Sarah Miles

We can probably conclude that she is the same blithe spirit today that we realized she was when we first became aware of her 57 years ago.  Oh, like a lot of us as we age, she's let go of an assortment of childish notions, especially the ones that no longer serve her. There was a time when she seemed to court attention and then thumb her nose at any criticism.  She would do it her way. And that is one of the mainstays in her life.  She still does it her way but she's a bit more mellow about it.

Trevor Howard

He spent a long career playing military men.  What is fascinating about that is that he was twice turned down for military service and although he was ultimately accepted, he was eventually discharged because he was found mentally unstable. Trevor Howard played authoritarian roles most of the time. It was difficult for him to blend into the woodwork.

No Sale: Boy Singers with Brief Movie Careers

Earlier we did a piece on girl singers, four of them, with brief movie careers, and it's only fitting that we do the same for the boys. So here are four of them as well.  Let's see who they are. 

REVIEW: 20th Century Women

Directed by Mike Mills
2016 Drama
1 hour 59 minutes
From A24 and Annapurna

Starring
Annette Bening
Elle Fanning
Greta Gerwig
Billy Crudup
Lucas Jade Zumann

Good 70s Films: Ryan's Daughter

1970 Drama
From MGM
Directed by David Lean

Starring
Robert Mitchum
Sarah Miles
Trevor Howard
Christopher Jones
John Mills
Leo McKern
Barry Foster

The Directors: Bob Rafelson

For a short while, he was at the very center of the American New Wave that I referred to in my piece on Movie-Making in the 1970s.  Like his contemporaries, he wasn't looking for the cotton candy, happiness and Technicolor of the past, but rather a bitter look at truth, disillusionment and seemingly focusing on what folks were against rather than what they were for. When Bob Rafelson starting directing films, it was during a period of commercial and artistic revival. He and other brat-boy directors usually had a film school background, ventured freely into the counter-culture and were young and catered to them.

The Express Doesn't Stop Here Anymore

All these years later it doesn't really matter whether I saw Brad Davis or not but I am pretty sure I did... twice.  Both occasions were fleeting and a few weeks apart at the same gay bar. It was late, the bar was dimly lit and most of us had probably had a few too many. Dancing was not a specialty at the bar but here was this shirtless person dancing around by himself with a crowd gathered around him. 

Good 70s Films: Deliverance

1972 Drama
From Warner Bros
Directed by John Boorman

Starring
Jon Voight
Burt Reynolds
Ned Beatty
Ronny Cox

Movie-Making in the 1970s

Unless I live long enough to see another such decade, for me the 1970s will be the one that produced the most significant change in films.  The end of the 60s certainly brought about some vital considerations (Bonnie and Clyde, The Graduate, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Easy Rider, The Wild Bunch, 2001: A Space Odyssey... I mean helllloooo), and as fine and revolutionary as those films were, the industry itself was still operating with training wheels.  By the time the 70s were over, those wheels were not only long gone but we could scarcely catch our breath.