What I'm Doing Here


The year 1977 in film was special. If 1939 was a peak for classical Hollywood, for the grandest and most illusive aspects of cinema, then 1977 was a peak for a completely different kind of film. It was an inflection point for weirdo cinema, a nexus for some of the strangest and most unique projects ever put to celluloid. 

Starting guns fired all down the year, too - careers with immeasurable influence got going in 1977. Famous auteurs with limited output gave us films in 1977. It was ordinary, too; films conformed to the zeitgeist and tried to rejuvenate tired genres and were released for cynical reasons, like always. But magic was in the air, nonetheless, and I want to catch some of it in a jar for study. 

This blog will record brief reflections on the movies of 1977 as I watch them. IMDB says that's about 3,000 films, while Wikipedia lists about 200. I'm hoping to come up with a reasonable number in there somewhere. There is no method to this project as of yet. The blog intends nothing more or less than to record my thoughts on the films as I watch them, to serve as a living notebook for what I've seen and what I thought of it. I'll draw conclusions on the films a little bit as I go, but mostly when I'm finished. 

With luck, The 1977 Project will become a book. Someday. We'll see. 

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