Best Films Of 1979

"Everyone gets what they want. I wanted a mission. And for my sins, they gave me one."

"We train young men to drop fire on people, but their commanders won't allow them to write "f*ck" on their airplanes because it's obscene!"

"It's a way we had over here for living with ourselves. We cut 'em in half with a machine gun and give 'em a Band-Aid. It was a lie. And the more I saw them, the more I hated lies."

"The bullsh*t piled up so fast in Vietnam, you needed wings to stay above it."

"In this war, things get confused out there, power, ideals, the old morality, practical military necessity. But out there with these natives, it must be a temptation to be god. Because there's a conflict in every human heart, between the rational and the irrational, between good and evil. And good does not always triumph. Sometimes, the dark side overcomes what Lincoln called the better angels of our nature. Every man has got a breaking point."

What can even be said about this grand surreal war epic? I'll let it's own words speak for itself. To me it's definitely the best film of 1979 and also probably my 2nd favorite war film of all.

9.5/10

Apparently Tarantino and I are at least slightly bigger on this film than most people. I am a pretty big fan of it for sure. 8/10

This Best Picture winner is a very good, well acted, relevant and thought provoking film. Nonetheless it was just another year of the American Academy showing off a great deal of incompetence. How in the hell does Apocalypse not win? 8/10

In an odd way, one of my favorite horror films.

I was Mad Max and Road Warrior crazy as a young kid. My Father was a Carpenter/house builder and I use to help clean up his job sites and sweep and other kid type work. I would often walk around the job sites and build myself Road Warrior type costumes with all the scraps, complete with metal pieces, rubber knee pads made from roofing shingles and torn rags etc, and wrap them all around me and pretend I was Mad Max. Hammers make pretty good guns when held right. Ahh being a kid when play, friends and your parents were all that really mattered much at all. 8/10

I guess you could say that this is sort of a guilty pleasure of my youth. I think I first saw it when I was around 7 or 8.

8/10

People ought to know by now, I love me some Pryor. 8/10

I think the shock value of the film actually helped this to create much of its legend. It's definitely a very good film for the time, but at the same time I often feel this film gets a little too much credit for what it actually is. Even parasites bursting out of people was first seen in Cronenberg's Shivers, and then replicated here with more emphasis upon this horrific aspect. The main thing there is, few people saw Shivers except for big horror fans, as it was just a small Canadian directed horror picture. Anyway, Weaver is amazing in many films and this was really her big break. Personally I enjoyed the sequel even a little more than the original I think, which is certainly a rarity. But I could also say that about the Mad Max series. To me, the 2nd film in that series is actually the best by a fairly big margin, though I do really enjoy the original Mad Max as well. 8/10

Some people seem to like this Allen film as much as Annie Hall. Don't count me as one of them. This is a really good film, sure, but it doesn't capture quite the same down to earth magic that Annie Hall does. Personally I think Hannah And Her Sisters is actually an Allen film that comes closer to Annie Hall in many ways. 7.5/10

7.5/10

These are the armies of the night!

I must have watched this film 30 or more times as a kid. I still know it backwards and forwards.

The film is loosely based on Anabasis, a story by an ancient Greek soldier/writer named Xenophon. The 7 books of Anabasis are actually believed to be a collection of true Greek adventure stories and it's also considered to be of great quality. In Anabasis a large army of Greek mercenaries are hired by Cyrus the Younger to aid in his attempt to capture the Persian throne. After Cyrus' attempt to seize the throne fails, at some point this large army of mercenaries found themselves isolated behind Persian enemy lines and surrounded on all sides. After many are killed, Xenophon himself elected as one of the armies 3 leaders, helped inspire the men to find courage and march together across hostile and unforgiving territory toward the Black Sea, and the more friendly cities of the Greek shoreline.

"Be lookin' good Warriors. All the way back to Coney."

The vast majority of this film is a group of Warriors gang members having to fight their way home toward the sea, after Cyrus is shot during his attempt to become the king of gang leaders. Can you dig it?

7.5/10

7.5/10

7.5/10

Definitely a surprisingly good sequel. 7.5/10

7.5/10

A little slow paced at times for sure, but overall it is a very good film and even the slow pace sort of seems to fit. I'm a big Paul Schrader fan. This isn't nearly my favorite project from him, but it definitely is another high quality Schrader film nonetheless. 7.5/10

7/10

Underrated generally it seems to me. There are definitely a lot of good things about this film.

If you like to watch horror films to challenge your comfort zone and get some real chills running down your spine. When A Stranger Calls is a pretty good bet to do the job. This film builds its tension quite well, partly by using well chosen and well placed music to increase the creepiness. Rather than resorting to needlessly overdone gore; This film relies mostly on the old tried and tested power of suggestion to mount most of its suspense and scare factor. A much more effective method in my view, and there is strong evidence of this here.

Make no mistake, this film is no masterpiece. It has it's flaws. I found a couple of parts pretty unconvincing. However that really doesn't take away from the films eerie feel and overall horror enjoyment. The film is pretty well paced, and kept leaving me wanting to see what was going to happen next; Where as many other horror films leave me not even caring what happens next. The acting here is pretty solid all the way around, and the direction is decent.

Usually I would rate a decent film like this, with a couple of somewhat unconvincing parts a 6 out of 10. However this film is definitely very effective in what it sets out to do. Which is of course to give the viewer some real creepy thrills. So I find it hard to give this any less than a 7. I got from it exactly what I had hoped. It could have been a little better in some areas, but all in all it's a pretty solid film. So as far as horror films go, this is in the upper echelon in my view.

Note: I only decided to watch this film based on an interview I once saw with actress Jennifer Connelly on The Late Show with David Letterman. She said that to prepare for her film Dark Water, she had watched a few horror films just to get some ideas and a feel for them kind of thing. She went on to say that this film scared the crap out of her. So being the film nut I am, I figured it was worth a look. And it was, so I owe thanks to her for tempting me to watch it.

7/10

I use to play the f**k out of the drums so of course Keith Moon to me is a god of sorts, and The Who are great. I think I've seen this little British film a few times over the years and it's actually quite good. 7/10

Mr. King would probably like the fact that this film is ranked on my list right near a film with his beloved Ramones. 7/10

7/10

Probably not as great as Ebert wanted us to think it was. 6.5/10

6/10