The Long Goodbye (1973)

American cinema in the 1970s had an interest in reviving older genres, and film noir was a great way of expressing society’s disillusionment and paranoia. Casting the hangdog, bemused charm of Elliott Gould as the classic detective character of Philip Marlowe in The Long Goodbye (1973) must have seemed like a joke to fans of […]

Battles Without Honor And Humanity (1973)

Taking up Lewis Rice O’Donnell’s strong recommendation, I was looking forward to experiencing the Yakuza Papers series of films. Directed by Kinji Fukasaku (of Battle Royale and Doberman Cop), Battles Without Honor And Humanity (1973; Jingi Naki Tatakai) is the first film, which follows the journey of ex-soldier Shozo Hirono (played by Bunta Sugawara) and […]

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978)

A musical tribute to the classic Beatles album but with The Bee Gees and Peter Frampton singing the songs – without much change or interpretation in delivery. This is what Robert Stigwood (producer of hit film musicals like Tommy, Saturday Night Fever and Grease) gambled on with Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978), resulting […]

Drunken Master (1978)

I’d long heard about the legend of Drunken Master (1978) so it was good escapism to finally catch up with this iconic Jackie Chan film, a box office hit in Hong Kong early in his career, Wikipedia tells me. As the character of Wong Fei-Hung, Chan is a cheeky, cocky troublemaker whose mischief catches up […]

The Shout (1978)

This was an odd one and I knew it was going to be. The Shout (1978) is a British horror film directed by Polish filmmaker Jerzy Skolimowski. All I knew about the film was that it was about a man – named Crossley and played by Alan Bates – who can kill by shouting. Based […]