Oh man, I've seen the movie James Lileks is talking about in today's Bleat. Beneath the Planet of the Apes. First you come back to earth, discover it's run by apes, everyone dies, and then everything is destroyed (by a nuke -- how else?). I disliked the ending of Planet of the Apes. I hated with a white hot passion the ending of the sequel, and all the movies like it that came out in the seventies that assured us that Life Sucks Now and It Will Suck Even Worse and Then We'll All Die Screaming. Reason number 9854 why I hated the seventies. Even the fricking entertainment was like wearing a hairshirt. And I had forgotten the details of this movie until Lileks had to go and remind me. Damn him! Damn him to hell!
And on that note -- check out this discussion of religion in art during the seventies. The Blowhards have a question: was the seventies actually a period of religious revival (or, well, something) for America? My reply: you bet it was. All the crappy parts of religion. Good-bye, fun ceremonies and reassuring traditions: hello fanaticism and asceticism, or at least stabs thereat. We were Searching For Real Faith, Man, and we were gonna get it if it meant making everyone wear ugly clothes and watch ugly movies with ugly actors playing ugly characters. And can we forget: Anita Bryant?* ::Shudder::
I. Hated. The. Seventies. Can I say it enough?
*Ps: it's true about the snow. I remember that day: it actually dropped into the high twenties, and it was actually a cloudy day -- unusual during the cold season in Miami -- and it snowed for maybe five minutes. Not in my neighborhood, though -- but a couple of miles up the road. The flakes, such as they were, melted before they even hit the ground. I did get to play with some frost, though. I don't remember anyone complaining about the snow being some sort of godly payback for anything, but then we didn't run in those kind of circles.
Posted by Andrea Harris at April 15, 2003 02:40 AMI've been trying to come up with Seventies developments that I actually liked, and that could be cleanly distinguished from the achievements of other decades. Here's my current list:
The first two Emerson, Lake & Palmer albums.
I'll keep working on it.
Posted by: Francis W. Porretto at April 15, 2003 at 07:39 AMA more grown-up-looking Marcia Brady.
Hey, I was in seventh grade, okay?
Posted by: Kevin McGehee at April 15, 2003 at 08:09 AMI remember the snow too (Tampa). Anita, OTOH, has become a little hazy.
Posted by: ellie at April 15, 2003 at 01:18 PMThe 70s was the decade of all sorts of cool stuff that we're all ashamed to admit that we ever liked. But... it does seem like a lot of the things about the world that really suck started in the 70's.
Posted by: Lynn S at April 15, 2003 at 01:42 PMUrrgh. The Seventies. The Decade That Style Forgot. Herewith a short list of some of the things that made the Seventies really suck:
Purple velour loon pants/kipper ties/wing collars
Jimmy Carter
The Oil Crisis (see above)
Thinking that Starsky and Hutch were cool
ditto most any TV detective show (except The Sweeney, which is still very cool)
Hanna Barbara cartoons (Grape Ape, anyone?)
The Osmonds
Cambodia
The Weathermen, SLA and all the other batshit insane mock-revolutionaries that should have been shot in the head and put in a lime-filled pit
Edward Heath
and there's more, oh yes...
Posted by: David Gillies at April 15, 2003 at 02:27 PMI think to a certain extent, you're confusing the 70s with the 60s.
The 70s were a very happy time. The main music was disco, which was very happy and uplifting. It was a reaction to the depressing folk/acid/protest rock of the 60s.
Same with fashion. The outlandish styles of the 70s were in reaction to the drab styles of what hippies wore.
That said, some of the 60s spilled over into the early 70s. But the mid 70s were pretty happy, all things considered.
Planet of the Apes was made in 1968, and Beneath the Planet of the Apes was made in 1970. Omega Man was 1971.
Conquest of the Planet of the Apes was made in 1973, and features a very sappy ending (ape & man finally learning to live together in peace). (Though admittedly, in 1973, Soylent Green came out, though I wager it was flimed before Conquest of the POA).
In any event, what was the biggest movie of the decade? Star Wars, 1977. Pretty happy movie.
Posted by: Jeremy at April 15, 2003 at 10:08 PMStarsky and Hutch are cool.
They're still making video games based on the show. If they weren't cool, would that be true?
Posted by: Jeremy at April 15, 2003 at 10:12 PMJeremy, you want me to seek you out and beat you like a red-headed stepchild, don't you?
Posted by: Andrea Harris at April 15, 2003 at 10:17 PM