Classic 1970s Films Available To Stream
Willy Wonka, a xenomorph, and paranoia feature prominently
We recommend so many movies that have come out in the last ten years, mostly because that is the majority of what streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime offer. However, sometimes we like to kick it old school. If there was one decade that changed American cinema forever, it was the 1970s. Beginning in the late 60s and stretching throughout the next decade, New Hollywood started to take hold. New Hollywood was a movement of young filmmakers, such as Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg, and Martin Scorsese, that began to wrestle control of moviemaking away from the studios and toward the director. This resulted in a fresh new direction for Hollywood and dozens of classics were born. We have put four of those in the spotlight today. Take this opportunity to dive into some 70s cinema this weekend.
Billy recommends…
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (streaming on Netflix)
There is something about a 70s kids movie. While they typically are filled with a massive amount of charm, they are not afraid of delving into the terrifying. Gene Wilder’s Willy Wonka is a charming character on the surface, but as the movie goes along he becomes more mysterious. This is why this movie has stood the test of time. The awe of this place in the beginning brings delight to children watching and brings out the child in all of us. After this movie hooks us we are forced (in a good way) to see children balloon into blueberries, fall into a chocolate pond (wait, did these children die?), and a lazy river ride from hell.
Willy Wonka opens up with our main character Charlie and his family life is strange, to say the least. He lives in a glorified shack with his four grandparents and a bunch of other people the movie doesn’t pay attention to. Out of the people there his main connection is with Grandpa Joe, a charismatic grandpa who we think is crippled, but after Charlie miraculously finds one of the golden tickets he can walk again. Grandpa Joe was clearly faking it, but I digress. All of the golden ticket finding kids arrive for their big prize. A tour of the mysterious chocolate factory!
Gene Wilder’s performance as Willy Wonka is an all time performance with one of the best character introductions of all time. The tone of how we can’t trust this character is set up right away. Willy Wonka walks out slowly using a cane that barely keeps him propped up. As he gets closer he eventually “falls” into a somersault and lands on his feet. The crowd erupts into a thunderous roar and the contest winners rush into the chocolate factory.
The fun picks up as soon as they go inside. What they begin to see is every kids dream of what could possibly go into making the best thing on earth, candy. As you sit down this weekend and are going to throw on The Office for the thousandth time remember that this timeless classic is on Netflix waiting for you. The nostalgia will bring a smile to your face and the story being told will put you in a trance for the entire runtime.
Alien (streaming on HBO)
The structure of Alien is surprisingly similar to Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. A small group of people are thrown into a situation that seems to be one thing, but things begin to unravel and become more uncertain as the story moves along. Most characters are picked off in unusual ways, but instead of turning into a harmless blueberry, one of the most terrifying creatures in movie history is outsmarting the whole crew. Alien is about 7 crew members on board the commercial space tug Nostromo that is headed back to earth. They are awakened from their sleep because of a distress signal they need to go check out. The horror that ensues brought about two brilliant careers: Director Ridley Scott and one of the most badass women in Hollywood, Sigourney Weaver.
Alien is a classic example of a small budget being used in the smartest ways. Use a confined location with a group of talented, but small time actors in the horror genre. The modern day version of this is the production company Blumhouse. Throw $5-20 million at a premise in the horror genre that will probably make back that money opening weekend. That model tends to churn out a lot of crapola, but every once in a while it creates a recipe for an all time classic. Alien is exactly that. If you are watching this at home with the lights off their ship begins to mirror your home. Every turn you expect something to pop out at you or it feels like something is lurking in the shadows behind you. Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley is the underdog throughout most of the story. She is an important part throughout, but Scott smartly holds her character back until she is face-to-face with the titular Alien, the xenomorph.
The rest of the crew is absolutely fantastic as well and any of them could have been the center of attention. Using a small group of actors and giving them pretty equal screen time allows for a small connection to be made with everyone. That makes the horror much more horrific. On paper Alien sounds like just another movie filled with jump scares and dumb characters. The characters are smart, the set design is fantastic, and the alien while clearly not human somehow seems familiar. This is a perfect movie to watch alone and also a perfect movie to force your friends through. It is terrifying, but by the end each person watching will want to revisit it more and more. I am definitely going to make Willy Wonka and Alien my weird double feature this weekend.
Drew recommends…
Three Days of the Condor (streaming on Amazon Prime)
The 1970s were prime time for the paranoid conspiracy thriller. Watergate had more than a little to do with this, of course, but these types of movies were already being made before that scandal picked up steam in 1973. There was a deep mistrust of government and authority by the early 70s that led to classic conspiracy films like the two I’m recommending today.
Three Days of the Condor is an example of a paranoid thriller that benefited from coming out in Watergate’s aftermath, when a story about shady CIA behavior made total sense. Writing his review when the movie opened in 1975, Roger Ebert noted that, “the scary thing, in these months after Watergate, is that it's all too believable.”
The plot centers around Joe Turner, a CIA researcher played by Robert Redford. Turner is a pretty average government worker; he’s not involved in top-secret programs or anything all that important on the surface. One day, he returns to his office to discover that his seven co-workers have been murdered. Turner goes on the run when he encounters a woman (Faye Dunaway) that he takes hostage so he can hole up in her apartment to figure out why this happened and who he can trust.
Redford is extraordinary in the lead role, masking some of that natural Redfordian charm as a bookish government worker. However, this movie doesn’t operate on the same level without a true-blue movie star like him to carry it from scene to scene. You become pretty invested in what happens to his character as Turner evades assassins and gets to the bottom of the conspiracy. It helps that another movie star is by his side for a long stretch of the movie. Dunaway gives a convincing performance as a woman with resolve and spunk despite getting drawn into a CIA conspiracy against her will. Just ignore the unnecessary and frankly ridiculous sex scene in the middle of the movie.
Despite that unfortunate moment, the ending of Three Days of the Condor works like gangbusters. No decade had better movie endings than the 70s, where the suspicion and paranoia of the era is reflected in the cynical yet satisfying finishes to so many classic films. I won’t spoil it here, but the end is very much in line with the spirit of the movie and the time it was made.
Three Days of the Condor is a well-constructed and absorbing piece of entertainment. You get top-drawer acting from Redford, Dunaway, and Max von Sydow. The intelligent screenplay is able to balance the action and chase scenes with sharp criticism of how America interacts with the world in the Cold War era. It’s on the shortlist of movies you should watch to understand the mindset in the middle of the 1970s.
The Conversation (streaming on Amazon Prime)
Francis Ford Coppola was on a real heater throughout the 70s, beginning in 1972 with The Godfather all the way to Apocalypse Now in 1979. In between those two masterpieces, his 1974 was one for the ages. That year he had two movies that were nominated for Best Picture: The Godfather Part II and The Conversation. Of the four movies Coppola directed in the 70s, The Conversation may be the least well-known, but that doesn’t mean it’s less of an accomplishment. This is one of the best paranoid thrillers ever made.
The Conversation was released in theaters right in the middle of the Watergate scandal, just a few months before President Nixon resigned. Despite the fact that the script had been written and the movie had been shot before Watergate became a major story, people definitely noticed the similarities between the surveillance and wiretapping plot in the movie and the real Watergate break-in that led to Nixon’s downfall. Even if The Conversation technically wasn’t a reaction to Watergate, it has now become linked in history with that monumental event.
The story may not involve an election or take place in the White House, but there are certainly elements of surveillance and secret plots. Gene Hackman is a surveillance expert named Harry Caul that faces a moral dilemma when he comes to believe that his recording of two people in the park may lead to their murder. Does he hand the recording over to his suspicious client or destroy it?
Hackman gives a tremendous performance as the taciturn and extremely private Harry Caul. In a career full of standout roles, it’s one of his very best. The Conversation is a slow-burn thriller, but it’s also a character study that tries to understand this guarded and secretive man that has dedicated his life to spying on people. Coppola adds a layer of Catholic guilt to Caul that makes him even more complex. Alongside Hackman is the great 70s character actor John Cazale (who famously appeared in only five films before his untimely death, all of them Best Picture nominees), as well as a pre-fame Harrison Ford in one of his very first movie roles.
Coppola’s camera in this movie is often patient, attentive, and paranoid, just like his main character. You’ll notice that we see and hear things mostly from Caul’s perspective, which is important since Caul is not particularly well-attuned to other people’s feelings and motives, despite the fact that he invades their privacy. In the final few scenes, this quiet and measured film kicks it into high gear as everything falls into place. I’ve seen The Conversation twice now and the last 10 minutes has shaken me up good both times. If you’re a paranoid person anyway, it will leave you wishing you could just live off the grid.
On Oscar night in 1975, Coppola lost to himself. The Godfather Part II won six awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, while The Conversation didn’t take home any. At the end of the day, it doesn’t much matter. Both movies would stand the test of time.
Links
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