the 70's in a nutshell

The 70's class helped open my eyes to the changes in film just within the past 40 years. These changes are reflective of the times and this is a trend that can be seen in any era of film. Some of these virtues and role changes were huge in the 70's like the role of black people or of women in film. They were no longer the butler or the house wife, they were starting to become their own people and built their own lives and build a new image for them.

It also opened my eyes to a lot of different movies that I know that I would have never seen in my life so it was a good chance to see a few different movies for me and to expose myself to a few different things.

The 70's class was a good learning experience where we got to expose ourselves and think outside of the box more and see a movie for more then it seems at face value. The tools learned with dissecting the film are pretty helpful and will continue to help me further along the road and help me appreciate films a little more then I did before this class.

Assault on Precinct 13

If you ever need a film to help define the 70's era, look no further then "Assault on Precinct 13." It had everything that was relevant and different with the 70's. To start the main character and protagonist is a black hero, and he is your classical almost cowboy hero. He stands for virtue and everything right. This was a role that was no previously seen until the 70's.

The women of this movie is a strong women who does what she wants and has her own attitude to boot. she even takes gun shots and kills a few men in the process. There is your classic anti-hero in the film with the Napoleon being a killer and a murderer. He decided to help out the cops and even though he could have made a run for it decides to stick around and help as much as he can.

All these little things within the movie mirror the direction of the 70's and all of the changes that took place in this time period. The whole movie shows how everyone from the black man to the women and even the classical villain have made big changes in film during this time period and that there was no longer a set gender role or race role anymore.

An Unmarried Woman

The women roll took a huge right turn in the 60's and carried on over into the 70's in a big way. There is no better way to show this then with "An Unmarried Woman." Marriages were no longer the perfect little thing that every tried to make them up to be. In fact this movie showed just how bad some men have become like with Erica and her husband. They were married for 16 years and he left her for a younger women, and not only left her but expect here to just get over it and be ok with the falling out.

So Erica and her daughter had to go through this journey together to help them realize that they can be strong on their own and they do not need to have other people in their life to be that strong person. This is a huge difference in film as it was a huge difference in lifestyle of the 70's. This movie was a mirror image of the type of life that people were starting to have in the real world, and the film world picked this up and starting putting it in their films so that people would start to relate more.

The women bonding was another big part of this film that was a big change from the old times. Erica would go out to lunch with her friends and they would take openly about anything. The significance of this was bigger then I think most people might have realized. This was the start to women having a life outside of the house, and the start of them having an equal life like their male counterparts. It was shown here in this movie like it was happening in the real world.

Dog Day Afternoon

Sonny and Sal were your everyday guys with everyday lives to live. The events of "Dog Day Afternoon" were base on true events that took place in an ordinary town with some ordinary men. The movie starts as what looks like a ten minute robbery and it turns into a twelve hour political statement made by the men. With enough hostages and an itchy finger in Sal, the two men were able to hold up the bank for a few hours and had their way with the media for a lot of it.

The crowd was a constant shift of support and disapproval as the story went on. Everyone could relate to the Attica attacks that had just occurred so he was able to keep the police at bay from their usual brutality as the cameras were rolling and the crowd was cheering him on. The realization that he was gay was both a shift in the crowd and a point shown that gays were not looked upon in a good light or even remotely accepted accept by the people within their gay community. This was to show the political ramifications of being gay and trying to make a stand on it. Not may people were going to back him after they found this out and even started attacking him.

Also the hostages accepted their forceful captivity and even went along with it. They found it amusing as it was something exciting and they would partake in what ever they could. This was ironic how much space and freedom they had throughout the whole movie. It made the cops job almost harder because the girls were not threatened and therefore did not care to cooperate with the cops ever because they were having fun. This was a funny aspect of the movie as they would play with Sal's guns and play cards and just having a fun old time with the bank robbers. I think this was a good statement to make that the bad guy is not always a very mean or dastardly person, and that sometimes it is just someone who feels like that they have run out of options and are looking for a good way out.