To celebrate the past 50 years of movies, let’s look at the best films of the 7’s in the decade of the 60’s all the way to 2017.
Best of 1967:
The Graduate
A film that has aged like fine wine and spoke to that very generation. The Graduate is Mike Nichols’s absolute best craft in a storu about confusion, boredom, lonliness, acting on impulse, and ultimately, the choices we make to defy against what society intends. Beyond the seemingly simple premise of a college grad(Dustin Hoffman) who falls in love with both his neighbor(played by the brilliant Anne Bancroft) and eventually her daughter. Every character is flawed but their choices are human and we feel for them because sometimes their decisions aren’t the right ones. It’s a brillian character study and one of the best films ever made.
1977:
Saturday Night Fever
John Travolta’s breakout role as a young new-york teen who dances his work money away every weekend at the local disco/dance club is a serious and touching story of a man who wants to escape his reality and the only means of “crossing the bridge” as he explains is by expressing himself on that dance floor. Travolta and his dance moves are stellar and the story does a fine job of making him loveable and infuriating at the same time. Beautifully directed and carried with an infectious soundtrack, Satuday Night Fever is brilliant.
1987:
Full Metal Jacket
The first half Stanley Kubrick’s anti-war film is like a gut-busting comedy that slowly turns into a psychological drama and then abruptly becomes a serious war film that questions if Vietnam and everything that was fought for was truly worth it. That war is not a killing game that everyone thought it would be. The almost cartoonish first half that transcends into the violent, grounded second half only adds more to Kubrick’s vision of war.
1997:
Boogie Nights
Paul Thomas Anderson’s Cream of the Crop is this beautifully made story about a young man’s journey into the adult film industry. Filled with memorable characters, unforgettable performances, and brilliant direction and editing, Boogie Nights is a great film about people and relationships boosted by memorable moments and career performances.
2007:
No Country for Old Men
The Coen Brothers’ unforgiving tale of violence, getaways, and the relentless battle of good and evil is a masterful work that requires no score but only brilliant tension that follows a sadistic psychopath chasing a man with a 2 million dollar briefcase through Texas and the border of Mexico. The haunting resolution is in equal parts genius and frustrating in that it gives the audience an unexpected turn but with a lesson that ultimately isn’t so fairy-tale esque.
2017:
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