Saturday, December 27, 2025

Film favorites from long ago: My picks from 1975

 

Continuing a favorite practice of mine at this time of year, I'm looking back over the years and considering my favorite films from a particular year - this time it's 1975, the year I completed junior high school and moved on to my freshman year in high school.  Gerald Ford was president, and South Vietnam was about to fall to communist North Vietnam, ending the long Vietnam War.

Coincidentally, Netflix (a streaming service that my wife enjoys, but I rarely watch) offers "Breakdown: 1975," a documentary directed by Morgan Neville (maybe best known for "Won't You Be My Neighbor," a nice film salute to Fred Rogers) and narrated by Jodie Foster.  The work's premise is that 1975 was the year that reshaped Hollywood, influenced mostly by Watergate and the collapse of South Vietnam. Others, of course, contend 1967 was the pivotal year of change.  Their argument has merit and I tend to agree with them.  However, "Breakdown" makes a strong argument for '75 and its many contributors include Scorsese, Oliver Stone, Albert Brooks, and Frank Rich.  It's worth viewing, I think. 

My list includes personal favorites, a few that general audiences also liked, and one or two that did well at the Oscars.  The list also includes a few that didn't do well at the box office, but that I've enjoyed again and again.  Here's my list, in no particular order:

The year offered a large number of great film hits - "Breakdown touches on many of them, and a few that missed the mark ("Nashville"), but still resonate with critics more than viewers.

Here's my list of memorable movies from 1975, presented in no particular order:

Jaws
"Three Days of the Condor"
"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"
"Dog Day Afternoon"
"Shampoo"
"The Great Waldo Pepper"
"Monty Python and the Holy Grail"
"The Wind and the Lion"
"Posse"
"Night Moves"
"Rollerball"
"The Drowning Pool"
"Mahogany"
"Operation Daybreak"
"The Man Who Would Be King"
"Barry Lyndon"

-- Thank you for reading. Please feel free to comment here or send an email to kbotterman@gmail.com 

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