1967 FINALLY DONE! Plus Year #20: 1975

So, as many of you already know, we're preparing for a big change in our family. Thus, over the past month, our movie challenge has taken a bit of a back seat to Baby Watch 2010. This may become even more evident in the weeks and months to come, post birth. We are still fully planning on completing our challenge, but it just may take a little bit longer than we expected, so bear with us. While you are waiting, please enjoy my younger brother Cory's challenge he recently began where he is rebuilding his iTunes music catalog, one CD at a time. Very interesting stuff, you can check it out here. Ok, now what you've been waiting for.

1967 was the year of Sidney Poitier's In the Heat of the Night as Best Picture. Great Great movie. We put it up against The Graduate (Kim's pick) and Bonnie and Clyde (my pick).

We first watch Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft steam up the TV screen in the coming of age film The Graduate. It was basically about Hoffman graduating college and not knowing what to do with his life, when Bancroft, an older woman who was family friends with his parents, seduces him. They begin a turbulent relationship, further complicated when Hoffman falls in love with Bancroft's daughter. Whew, that movie was oozing with hormones and sexual tension. Even to this day, this is not a movie for the kiddies, but back in the 60's, this movie must have been only whispered about. It must have begun a film revolution of exploring and depicting sex on a whole different level, that we now find common among movies today. We both thoroughly enjoyed it, as the acting was fantastic and the plot unfolded very well. And on a funny note, even though I had never seen this movie before, the ending rung very familiar . Ah.

Then we watched Bonnie and Clyde, starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway as the ill-fated outlaw couple. This was basically a "based on true events" account of the terror Bonnie and Clyde, along with their gang, brought to the mid-west in the 1920s. They mainly robbed banks, but had to commit some murders along the way. Their eventual demise will blow you away, which was depicted really accurately in the movie. This movie did for violence what the Graduate did for sex. These days, we take violence and blood and guns for granted in the movies, but back in the day, they really didn't show that kind of stuff except for in war movies. Well, this film helped change all that, and it really paved the way for the violence you saw in later movies, such as the Godfather. We enjoyed this movie a lot, as well, and if you are interested in the story of Bonnie and Clyde, go out and rent it. Oh, and Gene Wilder makes his on screen debut, with a rather comical 5 minute cameo.

We watched 3 excellent movies for this year, In the Heat of the Night, The Graduate, and Bonnie and Clyde. All are worth watching. But as much as we loved In the Heat of the Night, we both liked The Graduate slightly better and both feel it should have won Best Picture, but not by much.

Ok, now onto our new year 1975, the year of another EXCELLENT Best Picture. Considered by many as one of the greatest films ever, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is going to be one hard movie to top. It is vintage early Jack Nicholson, and one of the reasons he's my favorite actor. This movie had it all- humor, tragedy, drama, action, and a "deaf and dumb" indian. The movie is about what happens when you put Jack Nicholson into a mental institution - total insanity. Louise Fletcher plays a perfect evil nurse, she really is pretty scary! This is definitely a movie you should see at least once in your life. I gave it a perfect 5, Kim posted a 4.825, giving it an impressive 9.825.

Publish Post

So, what movie's will we be watching for 1975?

Adam: Dog Day Afternoon
Kim: Monty Python and the Holy Grail

I bet you're all smiling at Kim's pick. What a great pick! She really needs no explanation for that one. As for my pick, Dog Day Afternoon is a movie I've never seen before and looks like it has the potential to be very interesting. But that's really it.

Ok, which movie from 1975 do you like best? Cuckoo's Nest, Holy Grail, or Dog Day Afternoon? Any other picks from 1975? It's your turn!