karnblack

What is Groucho’s Movie Challenge? Its mission is simple: let us all, as a forum, work to seek out films that might otherwise slip our radar. Each week, anybody who wants to participate will see a film within the guidelines, and return back to the forum to report on the film they saw. It’s easy, it’s fun, and everybody can participate. It’s not a trivia contest…it’s not a game…it’s merely a way we can all be exposed to new avenues of film appreciation…or at the very least see a good flick or two.

Week 10: The Greatest Year

Since I'm going through withdrawl, and Groucho seems to be MIA again I figured i'd attempt to fill in for him on the movie challenge this week.

This weeks challenge is inspired by my upcoming birthday. Just watch a movie released in the year you were born that you have not seen before and report back here and let us all know how it was. If you have seen all of the movies released in the year you were born (highly unlikely, but possible) watch a movie from the year before or the year after you were born.

Here is the link to the imdb power search. I put in the year of my birth, excluded TV series and direct to video, and checked must have DVD, and I got 94 matching titles.

This is your mission. Good luck.

Missed a previous version of the Movie Challenge? It’s never to late to play:

Week 1: Old Movie Week
Week 2: Foreign Film Week
Week 3: Silence is Golden
Week 4: The Truth is Stranger
Week 5: IMDB Top 250
Week 6: Unfamiliar Genres
Week 7: Martial Arts Films
Week 8: Watch a movie you didn't originally like
Week 9: If it ain't broke...FIX IT ANYWAY!

Corvin

Looks like it'll be Once Upon a Time in America (1984) for me.

littlefuzzy

I don't think Groucho will ever get to do one of these again...

EDIT:
I am going to go with one of the unwatched discs in my Claude Chabrol collection, The Unfaithful Wife.

FantasticVSDoom

1974 for me...I was thinking either Mr Majestyk or Black Christmas. Any opinions out there about either one?

Rypro 525

can someone help me find a popular movie from 1985

karnblack

Here are a few:

Back to the Future (1985) 8.0/10 (55845 votes)
Better Off Dead... (1985) 7.1/10 (6979 votes)
Black Cauldron, The (1985) 6.1/10 (1536 votes)
Brazil (1985) 8.0/10 (25254 votes)
Breakfast Club, The (1985) 7.6/10 (20179 votes)
Clue (1985) 6.5/10 (7312 votes)
Cocoon (1985) 6.6/10 (6566 votes)
Color Purple, The (1985) 7.5/10 (8772 votes)
Day of the Dead (1985) 6.4/10 (3403 votes)
Enemy Mine (1985) 6.3/10 (3679 votes)
Fletch (1985) 6.6/10 (6433 votes)
Goonies, The (1985) 7.1/10 (15227 votes)
Ladyhawke (1985) 6.8/10 (6090 votes)
Legend (1985) 6.0/10 (6297 votes)
Out of Africa (1985) 6.8/10 (5599 votes)
Pale Rider (1985) 6.9/10 (3488 votes)
Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985) 6.7/10 (6300 votes)
Prizzi's Honor (1985) 6.9/10 (3616 votes)
Purple Rose of Cairo, The (1985) 7.5/10 (4417 votes)
Ran (1985) 8.4/10 (9175 votes)
Re-Animator (1985) 6.9/10 (2768 votes)
Return of the Living Dead, The (1985) 6.5/10 (2523 votes)
Silverado (1985) 7.0/10 (5036 votes)
To Live and Die in L.A. (1985) 6.8/10 (2294 votes)
Weird Science (1985) 6.1/10 (6603 votes)
Witness (1985) 7.6/10 (12479 votes)
Young Sherlock Holmes (1985) 6.4/10 (2475 votes)

Giles

yeah, (raises hand too), uh... a popular film from 1969??

karnblack

There's a lot more, but here are my suggestions:

Midnight Cowboy (1969) 7.9/10 (10468 votes)
Take the Money and Run (1969) 7.3/10 (2415 votes)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) 8.2/10 (16377 votes)
Easy Rider (1969) 7.2/10 (7849 votes)
Support Your Local Sheriff! (1969) 7.4/10 (1181 votes)
True Grit (1969) 7.3/10 (2515 votes)
Sweet Charity (1969) 6.7/10 (509 votes)
Paint Your Wagon (1969) 6.5/10 (1618 votes)
Bridge at Remagen, The (1969) 6.4/10 (477 votes)
Battle of Britain (1969) 6.6/10 (1164 votes)
Italian Job, The (1969) 7.2/10 (3160 votes)
Andrei Rublyov (1969) 8.2/10 (2416 votes)
Wild Bunch, The (1969) 8.1/10 (8631 votes)
On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) 6.7/10 (5801 votes)

Goldberg74

Same here... but I think I'll actually take the time to watch The Conversation, I've never seen it.

Big Quasimodo

Good year for movies - 1961.

Have seen most of them, but will watch Guns of Navarone DVD that I have had for years and not put in. I've probably seen the movie, but I don't remember it and have definitely not seen the DVD.

I also had: Yojimbo/The Hustler/West Side Story/Raisin in the Sun/Splendor in the Grass/El Cid/Cleo from 5 to 7/The Children's Hour/Last Year at Marienbad/Breakfast at Tiffany's.

Rypro 525

cool, i guess day, brazil, or re animator

Giles

and the Tom Hanks film: Volunteers. I distinctly remember the theatre I saw this at had also playing The Black Cauldron and Day of the Dead

drjay

1983....Looks like Local Hero (hey, it was compared to Raising Arizona, 'nuff said!) and The King of Comedy which I've been meaning to watch for a long time!

Drexl

If I do this, I'll try Dog Day Afternoon (1975)-the only one from that year in the IMDB top 250 I hadn't already seen.

karnblack

I remember seeing Back to the Future and Clue as a double feature.

I'm thinking of watching Get Carter (1971). I haven't seen the remake either, but I wasn't born in 2000. Heh.

chente

Anyone have any suggestions for 1966?

Groucho

You guys can use IMDB to find popular movies by year.

karnblack

Here you go:

What's Up, Tiger Lily? (1966) 6.4/10 (1449 votes)
Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round (1966) 6.1/10 (129 votes)
Plague of the Zombies, The (1966) 6.3/10 (273 votes)
Blowup (1966) 7.4/10 (2997 votes)
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) 8.1/10 (5706 votes)
Chase, The (1966) 6.9/10 (732 votes)
Man for All Seasons, A (1966) 8.0/10 (3672 votes)
Our Man Flint (1966) 6.3/10 (923 votes)
Endless Summer, The (1966) 7.1/10 (452 votes)
Nevada Smith (1966) 6.7/10 (449 votes)
It Happened Here (1966) 6.4/10 (137 votes)
Torn Curtain (1966) 6.4/10 (1917 votes)
Fantastic Voyage (1966) 6.7/10 (1722 votes)
Cast a Giant Shadow (1966) 6.1/10 (243 votes)
Khartoum (1966) 6.6/10 (476 votes)
Fortune Cookie, The (1966) 7.4/10 (1143 votes)
Blue Max, The (1966) 6.4/10 (588 votes)
Pink Blueprint, The (1966) 6.6/10 (15 votes)
Rare Breed, The (1966) 6.3/10 (196 votes)
Seconds (1966) 7.6/10 (1323 votes)
Alfie (1966) 7.1/10 (1122 votes)
Ghost and Mr. Chicken, The (1966) 6.6/10 (524 votes)
This Property Is Condemned (1966) 6.2/10 (374 votes)
Good, the Bad and the Ugly, The (1966) 8.7/10 (20907 votes)
Professionals, The (1966) 7.4/10 (809 votes)
Lost Command (1966) 6.3/10 (116 votes)
Sand Pebbles, The (1966) 7.6/10 (1427 votes)
Alvarez Kelly (1966) 6.2/10 (185 votes)
Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, A (1966) 6.8/10 (1344 votes)
Born Free (1966) 6.8/10 (592 votes)
Fahrenheit 451 (1966) 7.1/10 (2979 votes)
El Dorado (1966) 7.5/10 (1920 votes)
Walk Don't Run (1966) 6.2/10 (347 votes)
Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966) 6.4/10 (610 votes)
Follow Me, Boys! (1966) 6.3/10 (284 votes)
Duel at Diablo (1966) 6.3/10 (196 votes)

Rival11

I'm taking Barry Lyndon (1975).

Damfino

A Face in the Crowd (1957)

Director: Elia Kazan (On the Waterfront, A Streetcar Named Desire)

Cast:
Andy Griffith (The Andy Griffith Show, Matlock)
Patricia Neal (The Day the Earth Stood Still)
Walter Matthau (The Sunshine Boys)
Lee Remick (Days of Wine and Roses)

"There's nothing as trustworthy as the ordinary mind of the ordinary man." -- Lonesome Rhodes

As a baby-boomer I remember Andy Griffith well as the sheriff of Mayberry. Griffith was so closely associated with that part that it almost seemed that Griffith and Andy Taylor were one in the same. Which may explain why nothing I have ever seen Griffith do on TV prepared me for Griffith's stunning performance in this his first movie A Face in the Crowd.

Marcia Jeffries (Patricia Neal) is the host of a radio talk show in a small Arkansas town. Her show is called "A Face in the Crowd" and features man-on-the-street type interviews. One morning she discovers a guitar strumming drifter named Lonesome Rhodes (Griffith) in the local jail sleeping off a drunk & disorderly charge.

Rhodes becomes an overnight sensation with his witty folk songs and stories. In a matter of months his meteoric rise takes him to local TV in Memphis and to national TV in New York with Jeffries, newsman Mel Miller (Mautthau) and an advertising executive played by Tony Franciosa guiding his career along the way. They soon realize that they've created a monster when Rhodes becomes addicted to fame, power and the corruption that comes with it. They've all become wealthy thanks to Rhodes, but could they destroy him? The second hour deals with his devastating decline as Rhodes proposes marriage to Jeffries, his forgotten first wife shows up and he dumps Jeffries in favor of a baton twirling trophy wife played by Lee Remick. Rhodes is so self-absorbed that he doesn't even see the betrayal coming that will destroy him.

There is another great movie from 1957 that also deals with the media: Sweet Smell of Success and it would make a great double feature with A Face in the Crowd.

---

If there are no objections, I am calling dibs on next week's challenge!

shill66

Unfortunately 1966 was really quite a poor year for movies. I have the same problem.

karnblack

Well, I tried to pick up a copy of Get Carter (1971 version) but no B&M store had it in stock and I didn't want to pay for express shipping so I ended up watching The Last Picture Show. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. I went in expecting some kind of boring drama, but was blown away by the risqueness and humor of the movie. A very realistic look at life in a small Texas town in the 50s. I could not believe this was released in 1971. A very enjoyable movie I give it thumbs-up.

greatjedi

I guess it's time for me to watch The Man Who Would be King (1975). It's one of my wife's favorite movies, and I've still never seen it.

NavinJohnson

I watched In Cold Blood (1967). I don't think a film could get much better than this.

littlefuzzy

I just watched Claude Chabrol's La Femme infidèle (The Unfaithful Wife - 1969.)

Having watched many Chabrol films in the past (OK, 2, counting this one) I have come to the realization that he seems to focus exclusively on married women having affairs, with their husbands moved to murder.

This was an interesting look at the classic love triangle, although the ending was very open-ended.