1979--The Year in Review

If I could deliver an emphatically passionate love letter to a single movie year, it would be this one. Okay, so I was a precocious 13-year-old kid in 1979--I was watching movies at the theater and on cable like a bonafide madman and, yeah, everything we see as kids, we hold up as the best the world has to offer. But who can really dispute the quality of the following list? It’s a monster, this collection of works, and it made me decide to devote my life to loving movies. I scream it proudly: 1979 remains the greatest of all cinematic years--yes, this is a HIGHLY personal choice, however, I defend it with scrapping gusto (it's certainly the one that most informs the movies as of 2016). To support my argument, it was a big year for Canada, Japan, Germany, and especially for Australia (where Mad Max, My Brilliant Career, The Plumber, Tim, and The Odd Angry Shot provided a further gateway into that country's newly remarkable film output). As for America: there were many Saturday Night Live-related debuts: Steve Martin, Bill Murray, Albert Brooks, and Dan Aykroyd. It was a landmark year for Meryl Streep who has three movies on the list, thus beginning her command of the cinema. 1979 was the most romantic of all movie years (with A Little Romance at the head of the pack, though Manhattan, Tess, Voices, Yanks, and Starting Over come real close), and the most musical (All That Jazz, Manhattan, Hair, Quadrophenia, Rock n' Roll High School, The Muppet Movie, The Kids are Alright, Over the Edge, Elvis, Rust Never Sleeps, The Rose, and The Great Rock n' Roll Swindle), and the funniest (Being There, The In-Laws, The Jerk, 1941, Richard Pryor: Live in Concert, Monty Python's Life of Brian, 10, The Whole Shootin' Match, Meatballs, and Real Life), Many excellent science-fiction entries (Alien, Mad Max, Stalker, Time After Time, The China Syndrome, Star Trek: The Motion Picture and The Black Hole) and respectable horror movies (Phantasm, The Brood, Nosferatu The Vampire, Salem's Lot, Vengeance is Mine, Dracula, Zombie, and Driller Killer). And so many wonderfully intimately human movies like Best Boy, Breaking Away, Going in Style, Norma Rae, Rich Kids, Love on the Run, The Onion Field, Who's Who, Gal Young 'Un, Heartland, French Postcards, and The Marriage of Maria Braun. Plus, I must point out this year's output transformed so many of the craft categories. Art direction, makeup, special effects, music, costume design, cinematography, editing and especially sound made great leaps this year. Oh, I could go on and on. So many fine productions here. At any rate, these final choices for 1979 were positively laborious. Making each move was like trying to not tumble off a needle tip, and then the finality felt like breaking bad news to my very closest friend. Ultimately, though, my selection for Best Picture was really obvious to me, as I must have watched it 20 times in 1979 alone. It is Bob Fosse's true masterpiece, and the single title I would vigorously support as an induction into the cinematic canon. NOTE: These are MY choices for each category, and are only occasionally reflective of the selections made by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (aka The Oscars). When available, the nominee that actually won the Oscar will be highlighted in bold. 

PICTURE: ALL THAT JAZZ (US, Bob Fosse)
(2nd: Manhattan (US, Woody Allen)
followed by: Apocalypse Now (US, Francis Ford Coppola)
A Little Romance (US, George Roy Hill)
Tess (UK, Roman Polanski)
Breaking Away (US, Peter Yates)
The Tin Drum (West Germany, Volker Schlöndorff)
Best Boy (US, Ira Wohl)
Alien (US, Ridley Scott)
Kramer vs. Kramer (US, Robert Benton)
Oblomov (USSR, Nikita Mikhalkov)
The Black Stallion (US, Carroll Ballard)
Over the Edge (US, Jonathan Kaplan)
Being There (US, Hal Ashby)
Going in Style (US, Martin Brest)
Hair (US, Milos Forman)
The Onion Field (US, Harold Becker)
Wise Blood (US, John Huston)
Richard Pryor: Live in Concert (US, Jeff Margolis)
The China Syndrome (US, James Bridges)
Woyzeck (West Germany, Werner Herzog)
Stalker (USSR, Andrei Tarkovsky)
Mad Max (Austrailia, George Miller)
The Marriage of Maria Braun (West Germany, Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
Norma Rae (US, Martin Ritt)
Starting Over (US, Alan J. Pakula)
The In-Laws (US, Arthur Hiller)
That Sinking Feeling (Scotland, Bill Forsyth)
Phantasm (US, Don Coscarelli)
The Jerk (US, Carl Reiner)
Voices (US, Robert Markowitz)
Meatballs (Canada, Ivan Reitman)
1941 (US, Steven Spielberg)
The Brood (Canada, David Cronenberg)
Vengeance is Mine (Japan, Shohei Imamura)
Quadrophenia (UK, Franc Roddam)
The Warriors (US, Walter Hill)
Rich Kids (US, Robert M. Young)
Time After Time (US, Nicholas Meyer)
Hardcore (US, Paul Schrader)
Who's Who (UK, Mike Leigh)
My Brilliant Career (Australia, Gillian Armstrong)
North Dallas Forty (US, Ted Koecheff)
Monty Python’s Life of Brian (UK, Terry Jones)
Real Life (US, Albert Brooks)
Escape from Alcatraz (US, Don Siegel)
Rock ‘n’ Roll High School (US, Allan Arkush)
The Muppet Movie (US, James Frawley)
Gal Young 'Un (US, Victor Nunez)
The Corn is Green (US, George Cukor)
The Whole Shootin’ Match (US, Eagle Pennell)
Heartland (US, Richard Pearce)
The Plumber (Austraila, Peter Weir)
Scum (UK, Alan Clarke)
Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears (USSR, Vladimir Menshov)
The Europeans (UK, James Ivory)
Murder by Decree (Canada, Bob Clark)
The Kids are Alright (US, Jeff Stein)
The Odd Angry Shot (Australia, Tom Jeffery)
The Wanderers (US, Walter Hill)
Love on the Run (France, Francois Truffaut)
Yanks (UK, John Schesinger)
10 (US, Blake Edwards)
Nosferatu, the Vampyre (West Germany, Werner Herzog)
The Seduction of Joe Tynan (US, Jerry Schatzberg)
The Rose (US, Mark Rydell)
The Great Train Robbery (US, Michael Crichton)
Elvis (US, John Carpenter)
Winter Kills (US, William Richert)
The Great Rock ’n’ Roll Swindle (UK, Julian Temple)
Butch and Sundance: The Early Days (US, Richard Lester)
Tim (Australia, Michael Pate)
The Lady in Red (US, Lewis Teague)
French Postcards (US, Willard Huyck)
California Dreaming (US, John Hancock)
The Electric Horseman (US, Sydney Pollack)
Salem's Lot (US, Tobe Hooper)
And Justice For All (US, Norman Jewison)
Rust Never Sleeps (US, Neil Young)
Dracula (US, John Badham)
Fedora (US, Billy Wilder)
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (US, Robert Wise)
Love at First Bite (US, Stan Dragoti)
Beneath the Valley of the Ultravixens (US, Russ Meyer)
Mr. Mike's Mondo Video (US, Michael O' Donahue and Ernie Fosselius)
Zombie (Italy, Lucio Fulci)
Moonraker (UK, Lewis Gilbert)
Driller Killer (US, Abel Ferrara)
The Black Hole (US, Gary Nelson)
Baby Snakes (US, Frank Zappa)
Caligula (US/Italy, Tinto Brass))



ACTOR: Roy Schieder, ALL THAT JAZZ (2nd: Peter Sellers, Being There, followed by: Dustin Hoffman, Kramer vs. Kramer; Ben Gazzara, Saint Jack; David Bennett, The Tin Drum; Martin Sheen, Apocalypse Now;  George Burns, Going in Style; Burt Reynolds, Starting Over; Jack Lemmon, The China Syndrome; Brad Dourif, Wise Blood)

ACTRESS: Sally Field, NORMA RAE (2nd: Jill Clayburgh, Starting Over, followed by: Diane Lane, A Little Romance; Jane Fonda, The China Syndrome; Judy Davis, My Brilliant Career; Nastassja Kinski, Tess; Hannah Schygulla, The Marriage of Maria Braun; Bette Midler, The Rose; Amy Irving, Voices; Conchata Ferrell, Heartland)

SUPPORTING ACTOR: Paul Dooley, BREAKING AWAY (2nd: Ian Holm, Alien, followed by: James Woods, The Onion Field; Robert Duvall, Apocalypse Now; Justin Henry, Kramer Vs. Kramer; Art Carney, Going in Style; Lee Strasberg, Going in Style; Melvin Douglas, Being There; Wilford Brimley, The China Syndrome; Frederic Forrest, Apocalypse Now)



SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Meryl Streep, KRAMER VS. KRAMER (2nd: Barbara Barrie, Breaking Away, followed by: Cheryl Barnes, Hair; Sigourney Weaver, Alien; Season Hubley, Hardcore; Candice Bergen, Starting Over; Mariel Hemingway, Manhattan; Mary Nell Santacroce, Wise Blood; Mary Steenburgen, Time After Time)



DIRECTOR: Bob Fosse, ALL THAT JAZZ (2nd: Woody Allen, Manhattan, followed by: Francis Ford Coppola, Apocalypse Now; Ira Wohl, Best Boy; Volker Schlondorff, The Tin Drum; Roman Polanski, Tess; Robert Benton, Kramer Vs. Kramer; Ridley Scott, Alien; Peter Yates, Breaking Away; George Roy Hill, A Little Romance)



NON-ENGLISH LANGUAGE FILM: THE TIN DRUM (West Germany, Volker Schlöndorff) (2nd: Oblomov (USSR, Nikita Mikhalkov), followed by: Woyzeck (West Germany, Werner Herzog); Stalker (USSR, Andrei Tarkovsky); The Marriage of Maria Braun (West Germany, Rainer Werner Fassbinder); Vengeance is Mine (Japan, Shohei Imamura); Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears (USSR, Vladimir Menshov) (won in 1980); Nosferatu, the Vampyre (West Germany, Werner Herzog); Love on the Run (France, Francois Truffaut))



DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: BEST BOY (US, Ira Wohl) (2nd: Richard Pryor: Live in Concert (US, Jeff Margolis), followed by: The Kids Are Alright (US, Jeff Stein))



ANIMATED SHORT: EVERY CHILD (Canada, Eugene Fedorenko) (2nd: Harpya (Belgium, Raoul Servais), followed by: Tale of Tales (USSR, Yuri Norshteyn); It’s So Nice To Have A Wolf Around The House (US, Paul Fierlinger); Asparagus (US, Suzan Pitt))

LIVE ACTION SHORT: A SHORT FILM ON SOLAR ENERGY (US, Saul Bass and Elaine Bass) (2nd: Solly’s Diner (US, Larry Hankin), followed by: Canned Laughter (UK, Geoffrey Sax); The Plank (UK, Eric Sykes))



ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Steve Tesich, BREAKING AWAY (2nd: Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman, Manhattan, followed by: Bob Fosse and Robert Alan Aurthur, All That Jazz; Edward Cannon and Martin Brest, Going in Style; Charles S. Haas and Tim Hunter, Over the Edge; Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank Jr., Norma Rae)



ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Allen Burns, A LITTLE ROMANCE (2nd: Jean Claude Carriere, Volker Schlondorff, Franz Seitz and Gunter Grass, The Tin Drum, followed by: Francis Ford Coppola, John Milius and Michael Herr, Apocalypse Now; Robert Benton, Kramer Vs. Kramer; Joseph Wambaugh, The Onion Field; Aleksandr Adabashyan and Nikita Mikhalov, Oblomov)

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Vittorio Storaro, APOCALYPSE NOW (2nd: Gordon Willis, MANHATTAN, followed by: Caleb Deschanel, The Black Stallion; Geoffrey Unsworth and Ghislain Cloquet, Tess (won in 1980); Giuseppe Rotunno, All That Jazz; Nestor Alamendros, Kramer Vs. Kramer)

ART DIRECTION: ALIEN, Apocalypse Now, Tess (won in 1980), All That Jazz, The China Syndrome, 1941

COSTUME DESIGN: ALL THAT JAZZ, Tess (won in 1980), Hair, The Europeans, Quadrophenia, Murder by Decree

EDITING: ALL THAT JAZZ, Apocalypse Now, Alien, The Black Stallion, Breaking Away, Kramer Vs. Kramer



SOUND: APOCALYPSE NOW, The Black Stallion, Alien, All That Jazz, The China Syndrome, 1941



ORIGINAL SCORE: Georges Delarue, A LITTLE ROMANCE (2nd: Carmine Coppola, The Black Stallion, followed by: Phillippe Sarde, Tess; Miklos Rosza, Time After Time; John Williams, 1941; Sol Kaplan, Over The Edge)



SCORING FOR A MUSICAL/ADAPTATION SCORING: Ralph Burns, ALL THAT JAZZ (2nd: Galt McDermott and Tom Pierson, Hair, followed by: Paul Williams and Kenny Ascher, The Muppet Movie)



ORIGINAL SONG: “It Goes Like It Goes” from NORMA RAE (Music by David Shire, lyrics by Norman Gimbel) (2nd: "Take Off With Us" from All That Jazz (Music by Stanley Lebowsky, lyrics by Fred Tobias), followed by: “The Rainbow Connection” from The Muppet Movie (Music and lyrics by Paul Williams and Kenny Ascher); “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” from Monty Python’s Life of Brian (Music and lyrics by Eric Idle); “Moondust” from Meatballs (Music by Elmer Bernstein, lyrics by Norman Gimbel); “Rock and Roll High School” from Rock and Roll High School (Music and lyrics by Joey Ramone, Johnny Ramone, and Dee Dee Ramone); “I Will Always Wait for You” from Voices (Music and lyrics by Jimmy Webb); "Children's Song" from Voices (Music and lyrics by Jimmy Webb); “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend” from Rock and Roll High School (Music and lyrics by Tommy Ramone); "The Rose" from The Rose (Music and lyrics by Amanda McBroom))



SPECIAL EFFECTS: ALIEN, 1941, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, The China Syndrome, The Black Hole  

MAKEUP: ALIEN, Nosferatu The Vampire, All That Jazz

Film #102: Kramer Vs. Kramer

After a low-key credits sequence radiantly scored with Vivaldi's "Concerto in C Major for Mandolin & Strings," Kramer Vs. Kramer begins with an exquisite, madonna-like image of Joanna Kramer (Meryl Streep) as she's wishing her nearly-sleeping son Billy (Justin Henry) a good night. Trying to prolong the moment, she says "Don't let the bedbugs bite," and as she strokes his blond hair, he exasperatedly whispers "I'll see you in the morning." But that is not to be. Joanna soon retreats to her bedroom, retrieves her luggage, and begins packing her things.

We then cut to a schmoozing Ted Kramer (Dustin Hoffman) as he tells a banal story-of-success to his asshole boss (George Coe). This is right before Ted is offered the biggest account his New York advertising firm has ever handled. Ted comes home elated, only to be thrown wildly off-course by Joanna, who attempts to confess she's leaving him. But he's not listening. He's consumed by his Madison Avenue batting average. He thinks she's playing a joke on him. But it's not a joke. Joanna is departing, leaving Ted with the laundry, the grocery shopping, and the raising of their 8-year-old child. Ted hardly knows what's hit him before she's out the door and out of his life. And now he's got this stranger--his son--to take care of.

Robert Benton's Kramer Vs. Kramer arrived on the movie scene at a precise moment in the history of the American family. The 60s and 70s had passed, and in their wake came a rolling thunder of female empowerment. No longer were women expected to be Leave It To Beaver's Barbara Billingsley, waiting at home immaculately dressed, apron on and dinner on the table. Women--mothers, even--were now out in the working world. And those who weren't felt as if they might be missing out on something.

I can recall seeing Kramer Vs. Kramer, by myself, at age 13, at Atlanta's massive Toco Hills Theater. I was struck most immediately by the film's exquisite photography, provided by Nestor Almendros, who had earlier been a collaborator with such landmark directors as Eric Rohmer (Claire's Knee, My Night At Maud's, Chloe in the Afternoon), Francois Truffaut (The Wild Child, The Man Who Loved Women, Bed and Board), Barbet Schroeder (More, General Idi Amin Dada, Koko The Talking Gorilla), and who had won a well- deserved Oscar in 1978 for providing the unspeakably dazzling images that bedecked Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven. Kramer Vs. Kramer was Almendros' first urban-shot American film (after Monte Hellman's southern Cockfighter and Jack Nicholson's western Goin' South). Save for Gordon Willis (who did many of Woody Allen's movies), no 70s-era photographer made New York life seem more enchanting. The warm hues of Kramer Vs. Kramer made me want to be a New Yorker as much as any film I can recall (I still want clouds painted on my walls like Billy has in his bedroom).

I can also recall seeing Benton's 1979 film through a most particular prism: my mom and dad, too, were going through hard times (my father packed up and went on his way a couple of years later). It was thanks, I think, to Kramer Vs. Kramer that I shouldered no guilt regarding my parents' breakup: I remembered and took comfort in Dustin Hoffman's whispered assurances to his sleepy son after they'd had a drag-out fight ("Hold it right there! You put that ice cream in your mouth and you are in very, very, VERY big trouble."):

Billy: Daddy, I'm sorry.
Ted (kissing him): I'm sorry, too. Hey...
Billy (after turning on his bedside lamp): Daddy?
Ted: What?
Billy: Are you going away?
Ted: No, I'm staying right here with you. You're not gonna get rid of me that easy.
Billy: That's why Mommy left, isn't it? Because I was bad?
Ted: Is that what you think? (Billy nods) No. No, that's not it, Billy. Your mom loves you very much. The reason she left doesn't have anything to do with you. I don't know if this is gonna make any sense, but I'll try to explain it to you, okay? (Billy nods) I think the reason why Mommy left was because for a long time now I kept trying to make her be a certain kind of person, Billy. A certain kind of wife that I thought she was supposed to be. And she just wasn't like that...she was...she just wasn't like that. And now that I think about it, I think that she tried for so long to make me happy. And when she couldn't, she tried to talk to me about it, see? But I wasn't listening. I was too busy. I was too wrapped up, just thinkin' about myself. And I thought that any time I was happy, that that meant she was happy. But I think, underneath, she was very sad. Mommy stayed here longer than she wanted to, I think, because she loves you so much. And the reason why Mommy couldn't stay anymore was because she couldn't stand me, Billy. She didn't leave because of you. She left because of me. (Billy wipes away some tears and they embrace.) Go to sleep now, because it's really late, okay? (and Billy nods as Ted turns off the light, gets up, and heads out of the room.)
Billy: G'night.
Ted: Sleep tight.
Billy: Don't let the bedbugs bite.
Ted: See you in the morning, alright?
Billy: Daddy?
Ted: Yeah?
Billy: I love you.
Ted (warmly): I love you, too.

Even though it's a movie that's rarely talked about these days, I still believe that Kramer Vs. Kramer was culturally instrumental in affecting a monumental seachange in as far as fatherhood is concerned. Before 1979--and before the Reagan revolution, which also brought about a newfound national concern regarding the raising of children--the American father was seen as nothing more than the steadfast breadwinner (look to Douglas Sirk's incredibly dour 50s-era drama There's Always Tomorrow for reference). But, with Kramer Vs. Kramer (which made $100 million at the box office--equivalent to three times that much in today's money), the idea was introduced that fathers were just as responsible in the emotional as well as the physical rearing of their children.

In his indispensable book Guide for the Film Fanatic, writer Danny Peary praises Benton's movie, but also slams it for being "too intent on making Streep the villain, refusing to present her side of the story and ridiculously [glorifying] Hoffman for doing what so many mothers do as a matter of course." I beg to differ. I think Streep's side of the story is clear at the outset (even if the movie makes our sentiments lie with Ted). It's obvious that Ted has neglected Joanna, and has sublimated her dreams for his. And I think Ted realizes this pretty early on (as the scene detailed above shows). Kramer Vs. Kramer is the story of a family that's being shook up by a cultural correction, and I think it has valuable things to impart about both Ted and Joanna's understandings of how things in their relationship ideally should be. Both Hoffman and Streep are magnificent in their roles (both won Oscars in 1979), not only because they seem so real in these character's skins but because, in spite of Ted and Joann's obvious flaws, they make us get where each is coming from.

In fact, every performance--right down to the very smallest one--in Kramer Vs. Kramer is superb. Justin Henry, then only 8 years old, became (and still is) the youngest actor ever to be nominated for an Oscar (the eventual winner of 1979's Best Supporting Actor award, the elderly Melvyn Douglas--who won for playing the political kingmaker in Hal Ashby's Being There--refused to attend the Academy Awards that year because he nastily found it disagreeable to be competing with an 8-year-old kid). I can still remember watching both the Golden Globes and the Oscars in 1980 and noting how gentle Hoffman was in thanking Henry for being his cohort on screen (it seemed as if Hoffman was hurting very much for Henry when the boy failed to win either the Globe or the Academy Award). And Jane Alexander, as Joanna's best friend--the woman who quickly becomes Ted's best friend, too--is absolutely pitch perfect. Once the Kramers battle each other in a fierce custody hearing, she's essential in proving to us that Ted is worthy of being the parent who raises Billy, especially since she starts off wholly on Joanna's side.

It's to Benton's credit, as director and writer of this film (he adapted it from Avery Corman's book), that he's able to make us feel as much for Joanna as for Ted. Kramer Vs. Kramer is as compelling a family drama as it is because it positions itself on no one's side except the child's. We can also chalk this victory up to Hoffman and Streep who, despite their characters' belligerance towards each other, convince us that Ted and Joanna--even after all the contentious dust has settled--are actually quite good people, together and apart.