1976
Network
It’s easy for us on this show to talk at great length about Sidney Lumet’s 1976 film “Network” as it’s one of our all-time favorites. Both a scathing indictment of the TV industry and a reality check for people’s feelings about the times in which they were living, this film made an indelible mark on the world of film and created one of the most iconic movie lines ever. Join us — Pete Wright and Andy Nelson — as we not only finish our series of films from 1976 but also begin a short but deliciously sweet series of films written by the amazing Paddy Chayefsky.
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The Outlaw Josey Wales
For Clint Eastwood’s fifth directorial effort, he returned to one of the genres he’s most well-known for — the western — and created an absolute classic, The Outlaw Josey Wales. A western affected both by the revisionist movement within the genre that had been growing for nearly a decade as well as by the overall darker, more realistic tones exhibited in 70s cinema, this film took a lot of old elements from classic westerns and turned them on their heads: the Union soldiers are the bad guys, the outlaw is the hero, the Native Americans are not just real characters but actually integral to the story, and the final shootout takes an unexpected — and ultimately very gratifying — turn.
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Carrie
Brian De Palma had been making feature films for almost a decade before he made Carrie in 1976, but it was this film that became his first blockbuster and really pushed him to the next level. By making an adaptation of the first book by an up-and-coming writer at the time, Stephen King, and turning it into a very effective and frightening psychological horror film, De Palma created a classic that is nearly as effective (if a bit dated) as it was when first released. Join us — Pete Wright and Andy Nelson — as we continue our 1976 series with
Taxi Driver
We’re continuing our 1976 series with Martin Scorsese’s gritty film Taxi Driver, one of his greatest and arguably most talked about films.
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Marathon Man
In 1976, John Schlesinger made a film adaptation of William Goldman’s novel Marathon Man, and in the process, made everyone afraid to go back to their dentist. There are few things more horrifying than watching Laurence Olivier’s Nazi dentist drill into Dustin Hoffman’s teeth (the healthy ones because it’ll hurt more, naturally). Join us — Pete Wright and Andy Nelson — as we start a new series digging into great films from 1976, a great year for cinema, and we start it off with Marathon Man.
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