace

"I'm thinking about the deer. Going to 'Nam. I like the trees, you know? I like the way that the trees are on mountains, all the different... the way the trees are."

Directed by Michael Cimino
Written by Michael Cimino, Deric Washburn, Louis Garfinkle and Quinn K. Redeker
Music by Stanley Myers
Cinematography by Vilmos Zsigmond
Editing by Peter Zinner

"I respect a man that's good at what he does. I'll tell you something, I'm very good at what I do."

Directed by Walter Hill
Written by Walter Hill
Music by Michael Small
Cinematography by Philip H. Lathrop
Editing by Tina Hirsch and Robert K. Lambert

"Sometimes I'd feel very old, like my whole life is over, like I'm not around no more."

Directed by Terrence Malick
Written by Terrence Malick
Music by Ennio Morricone
Cinematography by Néstor Almendros
Editing by Billy Weber

"Every dead body that is not exterminated becomes one of them. It gets up and kills! The people it kills get up and kill!"

Directed by George A. Romero
Written by George A. Romero
Music by Dario Argento and The Goblins
Cinematography by Michael Gornick
Editing by George A. Romero

"We came here from a dying world. We drift through the universe, from planet to planet, pushed on by the solar winds. We adapt and we survive. The function of life is survival."

Directed by Philip Kaufman
Written by W.D. Richter
Music by Denny Zeitlin
Cinematography by Michael Chapman
Editing by Douglas Stewart

"Sadie, what's the first rule for being an agent?"
"Never forget an actor killed Lincoln."

Directed by Richard Attenborough
Written by William Goldman
Music by Jerry Goldsmith
Cinematography by Victor J. Kemper
Editing by John Bloom

"What about the goddamn piranhas?!"
"They're eating the guests, sir."

Directed by Joe Dante
Written by Richard Robinson and John Sayles
Music by Pino Donaggio
Cinematography by Jamie Anderson
Editing by Joe Dante and Mark Goldblatt

"But I'm telling you, and I'm telling everybody at this table that that's a shark! And I know what a shark looks like, because I've seen one up close. And you'd better do something about this one, because I don't intend to go through that hell again!"

Directed by Jeannot Szwarc
Written by Carl Gottlieb and Howard Sackler
Music by John Williams
Cinematography by Michael C. Butler
Editing by Steve Potter, Arthur Schmidt and Neil Travis

"Christ. Seven years of college down the drain. Might as well join the fucking Peace Corps."

Directed by John Landis
Written by Harold Ramis, Douglas Kenney and Chris Miller
Music by Elmer Bernstein
Cinematography by Charles Correll
Editing by George Folsey Jr.