Directors Films Of The American Renaissance '67-'75 Tournament (1 Viewer)

[george kaplan]

Billy Jack

abstain

 

[Brian Lawrence]

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

 

[DanaA]

Billy Jack - I don't really think this is a good picture at all, but my it meant a lot to me when it came out and I must have gone to see it 7-8 times. Ironically, some friends and I were just discussing the film over coffee last week.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

 

[John C. Wilson]

Billy Jack

THX 1138 - don't understand why this isn't doing better. :frowning:

 

[Brook K]

Billy Jack advances 4-3 (I voted for Superfly, who's message of personal enlightenment and empowerment, not to mention Curtis Mayfield's great soundtrack, place it far and above BJ's bleaker, violent, and more simplistic approach. Ron O'Neal vs. Tom Laughlin, c'mon. And Laughlin's visual approach is very basic; he gives us nothing like Gordon Parks Jr.'s photographic montage.)

Oh well, I can't be too upset. I know it wasn't going to win, and shouldn't, so Superfly had to lose sometime.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre advances 5-2 (My vote is for TCM, though I am a fan of THX as well)


Dog Day Afternoon
vs.
Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls

Minnie & Moskowitz
vs.
Sisters

 

[Jay E]

Dog Day Afternoon
Sisters

 

[Bill McA]

Dog Day Afternoon
Minnie & Moskowitz - though I do like Sisters quite a bit!

 

[Brian Lawrence]

Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls

 

[SteveGon]

Double-abstain

 

[Scott Weinberg]

Dog Day Afternoon

 

[george kaplan]

I agree with Steve.

 

[John C. Wilson]

Dog Day Afternoon

abstain

 

[george kaplan]

Regarding Billy Jack:

I don't really like it very much, but I like Superfly even less. Superfly has some of the least appealing (to me) soul music from that time frame, and wasn't very interesting to watch.

I will admit that it was influential in terms of starting the Blaxploitation genre, but I don't really consider that a good thing.

 

[Brook K]

Superfly was an independantly financed black empowerment film like Sweet Sweetback's Badassss Song. The kind of films that are brought to mind by the "blaxploitation" term did not occur for another year or two when the mainstream co-opting began due to the financial success of Superfly, Shaft, and Sweet Sweetback.

The soundtrack is integral to the film. Mayfield's songs - Superfly, Ghetto Child, Freddy's Dead, Pusherman, etc. tell the story of what we are seeing onscreen. They describe the characters, give us their inner thoughts, and provide commentary on their actions and the world they, and we, inhabit.

The aim of his role
Was to move a lot of blow
Ask him his dream
What does it mean
He wouldn't know
"Can't be like the rest"
Is the most he'll confess
But the time's running out
And there's no happiness

Oooh, Superfly
You're gonna make your fortune by and by
But if you lose, don't ask no questions why
The only game you know is "Do or Die"


Little child, runnin' wild
Watch a while, you see he never smile
Broken home, father gone
Mama tired, so he's all alone
Kind of sad, kind of mad
Ghetto child thinkin' he's been had

In the back of his mind he's sayin'
Didn't have to be here
You didn't have to love for me
While I was just a nothin' child
Why couldn't they just let me be
Let me be, let me be, let me be

One-room shack on the alley-back
Control I'm told from across the track
Where is the mayor who'll make all things fair
He lives outside our polluted air

 

[george kaplan]

:b You know, Brook, I was actually thinking of Shaft when I made those remarks. Somehow I was getting them confused. Sorry. :b

 

[Brook K]

Dog Day Afternoon advances 5-1 including my vote

Minnie & Moskowitz advances 2-1 with my tie-breaking vote. I like Sisters as well, but would have liked it more if the vivid stylization of the first 20m or so had been carried on for the whole of the film.

Carnal Knowledge
vs.
Vanishing Point

Sweet Sweetback's Badassss Song
vs.
Night Moves

 

[Bill McA]

Carnal Knowledge
Sweet Sweetback's Badassss Song

 

[Walter Kittel]

Vanishing Point
abstain

- Walter.

 

[george kaplan]

Another double abstain. :frowning:

Brook and I may be setting some kind of record for most abstains in each others tourney.

 

[Jay E]

Vanishing Point
Night Moves