#4 Dustin Hoffman in Kramer vs. Kramer

Hoffman’s character, Ted Kramer, a father who is not even sure what grade his son is in, suddenly faces the reality of parenting. Once he adjusts his life and begins to become the good guy in steps his wife, played by Meryl Streep and demand custody.

You begin to root for the dad, mainly due to Hoffman’s dynamic performance. All of his best scenes come late in the film, especially one eleventh-hour job interview. This movie was an actor’s dream, and with it Dustin Hoffman’s dream finally came true. After being nominated three times prior, he finally walked away with the gold and begins to move into a new role in Hollywood as a living legend. Both he and Streep won the Academy Award (she for the supporting category), as well as the film taking home the Best Picture award and Best director.

What became a landmark film, Kramer vs. Kramer was a controversial film in 1979, but for Dustin Hoffman it was a role of a lifetime.

 

#7 Murder on the Orient Express

A year after helming Serpico, director Sidney Lumet returned with a different type of crime flick: an engrossing adaptation of the Agatha Christie novel. What makes this such a classic film, and one fo the best of the decade (in my opinion) is the fact that Lumet was able to put together a cast of major stars, and a difficult storyline (you try to maintain an audience, with 14 charecters) into such a great film. Albert Finney is Belgian detective Hercule Poirot in this classic Agatha Christie thriller. An American businessman has been killed on board the famed transcontinental train and it’s up to Poirot to uncover the murderer. Lauren Bacall, Anthony Perkins, Sean Connery and, in an Oscar-winning performance, Ingrid Bergman head the all-star cast.

The movie is good, but the film itself is wonderful. Lumet use of colors, music, and camera angels brings this Christie story to life. It was actually my first experience with one of the greatest crime authours of our generation, and I was very well pleased.

 

Robert Altman

Robert Altman

February 20, 1925

November 21, 2006

Acclaimed Award winning director dies at 81

 

#8 JAWS

JAWS was one of the first realistic science fiction suspense/horror/disaster films to hit the screen. A huge summer blockbuster event in 1975, it caused beach goers to go into shark hysteria, much like Hitchcock’s Psycho caused for showers.

Watching the movie now you see that the Great White Shark is nothing more than a mechanical monster, but in 1975 it was so realistic that many theater goers had to leave do to the extreme realism.

Roy Scheider fresh from his amazing role in the French Connection starred, along with several teenagers that met their tuntimely death at the hands/teeth of this shark that threatened the beaches of New England.

Speilberg, who was only 27 when filming started on this his second directed feature film, used special effects and exciting camera shots to scare anyone from going into the water.

JAWS won 4 Oscar nominations, winning three and it launched Speilberg into the spotlight. And the dadadada theme music for the oncoming shark is forever immortalized.

 

#5 Louise Fletcher in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Louise Fletcher accepted the casting call for the role of Nurse Ratched only a week before filming began. This role was her film debut, and a debut it was. Nurse Ratched role was turned down by the likes of Anne Bancroft, Colleen Dehurst, Geraldine Page, Ellen Burstyn and Angela Landsbury. Louise played the part of the domineering and sexually depressed Ratched with pure excellence. She is a tyrant that has controlled her patients with an iron hand. To her, correct behavior from her patients means they are sane; any other kind of behavior deems them insane. When McMurphy enters the ward, a battle begins between the patient and the Ward Nurse.
She knows she has the power and wields it like a magic wand and she begins her battle with this enemy knowing that she will do what she must to ensure he will not defeat her. Fletcher came onto the screen in a role of a lifetime and proved to Hollywood that she was an actress to be reckoned with, and history has proven she has what it takes. She walked away with an Academy Award for Best Actress that year and continued a long and lucrative career.

 

#6 Ingrid Bergman in Murder on the Orient Express

Her role as shy, nervous, repressed Swedish missionary Greta Ohlsson awarded Ingrid Bergman her third Oscar win in a career that spanned six decades. Some say this was not her best role, and not even an award winning performance; that she won the Oscar due to her long career. Apparently those have never seen her performance.

She enlivened the screen with her appearance, and her introverted Greta was one of the best performances in this star studded ensemble. Many of the other roles were over acted, almost to the point of comedic, but not Bergman. She delivered a true and heartfelt performance and worthy of her Oscar.

 

#5 Jack Nicholson in Chinatown

Evil influences can make a man do just about anything, and Jack Nicholson as Jake Gittes knows it all too well. Jack Nicholson is superb in just about any role he is given, and the 70’s was his decade. From Easy Rider in the later sixties to the Shining in 1980, Nicholson came onto the screen with vim and vigor. In his role as Jake in Chinatown he was flawless. Unfortunately The Godfather II was released the same year, and the Academy gave it’s best Actor award to an aging Art Carney.

Jack came into his own in this film, and his portrayal of a detective bent on finding the truth, but then realizing maybe the truth is not a good thing is powerful and moving. Jack is by far the greatest actor of our generation, maybe of any generation and this film gives one of the reasons why.

 

#6 Lawrence Olivier in Marathon Man

Ten time nominated Academy Award winning Actor, Lawrence Olivier was still a big draw in 1977. In a role which would become his 9th Oscar nomination, Olivier played the part of the evil Dr. Christian Szell, perfectly.

When watching this film you do not see a superb actor who could play Shakespeare’s characters better than anyone else, but you saw an evil, menacing ex Nazi bent on finding what he was looking for, and using whatever means necessary to obtain it. He scared the shit out of me!

Olivier did not win the Oscar that year for Best Supporting Actor, but he should have as all his roles, this one was excellent and Olivier excelled. He did go on and become nominated again in 1979 for his role in the Boys in Brazil, and won an honorary Oscar that same year.

 

A Rock is Born

Roy Harold Scherer-later known as Rock Hudson-is born in Winnetka, Illinois, on November 17, 1925.

As a child, Hudson auditioned for school plays but never landed a role. Later, he worked as a navy mechanic and a truck driver, then pursued an acting career after World War II. After extensive grooming, which included acting, dancing, and fencing lessons, Hudson became a leading actor with Universal. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, he frequently starred in action films and melodramas, including The Desert Hawk (1950) and The Iron Man (1951).

Later, he shone in comedies like Pillow Talk (1959), the first of his three pictures with Doris Day. He later worked in television, starring in the series McMillan and Wife from 1971 to 1977 and appearing in Dynasty in 1984 and 1985. Hudson died of AIDS in 1985, at the age of 59. As one of the first major celebrities to admit to having AIDS, Hudson boosted awareness about the epidemic.

 

#9 Kramer vs. Kramer

In Kramer vs. Kramer, we see two of this generations best actors at their finest. Meryl Streep plays Joanna Kramer, a Smith College graduate, who has been a stay at home mom and now decides she wants to venture out of the house and find herself. Being neglected by her husband Ted, played by Dustin Hoffman doesn’t help matters at home. He is shocked at his wife’s decision and is left to raise Billy, their son by himself. With the help of his neighbor and Joanna’s friend, Margaret, played excellently by Jane Alexander. Ted becomes more invested in raising Billy than in his job (which he eventually loses).
About a year and a half after leaving, Joanna returns and decides to claim Billy and a custody battle ensues.

The passion and the emotion in this film is wrenching. Dustin Hoffman is most powerful as he states to the court his reasons of wanting custody of the child. Streep is at her finest portraying a mother that needs and wants her son in her life as well as a career.

Released in 1979, it won five Academy Awards in 1980, Best Picture, Director, Screenplay, Actor and Actress.