Taking its title from the tagline appended to the trailers for non-conventional movies, film critic Charles Taylor sets his sights on a handful of outings which he feels best showcases the "shadow cinema" of the 1970s. The same decade which brought us blockbuster pictures like Jaws, The Godfather, and Star Wars also brought with it a veritable landslide of what was at the time considered second-rate offerings. These pictures, often shot on the cheap by directors who either had yet to establish themselves or who it was assumed had their best work behind them, were commonly overlooked by the film critics of the day. As Taylor notes in the introduction, these films were made for limited-run engagements, designed to put asses in seats for a few days, then move on to the next town in the next market to do the same thing.
They weren't intended to be cultural landmarks, to push the boundaries of the visual storytelling medium, to leave the audiences feeling changed or uplifted. No, these pieces of "Shadow Cinema" were often the exact opposite, where the heroes might not be the good guys, but the bad guys were rotten to the core and deserved whatever agonies the protagonist dished out. Not quite exploitation, though they were often violent. Not quite pornography, although nudity and sex were shown without blinking. Not often comedies, though audiences sometimes laughed when the directors were trying to be too serious. Not all "good" pictures, but still good movies, if they were the sort you enjoyed visiting the drive-in to see.
Between the covers, Taylor looks at fifteen different films of the era. Some of them, like Two Lane Blacktop (released as part of the Criterion collection), went on to acquire cult status, rediscovered on the video circuit by people interested in the filmography of specific actors or directors, while others have faded into an obscurity that, if not well-deserved, then at least is unsurprising. Nearly all of them will immensely up your hipster cred as a film geek if you introduce them to other like-minded cinephiles.
I had an absolute blast reading through Taylor's examinations of these pictures. What's more, until picking up Opening Wednesday, I had only heard of two or three of the movies he discusses, but had seen none of them. In the two years since I first read Taylor's book, I'm happy to say I've managed to see about ten of them, and they've all been entertaining for different reasons. None have been misfires, though I can see why they might have been perceived that way by the culture of the day.
Rather than subject you to a detailed breakdown of each movie Taylor writes about, I'm going to leave the rest of this article for just the titles and the trailers. It'll be up to you to decide if you want to pursue any of them beyond that.
01: Prime Cut (1972)
Gene Hackman plays a truly loathsome bad guy in this: smarmy, charismatic, and utterly sociopathic, it's a more vile version of the Lex Luthor he would play in Richard Donner's Superman: The Movie a few years later.
02: Vanishing Point (1971)
Interestingly enough, Vanishing Point was remade as a TV movie in 1997, starring Viggo Mortensen in the role of Kowalski. Being made-for-TV, this version omits the nudity and rougher stuff the original contained, but in exchange it rounds out the story, giving us more of an insight into Kowalski and why he's driving so fast and so hard. It's a solid remake in its own right, and well worth watching if you enjoy the original.
03: Cisco Pike (1972)
04: Hickey & Boggs (1972)
05: Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)
06: Coffy (1973)
07: Foxy Brown (1974)
08: Ulzana's Raid (1972)
09: Aloha, Bobby and Rose (1975)
10: American Hot Wax (1978)
American Hot Wax was only released for home video on VHS (any DVD copies you find for sale online are bootlegs made from this VHS print). Given that it centers on the life and times of a real-life disc jockey, and the specific songs he plays that get him in trouble, my guess is there's not been a re-release due to the royalties involved for all the artists whose music appears in the film.
11: Hard Times (1975)
12: Citizens Band (1977)
(This is the only one I was unable to find a trailer for, so the video for this one is about five minutes of footage from the film itself.)
13: Winter Kills (1979)
14: Eyes of Laura Mars (1978)
This one was co-scripted by none other than horror maestro John Carpenter himself, if you needed an additional reason to check it out besides what you saw in the trailer.
15: Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974)
Taylor saves the best for last in his book. It's the only one, he argues, worthy of being called a true "classic" in the sense that most critics use the term, and I agree with that assessment. It's directed by Sam Peckinpah, so if you enjoyed The Wild Bunch or Straw Dogs, you definitely need to add this one to your watch queue immediately.
For my money, the best of these so far (at least that I've seen) are Alfredo Garcia, Hard Times, and Eyes of Laura Mars. If you're looking for a place to start, those are my suggestions.
Have you seen any of these movies? What did you think, and what would your recommendations be? Let me know in the comments, and don't forget to bring the popcorn.
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