The Year in Review- 1971

It was the year two tough cops changed the trajectory of popular cinema for the next twenty-five years. Stanley Kubrick caused controversy, Gene Wilder played Willy Wonka, and Jane Fonda was on fire. Steven Spielberg became a feature film director, Al Pacino became a movie star, and Jack Nicholson got nasty with Ann-Margret. Here are the ten best films in order for 1971.

1. "The French Connection"(1971) A 40 year Gene Hackman officially joined the A-list as hard-ass NYPD detective 'Popeye' Doyle in William Friedkin's fantastic fact-based drama. Doyle is fast, funny, fearless, and completely consumed with police work. The Best Actor Oscar couldn't have gone to any other performer. Friedkin's documentary-style direction emphasizes the gritty realism of an enterprising drug ring and it's elusive participants, while Popeye's ten-minute pursuit of an elevated train may be the most celebrated chase scene ever filmed. "Connection" is one of the movies you seek out as soon as you decide to start getting serious about movies.

2. "Dirty Harry"(1971) Is there a cooler, more iconic image in '70s cinema that Clint Eastwood, armed with a full head of brown hair and a 44. Magnum? It's the most powerful handgun in the world, and will blow your head clean off. We were all lucky to have Inspector Callahan in our lives. Don Siegel's masterpiece has been imitated so many times, it's difficult to remember where it all began. The original "Harry" remains one of the finest examples of the genre, a lean, gripping thriller that makes good use of San Francisco and contains one of the great Movie Star turns. The underrated Andrew Robinson is electric as the sadistic sniper villain Scorpio. Four sequels followed, helping turn Eastwood into an unstoppable creative force.

3. A Clockwork Orange"(1971) Three years after the monumental success of "2001", Stanley Kubrick achieved artistic immortality with his controversial, thought-provoking instant cult classic, based on the 1962 novel by Don Burgess. Every movie isn't supposed to be an easy-to-digest, assembly-line product designed for opening weekend mass consumption. Stanley clearly had that in mind when he unleashed Alex DeLarge and his "droogs" on a bleak futuristic Britain(copycat crimes got the film banned in the U.K. until Kubrick's death in '99). Malcolm McDowell is mesmerizing in a performance he never equaled, and the free will vs. conformity debate still registers.

4. Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory"(1971) This delightful comic fantasy famously under-performed in it's initial summer release, only to be reborn as a firm favorite over a decade later, during the 1980s cable/VHS boom period. Gene Wilder is wonderful as the kooky candyman that invites five pint-sized Golden Ticket holders to his mysterious chocolate factory. Pure imagination, Oompa Loompa sing-alongs, and a couple of dark fates await poor boy Charlie Bucket(Peter Ostrum) and his flawed companions. Director Mel Stuart made substantial changes to the 1964 novel, that only it's author Roald Dahl had any objections to.

5. "Klute"(1971) A fully-formed, 32 year old Jane Fonda is dynamite as Bree Daniels, a hardened NY call girl in Alan J. Pakula's absorbing dramatic thriller. Donald Sutherland's detective title character drives the mystery/stalker subplot, that isn't as memorable as Fonda's relevatory Best Actress-winning characterization. That's no disrespect to Andy and David Lewis, whose original screenplay was nominated. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Michael Small's score and the under-appreciated Roy Scheider on this blog, for pimping out Fonda AND partnering up with Popeye in his breakout year.

6. "Duel"(1971) The greatest TV movie of all time was granted a theatrical release in 1972, setting the stage for the seismic success of it's wildly ambitious first-time director Steven Spielberg. The shark in "Jaws" and the T-Rex in "Jurassic Park" might not have been possible without the ominous tanker truck(and mystery driver) that stalk Dennis Weaver throughout the Mojave Desert. Spielberg made magic in thirteen days with a $450,000 budget, and a mastery of camera placement, stunt work, and good old-fashioned suspense that would make him the envy of much more tenured filmmakers.

7. Carnal Knowledge"(1971) This daring relationship drama is the first and best of the four collaborations between Mike Nichols and Jack Nicholson(although, I'll defend "Wolf" till my dying day). Jack's cavalier cocksman persona and frank discussions about the opposite sex with timid best pal Art Garfunkel were just plain shocking in '71, while Ann-Margret was never better as his downtrodden girlfriend. Sexual politics haven't changed THAT much in the last fifty years. That's why I expect this movie to still have something to say in the year 2071.

8. "Panic in Needle Park"(1971) Exactly eight months before "The Godfather" rewired cinema, a grungy NYC livewire named Al Pacino showed some serious promise in this edgy urban drama(his second film). The soon-to-be Michael Corleone is electric as one half of a heroin-addicted couple(Kitty Winn is his wayward girlfriend) on the Upper West Side. "Panic" pushes the envelope with it's unflinching presentation of drug use and street life. Director Jerry Schatzberg would quickly reunite with his red-hot, still-affordable star for another little-seen gem, 1973's "Scarecow".

9. "Play Misty For Me"(1971) An ambitious Clint Eastwood made his directorial debut in this chilling "Fatal Attraction"-style thriller, a full sixteen years before that film entered the culture. The word 'stalker' didn't exist during the Nixon era. That definitely worked in the favor of a wild-eyed Jessica Walter, in a performance that deserved Supporting Actress consideration. Clint's easygoing disc jockey can't shake his deranged one-night stand long enough to resume relations with his on-and-off girlfriend Donna Mills in Carmel, California. "Misty" holds up, despite countless similarly-themed films, and marks the beginning of one of the greatest directing careers of all time.

10. "The Beguiled"(1971) Did I mention that Clint was the biggest Movie Star of the 1970s? I don't know how he managed this hat trick in twelve months. Don Siegel's Civil War-set drama(based on a 1966 novel) actually came first, and presents his five-time leading man in a more vulnerable position than audiences were accustomed to. A rural Mississippi seminary school for Young Ladies, presided over by Geraldine Page, is upended in 1863 by the presence of a bedridden Eastwood and his rugged masculinity. Sofia Coppola wrote and directed a comparable remake with Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman in 2017.

Honorable Mentions- "THX 1138"(1971) George Lucas' directorial debut is a cold, distant curiosity. "A New Leaf"(1971) Walter Matthua marries Elaine May. "Big Jake"(1971) Big John Wayne. "Escape From the Planet of the Apes"(1971) The third installment. "Get Carter"(1971) Michael Caine is cool. "The Anderson Tapes"(1971) Sean Connery is a career criminal in this Sidney Lumet caper. "McCabe & Mrs. Miller"(1971) Warren Beatty is a bearded gambler in this Robert Altman Western. "Shaft"(1971) Richard Roundtree ushers in the blaxploitation era. "Sunday Bloody Sunday"(1971) John Schlesinger was an awards contender. "Kotch"(1971) Jack Lemmon directs his buddy Walter Matthua to a Best Actor nomination. "The Last Picture Show"(1971) Critics showered praise on Peter Bogdanovich's black-and-white breakthrough. "Fiddler on the Roof"(1971) Norman Jewison's three-hour musical was the last of it's kind. "Harold and Maude"(1971) The Hal Ashby era begins. "Straw Dogs"(1971) Sam Peckinpah unveils the dark side of Dustin Hoffman. "Diamonds Are Forever"(1971) So is James Bond. "Brian's Song"(1971) James Caan and Billy Dee Williams will bring a tear to your eye. "The Hospital"(1971) George C. Scott + a Paddy Chayefsky screenplay.