The French Connection -- 1971 -- R

1971 must have been a slow year for movies. If ever you wanted to know just how boring a detective's job can be, this film exemplifies it. It's 104 minutes I'll never get back. The characters experienced no growth during the course of this film, and the story never took off to any degree that I noticed. The only note-worthy scene was an interesting chase of a car following a city train. The car was under the tracks swerving and speeding. However, the setup for the chase was poorly executed and since I had no emotional investment in the picture by this time, it came off as really anti-climactic. 

How this film managed to win 5 Oscars including best picture, best director, and best screenplay is a mystery I'll never know the answer to. For best picture, it beat out Fiddler on the Roof and A Clockwork Orange, both of which are vastly superior to this film.

But hey, not all films are for all people. I didn't like it, but maybe I missed something.

Duel -- 1971 -- PG

Gives road rage a whole new fearful meaning. This film follows a salesman as he goes to try a get an account. He takes a road trip and on the way, he passes an old ugly truck. Well, the truck passes him and then hits the brakes. The film is off.

This film equates to one really long suspenseful chase between the salesman and the truck (who is, incidentally, the antagoinst of the moive, not the driver of the truck). This does what movies do best: take a mundane everyday situation and blow it completely out of proportion, and it does it well.

Some minor complaints I had were quelled for the most part. I thought he should call the poice from the beginning, and thank the Lord the character touched upon the idea, but explained why he couldn't at the time. His later attempts to contact authorities were stifled by the truck's presence.

My only other possible complaint was that the whole thing could have been stopped if the guy just went back home. The truck was always waiting ahead of him on the road, so a simple move of turning around and kissing the account good-bye (or at least delivering a solid reason why he didn't show) would have been what I'd've done if I were being chased by a murderous truck. The account was made out to be very, very important, which is probably why he kept going.

This aside, for Spielberg's directoral debut, it was really good. It had a lot of suspense and kept me watching a truck and a car driving down a road for the 90 miute run time...and that is really saying something.

THX 1138 -- 1971 -- R

George Lucas's first feature film bears little resemblance to his later works, and bears a storyline that cannot be helped but feel like a variation of 1984.

We follow a worker who has been given the name THX 1138 through his world where they are components of a society. Sex and love are forbidden in this world, and THX engages in both with his roommate, leaving her pregnant. They plan on escaping the city, but are instead captured.

It's a weird little story and the ending is just as strange. On the one hand, our hero completes his mission, but on the other hand, it leaves you wanting more. What primarily came out of this film was giving Lucas the open doors to make American Graffiti and then Star Wars. The film's title finds its way into other Lucas films as well as the now standard theatre sound system, THX, which Lucas co-developed. 

Robert Duvall, who played THX, would be in the Godfather the following year, and Donald Pleasance, who played THX's sort-of nemesis SEN, would be most unfortunately best known for his role in 1978's Halloween as Dr. Loomis.

It makes for an interesting insight into the early creativity of George Lucas when he has vision, style, and a darker outlook on life, but as a basic film, it's not at the top of any list of favorites of mine.

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory -- 1971 -- G

Watched the classic movie musical version of the Roald Dahl tale. Light-hearted numbers with some very dark elements and sinister subplots give this film an almost universal appeal. A G-rating only turns off the most hardcore gorehounds.

The focus for this one is the factory itself. We get a slow build-up of the maia of the golden tickets and mucho development of Charlie and the other four kids before we hit the factory. Wonka, himself, remains mostly a mystery throughout the factory, appearing mildly amused by the goings-on of the kids and their parents, seemingly expecting things to go a certain way.

One might wonder whether this adaptation would fit the author's vision of the film version of his book, but in this case, there's no wondering. Roald Dahl wrote the screenplay, and unlike other novelists gone screenwriters (*cough*StephenKing*cough*), Dahl is actually very good at adapting his own work to the screen and making it work well. This film ends very much like the book in that the elevator climbs into the sky and out of sight.

This is a great movie that brings us back to the movie musical days and shows what that style of movie is really capable of doing at its best.