1972's Best Movies: 50 Years Later

Gonna toss Ulzana's Raid a vote.

In keeping with previous polls, I've gone with the contenders in the top 2,000 films, but they now offer the entire starting spreadsheet. Here are the titles that carry through through the top 5,000 films ever.

2140	Rocker [TV]	Lemke, Klaus	West Germany
2239	Other, The	Mulligan, Robert	USA
2245	Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania	Mekas, Jonas	UK
2407	Silent Running	Trumball, Douglas	USA
2448	Eight Deadly Shots [TV]	Niskanen, Mikko	Finland
2491	Candidate, The	Ritchie, Michael	USA
2609	Slaughterhouse-Five	Hill, George Roy	USA
2622	King of Marvin Gardens, The	Rafelson, Bob	USA
2639	Red Psalm	Jancsó, Miklós	Hungary
2674	Cocksucker Blues	Frank, Robert	USA
2701	Behind the Green Door	Mitchell, Jim & Artie Mitchell	USA
2721	Dupes, The	Saleh, Tewfik	Syria
2785	Chung Kuo - Cina	Antonioni, Michelangelo	Italy
2816	History Lessons	Straub, Jean-Marie & Danièle Huillet	Italy
2851	Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean, The	Huston, John	USA
2934	Sleuth	Mankiewicz, Joseph L.	USA
2952	Hapax Legomena II: Poetic Justice	Frampton, Hollis	USA
3033	Five Fingers of Death	Jeong Chang-hwa	China
3054	Umbracle	Portabella, Pere	Spain
3059	Last House on the Left, The	Craven, Wes	USA
3146	Ten Days' Wonder	Chabrol, Claude	France
3157	Sambizanga	Maldoror, Sarah	Angola
3195	Superfly	Parks Jr., Gordon	USA
3237	Dirty Money	Melville, Jean-Pierre	France
3254	Ludwig - Requiem for a Virgin King	Syberberg, Hans-Jürgen	West Germany
3262	Deep Throat	Damiano, Gerard	---
3300	Way of the Dragon, The	Lee, Bruce	Hong Kong
3303	Far from the Trees	Esteva, Jacinto	Spain
3310	Scopone scientifico, Lo	Comencini, Luigi	Italy
3418	Harder They Come, The	Henzell, Perry	Jamaica
3478	Pictures of the Old World	Hanák, Dusan	Czechoslovakia
3530	Cicatrice intérieure, La	Garrel, Philippe	France
3598	Daughter-in-Law, The	Narliyev, Khodzha Kuli	USSR
3662	Lisa and the Devil	Bava, Mario	Italy
3686	Fritz the Cat	Bakshi, Ralph	USA
3732	Traidores, Los	Gleyzer, Raymundo	Argentina
3948	Devil in Miss Jones, The	Damiano, Gerard	USA
3996	2'45"	Raban, William	---
4354	Diabel	Zulawski, Andrzej	Poland
4379	Dracula A.D. 1972	Gibson, Alan	UK
4381	Lucifer Rising	Anger, Kenneth	USA
4503	Blaise Pascal [TV]	Rossellini, Roberto	Italy
4650	Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan/Ai nu	Chor Yuen	Hong Kong
4679	San Michele aveva un gallo	Taviani, Paolo & Vittorio Taviani	Italy
4683	Cruel Sea	Al Siddiq, Khalid	Kuwait
4714	Nathalie Granger	Duras, Marguerite	France
4736	Lady Sings the Blues	Furie, Sidney J.	USA
4795	Easy Out	O'Neill, Pat	USA
4826	Past and Present	Oliveira, Manoel de	Portugal
4881	Travels with My Aunt	Cukor, George	USA
4909	Marjoe	Smith, Howard & Sarah Kernochan	USA

Love that The Poseidon Adventure ranks higher than Red Psalm.

I've seen 14 of these; I'll vote for Out One: Spectre, although the pedant in me thinks that the "Spectre" cut of the film didn't come out until 1974. Worst is Roma, Fellini had really gotten stale by this point

I've also seen 7 from the lower list, and would vote for Red Psalm from there. Blaise Pascal is a fascinating oddity. I've always been curious about The Other since I read a review of it in Movies on TV.

Cries and Whispers is actually my least favourite Bergman, it might be more of a disappointment than Roma, now that I think of it.

From one of my lists a few years ago in descending order:

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (Luis Bunuel)
The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
The Merchant of Four Seasons (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola)
Cabaret (Bob Fosse)
Ulzana’s Raid (Robert Aldrich)
Sounder (Martin Ritt)
Aguirre, the Wrath of God (Werner Herzog)
Deliverance (John Boorman)
Cries and Whispers (Ingmar Bergman)
Pink Flamingos (John Waters)

Bergman has a lot of competition after even his second-tier, though.

You mean... a badness competition with himself?

The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, West Germany)
Cries and Whispers (Ingmar Bergman, Sweden)
Cabaret (Bob Fosse, USA)
OffOn (Scott Bartlett, USA)
Pink Flamingos (John Waters, USA)
Winter Soldier (Winterbank collective, USA)
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgoisie (Luis Buñuel, France)
The Merchant of Four Seasons (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, West Germany)
The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, USA)
Heat (Paul Morrissey, USA)

Ulzana's Raid is so good. Scanning the longlist, Five Fingers of Death would definitely make my top ten for this year as well.

I realize I also saw the Zurlini on this list, under the title The Professor, where Alain Delon as the titular teacher assigns an in-class essay, lights up and reads the paper during classtime.

Here's a top ten:

Out 1: Spectre
Aguirre the Wrath of God
Red Psalm
La vie rêvée (Mireille Dansereau, Canada)
Solaris
Nathalie Granger
The Goat Horn (Metodi Andonov, Bulgaria)
Blaise Pascal
Hôtel Monterey (Chantal Akerman, Belgium)
Journey (Paul Almond, Canada)

1. Aguirre, the Wrath of God
2. The Heartbreak Kid
3. The Godfather
4. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
5. Cabaret
6. Pink Flamingos
7. Frenzy

C&W might sneak in there if I ever give it another viewing; at present, its not even Top 10 Bergman for me.

1. The Godfather
2. The Heartbreak Kid
3. Chloe in the Afternoon
4. Whispers of the Wolf
5. Out 1
6. Last Tango in Paris

Out 1 has stayed on my mind for a decade. If I were to see it again it might be higher, or I might sleep through 70% of it. I've still never seen Aguirre.

That list has the 13 hour Out 1 as a 1971 release, this is the four hour "short" version, which I think is much superior.

4. Whispers of the Wolf

1313!

Oops--was listing the 11-hour version.

Jesus fucking Christ what a year.

All of these could win my vote:

AGUIRRE: THE WRATH OF GOD (Werner Herzog; West Germany)
THE BITTER TEARS OF PETRA VON KANT (Rainer Werner Fassbinder; West Germany)
THE DISCREET CHARM OF THE BOURGEOISIE (Luis Buñuel; France)
PINK FLAMINGOS (John Waters; USA)
SOLARIS (Andrei Tarkovsky; USSR)

At the moment I'm in a Bitter Tears mood, but I'm probably most often in a Discreet Charm mood.

I’m always a little surprised that people don’t like Cries and Whispers, and I know a lot of people don’t (critic John Simon, a Bergman fan, thought it a rare dud in the filmography). I generally think of it as top 5 Bergman, one of his near perfect films.

So many undeniable arty classics in this list, but I’m tempted to snub them all and vote for The Heartbreak Kid.

I always sort of assumed there was a healthy bit of "enough already" sentiment around Bergman in the early '70s.

Just realized The Candidate's not there. Also good: Cisco Pike, Winter Soldier.

Ah, missed the supplementary list.

from the extended list, I want to track this down

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marjoe

I first heard of Marjoe Gortner last week, due to a blog post about his appearance in the 1978 sci-fi film Starcrash.

It's fantastic, one of my fav docs of the 70s. The 'behind-the-scenes' parts about him & his grift are good, but tbh the tent revival preaching scenes on their own merits are up there with any of the concert docs of the era imho.

I've been waiting to see the Marjoe documentary forever. (Should check current availability.) He was in the great Kojack pilot, The Marcus-Nelson Murders, the following year (Joseph Sargent of Pelham fame).

Typically, on Prime but not in Canada.

If you still mess with physical media the DVD is easy to find, packaged as a double-feature with that directors other oscar-winning doc Thoth

Marjoe is pretty great. Remarkable document of its time (ie you don’t catch grifters admitting the grift on camera much these days)

(xpost) So it is, thanks. A bit pricey, but I'll keep an eye on that.

Have only seen Aguirre, Frenzy, The Getaway, Pink Flamingos, The Poseidon Adventure and What's Up, Doc?. Out of those, it's Herzog versus Bogdanovich, but I feel like I shouldn't vote until I at least see Solaris, which is playing at the IFC Center. And maybe, uh, this godfather movie I keep hearing about.

No judgement implied, just (extreme) surprise: You haven't seen The Godfather?

I know--read the whole post!

The Heartbreak Kid deserved a vote, so I gave it one.

might just as well vote for which one I've seen the most times which would be 'fist of fury' gotta love that knife deflection.

although I do love ' frenzy' a lot, esp. Barry Do. Mr Rusk you don't appear to be wearing your tie.

At this point, living in NYC, The Godfather is one of those I'm just kinda waiting until it hits one of the repertory screens at the right time. It's panned out great with a lot of other classics - just saw The Conversation for the first time at Film Forum (speaking of Coppola) and it blew me away.

Although I’ve lived in NYC for 25 years I no longer take anything for granted and now make a point to see any film I admire on the big screen whenever and wherever it may pop up. (I also saw The Conversation at the Film Forum… always felt that needed to be seen cinematically). I have the sinking feeling that movie theaters won’t be around for much longer, and certainly not repertory ones.

Which is why I haven't Aguirre (I have a DVD downstairs): been waiting for a theatrical showing. I had to skip one once, presumably for something important I've forgotten.

It feels cliché, but The Godfather is the one I keep coming back to. After that it would probably be Discreet Charm and Pink Flamingos. I love Bergman, but Cries and Whispers is a tough watch.

Aquirre: The Wrath of God, Cabaret and The Godfather are my three

also really liked like The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Cries and Whispers was actually the first Bergman I ever saw. It made a powerful impression. I still think it's one of his best.

Mine too, but it's not my favorite.

I think it was my first one too, watched it with other students during college, and after that Scenes From a Marriage

Considered Deliverance and Fat City but voted Aguirre.

I had to vote for the Godfather.

Solaris was one of my two least favorite Tarkovsky films

Just saw Cabaret for the first time a year or so ago. I expected it to be decent 'obligatorily Oscar-nominated semi-serious musical' fodder but not much more than that. Totally floored, and I totally understand why it was a serious BP contender even in the year of The Godfather.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I look at the remnants of the Voice site once every few months...This seems to be a new Michael Atkinson piece on the movies in '72:

https://www.villagevoice.com/2022/03/31/cinemas-crest-1972-was-a-very-good-year-for-the-movies/

Indeed, 1972 makes a rousing bid for being the greatest single movie year there ever was, just beginning with The Godfather, Deliverance, Cabaret, Last Tango in Paris, The King of Marvin Gardens, and Fat City, but particularly when you look globally, at Herzog’s Aguirre, the Wrath of God, Buñuel’s The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, Tarkovsky’s Solaris, Bergman’s Cries and Whispers, Costa-Gavras’s State of Siege, Jancso’s Red Psalm, Fassbinder’s The Merchant of Four Seasons and The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, Rohmer’s Chloe in the Afternoon, Loach’s Family Life, Wenders’s The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick, Pialat’s We Won’t Grow Old Together, and so on. Not to mention Godard and Gorin’s double-bladed show of Tout va Bien and Letter to Jane. Not to mention Hitchcock’s penultimate film, and best in almost a decade, Frenzy.

I'd at least hear an argument for any film year from 1971 through 1976 being called the greatest movie year ever. But then I'd probably counter that 2000 had Yi Yi, Eureka, In the Mood for Love, Code Unknown, Esther Kahn, Werckmeister Harmonies, The Heart of the World, Mission to Mars, Scary Movie, La Commune (Paris, 1871), The House of Mirth, One Day in the Life of Andrei Arsenevich, Bamboozled and As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty.

Not to mention Godard and Gorin’s double-bladed show of Tout va Bien and Letter to Jane.

Letter to Jane is both the most radical, intriguing thing Godard/Gorin ever did ... and also ideologically the most putrid.