At The Movies---1970!

Despite four other popular movies, PATTON, much like the general the movie portrays (General George S. Patton of WWII fame), swept the Oscar field in 1970, being nominated for 10 Academy Awards and winning seven. That includes Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Sound and Best Art Direction.

Considered by some to be among the best war movies ever made, PATTON was dominated by the performance of George C. Scott, who seemed to be born to the role of playing the General. However, he strongly disliked acting competitions, and refused to accept his Best Actor Oscar.

Here's a movie trailer from the film back in 1970. I apologize for the language, but that's the way the movie (and the General) were...



One of the movies PATTON beat out was AIRPORT described as a melodrama about an airplane carrying a bomb, an airport almost closed by a blizzard and the variuous personal problems facing those on the plane. Actually the film now sounds more like modern-day aviation issues than what you saw back in 1970. It is considered the first of many "disaster movie" epics and featured a blockbuster cast of stars including Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin, George Kennedy, Van Heflin, Helen Hays (who won the movie's only Oscar as Best Supporting Actress), Jacqueline Bisset and Jean Seberg.

Here's the movie trailer promoting the film....



Another film nominated for Best Picture in 1970 was FIVE EASY PIECES, starring Jack Nicholson, Karen Black and Susan Anspach.

According to Wikipedia, the movie tells the story of a surly oil rigger whose life belies his youth as a child prodigy pianist. Hearing that his father is dying, he comes home with his pregnant girlfriend where life gets even more complicated both on the way and after he arrives.

The movie was nominated for four Oscars (including Best Actor of Nicholson and Best Supporting Actress for Black) but did not win a single one. However it did win several awards from the New York Fim Critics competition and that's one thing this film trailer talks about.....



The two other films nominated for Best Picture in 1970 were wildly popular among young people. The first was MASH, an outlandish, dark comedy about a medical unit in the Korean War. Clearly a satire on the ongoing Vietnam War. Starring Don Sutherland, Elliot Gould, Tom Skerritt, Sally Kellerman and Robert Duvall, it was nominated for five Academy Awards, but it won only for Best Screenplay. A song in the film "Suicide Is Painless" also became a hit song on the pop charts (but not the version in the trailer). The movie also sparked a long-running TV show of the same name, that was one of the most popular shows of all time.

Here's the movie trailer from the theaters in 1970.....


The final Best Picture nominee from 1970 was surely one of the first "Chick Flicks" of our day. LOVE STORY, a romantic drama, starring Ali McGraw, Ryan O'Neill and Ray Milland (along with a brief cameo first appearance by Tommy Lee Jones) was both loved and hated for its sweet but ultimately tragic (and "preppy" story line.

It was nominated for seven Academy Awards to won only one (Best Original Score). It also led to a sequel, OLIVER'S STORY in 1978, which was not nearly as successful as the first film. It did contain a line of script that has lived on for decades now: "Loves means never having to say you're sorry."

Here's a trailer with highlight of the film featuring its the instrumental theme song from the movie.

Join us next time for our final At The Movies--1971, when we look back at THE FRENCH CONNECTION, A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, THE LAST PICTURE SHOW and NICHOLAS AND ALEXANDRA.