Cinema '77

Star Wars gave us the force -- Picture courtesy of 20th Century Fox

by blogSpotter
Let's get in the Wayback Machine and travel back to 1977. To those of us old enough to remember, it was an exciting time in many ways. I'd like to focus on the popular culture of that year, but first let's look generally at '77, the year that was:

• Apple Computer Inc. was incorporated; Tandy Corporation introduced the TRS-80 Model 1 computer
• Scientists identified the obscure bacteria causing Legionnaire's disease
• Jimmy Carter became our 39th president
• Roots was a huge hit on ABC
• James Dobson founded Focus on the Family; gays protested Anita Bryant's anti-gay rhetoric in San Francisco
• The punk band The Clash, debuted with The Clash. The Sex Pistols gave us Never Mind the Bollocks ...
• Star Wars became the highest grossing film of that time
• David Bowie released Heroes

1977 was a year of technological and political foment -- a cultural squall of oceanic proportions if ever one occurred. ’77 put us on the threshold of personal computing. Dobson and Bryant were harbingers of the approaching “culture wars” which we still are fighting in 2009. Punk Rock (never my personal preference) provided a schizo alternative to disco and Top 40 music. But to cinema junkies like me, 1977 stands out most of all because of the outstanding movies it gave to us. If movies are a reflection of the era, ’77 was momentous. In any typical year we are blessed if we have a couple of great movies, much less movie milestones. ’77 gave us six milestones:

Star Wars – Lucas’ panoramic sci-fi allegory innovated amazingly realistic special effects, and his “Force” fired the imaginations of generations to come. It basically created an industry and cultural subtext which is still alive and well today. Anyone should be so lucky to create another Star Wars (even Lucas himself).

The Goodbye Girl – Neil Simon’s screenplay about a recently dumped mother sharing her New York sublet with a barely employed actor is Simon’s very best work. It’s touching and hilarious – in 32 years it has aged nary a day. Goodbye set a casual tone and approach (much like Annie Hall) which greatly influenced future movie making.

Annie Hall – Arguably Woody Allen’s “magnum opus”, this movie brought a brazen and probably overdue reality and sensibility to interpersonal relationships. The movie made piercing fun of hypocrisy and bullshit in general. It had the most fun of all with its lead characters who weren’t afraid to look silly at all. They were about finding and being who they are.

Saturday Night Fever – This disco dancing epic is not in the league of the others, but stands 30 feet high as a paean to the 70’s, the fashions, the John Travolta-ness of it all. The Bee Gees music puts it right over the top and makes it infinitely fun to watch.

Looking For Mr. Goodbar – This movie broke ground in dealing with sexual addiction and the severely dysfunctional life of a woman wrestling her private demons. This movie dealt frankly with topics which had previously existed below the radar in general society. It shined a klieg light where none had shown and made us more aware of ourselves.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind – This movie is already covered at length in a previous blog of mine. Encounters gave us an altogether different view of alien life forms and how they might affect us. Like Lucas in Star Wars, Spielberg gave us monumental technical achievements and a haunting alien melody that still catches our attention 30 years later.

So what was 1977? It was a wonderful convergence where some of the best writers and directors were at the top of their games – some fresh-faced newcomers and others more seasoned. Years like ’77 are very few and far between. The next time you come across one of these on TBS, make some popcorn and enjoy a cinematic blast from 3 decades past.

© 2009 blogSpotter