Yay for both!
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS was my #15 pick. A lot of my mid-list choices could have been shuffled around, but I was getting PMs from Holden titled "Tick-tock!" when we got close to the deadline for handing in our lists and I didn't nitpick the middle part of my list too much.
I think what I like about CLOSE ENCOUNTERS is that, like other Spielberg movies such as E.T., the characters are so genuine and well played that you almost forget you're not watching an actual family in everyday life. Dreyfuss shines in his role, and I think it's our connection with him early on that carries this movie through the strange last third where that character intimacy is largely lost.
The two things that perplex me about this movie to this day are the slightly less than satisfying ending and, well, the title. I can remember when this first came out, thinking that the title meant it was going to be a lot less character driven than it is. It sounds almost scientific and certainly nerdy with that title. I still don't quite think the title fits with the movie.
And yet, my #15... It just wouldn't have been the '70s without this movie.
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MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL was my #3 pick. (The only two I placed higher were Gene Wilder movies.) Last month I went to see MONTY PYTHON LIVE (MOSTLY) broadcast live (mostly) to local theaters around the country. It was hilarious and it included not only famous Monty Python sketches from their '70s TV show but also bits and pieces from some of the movies, including HOLY GRAIL, which seemed to get the best reactions from the audience (both here in Pennsylvania and in London).
Anyway, the movie ... Yes, I have yet another stupid I-saw-it-in-the-theater story about this one...
I saw this in the theater when it first came out, with a friend who has gone on to be a real big shot in the music industry. (She spent our junior high years trying to school me in proper musical tastes by giving me Roger Daltrey and Peter Gabriel albums for my birthday.) Like most others in the theater, we snorted with laughter starting with the opening credits.
And everyone knows NOT to leave a Monty Python movie (or stop watching the show if it's on TV) until all the credits are over at the end too. So, Karen and I assumed we would do that here, of course.
In case you've forgotten how this movie ends, the police inspector comes up to the camera, puts his hand over it, and the screen goes black. Then that annoying "theater music" (which sounds more like merry-go-round music) kicks in, with the screen still black. Karen and I (and EVERYONE ELSE IN THE THEATER) sat there patiently, waiting for those hilarious closing credits to come onto the screen. The merry-go-round music continued, but everyone sat still, quietly waiting...
...waiting...
...waiting...
...for nearly TEN FULL MINUTES we all sat there waiting for those closing credits. Then, the theater staff must have taken pity on us because they brought up the house lights and turned off the lights on the screen.
We'd all been duped.
And we'd all fallen for it.
Everyone single freakin' person in the theater had fallen for it.
So we did the only logical thing: We all got up, quietly, hanging our heads and not making eye contact with each other, and filed silently out of the theater.
O, the shame of it!
Karen and I can still get a chuckle out of that to this day. Because now, of course, we're older and wiser and wouldn't dare fall for something like that again. Unless, of course, Monty Python makes another movie.
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Monty Python and the Holy Grail is awesome too, but I like Meaning of Life better.
