The Exorcist -- 1973 -- R

Proclaimed the scariest movie of all time, the Exorcist has equally been called a journey of one man's faith. It involves a 12-year old girl who is possessed by a demon, completely throwing off the prognoses of doctors leading her mother to seek an exorcism through the help of a priest who is losing his faith following the death of his own mother. This movie is really creepy in some parts and downright bizarre in others. The prospect of such a thing actually occurring would be frightening. 

This is not a traditional scary movie in any sense of the word, but an opinion of how bad a demon possession can get. The demon (once it takes over) is quite vulgar in every way, but how many scary movies can you find where the line "The power of Christ compels you" is spoken at least a dozen times in perfect context?

Great characters for the most part with only the part of Burke Dennings getting the short end of the character stick despite the implied size of the role from the other characters. The chld knew him; the mom was sweet on him; but he died without speaking so much as a handful of lines and having very minimal screen time (most of it drunk during a party).

It's not for all horror hounds due its very dramatic aspects (a component lacking in a lot of horror), but overall, a good watch.

American Graffiti -- 1973 -- PG

This was George Lucas's second film following the bizarre THX-1138. This one followed a group of graduates on a single night before two of them were slated to go off to college. Cleverly scored by an all night radio station playing songs of the era, the character development and resolutions were downright perfect with clever twists and funny moments throughout. I had a little difficulty getting into some of the situation at the beginning, just because I couldn't relate, but once we got past that point, it was very good, and its success gave Lucas the money and clout he needed to produce his space movie a few years later. 

While the cast would have originally been headed by the star, Ron Howard, along with a slew of unknowns, almost every major member of the cast still has a movie career to this day (over 30 years later), only one of the top seven listed in IMDB not having a film out in 2005 and most with something in 2006. Beyond these top 7 (which include Richard Dreyfuss and Cindy Williams (Shirley from Laverne and Shirley)), we also have Harrison Ford hidden further down the list, and I believe he are aware of the bigger, better things he went onto including working for Lucas again on his space movie a few years later.

Overall, a very good movie with the elements it takes to make a good film.

Wicker Man -- 1973 -- R

With the coming of a Nic Cage version of this film, I thought I'd give the original here a watching. The 70's were an experimental time for the film industry, and filmmakers loved being able to buck the 40 year old production with the advent of the new rating system. This was no exception to that rule.

We start off with a police officer going to an island in the United Kingdom to investigate the supposed disappearance of a girl. He continues to get no cooperation from the natives, though as he uncovers more information, they at least agree with the information he provides to them. The island is run by a cult religion with all the standard deviants to regular religion, such as nature worship and human sacrifice.

The policeman professes his devotion to Christianity early on, and that becomes one of the main conflicts within the larger framework of the search for the missing girl. It does get preachy at times, and his character can be admired for overstepping his authority on several occasions for the sake of preaching Jesus, but it's all not overwhelming.

It has some moments where the pacing slows down a lot, and we just want to move on, but it doesn't necessarily drive me to distraction. A better soundtrack would have helped this a lot.

When we hit the climax, we get a big twist, and anyone who has seen enough of these types of movies can guess how it ends. I got a little concerned that the dragging in the end was dragging a bit too long, but it got cleared up neatly when the "title character" was revealed.

It had some excellent character development of the lead and the island served as a character in and of itself with Lord Summerisle as the head. There was a ton of supporting characters from all over the island, and they served as little snippets of developing the religion more than individual characters.

Weird ending. Weird movie. But altogether pretty decent in all its weirdness.

Soylent Green -- 1973 -- PG

There are two kinds of people in the world: those who know the secret of Soylent Green and those who don't. I'm in the majority. I knew it before I saw the film. I blame kaleidoscope which revealed the secret in class (holy cow) like, twenty years ago. But knowing it did not diminish the enjoyment of the film. It allowed me to appreciate the subtext just a little more.

The film follows a detective investigating the murder of a very rich man who was on the board of the Soylent Corporation, a company that manufacters a food substance consisting of soybean and lentils called soylent, which comes in a variety of different colors: red, yellow, blue, and of course, the green. Tuesday is Soylent Green day. The world this occurred in is grossly overpopulated to the extent that people sleep where ever they can find a few feet to curl up in. The animals are gone, the plants are dying, and only this Soylent stuff keeps people alive.

During the course of the investigation, it seems someone doesn't want our detective friend to find out the truth behind the murder of the rich man. He is tailed, shot at, and shut out. People who have learned the secret either are killed (or in one case, kills himself). The edetective is removed from the case which is summarily closed. He won't let it die until he learns the truth...and learn it he does.

Of course, this is a 70's movie, so the ending is a bit down and somewhat ambiguous. They do this on purpose because the prodution code prior to 1968 rarely allowed such ambiguity or down endings, so they want to be revolutionary. Unfortunately, it became a staple of the era.

The detective is fairly well rounded along with his immediate relationships. We understand him and his world. It's a definite dog eat dog world where he comes from so he takes every advantage he can get when he sees it. This being a sci-fi-ish world, the world itself is well created, too. It's horribly believable as a possible outcome to the world we live in. They paid attention to little details along the way to make it more horrifying and that much better. Imagine women willingly referred to as "furniture" and they come with the fully furnished apartment you're leasing.

There re only a couple of things that stood out to me as weird. One was when curfew sounded. Well, following this curfew sounding, people were still out and about, and even our hero (who didn't seem to have a curfew pass) was running around like it was nothing. In fact, nothing came of this supposed curfew at all. The other oddness was when our hero hitched a ride on one of the sanitary disposal trucks. Um, no one behind this truck saw anything? I guess no one pays attention when they drive in this time period either. I will say the driver switch they did was very clever and fit the story perfectly.

So it's a good film that paints a bleak and disturbing picture of the future. All that world needed was a good war to thin out their numbers and they'd've been fine. Once you learn the secret, watch it again to catch the subtext. You'll then catch all the other references made to this film all across the culture since then. The secret here is akin to the big twists in other "big twist" films such as Psycho, The Empire Strikes Back, and The Sixth Sense; it's something that the filmmakers desperately want you not to know before you watch, but popular culture reveals because the twist is what makes the film unique.

It's a good film, and a solid part of film history. If you haven't ever seen it, it's worth it at least once. And no, I won't tell you the secret.