As the month of my 34th birthday fast approaches, I find myself wondering what movies came out the year I was born. Do the math. Hurry. I’ll wait.
It was the same summer that guy Sam knocked out all the power in New York and talked to the dog and just one month before Elvis ate his final peanut butter, bacon, and banana sandwich. 1977. A glorious spot at the end of the decade that ushered me into this world along to the tunes of “Rich Girl,” “Dancing Queen,” and, it pains me to admit, “Hotel California.”
– First off, let’s get the foreign movie out of the way so I can appear cultured and without boundaries. “House.” Not the American movie that came out a couple years later with the Greatest American Hero and Norm from Cheers. The Japanese one. This movie is insane. It’s one of those movies that you watch and while you’re watching it, you really can’t wait for it to be over, but you know that you have to suffer through it because it’s so awesome and you want to be able to tell people that you watched it. The only thing I’ll really say about this movie is there exists a scene in which a piano eats a girl.
– That segues nicely into America’s response to this; Death Bed: The Bed that Eats. Now, I’ve never actually seen this movie and all I know about it came from Patton Oswalt’s sketch on Werewolves and Lollipops, but from his description, it sounds unstoppable.
– Next up, Romero’s “Martin,” the first ever vampire movie to be set in Braddock, PA. Well, the first guy-who-is-crazy-and-sort-of-acts-like-a-vampire-in-a-roundabout-way movie to be set in Braddock, PA. If you’re a fan of the Twilight movies, you may want to stay clear of this one.
– Now this next one is a personal favorite of mine. “Pete’s Dragon.” What kid didn’t want to hang out with his own animated dragon buddy named Elliot and also Mickey Rooney?
– Who could forget about “Slap Shot?” Paul Newman and a crew of goons skated their ways into America’s heart with their representation of the Jets, a now defunct hockey team from Johnstown, PA.
– Woody Allen’s “Annie Hall” won four Academy Awards that year. I’ve never seen it, but am slowly making my way through the Allen catalogue. Maybe I’ll try it out this summer.
– David Lynch released his first movie, “Eraserhead.” He hit the ground running with this title, confusing everyone who watched it and setting the tone for the next thirty years of his career. This film is also in the National Film Registry.
I could probably go on forever, but I’ll limit it to just two vastly different movies from my favorite genre, Science Fiction. And by admitting that here in the blogosphere, I’ll be spending the next four months of Fridays alone in my room crying into my paperback copy of A Princess of Mars.
– “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” Richard Dreyfus gets blasted by some alien lights and spends the rest of the movie freaking out and building things out of mashed potatoes. Despite the lack of action figure rights, this movie did pretty well for itself, according to Box Office Mojo, grossing over 116 million dollars.
– And lastly, we cover George Lucas’ “Star Wars.” The movie series that pretty much ran the next ten years of my life into the ground and still, to this day, inspires long and drawn out conversations with people I’d rather not be seen with. I don’t even want to think about the sheer quantity of hours that I’ve dedicated to these movies. I could have probably been a doctor if my brain wasn’t filled up with useless facts about the Dagobah System and how lightsabers were made. And it all started a mere two months before I was born. Thanks George. I hate you. And so does the little kid whose diseases I could have cured if it weren’t for you.
In conclusion, 1977 ruled pretty hard. Check out that list and see what other movies we have that came out that year. We have quite a few. Additionally, please address all birthday cards and gifts to Christopher, c/o Film & Audio.
– Christopher
Eleventh Stack 