Films of the '70s: 1972

[Stephan]

You can post a list of anywhere between 5 and 20 films (or more, but only 20 will be counted) from the year we're covering. The deciding factor in terms of release dates is the RYM list and the top 10 of each year will go on to the final top 100 round. The deadline is March 18th.

The points scheme is as follows:
1. 50 points
2. 40
3. 35
4. 30
5. 25
6. 20
7. 18
8. 16
9. 14
10. 12
11. 10
10. 9
...
20. 1
However, these are the maximum amounts of points. If you want to put certain films on your list but don't want to give them too many points, you can choose to give these less points than in this scheme (but never more) to decrease the impact on the overall results. If you don't specifically state that you want to give (some of) your films fewer points, I will assume the standard scheme.

Here are some lists to remind you of the great (and awful) films released in 1972, from a variety of sources:
IMDb
RYM
Films101
RottenTomatoes

[Gillingham]

01. Solyaris (Andrei Tarkovsky)
02. The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola)
03. Viskningar och Rop (Ingmar Bergman)
04. Deliverance (John Boorman)
05. Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes (Werner Herzog)
06. Roma (Federico Fellini)
07. Sleuth (Joseph L. Mankiewicz) 16
08. Le Charme Discret de la Bourgeoisie (Luis Buñuel) 14
09. Every Thing You Always Wanted to Know about Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask (Woody Allen) 12
10. Ultimo Tango a Parigi (Bernardo Bertolucci) 8

[Greg]

1. Aguirre, the Wrath of God / Werner Herzog / West Germany
2. Solaris / Andrei Tarkovsky / U.S.S.R.
3. Fat City / John Huston / U.S.
4. Last Tango in Paris / Bernardo Bertolucci / Italy
5. The Godfather / Francis Ford Coppola / U.S.
6. Deliverance / John Boorman / U.S.
7. The Heartbreak Kid / Elaine May / U.S.
8. Frenzy / Alfred Hitchcock / U.K.
9. The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant / Rainer Werner Fassbinder / West Germany
10. Roma / Federico Fellini / Italy
11. Pakeezah / Kamal Amrohi / India
12. The Getaway / Sam Peckinpah / U.S.
13. Cries and Whispers / Ingmar Bergman / Sweden
14. Cabaret / Bob Fosse / U.S.
15. The Goalkeeper's Fear of the Penalty / Wim Wenders / West Germany
16. Fritz the Cat / Ralph Bakshi / U.S.
17. Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii / Adrian Maben / U.K.
18. The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean / John Huston / U.S.
19. The Harder They Come / Perry Henzell / Jamaica
20. Superfly / Gordon Parks, Jr. / U.S.

[Henrik]

1. Cabaret
2. The Godfather
3. Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie [The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie]
4. Play It Again, Sam
5. Viskningar och rop [Cries and Whispers]
6. L'amour l'après-midi [Love in the Afternoon]

Aguirre and Solyaris disappointed me.

[Charlie Driggs]

1. Cabaret (Bob Fosse)
2. Ludwig (Luchino Visconti)
3. Un flic (Jean-Pierre Melville)
4. Deliverance (John Boorman)
5. Ultimo tango a Parigi (Bernardo Bertolucci)
6. Solyaris (Andrej Tarkowski)
7. The Assassination of Trotsky (Joseph Losey)
8. Chircales (Marta Rodríguez, Jorge Silva)
9. Sleuth (Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
10. Avanti! (Billy Wilder)

Honorable Mention: Deep Throat (Jerry Gerard)

Embarassing gaps: The Godfather, Aguirre, Petra von Kant

[Petri]

1. Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes [Aguirre: The Wrath of God]
2. Солярис [Solaris]
3. The Godfather
4. Deliverance
5. Silent Running
6. Kahdeksan surmanluotia [Eight Deadly Shots]
7. The Getaway
8. The Harder They Come
9. パンダ・コパンダ [Panda! Go, Panda!]
10. Pink Flamingos

[Miguel]

1. Sleuth – Joseph L. Mankiewicz
2. Солярис (Solaris) – Andrei Tarkovsky
3. Avanti – Billy Wilder
4. The Goodfather – Francis Ford Coppola
5. Play it again, Sam – Herbert Ross
6. Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex, But Were Afraid to Ask – Woody Allen
7. The Glass House – Tom Gries
8. Frenzy – Alfred Hitchcock
9. Cabaret – Bob Fosse
10. La cabina (The Phone Box) – Antonio Mercero
11. Mi querida señorita (My Dearest Lady) – Jaime de Armiñán
12. Viskningar och Rop (Cries and Whispers) – Ingmar Bergman
13. Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii – Adrian Maben
14. What's Up, Doc? – Peter Bogdanovich
15. Silent Running – Douglas Trumbull

[Harold]

1. The Godfather
2. Cabaret
3. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
4. Last Tango in Paris
5. Deliverance

[Jirin]

1. Solaris
2. Aguirre, The Wrath Of God
3. The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeouisis
4. Cries And Whispers
5. Last Tango In Paris
6. Godfather

What a fantastic year.

Aguirre, The Wrath Of God is easily one of Herzog's best. 1972 is the first in a string of fantastic years and I'm sure I'm just scratching the surface.

Godfather is a great movie but I think it's strength lies in the acting and cinematography, not the story, and that maybe it shouldn't quite so automatically be in the 'best ever' conversation.

I dunno, I could be convinced to watch Deliverance, but the one thing I know about that movie makes me not as excited.

[Michel]

1. Sleuth (Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
2. Ultimo tango a Parigi [Last Tango in Paris] (Bernardo Bertolucci)
3. The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola)
4. Deliverance (John Boorman)
5. Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie [The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie] (Luis Buñuel)
6. Cabaret (Bob Fosse)
7. Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes [Aguirre: The Wrath of God] (Werner Herzog)
8. Avanti! (Billy Wilder)
9. Tout le monde il est beau, tout le monde il est gentil [Everybody He Is Nice, Everybody He Is Beautiful] (Jean Yanne)
10. Nous ne vieillirons pas ensemble [We Won't Grow Old Together] (Maurice Pialat)
11. Солярис [Solaris] (Андрей Тарковский)
12. Viskningar och rop [Cries and Whispers] (Ingmar Bergman)
13. César et Rosalie (Claude Sautet)
14. Lo scopone scientifico [The Scientific Cardplayer] (Luigi Comencini)
15. Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask) (Woody Allen)
16. The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (Paul Newman)
17. Ludwig (Luchino Visconti)
18. Play It Again, Sam (Herbert Ross)
19. L'udienza [The Audience] (Marco Ferreri)
20. État de siège [State of Siege] (Costa-Gavras)

[Stephan]

Godfather is a great movie but I think it's strength lies in the acting and cinematography, not the story, and that maybe it shouldn't quite so automatically be in the 'best ever' conversation.

As The Godfather is my favorite film of all time, I obviously disagree. In fact, the book is one of the most entertaining books I've ever read (granted, I haven't read that many) so I'd say the story is definitely one of the strengths.

Speaking of favorite books that have been made into films in 1972, has anyone seen Slaughterhouse-Five? I reckon it'd be very hard to make a good film out of that book but it's one of my favorites and it was directed by George Roy Hill smack in between Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting.

[Jirin]

I think I just find it harder to get as interested in the melodramatic aspects of the film as its bigger fans. Also for me, the movie fails to make me root for the Corleone family over its equally evil rivals. The thing about gangster stories is that movie gangsters have a pretty limited toolset. They can intimidate someone, if that doesn't work, they can assassinate them. Godfather gets more into strategy than most other gangster films (But not nearly as much as Sopranos), and I do appreciate that, but I feel like if it weren't for an entire cast of amazing performances and a handful of canonical scenes like the horse head scene, the plot would seem a lot more thin.

I can't speak for the book because I haven't read it, it's entirely possible the book goes into more strategic detail. I might compare the film to an NFL broadcast. In any play there are 22 people moving at once, but all you see is the quarterback and the wide receiver. I'm sure the book shows all 22 people, but all I see in the movie is the quarterback and the wide receiver, and a lot of the strategy talk comes off as gimmicks to justify the next assassination.

[Stephan]

The films are pretty faithful to the book (although they took out a major subplot about enormous penises and wide vaginas (seriously), but that probably would've been in part 2) but I tend to enjoy gangster films more than just about any other films, so perhaps it's just a genre preference.

[Gillingham]

For me, The Godfather isn't so much about plot anyway. I've read the book as well and afterwards I was wondering how Coppola was able to make such a good movie out of it. It was indeed a very wise decision to leave the Fontane-sub story completely out of it. I agree that the performances are probably the most important aspect to the status of the film. But I rarely, if ever, really like a movie just because the story is so strong.

[antonius]

1.Cabaret
2.Godfather
3.Deliverance
4.Sleuth
5.Last Tango in Paris
6.Bad Company
7.Solaris
8.Charme Discret de la bourgeoisie
9.The Getaway
10.Jeremiah johnson
11.The Harder they come
12.Ulzana's Raid
13.Fat City
14.Roma
15.Frenzy
16.Judge Roy Bean
17.Play it again, Sam
18.Ludwig
19.Superfly

[Mindrocker]

01. Aguirre
02. The Godfather
03. Roma
04. Fritz The Cat
05. Ludwig
06. Deliverance
07. Lady Sings The Blues
08. Pink Flamingos
09. The Glass House
10. Blacula

[Stephan]

Many slightly disappointing films this year, Cabaret, Deliverance, Cries and Whispers, and Solaris were all just enjoyable to me rather than actually good.

1. The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola)
2. Sleuth (Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
3. Aguirre: Der Zorn Gottes (Werner Herzog)
4. Last Tango In Paris (Bernardo Bertolucci)
5. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (Luis Buñuel)
6. Cabaret (Bob Fosse) 14
7. Deliverance (John Boorman) 12
8. Cries And Whispers (Ingmar Bergman) 10
9. Solaris (Andrei Tarkovsky) 5

[Stephan]

And the results! The top 9 really stands out above the rest in terms of votes this year.

#. Title (Director) - Points/Votes/#1s
1. The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola) - 405/11/2
2. Solyaris [Solaris] (Andrei Tarkovsky) - 273/9/2
3. Aguirre, the Wrath of God (Werner Herzog) - 268/7/3
4. Cabaret (Bob Fosse) - 245/8/3
5. Deliverance (John Boorman) - 232/9/0
6. Ultimo Tango a Parigi [Last Tango in Paris] (Bernardo Bertolucci) - 213/8/0
7. Sleuth (Joseph L. Mankiewicz) - 200/6/2
8. Le Charme Discret de la Bourgeoisie [The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie] (Luis Buñuel) - 185/7/0
9. Viskningar och Rop [Cries and Whispers] (Ingmar Bergman) - 126/7/0
10. Roma (Federico Fellini) - 74/4/0

Close:
Ludwig (72)

This marks the second entry into the final 100 for Bertolucci, who joins Roeg and Altman.