Negative Space: seventies
- All the President’s Men
- Probably one of the most influential events in journalism history made into one of the best films of the seventies.
- Almost Famous
- This is the best DVD I’ve seen yet. It has not one, not two, but three discs: the third disc is a CD with music by Stillwater, including the Led Zeppelin-like “Fever Dogs”. Thought the snippets of that song was cool, it was too bad they didn’t write the whole thing? Fret no more, they did write the whole thing, and at least five other songs, all on the CD.
- Boogie Nights
- The movie that inspired my sideburns. Filled with extras (this is the “platinum edition”), that apparently couldn’t even fit on one disk. Two commentaries, ten or so deleted scenes--also with commentary--and a music video.
- Detroit Rock City
- Four Cleveland high school kids ditch school in 1978 to see KISS at Cobo Hall in Detroit. Along the way they pick up Natasha Lyonne. What a trip!
- Dick
- Hey, if you can’t make fun of Watergate, what can you make fun of? Unfortunately, while they’ve ferreted out a number of jokes, they don’t go very far with them. The best jokes, are, of course, the “Dick” jokes, but Watergate really should be much funnier than this.
- North Dallas Forty
- The “Any Given Sunday” of 1979, and probably as controversial. I was willing to see Nick Nolte in any number of crappy movies after North Dallas Forty (I think I gave up after 48 hours).
More Information
- City Nights/Frequency (CD)
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Some amazing new wave songs here; Nick Gilder was a unique bit of the end of the seventies and these are his two best albums as far as I’m concerned. If you were around in the seventies, you’ve heard Hot Child in the City from City Nights, but the real highlights are the retro-futuristic songs from the rest of the album, which continued into Frequency. “I’m not clinging to my yesterdays. Tomorrow waits with a hungry gaze. It goes by like a trick of the eye. Still alive to take our chances as we go on into the eighties.” (Nick Gilder)
- Dazed and Confused Criterion edition
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This movie is an incredible tale of sound and fury signifying high school. Linklater has crafted a beautiful story of a bunch of high schools students in Texas on the last day of school in 1976. There is no plot to get in the way of characterization. The soundtrack consists of seventies songs chosen specifically scene by scene for maximum impact. If you were ever in high school, you should see this movie for nostalgia reasons; if not, you should see it as an education. Slow ride, baby. Watch it in English or French, or with English or Spanish subtitles. Dazed and Confused is one hell of a movie; despite being set a thousand or so miles away it nearly perfectly fits my mid-seventies high school experience.
