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7/10
The impact is diminished now that the final gutpunch of the movie has entered the pop culture lexicon, but dystopian atmosphere (7 years away from today!) is really well done. The city is hot and sweaty and pulses with a kind of malevolent, simmering fever. The casual misogyny is a little jarring and unexpected...but I guess that was the time (1973 I mean, not 2022). Fun enough to watch to flesh out my knowledge of pop culture movies but not essential I don't think.
8/10
Rainer Werner Fassbender directed this two-part sci-fi TV movie. It totals more than 3 1/2 hours in length but it really doesn't feel that long at all. Made in 1973, it prefigures some of what would come later in The Matrix and Avatar, but its central conceit (a scientist in charge of a "supercomputer"that replicates society 20 years in the future begins to question his own reality and sanity in turn) could have come from any number of Twilight Zone episodes preceding it. Its most attractive feature is the outlandish set designs, in the "futuristic as seen through the 70's" mode of 2001: A Space Odyssey and Solaris. It drags a bit in the second half but overall it's pretty entertaining if not exactly enlightening.
6/10
For a British 70's movie about undead bikers, I was kind of underwhelmed. The slo-mo opening credit sequence is pretty awesome but from then on it's not particularly impressive. The plot has lots of promise (a biker whose mother made a deal with Satan discovers the secret to coming back from death and shares it with the rest of his gang) but it doesn't really do a whole lot.
6.5/10
One of the most popular surf videos from the 1970's, Crystal Voyager is a loose documentary following George Greenough's search for isolated surfing locations and the construction of an enormous yacht to achieve this end. This is interspersed with shots of Greenough and friends riding waves in the California sun set to G. Wayne Thomas' gentle psych-pop tunes. The drawback is Greenough's narration, which sounds bored, flat and devoid of all human emotion. The main attraction is the 25-minute closer, shot with a camera strapped to George Greenough's back to create a "you are there" effect, slowed down and edited to Pink Floyd's "Echoes". Whether it's a brilliant piece of avant-garde filmmaking or the end result of a stoned, self-indulgent hippie with too much time on his hands is up to the viewer to decide but I thought it was quite lovely to watch.
6.5/10
Little known U.S. 1971 horror film by Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, who would eventually go on to direct and produce Howard the Duck, effectively killing their film careers. Messiah of Evil shows lots of promise though, as its a visual overload of Technicolor flair and the set designs are fantastic. The plot is pretty humdrum (a woman visits a strange town to check up on her father quickly realizes things aren't what they seem blah blah) and the action is minimal, so anyone hoping for gore is going to be let down. The plot and execution is actually a lot like Carnival of Souls, maybe mixed with Suspiria's colours and sets and H. Gordon Lewis' Americana weirdness. A neat curio.
7/10
Not so much a movie per se but a document of pioneering Japanese psychedelic/avant-garde band Taj Mahal Travellers touring through Europe in the early 70's. Audio recordings of the Travellers are rare enough so that makes this footage more valuable still, and there are definitely some worthwhile moments when the band is at play, either in a jam session or by the side of the water trying to conjure music out of the ocean by blowing trumpets into it or rubbing sticks together. Experimental jazz musician Don Cherry has an all-too-brief cameo in a session with the group. Unfortunately there's a bit too much footage of these stoned Japanese longhairs standing around, talking (unsubtitled), or hanging out, and not enough actual music being played, but as always with the Travellers, every little morsel you can get your hands on is precious. Definitely a fans-only affair though.
8.5/10
Beautifully filmed and just the kind of story I'm drawn to (rebel/s without a cause, road movie, coming of age, etc). Martin Sheen is fantastic and Sissy Spacek is also very good. This is a movie that deserves a better fate because it seems to have gotten marginalized over the years. We can start by upgrading the pathetic no-frills DVD it's available on. Criterion??
6/10
Campy fun, I'll always fantasize about what it would be like if a Westworld actually existed but man, so many plotholes abound once you start thinking about the logistics of such a place...
9/10
I was surprised by how much I liked this. It started kinda slow, and looked like a pretty boring story, but it got really good and interesting...I loved the ending and the whole, uh, supernatural aspect to the story I guess. And Clint Eastwood rules.
