Best Years For Film

[PurpleHazel]

[PurpleHazel]

Famously, many of the New Hollywood (1967-1980-ish) directors had slumps in the late 70s, like Bogdanovich, who went into more-or-less permanent decline after 1973, William Friedkin, who only made two critically-panned movies between 1973 and the decade's end (Sorcerer's stock has risen over the years), Alan Pakula, whose films were never quite on the same level after 1976, and Altman, who, after one of the great film streaks of the decade from 1970-75, made mostly subpar movies in the second half of the decade (the exception being 3 Women). Though there are many great late-60s New Hollywood films, the movement seems to peak in 1971-1975.

The 1960s were the best, or at least deepest, decade for foreign film, so it's only logical that the best years for non-English-language films in the 70s are the first few. Given these two factors, it's no surprise that the first half of the decade's generally better than the second. A lot of trying-to-be-psychedelic garbage came out in 1970-71, but that subsided steadily afterward. 1971-75 are the best years in my opinion. 1979 makes a surprisingly good showing as some new blood like David Lynch and Ridley Scott release breakout films, though it's not a deep year. 1972 (surprisingly) isn't that deep a year either, but is arguably the best foreign film year with The Godfather as the cherry on top. Though there are many great films in the second half of the decade, I can personally testify as someone who was 14 in 1979 that in 1977-80, in the U.S., a deluge of shite came out (my guess is Hollywood ramped up movie production in the wake of Godfather films, Jaws, Star Wars and Saturday Night Fever) -- remakes, sequels, bad imitations, bad Mel Brooks imitations (Gene Wilder starred in three and even directed two of those), bad disco movies, bad Bond movies (Bond was never really the same in the decades between Lazenby and Daniel Craig), bad late-period disaster movies (Rollercoaster!), bad post-Death Wish Charles Bronson movies and bad Henry Winkler and Richard Pryor vehicles. It was a little like the music business in the late 70s -- maybe it was all the blow.

[Hayden]

[PurpleHazel]

Gonna stick with 1977 for Killer of Sheep. I see IMDb has it as 1978, but they're known to get release dates wrong every once in a while. Charles Burnett's copyright for the film's dated 1977:

https://www.killerofsheep.com/images/KOSfinalPK.pdf

And Roger Ebert's original review came out in '77.

[CA Dreamin]

I stand by my claim '77 was not a good year.

[PurpleHazel]

I ranked it second to last.... Some good foreign films, though.

[Hayden]

[cestuneblague]

Movie release years can be hard to define since it can vary a lot between countries and if you count commercial runs v initial festival releases. If I had to say best years of each decade


2012 (I'm behind on 2010's viewing so this means nothing)
2001
1997
1986
1975
1966
1959
1947
Then I donno know

[PurpleHazel]

[Hayden]