The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly: Watching 70s Movies

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: One of the things we've been doing at my house is watching movies. We're not streaming new and popular shows from one of the subscription services - for some reason, we all seem to do that kind of viewing individually. (I recently saw the first season of SPACE FORCE and loved it.) Instead, we've started having themed movie weeks, viewing mostly films that can be rented from Amazon for the low, low price of $3.99. Which works out to about a buck per person, which is a pretty good deal for an evening's entertainment.

Let me explain, for those of you who don't know, who "we" are:  1) me, of course, former empty nester who was living happily alone until  2) the Smithie aka the Maine Millennial broke up with her bf and returned home mid December, followed by  3) Youngest in March when her university closed down and 4) Guest Son, her friend and classmate who needed a congenial place to stay.

I promise, the presence of all these young people is relevant, because in the past week and a half, we've watched three films from the seventies, and I've been tasked with the job of cultural translator and historian. What have we seen? For Train Week, we rented The Taking of Pelham 123 (1974) and Silver Streak (1976.) For the start of Plane Week (and yes, I suppose we're setting ourselves up for an Automobiles Week, just to complete the set) I insisted we begin with the ur-plane and disaster movie, Airport (1970). Airport is the one with Helen Hayes and Dean Martin, not the one with Karen Black and Charleton Heston. (We won't even mention the one with Jack Lemmon and Lee Grant.)

Let me tell you, it is a trip rewatching these golden oldies. The first two I must have seen when they were broadcast on TV some time in the eighties, but I was old enough to remember going to the theater with friends to see Silver Streak. (Mom drove.) Each one of these films had some very revealing things to say about the times in which they were made, each one had a few surprisingly progressive touches, and each one had some wincing moments. 

Airport: It's the divorce revolution! Black people can be professionals, but women should mostly be wives. Boy, you can tell 1970 was when the no-fault divorce movement swept America. Two of the three main male characters have marriages on the rocks; one is clearly going to throw over his wife in favor of his pregnant gf at the end, and the other has a civilized discussion that hits on almost every cliche people were spouting about divorce at the time. "It's better for the kids!" It was clear the zeitgeist of the moment was "Divorce is going to make everyone a lot happier!"

I was pleasantly surprised by the inclusion of so many African-American actors in professional roles: doctor, air traffic controller, stewardess, business exec, etc. Now, none of them had more than a couple of lines, so take it with a grain of salt, but it was nice to see.

There's also a female executive, but sadly, she quickly gets positioned as Bert Lancaster's love interest and cheering section. At one point, she makes him a sandwich. Really. The women in Airport pose a kind of anti-Bechdel test - not only do they never have a conversation with one another (except for a quick line or two between stewardesses) none of them exist except in relation to male characters, save Helen Hayes, who is awesome and totally deserved the Oscar she won for her appearance. At 70! You go, girl.

The Taking of Pelham 123. New York City is a bankrupt hellhole, it was really hard for women moving into male workplaces, hello, casual Asian racism. First off, this is a fantastic movie, and everyone should see it. Secondly, none of the kids recognized the version of New York shown here. At one point, the subway hijackers demand a ransom of one MILLION dollars (shades of Dr. Evil in Austin Powers) and the mayor moans to his aide the city can't afford to pay ten dollars. New York looks grubby, grungy, and while they don't show Times Square with its peep shows and hookers, you kind of feel like you can smell it. For millennial and Gen Z-ers who have only ever seen the polished, sanitized, rich version of NYC, the movie might as well have been set in 1880s London.

There are very few women in the flick other than hostages credited as "The Mother," "The Secretary," etc. Even the wonderful Doris Roberts is only "The Mayor's Wife." But there are a few great moments with an (also unnamed) black female TA dispatcher, who is the first woman to work in the department. And she is getting sh*t from her boss, the other guys, and probably the higher ups as well. She just puts her head down and does the job. Women who moved into traditionally male spaces really earned their pay.

Then there's the scene in the beginning, which introduces us to Walter Matthau's character and gives us a tour through the TA nerve center by having Matthau give and actual tour to visiting executives from the Tokyo Metro. They bow. Repeatedly. They smile. They take pictures. They don't have buck teeth, but its a near thing. Matthau thinks they can't speak English and refers to them as "monkeys" to another TA employee. (My kids and I: !!!) It's played for a reverse laugh at the end of the tour when they all thank him and comment in perfect English, but it really doesn't redeem what came before. 

Silver Streak (1976). The sexual revolution is here, baby, but the smart and attractive women still need to be rescued.  Blackface.
Gene Wilder as a sex symbol? Yep, and he makes a great one for the mid 70's; funny, smart, kind and he appreciates a funny, smart, kind Jill Clayburgh. They hook up, as we say nowadays, and the movie emphasizes that it's all good, clean, consensual fun. Of course, since they're two of the three leads, they fall in love.  

 Sadly, Clayburgh is kind of wasted in the rest of the movie, where she gets held at gunpoint, manhandled by the bad guys, and generally sits around helpless until Wilder and Richard Pryor rescue her. This is the first of several movies Wilder and Pryor made, and honestly, they have much better chemistry than Wilder and Clayburgh. Every scene they have together is a winner until...

That scene. To evade the police, Wilder borrows clothing from Pryor and a shoe polish guy, and  - you see where this is going - polishes up his face. Is it funny because he's clearly playing a clueless white guy's idea of a black dude? Is it okay because Richard Pryor is helping him? I don't know - the one thing I can say is that it's very uncomfortable to watch in 2020.

There you have it, dear readers; a cultural tour of the 70s. Have you seen any old films recently? How well do they hold up?