 Notes from awards committee: Not one of the Academy’s Best Picture nominations made our top five movie list for 1971. We liked the overrated French Connection, but it paled in comparison to another morally ambiguous police thriller, Dirty Harry starring Clint Eastwood. Dirty Harry presented a sympathetic view of 2A and vigilante justice and was panned by a Glee Club of liberal film critics and snubbed by the Academy. We correct this mistake by awarding Clint Eastwood the HC Best Actor award. The HC Best Motion Picture of the year is the historical drama Mary, Queen of Scots. Mary Stuart has long been a controversial and romanticized historical figure. She is one of those historical figures whose reality simply outstrips normal dramatic convention: queen of two realms and a pretender of a third; twice widowed before the age of 25; mother of the future King of England & Ireland; defeated in a bloody battle, forced to abdicate and surrender to her rival, Queen Elizabeth; conspiring in captivity, and finally executed. No fiction writer would dare invent her. See below for a more detailed film review. The World at Large
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Dirty Harry – is a classic detective thriller and a true blockbuster of the 1970s. This film captures the essence of gritty '70s film style (edgy vigilante-style justice, anti-establishment theme, and strong language). Clint Eastwood delivers one of his finest performances as San Francisco detective Dirty Harry Callahan (see the movie to discover how he got his nickname). Eastwood zoomed from star to superstardom due to this film. Harry had the right amount of cocky toughness, and firm sense of justice to make the character realistic and likable. When Harry pulls his .44 Magnum pistol he instantly becomes everyman’s noble avenger against hard core criminals. Pistol sales went thru the roof because of this movie. Any shooter fool enough to purchase a .44 Magnum pistol found out the hard way that the caliber is great for close range elephant hunting but is punishing to the wallet and hand for the casual, weekend target shooter. Play Misty for Me - is a cool thriller with an insane stalker lady, Evelyn played by Jessica Walter, at least sixteen years ahead of Fatal Attraction. Sometimes an actress is so good in a role that it's impossible to see them as anyone else later in their career; such is the case with Jessica Walter, who nails this part of the psychotic woman--and seems to embody instability itself – the eyes, the voice and the angry rants! The DVD transfer of this vintage flick is as good as it gets. I was astonished at the beautiful picture on a modern TV. The film captures the scenic coastline around Carmel and Monterey in Northern California. Clint Eastwood proved in his directorial debut that he has a great eye for panorama camera work. Watch this one when you want something that is the direct opposite of a chick flick. PMFM is also a fine reminder of early 1970’s California, a wonderful place before the hordes of homeless and illegals invaded. Mary, Queen of Scots - Vanessa Redgrave and Glenda Jackson were two of Britain's leading actresses in the 1970s, and here they give strong performances as two opposing queens. The movie covers some fascinating history and when it comes to historical accuracy; its heart is in the right place. The most glaring error is that the star Vanessa Redgrave (aged 35 in 1971) is too mature for the youthful Mary, who was only 18 when she returned to Scotland from France in 1561 after her husband, King of France died suddenly (she was only 16 when she married him and became queen-consort of France). A tremendous opportunity was missed by the filmmakers for not finding a teenage, six foot, red-headed, and fair-skinned beauty to play Mary Stuart. Back to the movie – following the death of her first husband, Mary returned to Scotland in 1561 to find a tense religious and political climate. As shown in the film, her half-brother, the bastard son of James V of Scotland, was running the show in Scotland and planned for Mary to be a powerless queen, with him in full control of the Scot government. The Scots are a very difficult race to rule even during the best of times but the 1500s was filled with religious strife and too many over ambitious lords and barons. Being a Queen Regnant in the 1500s was a particularly difficult task, as this was a period when many believed that women, even those of royal blood, should not exercise any form of political power. Wide spread, strong loyalty to Queen Mary, a devoted Catholic, was lacking, and she could never count upon the Scot Protestants. Rebellion struck, Mary’s weak army was defeated and she was forced to abdicate her Scottish crown. In one of the dramatic highlights of the film, Mary flees Scotland to England and meets Queen Elizabeth – in private and on horseback in the heavily wooded borderlands. Something is to be said for strict historical accuracy but in this case, the added (probably fictional) meeting enhanced the film and gave the two talented actresses a stage to command at a key hinge point in the storyline. Elizabeth had little sympathy for Mary, who she considered a threat to her crown. Mary is confined to one of Elizabeth’s castles – safely away from Scotland and also London. In reality, Mary’s imprisonment spanned almost two decades. In the film, however, the screenwriters and Director Charles Jarrott condensed the time frame into a much snappier version of events. Elizabeth’s court advisors keep a close eye on Mary and uncover evidence of treachery. Mary has been corresponding using a secret cypher with Catholic royals on various plots to kill Elizabeth. The penalty for treason in Medieval England was death. Thanks to the amended timeline, the story keeps moving along to a second meeting between the two queens, followed by Mary’s heroic execution scene in the finale. Mary was 44 when the axe fell. The year was 1587, and in Spain, the Catholic monarch Philip 2, was enraged to hear that a fellow Catholic royal was beheaded. He vowed revenge against Elizabeth for the execution of Mary Stuart. In 1588 Philip launched the Spanish Armada and his invasion of England. But that is another essay. Klute – is a sleek and sexy neo-film noir set in the dark side of Gotham City. It is a tough, honest movie, but never needlessly violent. It is almost an art house type flick. The heart of the movie is a moving, troubling love story, and a showcase for one of cinema's most gripping performances, that of Jane Fonda as aspiring actress and high class hooker, Bree Daniel. The film is also a time capsule of hippie attitudes, styles, and New York City with fantastic camera angles that surprise and please. The musical score is perfect: soft and jazzy for the love scenes; haunting and menacing for the horror. Jane Fonda's award winning performance is reason enough to see the movie. You can't take your eyes off her. She is fascinating. Bree Daniels played by Jane Fonda is a controversial main character. She is a short gig actress who is chronically short of cash and always one phone call away from whoring. Decades before the #Metoo scandals in Hollywood, Klute takes on the hot topic of transactional sex. McCabe and Mrs. Miller – is a revisionist Western by Director Robert Altman set in a Northwest mining boom town. The heart of the town is a saloon with an endless poker game in the hazy candle light and the soft tunes of the lovely, fragile score in the background. This cloudy, snow-covered movie is a deceptively simple frontier story that follows John McCabe (Warren Beatty), a gambler, businessman and alleged gunfighter – a fact he never confirms or denies. Clad in a bearskin coat and wearing a bowler hat and beard, McCabe is unique among western protagonists of old. Sure, he wears a gun, but we know he is not the killer type. In fact our likeable anti-hero is a pimp, dandy, and a coward. But he gets lucky in the boom town where the center of social life is a saloon and a whorehouse. To say more would spoil the movie, but if you are looking for something different from the predictable, romanticized westerns, here is an alternative western that’s realistic, and chilled to the bone. Hospital - presents everyone’s worst nightmare. People go into the hospital for a minor illness and end up dead, or in a coma. The Head Nurse shrugs and mutters, “These things happen.” Later someone asks the Head Nurse, “Where do you train your staff, Dachau?” This is a subtle, low key comedy without big laughs and jokes, but is rather a comedy of errors woven together with the absurd irony of an avenging angel, in the form of a crazy man, killing the hospital staff responsible for the medical mishaps. George C. Scott is great as the Chief Surgeon struggling with his personal demons and his hospital, both on the verge of a major breakdown. George can roar with the best them, and he is great in this movie as he rips into his uncaring, burned out staff. He was nominated for Best Actor, but having won and refused to accept the previous year's Oscar for Patton, Scott wasn't about to get a second chance. Shaft – is a low budget, film noir featuring a little known black man (Richard Roundtree) in the lead role. With the exception of Sidney Poitier, black actors did not play leading roles in Hollywood. The financial success of Shaft changed the Hollywood business model. The rest is history, as they say. And yes, this flick is campy and dated, but that adds to the retro fun. Still, I think it's a better film than most critics give it credit. Also has an Oscar winning original song by Isaac Hayes. Set in seedy, dreary downtown Harlem, New York, the movie is a seventies time capsule. They Might Be Giants - is that extremely rare rom-com film with so many funny, entertaining and touching scenes. The cast is excellent; even the minor characters are well done. The central performance by George C. Scott is outstanding. He has a flair for comedy, and perfectly portrays Justin Playfair, a respected judge who suffered a mental breakdown and thinks he is Sherlock Holmes. Justin, in his own fantasy world, brings Sherlock Holmes alive better than the troupe of “serious” actors I have seen before or since. Justin’s doctor, Mildred Watson (Joanne Woodward), tries to help him. Together they bravely go in search of arch-enemy Moriarty, and in their own sweet, goofy way find love instead. TMBG is perfect for fans of quirky, underrated movies. Disappointments - A Clockwork Orange – is violence-porn and porn-porn combined with a middle-brow, moralistic “message” about the dangers of sacrificing Free Will in pursuit of social order. A Clockwork Orange is obscene in the literal sense of the word, and is not fit for polite company. I have never re-watched it; once back in the 70s was enough. A highly overrated movie. French Connection - won five Oscars and was much ballyhooed by the mainstream film critics. The question is why? The story about a New York City heroin-smuggling case is an OK cop flick, but it lacks real suspense or excitement and drags in Act 2. The big chase scene was hot stuff in 1971, but would barely garner special mention today. Gene Hackman plays the lead role of NYPD Detective “Popeye” Doyle, and his iconic image of Popeye wearing a cheap suit and pork pie hat is the lasting image of the movie. FC is not a bad movie, it just does not hold up to the lasting impact of Dirty Harry. Murphy’s War – is a graphic anti-war movie that begins with what most normal people would consider a War Crime. A German U-boat torpedoes and sinks an allied cargo ship then proceeds to machine gun the surviving sailors. Seaman Murphy played by Peter O’Toole is the lone survivor. O’Toole puts on a master class in acting as he plays Murphy suffering from a severe case of PTSD – post traumatic stress disorder. Murphy risks life and limb in a mad obsession to go after the German U-boat.
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