Movies of 1970 Bracket Game
https://lebeauleblog.com/2019/12/16/movies-of-1970-bracket-game/
2019 is coming to an end. Typically I start off the new year with a series of nostalgic bracket games looking back at movies from twenty and thirty years ago. But since we’re starting a new decade, I figured it was the perfect chance to reach back a little further. This year, we’re going all the way back half of a century to the movies of 1970! With the addition of another weekly game, we’re starting the celebration a little earlier than usual. So get ready to vote on a bunch of movies younger readers may never had heard of in the Movies of 1970 bracket game!share
I didn’t see any movies in 1970 because I was just an infant that year. In fact, I was just barely born in time for 1970 to be the year of my birth. As such, I really don’t have any memory of these movies being released, but I have certainly caught up with a lot of them over time.
My guess is, a lot of readers won’t be familiar with the movies. So I have gone with a 16-movie roster for this game as opposed to the full 32. It may have something to do with my lack of firsthand experience, but my sense is that 1970 wasn’t an especially good year for movies despite kicking off what would be a stellar decade.
The highest grossing movie of the year was the soggy and blandly titled Love Story starring Ryan O’Neal and Ali MacGraw. It’s the movie that launched the ridiculous phrase “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” Um, no it doesn’t. 50 year-old spoilers but MacGraw’s character looks lovely during her third-act death. She dies an unexplained death after a terminal case of Plot Disease.
You have certainly heard of M*A*S*H, but odds are you’re more familiar with the TV show than the movie it’s based on. Robert Altman war movie is all right, but it’s nowhere near as beloved as the TV version. Airport is the disaster movie that launched the series that would go on to inspire Airplane! While things would get decidedly sillier, the first movie was actually well-regarded and earned an Oscar for Helen Hayes.
In addition to Love Story, M*A*S*H and Airport, the big Oscar movies were Patton (which won for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor) and Five Easy Pieces. There were a lot of military-minded movies such as Kelley’s Heroes, Ryan’s Daughter, Catch-22 and Tora! Tora! Tora!
Most of the highest-grossing movies of the year are included although I left out documentaries like Woodstock and Chariots of the Gods. I made room for the Planet of the Apes sequel and Russ Meyer’s Beyond the Valley of the Dolls because they are weird movies I love to watch. That meant cutting movies that were arguably more important at the time, but I am okay with that.
If 1970 is just too far before your time, fear not. In just a few weeks, we’ll be in more familiar territory with the Movies of 1980 Bracket Game. Voting for this round ends Friday at noon (EST). Thanks for playing!