Clips are shown and discussion held for Siskel and Ebert's favorite films of the 1970s:
Apocalypse Now, Annie Hall, Last Tango in Paris, An Unmarried Woman, The Sorrow & The Pity, Amacord, The Emigrants, Breaking Away
No Clips but mentioned:
The Godfather 1 & 2, The Conversation, Mean Streets, Saturday Night Fever, The Last Detail, Nashville, Let Boucher, Days of Heaven, The Deer Hunter, Heart of Glass, Cries & Whispers.
Unlike other and later "Best of" shows, the two don't break their choices out as being favorites of one or the other, nor do they list them in order of preference.
Their choices and conversation were interesting, because they didn't select many films that - 42 years later - are considered the best of the 1970s. They didn't mention Star Wars, Alien, Taxi Driver, Chinatown, or The Sting. The films I mention are rated highly on this website and some had franchises lasting into this century. But one thing most of the enduring 70s films have that Siskel and Ebert's choices do not is that they are completely divorced from the atmosphere of the 1970s, which was a time of the USA in decline, high inflation, a declining standard of living, and loss of prestige abroad. Nobody wants to remember those times, so moviegoers tend to avoid most of them.
Apocalypse Now, Annie Hall, Last Tango in Paris, An Unmarried Woman, The Sorrow & The Pity, Amacord, The Emigrants, Breaking Away
No Clips but mentioned:
The Godfather 1 & 2, The Conversation, Mean Streets, Saturday Night Fever, The Last Detail, Nashville, Let Boucher, Days of Heaven, The Deer Hunter, Heart of Glass, Cries & Whispers.
Unlike other and later "Best of" shows, the two don't break their choices out as being favorites of one or the other, nor do they list them in order of preference.
Their choices and conversation were interesting, because they didn't select many films that - 42 years later - are considered the best of the 1970s. They didn't mention Star Wars, Alien, Taxi Driver, Chinatown, or The Sting. The films I mention are rated highly on this website and some had franchises lasting into this century. But one thing most of the enduring 70s films have that Siskel and Ebert's choices do not is that they are completely divorced from the atmosphere of the 1970s, which was a time of the USA in decline, high inflation, a declining standard of living, and loss of prestige abroad. Nobody wants to remember those times, so moviegoers tend to avoid most of them.