Movies' Greatest Year

[rick]

Here is a serious question for all of you.

What was the greatest year in the history of film?

If you had to choose one year where the film output was just better than any other single year, what would it be?

Now for me, and I admit that this is based on my own tastes, I personally think that the single greatest year for movies was 1974.

1974 has everything you could want in a group of films, sublime and explosive, beautiful and vile, dead serious and totally funky, it was the year to beat.

Let’s take a look shall we?

In 1974 Coppola gave us Godfather II and followed up later that year with the brilliant, but less well known The Conversation. Using a perfect Hollywood recreation of 1930’s Los Angeles, Roman Polanski gave us what are arguably the greatest performances of Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway and himself, in the dark tragedy of Chinatown. Meanwhile on the other end of the spectrum, 1974 started out with Mel Brook’s giving us Blazing Saddles and finished the year with the masterpiece, Young Frankenstein. And in between, Scorsese left his mean streets and gave us the sweet, funny, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore and Bob Fosse got a stunning performance from Dustin Hoffman as Lenny Bruce in Lenny.

It was the year of the disaster movie, giving us the schmaltzy fun of Paul Newman and Steve McQueen fighting The Towering Inferno and Charlton Heston surviving both the “Sense-a-round” terror of Earthquake and having Karen Black for a girlfriend in Airport 75’ which actually came out in October ’74.


It wasn’t Science Fictions greatest year, but it did have a few highlights including John Carpenter’s first film, Dark Star, John Boreman’s totally trippy, Zardoz, featuring Sean Connery in a loincloth, the completely cheesy fun of Flesh Gordon, the King of Monsters doing his thing in Godzilla vs Megagodzilla, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad with Tom Baker on board as the villain and on TV we got Roddenberry's The Questor Tapes.


And while it is true that 1971’s Vanishing Point is the greatest car chase film ever, 1974 gave us the second and third best, with Dirty Mary and Crazy Larry and my favorite, Gone in 60 Seconds.

Here is a list of some of the other greats from 1974…..


A Woman Under the Influence
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia
The Phantom of Paradise
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Harry & Tonto
The Taking of Pelham One, Two, Three
The Longest Yard
Murder On the Orient Express
Death Wish
The Great Gatsby
The Man With the Golden Gun
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot
Andy Warhols Frankenstein
Black Christmas
Caged Heat
The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser
The Three Musketeers
Big Bad Mama
Black Belt Jones
Claudine
Emmanuelle
Female Trouble
Foxy Brown
Freebie and the Bean
The Groove Tube
Magnum Force
The Night Porter


Finally, I’m tempted to add The Exorcist, Papillon and The Sting, however those are all technically Christmas 1973 releases, but still they were the biggest moneymakers of 1974 and considering what films we are talking about here, they are certainly worth mentioning as being part of that perfect year.

Anyway, that’s why my choice is 1974.

Of course I will admit that being the 1970's there are all sorts of years that were almost as good.

So how about the rest of you.

What year do you pick?

[StoneGold]

What year did Spaced Invaders come out?

[Brian Cronin]

I think 1939 is a strong contender here.

Just looking at it as far as "OH MAN, THAT'S AN UTTER CLASSIC!" level, it has:

Gone With The Wind, The Wizard of Oz, Stagecoach and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.

That's pretty damn impressive.

But that's just the utter classics.

Its secondary films are astonishing in their level of greatness:

Dark Victory
Wuthering Heights
Ninotchka
The Women
Young Mister Lincoln
Another Thin Man
Beau Geste
Destry Rides Again
Dodge City
Drums Along the Mohawk
The Four Feathers
Goodbye, Mr. Chips
Gunga Din
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
The Hound of the Baskervilles
Love Affair
Of Mice and Men

I mean, for crying out loud, I have Wuthering Heights and Ninotcha as the SECONDARY films for 1939!

What an impressive year.

-Brian

[Donald M.]

I could take this seriously, but I'm not good at that. I'm not going to even pretend to base this on anything other than personal preference and nostalgia.

I grew up in the 80's and I'm very much the kind of guy who is attracted to the cheesy, the guilty pleasure, though I can recognize and appreciate a good drama or more artistic styles of filmaking and can appreciate such films.

All that said, I went through the 80's year by year and have to say that for me, the "greatest" year for movies was 1984.

Amongst the films released in this year were a good number that, while not great art, are well remembered as cultural touchstones, particularly by those growing up in the 80's, as well as being favorites of mine:

This is Spinal Tap
Ghostbusters
Gremlins
The Karate Kid
Revenge of the Nerds
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai in the 8th Dimension
The Terminator
A Nightmare on Elm Street
Beverly Hills Cop
The Last Starfighter
Sixteen Candles (My personal favorite John Hughes movie would come two years later, but this is easily number two for me and 1986 didn't have as many other movies that stood out for me.)

Plus a few others that remain favorites of mine, cheesy as they may be:

Police Academy
Ice Pirates
Red Dawn
Johnny Dangerously
Top Secret!

Some other notable films released in 1984 include:

Footloose
Places in the Heart
Blame it on Rio
Garbo Talks
The Razor's Edge (Bill Murray shows an early hint of the direction his career would eventually take in this adaptation of Somerset Maughm's novel about a WWI vet seeking self-enlightenment. An unlikely role for him at this point in his career, to say the least.)
Repo Man
Splash
Romancing the Stone
Moscow on the Hudson
The Natural
Body Double (My favorite Brian De Palma film.)
Once Upon a Time in America
The Gods Must Be Crazy
The Muppets Take Manhattan
Purple Rain
The Philadelphia Experiment
The Brother From Another Planet
Amadeus
The Killing Fields
Starman
Missing In Action (Remember when Chuck Norris was a marquee star instead of an internet joke?)
Dune (An ambitious failure, this movie is unique in David Lynch's career as both his only literary adaptation - from one of Science Fiction's most iconic works - and his only big budget Hollywood feature. $40 mil was a lot in 1984, adjusted for inflation it's gotta be the equivalent of upwards of $100 mil today. Fans of the novel are split on the film, but as someone who tried to read Dune and couldn't get into it, I rather liked the movie. Easily one of Lynch's most accessible film, though that's obviously due in part to his creativity being hampered by the material and working with a Hollywood studio breathing down his neck.)
A Passage To India

So yeah, maybe not as impressive as 1939 or 1974, but it's my year!

[howyadoin]

And while it is true that 1971’s Vanishing Point is the greatest car chase film ever, 1974 gave us the second and third best, with Dirty Mary and Crazy Larry and my favorite, Gone in 60 Seconds.You can't seriously be equating those also-rans to Vanishing Point. They're not much more than basic car chase movies, whereas VP is some kind of surrealist revolutionary masterpiece.

[Donald M.]

You can't seriously be equating those also-rans to Vanishing Point. They're not much more than basic car chase movies, whereas VP is some kind of surrealist revolutionary masterpiece.

Well, he did acknowledge Vanishing Point as the best ever. No other car chase movie even comes close, but that taken into account Dirty Mary and Crazy Larry and Gone in 60 Seconds are probably the best of a vastly inferior lot.

[jesse_custer]

The Godfather Part II and Chinatown, along with the comedic brilliance of Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein ... FUCK!

The 1970s had a lot of great years, but one of my favorites is 1971:

The French Connection
A Clockwork Orange
The Last Picture Show
Dirty Harry
Harold and Maude
Play Misty For Me
Straw Dogs
They Call Me Trinity
Duel

[ZombieHavoc]

What year did Spaced Invaders come out?

1989, I think. Good year for cinema.

[howyadoin]

Dirty Mary and Crazy Larry and Gone in 60 Seconds are probably the best of a vastly inferior lot.Hmmm, I must give this some thought.

And maybe try to track down a copy of The Driver.

[Siddon]

I'm going to go with 1997, it was the launch of computer generated film making, DVD's, and the rise of Tarrentinoesque films (or atleast the good ones).

Albino Aligator
Amistad
Boogie Nights
Con Air
Copland
The Deceiver
Deconstructing Harry
Event Horizon
Face Off
Gattaca
Good Will Hunting
In & Out
In the Company of Men
I Know what you did last Summer
Jackie Brown
Kiss the Girls
LA Confidential
Life is Bueatiful
Love and Death on Long Island
Men in Black
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
Mimic
My Best Friends Wedding
Open your Eyes
Princess Mononoke
Private Parts
Scream 2
Starship Troopers
The Rainmaker
The Ice Storm
The Sweey Hereafter
Titanic
Wag the Dog

Everyone remembers Titanic being the biggest film of all time but its not that surprising when you look at all the other action films that came out that year Men in Black, Con Air, Face/Off, and Amistad where all high end action type films.

1997 was the year where Julia Roberts and Woody Allen both started making their comebacks, while Stallone made his shot at a comeback with Copland and even though it didn't work out for him the film still stands out as a great film.

It was a banner year for Science Fiction, Gattacca, Starship Troopers, and Event Horizon may have detractors but they also have serious cult followers.


This was the break out year for Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lopez, Mark Wahlberg, Leonardo Dicaprio, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, and Russel Crowe

[jesse_custer]

Here's a thought. We're pretty damn American, as our lists generally suggest. But what about great movie years for foreign cinema?

1970 looks good:

El Topo (Jodorowsky)
The Wild Child (Truffaut)
The Red Circle (Melville)
The Conformist (Bertolucci)
The Passion of Anna (Bergman)

But I need to watch more foreign films.

[Donald M.]

I'm going to go with 1997, it was the launch of computer generated film making


In what way?

Toy Story, the first computer generated animated feature, came out in '95. Terminator 2, the first film to get a lot of attention for using CGI effects, came out in '91. But then Tron, back in '82, is I believe the first feature film to really extensively use computer generated effects.

I'm just curious here, maybe you could explain what you mean.

[Siddon]

In what way?

Toy Story, the first computer generated animated feature, came out in '95. Terminator 2, the first film to get a lot of attention for using CGI effects, came out in '91. But then Tron, back in '82, is I believe the first feature film to really extensively use computer generated effects.

I'm just curious here, maybe you could explain what you mean.

What I mean is that from about 1992 to 1996 you had a handful of films but it wasn't at a genre type level. You could have your Jurrasic Parks, Forrest Gumps, and Toy Storys but that was it you had one or two films a year.

1997 was when all the monster and space films came out from Men In Black, Annaconda, Event Horizon, Starship Troopers, Face/Off, The Fifth Element, The Mummy, Mimic, Alien Ressurection and Spawn.

1997 was also the year where first generation DVD's came out. So in conclusion what I'm saying is that before 97 CGI was very much experimental it became common in 1997.

[Michael P]

1997 had Batman and Robin, and is therefore ineligible for consideration.

Also, Jesus, half those movies you mentioned, Siddon, are fucking terrible.

[Siddon]

1997 had Batman and Robin, and is therefore ineligible for consideration.

Also, Jesus, half those movies you mentioned, Siddon, are fucking terrible.

And half of them weren't, but the issue was computer generated films.

But the top 20 films from that year for me would look like this

1. LA Confidential
2. Boogie Nights
3. Titanic
4. The Ice Storm
5. Open your Eyes
6. As Good as it gets
7. Starship Troopers
8. Gattacca
9. The Sweet Hereafter
10.Grosse Point Blank

[Michael P]

And half of them weren't, but the issue was computer generated films.

Well, for starters, I was talking about your first post. Seriously, Mimic? Face/Off? My Best Friend's Wedding? These are the movies you should be trying to make us forget if you want us to take you seriously.

But regardless, the elevated prominence of CGI might make 1997 historically interesting, but it has nothing to do with its overall quality as a year in film.

[J. Robb]

I think 1939 is a strong contender here.
1939 was my first thought when I read the thread title.

[rick]

I think 1939 is a strong contender here.

I have to agree that '39 is definitly in the running, but then again, I'm a sucker for that entire decade.

Both the '70's and the 30's were times when artists were using new styles and techniques and making great art in the process.

.

[Siddon]

Well, for starters, I was talking about your first post. Seriously, Mimic? Face/Off? My Best Friend's Wedding? These are the movies you should be trying to make us forget if you want us to take you seriously.

But regardless, the elevated prominence of CGI might make 1997 historically interesting, but it has nothing to do with its overall quality as a year in film.

Well those were popular and well reviewed films. When I put Mimic on the list I was confusing it with another Horror film The Relic which I enjoyed a bit more. Also I think the sci-fi/horror genre of films that came out that year was much better on the whole then horror from the 70's 80's and 00's.


Mimic rotten tomato's score 55%
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/Mimic/

My Best Friends Wedding Rotten Tomato's score 73%
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/my_best_friends_wedding/

Face/off rotten tomato's score 93%
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/faceoff/

[rick]

You can't seriously be equating those also-rans to Vanishing Point. They're not much more than basic car chase movies, whereas VP is some kind of surrealist revolutionary masterpiece.


Hey, trust me, I'm not dissing Vanishing Point.

I recently watched it again, followed by it's really terrible remake from a few years ago, and it holds the test of time amazingly well.

But, and you knew there was going to be a but, both Gone in 60 Seconds and Dirty Mary and Crazy Larry are great little films.

Not well acted, and both with not much of a plot, but the driving and chases in both of those films are simply amazing.

Go back to the remake of Vanishing Point for a minute, or worse yet the remake of Gone in 60 Seconds and then compare those two to either of the earlier versions, and it is just amazing how far the art of the filmed chase has fallen into ruin.

One of the things that bothered me the most about Grindhouse, beyond the endless talking, was that even though Tarantino had both the budget and the will to make a movie that was going to recreate old glories, his actual chase scenes in Death Proof aren’t really all that good. Compare his 10 or 15 cars destroyed throughout the course of the film compared to the literally hundred plus cars destroyed in the original Gone.

The chase genre is one of the odder Hollywood offshoots, but I can’t help it, I love the damm things, but they really only have a hand full of classics, and both Gone in 60 Seconds and Dirty Mary and Crazy Larry certainly belong on the list.

But no doubt about it, Vanishing Point is the King, and only Bullitt can even compare against it.

[shades of eternity]

not sure of the greatest year, but I do know one thing...

2008 was the superhero summer that all superhero movies will be measured by.

Starting with iron man, ending with the dark knight and having some serious gems (hellboy 2 being of the most promanent) inbetween.

[howyadoin]

Hey, trust me, I'm not dissing Vanishing Point.

I recently watched it again, followed by it's really terrible remake from a few years ago, and it holds the test of time amazingly well.I haven't seen the remake, but I watched the original recently as well, and yeah, it definitely holds up.

But, and you knew there was going to be a but, both Gone in 60 Seconds and Dirty Mary and Crazy Larry are great little films.

Not well acted, and both with not much of a plot, but the driving and chases in both of those films are simply amazing.

Go back to the remake of Vanishing Point for a minute, or worse yet the remake of Gone in 60 Seconds and then compare those two to either of the earlier versions, and it is just amazing how far the art of the filmed chase has fallen into ruin.

One of the things that bothered me the most about Grindhouse, beyond the endless talking, was that even though Tarantino had both the budget and the will to make a movie that was going to recreate old glories, his actual chase scenes in Death Proof aren’t really all that good. Compare his 10 or 15 cars destroyed throughout the course of the film compared to the literally hundred plus cars destroyed in the original Gone.

The chase genre is one of the odder Hollywood offshoots, but I can’t help it, I love the damm things, but they really only have a hand full of classics, and both Gone in 60 Seconds and Dirty Mary and Crazy Larry certainly belong on the list.

But no doubt about it, Vanishing Point is the King, and only Bullitt can even compare against it.I think the problem with Bullitt is that it's only the chase that people remember about it, and the rest of it is nothing special.

As for Grindhouse, I thought the chase scenes were okay. I think it's when you juxtapose them with the rest of the movie that they seem great in comparison. Tarantino's efforts to brand himself as a sensitive guy who really understands women just remind me of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5o-SuRXwK5o

[schwamp]

I think 1939 is a strong contender here.

Just looking at it as far as "OH MAN, THAT'S AN UTTER CLASSIC!" level, it has:

Gone With The Wind, The Wizard of Oz, Stagecoach and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.

That's pretty damn impressive.

But that's just the utter classics.

Its secondary films are astonishing in their level of greatness:

Dark Victory
Wuthering Heights
Ninotchka
The Women
Young Mister Lincoln
Another Thin Man
Beau Geste
Destry Rides Again
Dodge City
Drums Along the Mohawk
The Four Feathers
Goodbye, Mr. Chips
Gunga Din
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
The Hound of the Baskervilles
Love Affair
Of Mice and Men

I mean, for crying out loud, I have Wuthering Heights and Ninotcha as the SECONDARY films for 1939!

What an impressive year.

-Brian

I'd have to agree with this. What a list you put together. This year ranks for Oz and GWTW alone.

[ultramandingo]

Both the '70's and the 30's were times when artists were using new styles and techniques and making great art in the process.

.

........plus the country was in the crapper both times - we could use some new Wells and Coppolas for this decade

[Donald M.]

What I mean is that from about 1992 to 1996 you had a handful of films but it wasn't at a genre type level. You could have your Jurrasic Parks, Forrest Gumps, and Toy Storys but that was it you had one or two films a year.

1997 was when all the monster and space films came out from Men In Black, Annaconda, Event Horizon, Starship Troopers, Face/Off, The Fifth Element, The Mummy, Mimic, Alien Ressurection and Spawn.

1997 was also the year where first generation DVD's came out. So in conclusion what I'm saying is that before 97 CGI was very much experimental it became common in 1997.

Okay, but you didn't say '97 was the year CGI became common, you said it was the year that launched computer generated filmmaking. I see what you're saying, don't necessarily agree, but I think you can understand my confusion.

[Siddon]

Another great year for film 1962

To Kill a Mocking Bird
Lawrence of Arabia
The Manchurian Canidate
Mutiny on the Bounty

Cape Fear
Days of Wine and Roses
Dr. No
Lolita
The Man who shot Liberty Vallence
Jules and Jim
Whatever happened to baby Jane

and to go back even further 1925

Phantom of the Opera
Ben Hur
The Gold Rush
Battleship Potekim
The Big Parade

those are some great films visually

[Gordon Smith]

The Godfather Part II and Chinatown, along with the comedic brilliance of Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein ... FUCK!

The 1970s had a lot of great years, but one of my favorites is 1971:

The French Connection
A Clockwork Orange
The Last Picture Show
Dirty Harry
Harold and Maude
Play Misty For Me
Straw Dogs
They Call Me Trinity
Duel

What, no love for Billy Jack?

[rick]

What, no love for Billy Jack?


My God do I hate that movie.

Billy Jack is one of the most amazingly sanctimonious, preachy, self-important, unpleasant and just plain racist films ever made.

And the worst opening song in film history.

Ewww!

[howyadoin]

My God do I hate that movie.

Billy Jack is one of the most amazingly sanctimonious, preachy, self-important, unpleasant and just plain racist films ever made.

And the worst opening song in film history.

Ewww!Beyond all that, it's just a shitty movie. Last year I decided to watch it again (hadn't seen it since I was a little kid), and I was fucking appalled at how bad it was.

[Chiasm]

I'd have a hard time with this as I only remember here and there what movies came out what year. I tried googling and came up with a VH1 article asking if 1999 was the best and its a good case based on:

The Matrix
Fight Club
The Sixth Sense
South Park: Bigger Longer and Uncut
American Beauty
Office Space
The Iron Giant

All that said, I'll say what I'll always say when someone asks this type of question: there is a built in bias to pick old movies over new ones because there is this false perception that movies just aren't as good as they used to be. The reality is that everyone has just long since forgotten the clunkers of yesteryear while things like The Hottie and The Nottie still burn our brains and diminish the great films that came out around the same time. There were a few good movies then and a lot of clunkers just like there are a few good movies now and a lot of clunkers. 50 years from now we'll remember the great films of today and some will say this was a golden age just like many do about movies that are more than 50 years old now.

[Gordon Smith]

My God do I hate that movie.

Billy Jack is one of the most amazingly sanctimonious, preachy, self-important, unpleasant and just plain racist films ever made.

And the worst opening song in film history.

Ewww!

Was the opening song ''One Tin Soldier''? I kind of like that song.

[rick]

Was the opening song ''One Tin Soldier''? I kind of like that song.


That song was one of the main reasons I wore a homemade "Kill Hippies" t-shirt back in the late 70's.

Okay and because I saw Sid Vicious wearing one too, but still.

[stealthwise]

I love threads like these, mostly for all the discussion of beloved films (many of which I've never seen, so I get some cool stuff to check out), and partially because of the semi-angry debates that occur.

I have to agree on 1984, a great year for films to me. Realistically, 1939 or 1974 would probably be the actual top ones, but I love that 80s stuff.

[ultramandingo]

.........what ever year " the bad news bears " came out - " All we got on this team are a buncha *ews, sp*ics, *iggers, pansies, and a booger-eatin' moron! "

[Brian Cronin]

The thing with films is that from basically the 1990s on, you might get a bunch of really great films. Hell, you might even get better films than you could have gotten in the 30s and 40s and 50s.

However, you just can't get as many because they're just not MAKING as many.

Back in the old days, studios were guaranteed X amount of money so they actually made pictures for the prestige of it all.

Outside of a few smaller studios (who mostly just buy independently made films), you just don't see that nowadays - films cost way too much money to spend them on prestige pics.

So big studios look to films that can be prestigious AND make a lot of money.

The proliferation of independent productions might lead to, individually, better films, but it also takes away from the chances of a CRAPLOAD of very good films.

In addition, back in the "Golden Age," while I would never advocate returning to them for the crap that artists had to put up with at the time, the fact remains that in the "Golden Age" the studios basically owned the best actors, writers and directors. So naturally, they consistently made great films.

Howard Hawks, John Ford, Frank Capra - all amazing film makers, who also made about a gazillion films.

Nowadays, look at the great filmmakers. To throw a name out there, Paul T. Anderson. He's done, what, six films total? That'd be 1932 and 1933 for Howard Hawks!

All of these factors skew the results of a "best year in film" to the films of the past.

-Brian

[Jared]

It never occured to me just how much the old studio system increased the output of films. That was some nice information .

Anyway, 76 has Rocky, All the President's Men, The Bad News Bears, Carrie, The Omen, Midway, The Enforcer, Network and Taxi Driver. That's a hell of a lineup.

[Libaax]

The thing with films is that from basically the 1990s on, you might get a bunch of really great films. Hell, you might even get better films than you could have gotten in the 30s and 40s and 50s.

However, you just can't get as many because they're just not MAKING as many.

Back in the old days, studios were guaranteed X amount of money so they actually made pictures for the prestige of it all.

Outside of a few smaller studios (who mostly just buy independently made films), you just don't see that nowadays - films cost way too much money to spend them on prestige pics.

So big studios look to films that can be prestigious AND make a lot of money.

The proliferation of independent productions might lead to, individually, better films, but it also takes away from the chances of a CRAPLOAD of very good films.

In addition, back in the "Golden Age," while I would never advocate returning to them for the crap that artists had to put up with at the time, the fact remains that in the "Golden Age" the studios basically owned the best actors, writers and directors. So naturally, they consistently made great films.

Howard Hawks, John Ford, Frank Capra - all amazing film makers, who also made about a gazillion films.

Nowadays, look at the great filmmakers. To throw a name out there, Paul T. Anderson. He's done, what, six films total? That'd be 1932 and 1933 for Howard Hawks!

All of these factors skew the results of a "best year in film" to the films of the past.

-Brian

Good points that why i watch fewer and fewe new hollywood movies. They are all so broad,must appeal to everyone that its not about the movies themselves but making huge money on the name of the movie. Like a machine putting out movies that look the same. Its like the summer time blockbuster is the year around these days.

Only under oscar months do you actual get to see smaller,indy films that care about making a great film.

Thats why i go backawards watching hollywood movies from the 70s,60s,50s,40s.

Its not only bad for the quality directors,writers i feel bad for the new actors. The new potential Brando,Pacino actors gets do superhero films or some crime,thriller book movie. No one will remember them like people Godfather and co.

[Muggs]

And maybe try to track down a copy of The Driver.

The Driver is an awesome film. I love Walter Hill's early stuff.