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2023: New 50th Anniversary Book on The Way We Were of 1973(And a Look Back AT 1973)

posted 7 months ago by roger1 (2351)
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(aka ecarle)

50 years ago in 1973 the top box office looked like this:

1 The Exorcist
2 The Sting
3 American Graffiti
4 Papillon
5 The Way We Were
6 Magnum Force
7 Live and Let Die
8 Robin Hood (Disney cartoon version)
9 Paper Moon
10 Serpico

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That is a list to make a grown man cry. I actually lived through that 1973 movie year as a teen, and what's really incredible about it is that pretty much every WEEK of that year had an interesting movie to see.

Beyond the 10 on that list, from the early part of the year with movies like Save the Tiger(Jack Lemmon's ultra-depressing Oscar winner) and Altman's private eye film The Long Goodbye starting things off, it REALLY got nuts as the year went on:

Peckinpah's Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid
Don Siegels follow up to Dirty Harry...Charley Varrick, a crack crime picture starring ..Walter Matthau!
Michael Crichton's Westworld...which, made by declining MGM and looking like a TV movie, STILL enthralled with its pre-Jurassic Park tale of an amusement part gone lethal and a pre-Terminator in Yul Brynner's Maginificent Seven killer robot.
The Paper Chase, giving John Houseman(a showman going back to Citizen Kane) an Oscar winning role as a law professor in a movie that shows off great long-haired male haircuts among his schoolroom full of students.
The Seven Ups, a sequel to The French Connection with a lead for Roy Scheider and yet ANOTHER great car chase.
Soylent Green -- a doomsday tale of the future -- 2022! -- starring reliable "B masquerading as A star" Charlton Heston and Eddie G. Robinson in his poignant final role before dying that year.
Cinderella Liberty -- a love story between a Navy sailor(Godfather-minted new star James Caan) and a Seattle hooker(Neil Simon's wife to be, Marsha Mason)

Scarecrow (Godfather-minted new star Al Pacino -- in the same year as Serpico -- paired with French Connection star Gene Hackman -- as a hobo Odd Couple on a grim road tour of America)
Blume in Love (Paul Mazurksky's tale of divorce, reconciliation -- and marital rape as romantic! -- with George Segal.)
A Touch of Class(Segal again, doing Cary Grant to Glenda Jackson's Hepburn, and Jackson won the Best Actress Oscar.)
Slither(James Caan again in a shaggy dog road movie that in a too-familiar 1973 way, was a thriller that didn't resolve.)
The Laughing Policeman -- ANOTHER crime thriller with Walter Matthau(in the same year as the better Charley Varrick) ..and briefly-minted star Bruce Dern(he didn't last as a lead, but he lasted as a character star.)
Theatre of Death: Vincent Price, in his best and most "serious" role as a mad Shakespearean actor killing off his critics in a variety of REALLY gory ways(assisted by his equally mad, gorgeous daughter Diana Rigg.)
Enter the Dragon: THE Kung Fu epic of all time, showcasing the short-lived Bruce Lee.
Last Tango in Paris: Considered a 1972 film in some circles, the film netted Marlon Brando a 1973 Oscar nomination.
The Last Detail: Jack Nicholson's great Navy sailoor tale(from the author of Cinderella Liberty); got him an Oscar nom the year before Chinatown and two years before Cuckoo's nest.

...and that's just from memory and I'm sure there were more. (Well, John Wayne put out TWO Westerns that year as a star, but neither was among his best: The Train Robbers and Cahill US Marshall.)

The real issue here is that Hollywood studios simply cannot, or will not , put out the sheer VOLUME of movies that they could in 1973, and secondarily, that we don't really seem to have the full stock of stars(especially men) who were available in 1973 -- from John Wayne to Eastwood to Burt Reynolds (oops -- yeah, HE did two movies in 1973, as well) to Charles Bronson(oops, HE did two movies in 1973) to ...Walter Matthau!...to Nicholson and the Godfather Twins(Pacino and Caan.)

And wait! Woody Allen was hot.with Sleeper.

And oh yeah: a guy named Martin Scorsese debuted with Mean Streets, starring a guy named Robert deNiro, who was also in a sad baseball movie called Bang the Drum Slowly that year.

I almost can't stand thinking about how bountiful that year was. 50 years ago. Not a comic book movie in sight.

CONT

[–] roger1 (2351) 7 months ago

There are some other "great movie years" in movie history; I suppose a case could be made for any year.

But in 1972, The Godfather dominated the year, and in 1975, Jaws dominated the year, and in 1977 Star Wars dominated the year. 1973 had room for two BLOCKBUSTERS(The Exorcist and The Sting -- couldn't be more different) and a flowing faucet of movies to watch that were all pretty interesting in different ways. One could pick favorites "alongside other favorites."

Over the years, Charley Varrick has emerged as the movie I most like re-watching from 1973, but I keep American Graffiti at Number One for the year because -- it is the one movie out of all the movies I've seen in my life that literally CHANGED the course of my life and...I don't really say why anymore. Its a very personal memory from a very "dramatic" year in my young life.

I took American Graffiti very personally at the time, and yet it stands as the "launch of George Lucas"(after the misfire that was THX 1138) was produced by Godfather Francis Coppola and launched a bunch of stars and one TV series(Happy Days with American Graffiti star Ron Howard...who became a mogul himself.)

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CONT

[–] roger1 (2351) 7 months ago

And now a shift:

Bookstore browsing the other day, I noticed two "making of" books about two movies of 1973: The Exorcist and The Way We Were.

I can't believe that the book on The Exorcist is the first one on that movie, but this was evidently a 50th Anniversary book. I did not buy it, but I might someday (or, Christmas is coming.)

I bought the book on The Way We Were.
Because in that wonderful start-to-finish movie year of 1973, The Way We Were was one of the best experiences...a true EMOTIONAL rush (not all that far removed from the impact of American Graffiti on my raw young FEELINGS that year) even as it has a reputation as "almost a bad movie" -- not terribly well reviewed, and at times clumsy and hard to watch in its use of Barbra Streisand and her hard-punching screen persona.

Pauline Kael gave the movie a famous review that was often quoted by its director, Sydney Pollack: "A leaky ship full of holes that somehow makes it safely into port...because of the chemistry of Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford."

Yep. That's it. In the movie year that Redford rekindled his "bromance" with Paul Newman (in The Sting at December), he also had an honest-to-goodness romance with a FEMALE superstar(Streisand in The Way We Were in October.)

It was a weird year for Robert Redford. He proved himself as a full superstar -- but only in the company of other stars.

I love The Way We Were for its emotion, to be sure. Its got a wall to wall theme song that Kael hated but the Academy awarded as Best Song. (Its composer, Marvin Hamlisch, did great at the 1973 Oscars -- his scores for The Way We Were and The Sting BOTH won Oscars, as did that song.) I love that song , too. And in late 1973 and early 1974, the song was all over the car radios of America...a big hit. Indeed, "movie music" dominated those months as The Way We Were, The Sting, and The Exorcist ALL scored theme music as pop hits(instrumentals in the case of The Sting's ragtime theme and the scary Tubular Bells from Exorcist.)

CONT

[–] roger1 (2351) 7 months ago

Though The Way We Were(TWWW) is famous for Barbra Streisand's emoting(she was Oscar nommed, and some thought she was robbed by Glenda Jackson in A Touch of Class) I REALLY love the movie for Robert Redford in it.

All the women went nuts for that guy, and us straight guys well -- you just like to have that cool, intelligent idealized version of yourself up on the screen, right? Cary Grant was the same way -- far more handsome than any of us could hope to be but somehow -- we could relate to how he comported himself(as in North by Northwest.)

Robert Redford gave me my life's guide to politics when his character, "Hubbell" has this exchange with Streisand:

Streisand: You think politics is funny?
Redford: Well, yeah. You make fun of politicians...what else can you do with them?

Read about the top of our crop in America right now....that's it.

Indeed, the entire movie is about the deep love and basic incompatibility of Hubbell and "Katie"(Streisand). She's a fiery, radical leftist (with Communist roots; the story stretches from college in the 30s to work in the 50s). He's not a Republican(Redford would never play that)...he's simply cynical and uncommitted. Some thought this made his character weak. I think it made his character quite cool. And the poor guy just can't keep up with Streisand and ...they break up. (spoiler? I dunno.)

The great scene in the movie -- accompanied by that great, sad title tune in instrumental and then sung by Streisand over the credits -- is when the two meet by chance years after their divorce(in front of the Plaza Hotel where Roger Thornhill was kidnapped) and we "feel their pain" -- deep love that didn't make it, "the one that got away," pain for the rest of their lives but better to have loved than lost.

It was a tear jerker ending based NOT on death(ala Love Story) but...the reality of failed love and divorce.

CONT

[–] roger1 (2351) 7 months ago

This new book iis a great read with things I read before but all sorts of new detail about EXACTLY what happens when two superstars agree to do a project together and...they are corporations as much as people, with "teams" and strong protection of their brand.

The "making of story" is launched by a personal grail. Streisand had her producer-"owner" Ray Stark buy the rights to The Way We Were. It was to be her movie -- she needed that blond actor to play the impossible dream: Hubbell.

Streisand wanted Redford, and she wanted him bad, and he kept saying no -- for months -- as an impatient Ray Star tried to find a different Hubbell and -- finally -- Redford said yes.

And then the REAL trouble began.

The key to getting Redford was to sign his favorite director and personal pal -- Sydney Pollack -- as the director. Only with Pollock on board could Streisand even HOPE to get Redford. And it was Pollock who put the pressure on his pal "Bob." And got mainly nos. Til he got "yes." Its fascinating how Redford said "OK, OK, OK...I'll DO the damn movie" and then -- in agreeing to it ...made the usual star demands.

For instance, Streisand got top billing ("Streisand and Redford together!") but Redford got paid $200,000 more than Streisand , in trade(her: one million; him: one million two.)

Its interesting the "alternate Hubbells" on deck if Redford passed. Candidate Number One was Ryan O'Neal, a major star who had both Love Story AND a hit with Streisand(What's Up Doc) on his resume. It would have been a repeat of What's Up Doc -- deflating the novelty of the love story. Years later O'Neal played a scene opposite Redford in the all-star "A Bridge Too Far" -- and Redford literally blew O'Neal off the screen.

CONT

[–] roger1 (2351) 7 months ago

Two lesser lights were considered -- Ken Howard(then currently playing Thomas Jefferson in the movie of 1776 the musical) and Dennis Cole(a TV cop on "Felony Squad.") Lest you think these "nobodies" might not have made it, consider: Streisand's male lead for Up the Sandbox was David Selby(made before TWWW) and for For Pete's Sake(made after TWWW) was Michael Sarrazin.

I suppose that Streisand used those lesser actors to maintain her stardom and her pay, but the truth of the matter is that one reason I liked Barbra Streisand movies is that she often picked really fun male co-stars: Walter Matthau(Hello, Dolly) -- even though they hated each other; George Segal(The Owl and the Pussycat); James Caan(Funny Lady).

But none of those guys hit the heights that Redford hit with her.

Warren Beatty led Streisand along for awhile that he might play Hubbell. Two reasons: he wanted Streisand to perform at a fundraiser for Presidential candidate George McGovern and he liked to say "Robert Redford played a role I turned down."(He said that about the Sundance Kid.) Streisand performed at the political concert ...and Beatty said no.

There are present-day interviews in the book with Streisand and Redford, which make the book fine reading about superstar thought processes. Co-star James Woods offers his usual sarcastic remarks. (Streisand asked him before they played their first scene -- "Are you afraid of me?" -- he might have gotten fired if he said yes, but he swears he said no.) Sidebar: I've read that Steve McQueen also challenged his one-scene co-star Dabney Coleman on "The Towering Inferno." In both cases, the superstar was saying "you are about to act with me and I'm the best of the best. Can you keep up?"

CONT

[–] roger1 (2351) 7 months ago

The making of the movie was rather hilarious because as the Streisand/Stark camp battled the Redford/Pollock camp, about half of a movie was filmed that was CUT. There are about 20 scenes(mainly about the Hollywood blacklist) that didn't make it and the entire reason for the marriage breaking up was switched from the blacklist to an affair on Redford's part (and Streisand ends the movie having his baby and then divorcing him.)

One last bit I love: Streisand and Redford in a competition as to who comes out of their trailer LAST. A competition. To solve it, each was given a walkie talkie to be called out at the SAME TIME. It was used once -- Streisand came out...Redford just threw his walkie talkie outside. Stars.

It all circles back for me...TO 1973. A most exciting year at the movies, and in my young life and...I recall being shocked that I actually went to SEE a love story. But...I was in love, and she wanted to see it. Which -- considering how the movie ends -- was quite a risk on both our parts, to see a sad possible future.

Oh well, it was the way we were...