Notable Films of 1979

One of the last prominent examples of director-controlled auteur cinema at the end of the New Hollywood Era. One of the all-time greats.

*Best Picture nominee
*National Film Registry - Preservation

"Seinfeld" reference:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7mr9F7kHMM

Scene spoofed:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSWtc01BlqM

First film to address the divorce epidemic of the 1970s. One of the first "issues movie", which is probably why it won the Oscar. But still, a great film.

*Best Picture winner

"Family Guy" reference:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=CA0X922YUHw

Scene spoofed:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kIsYLV8bE8

Bob Fosse's last notable film and arguably Roy Scheider's best performance.

*Best Picture nominee
*National Film Registry - Preservation
*The Criterion Collection

"Better Call Saul" reference:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZydkosBjpI8

Scene spoofed:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=9By-b-lCWkw

*The Criterion Collection

The quintessential "courageous-woman-takes-on-the-system" biopic. Basically set the template of the Lifetime Movie Network. However this one is notably gritty and a great film.

*Best Picture nominee
*National Film Registry - Preservation

Written off by the nuclear power industry as "sheer fiction" and a "character assassination of an entire industry." 12 days following its release, the Three Mile Island nuclear accident occurred. Whoops. A superb thriller and another great film left out of the Best Picture race:
www.imdb.com/title/tt0078966/awards

Roger Ebert's pick for the best film of the year.

*The Criterion Collection
*National Film Registry - Preservation

Norman Jewison's sharp satire (starring Al Pacino) skewers America's inherently corrupt legal system.

*Best Actor and Screenplay nominee

Notable for the famous "You're outta order" scene, referenced countless times:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpZuMQVrlUw (The Simpsons)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=LP_8eZsS1dc (Family Guy)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTkQXJ5fOpk (The Mentalist)

Philip Kaufman's little seen masterpiece conveying the shift in culture from 1950s Americana to the turbulent 1960s. Trailer:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5b-qJb4LM0

The film that introduced the world to Bette Midler and the megahit song "The Rose".

*Best Actress, Supporting Actor and Editing nominee
*The Criterion Collection

"Family Guy" cover of the hit song:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xoq1RtpOPUY

Performed by Bette Midler in the film:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=oR6okRuOLc8

After the cynicism of the 1970s subsided, audiences everywhere were ready to laugh again. Some comedies were the standard star-studded romcom fare...

*Best Actress and Supporting Actress nominee

...while others were deliriously madcap, turning unknowns into overnight stars.

Then there were unexpected hit comedies that started whole new trends like the "slob humor" subgenre.

Some of the new trendy comedies were targeted at adult audiences...

...while others were charmingly old fashioned and aimed at an even older audience.

*Remake to be released 2017.

However, the young'uns got their laughs too. One in particular opened the floodgates for the wave of coming-of-age teen flicks that dominated the 1980s (i.e. John Hughes).

*Best Picture nominee

Paul Dooley: "Refund??"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQaavQNGsMY

And there were other comedies that catered to the whole family, like "The Muppet Movie", the first massively successful live-action family film in years.

*National Film Registry - Preservation

However, sophisticated comedies were alive and well. "Being There" was a critical and commercial success for both director Hal Ashby and star Peter Sellers, both nearing the end of their careers...

*The Criterion Collection
*National Film Registry - Preservation

...while "Manhattan" scored big for Woody Allen, whose career was just ramping up.

*Best Supporting Actress and Screenplay nominee
*National Film Registry - Preservation

"Family Guy" reference:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwUni1FlWU8

Scene spoofed:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rix1MKdOdQ

However, Neil Simon's brand of humor was beginning to wind down.

"Seinfeld" reference:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngaIAwQHceY

Americans had also sought humor from overseas. One French comedy lampooned gay culture and became a huge hit State-side in the spring of '79...

*Best Director and Screenplay nominee
*The Criterion Collection
*Mediocre remake in 1996 ("The Birdcage")

...while another British comedy caused controversy for satirizing Christianity and was banned in several countries.

*The Criterion Collection

(speaking of controversy...)

But audiences in the late 70s weren't just looking for laughs, they also wanted to run scared for their lives so they lined up for all the new horror movies. No, scratch that. Those who sat through "Caligula" were SCARRED for life at the sight of this HORRIFYING movie.

Anyhoo, traditional big budget schlock horror movies had resurged. One notable example was the progenitor of the modern supernatural haunted house thriller (still popular to this day)...

...while another kick-started the "mutant horror" trend that carried well into the 80s.

Unintentionally funny "sleeping bag" scene:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxBQZPkdQMM

Half Man. Half Bear. Half Pig. ManBearPig.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=h60KFYocdcQ

Low-budget, independent horror movies also made a splash at the box office in the late 1970s with John Carpenter's "Halloween" (released in 1978) and George Romero's "Dawn of the Dead" released in North America in the spring of '79. But unlike their schlocky, big-budget studio-driven counterparts, these 2 films are critically acclaimed and memorable.

And of course, when well-made, low-budget American horror movies hit big at the box office, the Italians follow up with shitty horror movies with even LOWER budgets! "Zombi 2" was an Italian-made "sequel" to Romero's "Dawn of the Dead" (which was released in Europe as "Zombi" hence the title of this movie "Zombi 2"). "Zombi 2" was also a prominent example of the "video nasty" trend that became increasingly popular in the early 1980s:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_nasty

And the success of this film and others like it prompted the Italians to create arguably the most well known video nasty, a notorious little film called...

...Cannibal Holocaust, which began production in the summer of '79. Banned in several countries for its depiction of sexual assault, animal cruelty and graphic violence (it was also believed to be a snuff film, mistakenly that is), it's also credited as the first "found footage" horror movie, a trend that didn't take off until the late '90s with "The Blair Witch Project".

The horror genre was also met with a plethora of Dracula films in the late '70s and also the birth of a new trend... the REMAKE! Specifically (but not limited to) remakes of classic horror movies. The first couple horror remakes of the late 70s like "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (1978) and "Nosferatu the Vampyre" were excellent because real filmmakers were at the helm...

...while others were mediocre cash grabs that failed to meet the studios' expectations (like most remakes today).

A third Dracula movie successfully blended horror with other genres like spoof comedy (a craze popularized by Mel Brooks) that struck gold at the box office...

...while another hit movie blended horror with science fiction. Speaking of sci-fi, smash hits like "Star Wars" and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" breathed new life into the genre, prompting every studio in Hollywood to mimic their successes. Some films like "Alien" hit their mark and set a new benchmark for the genre...

*National Film Registry - Preservation

...some were downright bizarre but did well at the box office

...some made just enough money to warrant more sequels

...and some were outright flops!

Speaking of flops... some notorious flops at the end of the 70s prompted the big studios to regain control over creative decisions, leading to the end of the New Hollywood era.

One notable flop killed its franchise-- the franchise that gave birth to the disaster movie genre...

...some killed any chance of creating a new franchise within the genre

...and even more notable bombs killed the genre altogether!

Unfortunately, the memo had come too little too late for one studio production during the spring of '79. I suppose that's why it's called a "disaster movie".

Some formulas still worked however. Take two big stars, add some romance and you got a recipe for success.

On the other hand, you could take another big star and put him in a setting with no romantic subplots (prison rape doesn't count) and watch the cash roll in.