Baby You're a Firework

 Happy Fourth of July !!!

Watch an unexpected but quite American movie, enjoy the fireworks and your long weekend, and we'll see you here again Sunday night.

(On Monday morning we continue our Halfway Mark celebration surveying cinematic achievements of 2014 thus far)

Comments

[Clover Corliss]

LOVE Tobey Maguire! Thank you and Happy Independence Day! #blueberrysmirnoff

[Cory Rivard]

I'm in Canada... thus my country is not hungover presently. Well... not for independence day reasons, anyhow.

So... I decided to rank the best actress winners of the 1970's due to my mind being obsessive when bored. I needed a place to express this. This seemed ideal.

1. Diane Keaton – Annie Hall (1977)
2. Liza Minnelli – Cabaret (1972)
3. Louise Fletcher – One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
4. Ellen Burstyn – Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974)
5. Sally Field – Norma Rae (1979)
6. Jane Fonda – Klute (1971)
7. Glenda Jackson – A Touch Of Class (1973)
8. Faye Dunaway – Network (1976)
9. Glenda Jackson – Women In Love (1970)
10. Jane Fonda – Coming Home (1978)

Carry on with your day. Happy independence weekend, all!

[NATHANIEL R]

Cory -- somehow it feels patriotic to obsess over the 1970s since they were so interesting for America. I'll play too though our rankings are way different.

1. Jane Fonda - Klute (1971)
2. Diane Keaton – Annie Hall (1977)
3. Liza Minnelli – Cabaret (1972)
4. Faye Dunaway - Network (1976)
all four for the all-time lists so this ranking would switch every day depending on mood

5. Sally Field - Norma Rae (1979)
6. Ellen Burstyn – Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974)
7. Jane Fonda - Coming Home (1978)
8. Louise Fletcher - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's nest (1975)
9. Glenda Jackson – A Touch Of Class (1973)
10. Glenda Jackson – Women In Love (1970)

I should note that I haven't seen either Glenda Jackson since I was like 17 years old on VHS and trying to catch up with Oscar winners. I didn't get her at the time. Perhaps I should revisit as an adult.

[Volvagia]

Nat: I haven't seen either of her winners, but she's probably at her best in Sunday Bloody Sunday.

[Volvagia]

As far as "year by year" winners?

1970: ?
1971: Julie Christie, McCabe and Mrs. Miller or Glenda Jackson, Sunday Bloody Sunday, depending on the day, but most days I'd lean on the latter. (Fonda gets nominated for her noble gas elevation because, otherwise, WOO! does Klute just not work between the sluggish pace and the worst performance I've seen Donald Sutherland give. (No, I have not seen Fellini's Casanova, nor do I particularly wish to.)
1972: Liza Minnelli, Cabaret
1973: Sissy Spacek, Badlands
1974: Gena Rowlands, A Woman Under the Influence)
1975: Julie Christie, Shampoo
1976: Faye Dunaway, Network
1977: Diane Keaton, Annie Hall
1978: ?
1979: Judy Davis (My Brilliant Career)

5 Best of the Decade?

1. Gena Rowlands, A Woman Under the Influence
2. Faye Dunaway, Network
3. Sissy Spacek, Badlands
4. Julie Christie, Don't Look Now
5. Diane Keaton, Annie Hall

[adri]

I love and admire Glenda Jackson. She has been a politician for some decades now, MP for Hampstead (where the English actors like Emma Thompson live). She will not back down from fighting for what is right. Watching her as an artist and listening to her as a politician is illuminating and invigorating.

For me, watching her as a girl, it put an image in my mind of how a woman could be. Really smart and never dumbing down. Cannot be steamrollered over, implacable in her self hood. Doesn't try to be ingratiating or agreeable, and it looks like a thrill to spend time with her. She has a great "I know who I am. Mess with me and you'll regret it". A kind of cousin to Angelina Jolie's action characters.

We need more actors and politicians like her.

[NATHANIEL R]

volvagia --= wow. agree to disagree. Klute is one of my favorite movies of the 1970s

[jakey]

That shot with Heath and the firework is probably one of my favorites EVER. The first time I saw it, I got chills up my spine.

[Carlos]

@ Volvagia & Nathaniel: I'm with Volvagia on this one. I thought Fonda was fantastic in Klute but she was about the only thing I like in that movie. I found both pace and plot development terrible. The way the mystery is presented, developed and, out of the blue, resolved as per holy inspiration was quite silly, IMO.

[Cory Rivard]

I feel like I got a lot out of rewatching Glenda Jackson's performances, despite their low ranking on my list. What a unique and confident screen presence. I'd be very interested in some updated Nathaniel thoughts on her.

[Suzanne]

I've never seen A Touch of Class but was planning to rent it this weekend since 1973 is our year of the month and all. That face Ellen Burstyn makes when Glenda Jackson's name is called at the ceremony has always made me curious if it's really that bad. (Joanne and Paul didn't look too thrilled with her win either.)

[brookesboy]

This is a fun idea! My list:

1. Diane Keaton – Annie Hall (1977)
2. Jane Fonda – Klute (1971)
3. Louise Fletcher – One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
4. Faye Dunaway – Network (1976)
5. Ellen Burstyn – Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974)
6. Liza Minnelli – Cabaret (1972)
7. Sally Field – Norma Rae (1979)
8. Glenda Jackson – Women In Love (1970)
9. Jane Fonda – Coming Home (1978)
10. Glenda Jackson – A Touch Of Class (1973)

This was tougher than I thought it was gonna be, probably because I love most of these performances so much. I think it was a very strong decade for Best Actress. In particular, I think Fletcher's performance is so underrated by historians. I wanted to rank Burstyn and MInnelli higher but there just wasn't room. I hate the Jackson '73 win, as I think Burstyn's performance in The Exorcist is one for the ages. And A Touch of Class is the pits.