CREEMEDIA

CREEMEDIA

Boy Howdy’s Top Ten Movies Of’77

Georgia Christgan

I don’t think of movies in years anymore. I think in waves....How did we ever get through the summer, for example, on Welcome To L. A. and Audrey Rose? I barely did. But the past few weeks there’s been a whole bunch of movies I want to see; even took in six in five days last week. I don’t thirik it’s getting any easier for filmmakers to market independent projects, though occasionally there is money behind a few. In New York, Jonathan Demme and Paramount Pictures showed Handle With Carefbrfree just to get people to see it. That’s how it wound up here. I hope other companies with offbeat but winning material can continue making that kind of commitment. Otherwise, it’s John Travolta for you and Dominique Sanda for me—permanently—and for an occasional laugh, a Barbra Streisand flick. I’m still not ready to turn in my badge to Burt Reynolds. Not even on the chance that his ship came in with Semi-Tough. (

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

The Gauntlet (Clint Eastwood)::

This is better than The Enforcer, even though Play Misty For Me is still my favorite. In this one, Sondra Locke, who was the troubled teen in The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter, appears to be his equal jn that begrudging, Clint Eastwood way. But when they’re down to the Wire and he asks her to drive, his » trust is positively breathtaking. His capacity for coining American cliches isn’t bad either. I caught a new phrase for being in a fix—“You’re between a rock and a hard place”—that I’d never heard before. Amidst the crossfire though, I did have to ask myself what was the point?—A police captain entrapping hookers with kinky sex games, I think.

Star Wars (George Lucas):: Everyone’s had their chance, and I won’t resist mine, since too many people I like like comic books and this was Hollywood’s homage to comic book fun. On the other hand, Science Fiction has always been a little too Fascistic for me. But here, only the bad guys use force; the good guys use The Force, Droids and you know the rest. Gadgets, a lot more fun than actors, and a real neat space chase at the end.

Looking For Mr. Goodbar (Richard Brooks):: Don’t let this film preach at you that girls who live loose will get theirs. But don’t see if alone, either, lest Goodbar’s creeping loneliness overwhelm you. Everything from the photo collage title credits to the out-there characterizations of the sister by Tuesday Weld sets the observer on edge. The myth that desperation doesn’t happen to nice girls (like Diane Keaton) is one that long needed smashing. So here it is.

Three Women (Robert Altman):: Shelley Duvall hasn’t looked this good since Thieves Like Us ; Janice Rule had a lot more to do in The Philadelphia Story ; and Sissy Spacek is untouchable. Despite an ending I didn’t understand (and I saw this thing twice),

I liked this better in part than almost anything I saw on film—more, uh, lyrical, I think is the word br maybe I’m just stuck on old folks; when Shelley Duvall accidentally sees two geriatricsv making love, it’s as if they invented it. Harlan County, USA (Barbara Kopek):: It set out to be a documentary about the J.P. Stevens’ workers’ struggle, and that’s exactly what it is. Any year where “docu-drama” became an accepted form of television entertainment, the lines between fact and fiction became both less distinguishable and more important to distinguish. In retrospect, this film is a' remarkable accomplishment.

'Short Eyes (Miguel Pinera):: A friend said this was one of the few movies of the year where the characters actually talked to each other. So much so that at one point I felt as though I were eavesdropping on this prison drama, even though I had paid my four dollars like everyone else. Plus, Curtis Mayfield’s soundtrack is terrific. Stroszek (Werner Herzog):: I don’t see enough foreign films to have much perspective on them, but neither do you, so maybe you ’ll like this as m uch * as I do. A modern day story about an alcoholic and a prostitute who migrate from Berlin to Wisconsin exchanging their destitution for a brief affair with the American Dream seems so plausible to me now that I know I had to see it to believe it. Note the performance of Eya Mattes and one who calls himself BrunoS.

Handle With Care (Jonathan Demme):: Candy Clark, twice in two years, makes my Top Ten; this time it’s because Paul LeMat looks credible next to her and she can light up all the channels on CB too. I don’t know if it was the polygamous majTiagejtriO working things out that; Hiked best or the way this film really portrayed CB stereotypes without being mean or sleight of hand about it.

Julia (Fred Zinneman):: Two women, one an acolyte, the other a revolutionary, played with deep conviction by Jane Fonda and Vanessa Redgrave, in aiwomen’s film that doesn’t exclude men. That is, you see the women emerge as people without seeing them through men’s eyes. Then you also see them perform valiant and dangerous deeds. And fall in love. Etc. A must-see.___

Annie Hall (Woody Allen):: You talk about this movie with friends and a few say it wasn’t really that good. Then you spend the next 15 minutes, remembering lines from it and before you know it, you’re recalling whole scenes from Play It Again Sam when Diane Keaton first met Allen on Screen. Now this 11-year real-life relationship has its own fantasy script apd I’m so glad to report that they’re still together in one or several ways.

Useless Books ForAU Occasions

Rick Johnson

Looking things up used to be such a chore. Finding an important item like Q-tips would take hours of stumbling through the Ear wax; history and , applications section of Ears On Parade, and searching for little tidbits such as the real voice behind Boris Badenov was all but hppeless. The editors of old-style reference books had an odd set of priorities and the collective sense of humor of a home invader. Millions of pages were wasted on irrelevant subjects like American history or WW II, while student of important topics like junk food, television and knock-knock jokes were left to glean what knowledge they could on street comers and the Tomorrow show.

But thanks to the trivia revolution of the past few years, useless information has now achieved its proper status. Not only is every imaginable subject covered by its own encyclopedia, but A new wave of editors,—most of whom do all their reading on the toilet—have come across with scores of easily digestible, yuk-packed books with no words longer than “pigeons. ” Learning is now as much fun as calling in sick when you don’t even have a job.

The one consummate fact-teat every detail goon should own is The Complete Encyclopedia Of Television Programs (Barnes). Set up in handy survival-of-tne-fittest alphabetical order, it gives the vital poop on every TV show in the history of boredom, even if you watched it pre-natally or sooner. Say you and other patients are having a big to-do over what year Dream Girl Of ’6 7 was on. Simply flip to the D’s and you’ll find not only all the facts, but also a picture of host Dick Stewart and four lovely contestants, all • of whom look like Stu Erwin in an evening gown. Whether you want to settle arguments about Hazel geneology or merely gape at pics of Bob Cummings, this is the book.

Another vital to successful screen abuse is the Gong Show Book by Jerry Bowles (Ace). Besides the series of photos of the comely April Tatro twisting her body into an ideal position to be her own gynecologist, there are Gong Jokes (Q: What was Rudyard Kipling’s most famous creation? A:

Gonga Din!), letters to Chuck 1 (apparently written by the same popsicle brains that write to CREEM) and an introduction by the host himself in which he explains where he got his infantile grin.

If Gong jokes are too advanced for your laff IQ, you may want to try Crosbie’s Dictionary of Puns (Harmony). Then again , you rinay want to suck Drano. This collection of over 3500 puns, covering every word from denial (Cleopatra, queen of denial) to shampoo (an imposter bear) could just be what you’ve always needed to perfect your social repellance. If that’s not enough, try Knock Knocks by William Cole (Dell). These are real b^rn-slappers, with stunning punch lines like “Howard you like a punch in the nose?”, “Dwayne the tub, I’m dwowning”!and myown personal favorite, “Eskimo questions and I’ll tell you no lies.”