Man, I love me some Klute. The story could be more logical; the ending could be more thrilling. I always identify more with the Donald Sutherland character. Belle says she identifies with the Jane Fonda character. It's our movie, can you see?
There's this special chilly, middle-distance Alan Pakula thing that's like a Steely Dan album and a non-pornographic fashion spread in a Penthouse magazine, circa 1971. Plus Roy Scheider as the pimp.
Tonight I checked out the DVD special features for the first time. There's a 1971 promotional mini-documentary on the making of the film. Deeply story-inappropriate squaresville, Dragnet-worthy voice-over. "The two have searched the respectable and the unrespectable sides of New York..." Wrong sort of funky music. I can't quite say why this documentary feels so hoky. I guess it's just that no one would do a short entertainment segment like this with such an air of Walter Kronkite seriousness today.
Donald Sutherland is good all through the 70's. Even good in films like The Disappearance, that don't seem likely to see the light of DVD. Don't Look Now is great. Well, Ok, Lady Ice not so good. Well, OK, Donald Sutherland is in a lot of bad movies his whole career. I think the worst is Crackers. An amazing squandering of talent all around. (I'm willing to bet it's worse than The Poky Little Puppy's First Christmas.) I always thought he should have been Gandalf or Saruman at the very least. He's never really had a great action role. He always seems like a prop - a goofy jack-in-the-box, ambling scarecrow, or sort of blank yet expressive coathanger; or a really dangerous guy eating soup while he waits for the Nazi u-boat to call.
What's your favorite atmospheric piece of early 70's cinema? If not Klute, then what? The Conversation?
Oh yeah. I had lunch with Tyler "Marginal Revolution" Cowen today. In a nice little peranakan restaurant, The Blue Ginger. He's blogging the headline from the Straits Times that I was thinking of blogging today. I have to say: that lede is weird, even by local standards.
jholbo-at-mac-dot-com
bbwaring-at-yahoo-dot-com
Two Lane Blacktop is my favorite of that era. Not $177 worth of favorite though.
Posted by: Joe O | July 27, 2005 at 12:11 AM
Ahem. "I love me some?"
As I have mentioned, this is forbidden.
Posted by: Jonathan | July 27, 2005 at 12:55 AM
Ooh, Joe beat me to Two-Lane Blacktop. If I may stretch back to the slightly-pre-early-70's, then my vote goes to Medium Cool (1969).
Sutherland would make a great Saruman. If Crackers is worse than S*P*Y*S, which I can hardly imagine (*shudder*), I don't even want to think about it.
Posted by: Duck | July 27, 2005 at 01:16 AM
When did you mention?
Posted by: jholbo | July 27, 2005 at 01:17 AM
Conversation is very good. Just watched Five Easy Pieces again last week, which only reminded me how much I love The King of Marvin Gardens.
I think the era is slightly overrated. If I had to choose between the early American 70s and the Europeans 55-65, I wouldn't hesitate to go for Bergman,Fellini,Godard,Antonini,etc.
Posted by: bob mcmanus | July 27, 2005 at 02:20 AM
The Conversation still gives me nightmares. But while you're on Sutherlandiana, I recently re-watched MASH, which holds up very well -- better than the series, I think. I wonder, on the "bad film" front, has he done better or worse than Max von Sydow?
Posted by: slolernr | July 27, 2005 at 02:29 AM
"What's your favorite atmospheric piece of early 70's cinema?"
Have to think about that, but Midnight Cowboy immediately springs to mind as a possibility.
Probably The French Connection, though, because of my familiarity with that El, growing up in Brooklyn at the same time.
Posted by: Gary Farber | July 27, 2005 at 02:30 AM
bob is right that the era is overrated. Don't Look Now, Conversation, The French Connection, Midnight Cowboy, Klute tend to be disappointing if you come to them with too high expectations. I would go for Europeans 55-65 too.
Posted by: Joe O | July 27, 2005 at 05:14 AM
When did you mention?
I knew this would happen.
Posted by: ogged | July 27, 2005 at 07:49 AM
I actually quit going to movies entirely around 1970. Not exactly for the right reasons, but I can talk about the "art films" but not much else.
Mot quite so much so for music, but the fantastic stuff that Mingus, Coleman, Coltrane, and Davis were doing didn't really continue, except in Norway of all places.
Posted by: John Emerson | July 27, 2005 at 07:51 AM
The Conversation takes the cake. Sorry to be so dull and derivative, but it's the cat's pajamas. Of course, I wasn't even born until 1977, so I really don't belong in this conversation.
Posted by: Scott Eric Kaufman | July 27, 2005 at 09:21 AM
John posted this, not Belle, ogged.
Posted by: ben wolfson | July 27, 2005 at 10:38 AM
Crackers is worse than S*P*Y*S by a landslide.
Posted by: jholbo | July 27, 2005 at 06:09 PM
John posted this, not Belle, ogged.
I realize that, Ben, but we all know that in the Land of Cool, John follows Belle's lead.
Posted by: ogged | July 27, 2005 at 10:52 PM
Another vote for The Conversation, if it's early 70s paranoid-existential atmosphere that you're looking for. Plus, it's simply Coppola's best film, period.
A frequently overlooked little gem of a movie, in which Sutherland plays with his age to great affect, is Panic. Sutherland, plus William H. Macy, John Ritter, Neve Campbell, and more. It stumbles a bit as it plays out the whole mid-life crisis thing on Macy's part, but great stuff happening on the edges of the screen. Definitely worth checking out.
Posted by: Russell Arben Fox | July 28, 2005 at 03:49 AM
John didn't say this was the best era ever; he just likes it, that's all. I actually saw Don't Look Now again recently, and indeed it wasn't quite as good as I remembered it (still good though). On the other hand, The Conversation was better (than I remembered).
Crackers is worse than S*P*Y*S by a landslide.
Saints preserve us!
And who knew Emerson was into Jan Garbarek and Terje Rypdal?
Posted by: Duck | July 28, 2005 at 03:52 AM
Not very atmospheric but I liked Kelly's Heros too.
Posted by: Joe O | July 28, 2005 at 04:45 AM
Atmospheric kinda sounds like a polite way of saying mannered and dated. If it isn't, how about California Split?
Posted by: Thomas | July 28, 2005 at 10:54 PM
I love me some too! Klute and just saying "I love me some".
Posted by: ham | July 29, 2005 at 03:36 AM
I love me some miscegenation! And Barbarella!
(And even if the post by the dead guy is deleted, I stand by this!)
Posted by: Carlos | July 29, 2005 at 06:59 AM
Sadly, the gentleman is gone now, Carlos.
Posted by: jholbo | July 29, 2005 at 09:16 AM
That's OK! Exclamation points are a sign of sincerity!
Posted by: Carlos | July 29, 2005 at 08:00 PM
Sure, The Conversation is the best, but if asked for my favorite, I might go with The Long Goodbye.
But there's something to be said for Play Misty for Me.
Posted by: Josh | August 02, 2005 at 07:49 AM
You know, I almost bought a marked down DVD of "Play Misty" yesterday, Josh. It was in my hand, but I was feeling stingy.
Posted by: jholbo | August 02, 2005 at 05:10 PM
Steely Dan, yeah!
What's wrong with "Crackers?" I know it's no "Vanya on 42nd Street," but I thought it was as cute as "The Princess Bride." Wallace Shawn's "Turtle" character is sweet and dreamy.
Posted by: Nini | August 06, 2005 at 08:42 PM