In 1973,
Richard Nixon was sworn in for a second term as President of the United States;
George Foreman defeated Joe Frazier to become world heavyweight champion;
The Vietnam War ended;
Major League Baseball debuted the designated hitter;
The Sears Tower became the world’s tallest building;
Skylab launched;
The Bahamas, Guinea-Bissau, and Papua New-Guinea became independent nations;
Augusto Pinochet overthrew Salvador Allende in Chile;
The Yom Kippur War took place;
The Endangered Species Act passed;
Sean Paul, Jalen Rose, Portia de Rossi, Oscar De La Hoya, Juwan Howard, Tara Strong, Sarah Wynter, Cathy Freeman, Julio Iglesias Jr., Jenny Thompson, Eric Lindros, Chris Webber, Jack Davenport, Jason Kidd, Jim Parsons, Larry Page, Rachel Maddow, David Blaine, Pharrell Williams, Emma Caufield, Jennifer Esposito, Adrien Brody, Jorge Garcia, Tori Spelling, Sasha Alexander, Jack McBrayer, Heidi Klum, Derek Lowe, Kevin Feige, Tedy Bruschi, Faith Evans, Neil Patrick Harris, Juliette Lewis, Carson Daly, Patrick Wilson, Troy Garity, Rufus Wainwright, Omar Epps, Monica Lewinsky, Vera Farmiga, Sergey Brin, Kristen Wiig, Dave Chappelle, Rose McGowan, Shannon Elizabeth, Paul Walker, Andrew Lincoln, Nas, James Marsden, Neve Campbell, Mario Lopez, George Floyd, Seth MacFarlane, Edge, Nick Lachey, Sharlito Copley, Christian, Monica Seles, Grant Wahl, Tyra Banks, Terrell Owens, Mos Def, Seth Meyers were born;
While Lyndon Johnson, J. Carrol Naish, Edward G. Robinson, Wally Cox, Katina Paxinou, Cecil Kellaway, Pearl Buck, Robert Siodmak, Noel Coward, Pablo Picasso, Arthur Freed, Merian C. Cooper, Irene Ryan, William Inge, Betty Grable, Joe E. Brown, Veronica Lake, Robert Ryan, Lon Chaney Jr., Jack Hawkins, Bruce Lee, Jean-Pierre Melville, John Ford, J.R.R. Tolkien, Salvador Allende, Gram Parsons, Jim Croce, Pablo Neruda, Anna Magnani, W.H. Auden, Paavo Nurmi, Allan Sherman, Sessue Hayakawa, Laurence Harvey, and Bobby Darin died.
The following is a list of my ten favorite films released in 1973:
10) F for Fake
Orson Welles uses the life of infamous art forger Elmyr de Hory and his biographer Clifford Irving (who would later infamously forge an autobiography of Howard Hughes), as a jumping off point for a rumination on the nature of art and the line between reality and a truthful representation.
There’s magic, there’s illusion, but mostly there’s Welles. He’s a larger than life figure (literally and figuratively) and here he’s incredibly open, offering a glimpse into his mind and and his theory of film. It’s an inspiring view.
9) Sleeper
It’s a shame Allen’s cancellation has caused his earlier films to fall into a memory hole. This film is madcap hilarity: a send up of classic science fiction combined with the kinetic energy of Keaton and the Marx brothers. This was the last of Allen’s pure comedy films, including Band on the Run and Bananas. His later neurotic films are his legacy, but these early pieces ensured him a place in the canon. He was one of the few filmmakers capable of translating the spirit of the early comedians into the post WWII zeitgeist. Like a more cerebral version of Airplane, or a version of Kentucky Fried Movie that’s actually funny.
Tunin (Giancarlo Giannini) plans to assassinate Benito Mussolini, and, convinced he will die, decides to spend his last days in debauchery at a whorehouse. After developing feelings for the would be assassin, prostitutes Salome and Tripolina conspire to prevent his almost certain suicide mission. Discovering the plot, an enraged Tunin storms out and gets himself killed anyway.
Lina Wertmuller had a helluva run in the 1970s, specializing in erotically charged films dealing with taut political issues.
This intense film showed how thin the line between historical revolutionary and footnote can be.
A chronicle of the life of first year law student James Hart, especially his contetious and transformative relationship with Charles Kingsfield (John Houseman).
Kingsfield is a domineering figure, who suffers no fools and sees his classroom as a proving ground to challenge his students. He comes from an older idea of academics not simply focused on increasing one’s knowledge, but on making his students tougher, stronger people.
For fifty years this film has colored what people think college is and should be like: a challenging conversation; a place where every weakness is exposed, where hard work can lead to astonishing results; a world where an elite few hold the keys to success and sometimes dole them out for petty reasons. How you feel about this film may be determined by how you see the role of elite colleges in American life.
6) Paper Moon
Confidence man Moses Pray (Ryan O’Neal) inadvertently befriends nine year old orphan Addie Loggins (Tatum O’Neal) and after teaching her the ropes of his trade, the two become a formidable hustling duo.
Meeting prostitute Trixie Delight (Madeline Kahn) causes a brief rift in their budding friendship until Addie exposes Trixie for who she is.
Slightly forgotten now, Madeline Kahn was a transcendent talent in the 1970s. Director Peter Bogdonavich had an impeccable start to his directorial in the 1970s including this, Last Picture Show (1971) and What’s Up Doc? (1971). Sadly, his personal demons and tendency to excess (including a tangential involvement with the Dorothy Stratten case) derailed his career and, by the 1980s, he was only sporadically working. A similar fate befell the film’s star Ryan O’Neal. He was an in-demand performer in the 1970s and seemed destined for superstardom, until erratic behavior cost him his career.
Tatum O’neal suffered the same fate as many child stars: a rocket to stardom then a crashing fall. She seems to have regained some semblance of normalcy, but losing that anchor at a young age often has catastrophic effects.
1973 was a banner year for Depression era con movies. I slightly prefer The Sting because it focuses squarely on the con and becomes a semi-game, but this is a fun movie with powerhouse performances, aided immensely by the knowledge of Ryan and Tatum’s real life father / daughter relationship. You can see their natural chemistry bleeding through in every scene.
Tatum rightfully won the Oscar for best supporting actress, but she’s the star of the film; I wish she had campaigned as lead actress so Kahn could have had a real chance to win.
In the early days of Franco’s Spain, imaginative young Ana sees Frankenstein (1931) and becomes obsessed with it.
When she questions why the monster died, her older sister tells her it was fake and his spirit remains alive. This makes a huge impression on Ana, whose effort to befriend and save the life of a Republican soldier parallels the movie which rules her obsession.
It’s a ponderous, beautiful film about the power and influence of art. Even something as ostensibly pulpy as Frankenstein is imbued with the power of artistic expression, which in director Erice’s hands is one of the most powerful weapons on earth.
4) The Sting
Reuniting Paul Newman and Robert Redford following the massive success of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, director George Roy Hill tops his previous work with one of the definitive con movies. Many since have tried to pull off something close to the final showdown with its astounding twists and turns.
The cast is top notch from top to bottom. Eileen Brennan, Ray Walston, Charles Durning, Robert Shaw, Robert Redford, Paul Newman. It more than deservedly won Best Picture.
The plot is a labyrinth of shifting allegiances and twists. You never know which way it’s going or who to trust and there’s a palpable sense of paranoia. It perfectly captures the spirit of the Depression and the desperation which forced so many to compromise themselves in ways they never would have anticipated.
My love of con movies stems from my dad’s adoration of this film. It’s an amusement park ride, a mystery which invites the viewers to play along whose influence has reverberated in popular culture for over fifty years.
Andrew Lloyd Weber’s early musical about the life of Christ is a wonderful jumping off point for Norman Jewison’s rock opera. I love movies which delve deeper in to Jesus as a man (like The Last Temptation of Christ). An exploration of his humanity is vital to prevent him from becoming an inaccessible symbol.
The music is fantastic, the on location filming is wonderful. Some accused the film of anti-semitism which I think is overblown. According to the story presented in the Bible, Jewish leaders played a pivotal role in the crucifixion. Nothing is invented for the film.
I wholeheartedly agree with Pope Paul VI’s assessment of this as a valuable resource in leading people to Christ.
Originally aired as a television miniseries, this film by Ingmar Bergman dramatizes six events in the disintegration of the marriage of Marianne (Liv Ulmann) and Johan (Erland Josephson).
The first is their tenth wedding anniversary.
In the second, Marianne attempts to get out of a dinner with her parents, while Johann flirts with another woman.
In the third, Johan informs Marianne he wants a separation.
In the fourth, Johan, bored with his new lover, visits Marianne hoping to have a romantic encounter, but she rebuffs his advances.
In the fifth, the couple have an ugly fight while meeting to sign their divorce papers.
In the six and final incident, they’re each married to someone else, but are having an affair. On what would have been their twentieth anniversary, they plan a romantic weekend.
The actual stormy relationship between Bergman and Ullmann creates a heightened sense of realism and intensity in this tough film which approximates the life cycle of most relationships, extremely close one day and distant the next.
Any random six moments from a marriage might look very similar to these: messy, vital, unpredictable and alive.
We pretend our choice of romantic partner is determined by fate or kismet or other mysterious forces, but it’s often random and meaningless. This movie argues the bond forged by our shared memories is more sturdy, less finicky, and ultimately more beautiful than anything forged by our imaginary notions of love.
1) The Exorcist
Disturbed by several mysterious deaths, Cris McNeil (Ellen Burstyn) slowly realizes her daughter, Regan (Linda Blair) is possessed by a demon and asks father Damien Karras (Jason Miller) to perform an exorcism. Undergoing his own crisis of faith, Karras calls experienced priest Lankester Merrin (Max von Sydow) to help.
After Merrin is killed by the demon, Pazuzu (Mercedes McCambridge), Karras convinces it to enter him and throws himself out a window, sacrificing his life to defeat the evil monster.
Despite its reputation, this is not a horror film, but a deeply spiritual film, one of the most honest fictional representations of the problem of evil and the sacrifices of faith.