Favourite Films of 1979
Monday is about movies. Sometimes TV. Sometimes I work through the years and list my favourite films. Today is that day once again. And today the year is 1979. So, my favourite films from 1979...
To click back and read (or read again) the previous years before you hit up this one: Most recently it was 1978. Ahead of that 1977. And before then of course 1976. Before that, 1975, and ahead of that, 1974, 1973, 1972 and it all started (for me) with 1971.
So we’re in the final year of the great decade of film — The Seventies. There’s a lot still to come, I didn’t start (properly) heading into movie theatres until the 1980s, but on VHS and DVD, the seventies is my favourite decade of cinema. A lot of cool things in 1979 too — solid sequels (Rocky II) and legendary sci-fi (Alien) and fantastic horror (The Amityville Horror, Tourist Trap, The Driller Killer, Salem’s Lot…) as well as comedy (Manhattan), drama (Players), action (The 36th Chamber of Shaolin) and one of the more bonkers James Bond movies (Moonraker)…and I’m not even selecting any of those…
There’s also a pretty kick ass Star Trek — and loads of great concert films (Richard Pryor, The Who, Frank Zappa). In fact, more I think about it, 1979 is possibly a huge year for me because the films released in this year trickle into New Zealand across the early 1980s, and into video stores even after that. So they’re among some of the first on offer for my family to watch. And some early theatrical experiences like the Muppets, and Water Babies.
Anyway, I’m going to make some tough decisions.
As always, in no order, beyond how they appear to me, and as I think of them here are my Favourite Films of 1979:
I loved so many of the Steve Martin film — he was my guy, right across the 1980s. So I have to start with The Jerk, because this is really where he starts. Okay, I know he’ll be in another film on this list later, and he was already known as a comic, but The Jerk is his real start in films. And I carry this movie with me — maybe it hasn’t held up, but in my mind it has. It was so perfectly silly and funny at the same time. As was the way with many of the Martin films that followed (The Man With Two Brains, particularly). I just crack-up thinking about this movie. That’s absolutely what you want from a comedy. I’m not sure that happens as much anymore.
This was the big award winner of ‘79 — all the top prizes. And I still think that is the right call. I remember watching this as a kid, and it was the first time I enjoyed a drama pitched for adults. I guess it’s that topic: I remember thinking about what would happen if my folks split up, who would I go with, and how would it be? They never did. I have watched this film again as a teenager, and then as a parent — it’s a set of incredible performances. It’s Hoffman’s best and warmest, and it’s also an amazing role from the still fresh Meryl Streep, not an easy role to play as the woman who is unlikeable here.
No one does a good mockumentary anymore, it’s too hard I guess. For years it was This Is Spinal Tap — but then I found out about this; both precursor to that an essentially a parody of reality TV before it existed. The great Albert Brooks. There might not be anyone funnier.
Someone, and I believe it was the musician Josh Haden (Spain, son of the legendary bassist, Charlie Haden) told me, a few years back, that The Great Santini was their favourite Robert Duvall performance. I had never heard of it! And I love Duvall. So it was straight to find it. And Oh My God. What a performance. What a movie. It’s a perfect — brutal, brilliant — drama. I love this film, and feel like it’s a part of me, even though I’ve only (so far) atched it once.
I feel like I saw The Warriors in much the same way — and around the same time — as I saw Breaker! Breaker! and They Live, and in all three cases, I loved the film but also couldn’t quite believe it was a movie. Who allowed these films to get across the line, they didn’t tell stories ‘correctly’ — but they also did. Totally. To this day, I carry the film with me on BluRay and its soundtrack on both vinyl and CD. With Warriors it was all about watching moments, scenes, highlights — as with the fight scene in They Live or the final tournament in The Karate Kid. But then you watch the whole thing, and see a bit more about what it going on (as with They Live, less so with Breaker! Breaker! LOL).
And here’s five notable mentions — again in no particular order:
David Cronenberg. Oliver Reed. Body horror. Mental illness. Sign me up. One of the best horrors in a year of great horrors, and any Cronenberg is Good Cronenberg. But maybe especially this one!
I’m including this for ultimate nostalgia of course — as is this list in general, and the very nature of lists. But this is the first movie soundtrack I ever owned (and still own). So it is worthy for that alone. Also, who doesn’t love The Muppets.
I loved Bill Murray. I still do. But I really loved Bill Murray across the 1980s. Much like Steve Martin. And Stripes was good but it was a bit serious for me, or a bit ‘adult’, but Meatballs was perfect. It was stupid, and frat-ish and funny. And its sequel is bonkers but I also love it. This original film was the comedy I loved the most for the longest time, had a retro poster on my wall, had the VHS tape, and the soundtrack on vinyl…
This feels like the sort of picture Scorsese was striving for when he made New York New York (and I like that film). I’m not a fan of musicals, or theatre kids or any of that concept, nor dance for that matter. But Bob Fosse’s story is legendary, and this film is just wonderful. It utterly blew me away. Mesmerising central performance too.
Picking a Paul Schrader film is a bit like picking Cronenberg. You pretty much just do it. You go all in. But Hardcore is brutal. And I love it for that. And, alongside Santini, it’s one of the more recent films I’ve seen from this year.
And I guess I should also mention Apocalypse Now — which I really do love. But also I’m missing out Quadrophenia, Being There, Mad Max, Alien, Moonraker, Richard Pryor: Live in Concert, The Kids Are Alright, Manhattan, and several others. Great year.
And to read about the other great years across the 70s once again, or if you missed it the first time in any of the cases, see below:
An outstanding list! Right with you on The Warriors and Hardcore.