Watching the 1970s

If one were honest, one would have to admit that the plot of The Omen (1976) isn’t exactly Shakespearian. The Devil fathers a child – a perfectly healthy human child – on a jackal! Upon the boy’s fifth birthday, bad begins to happen – usually in the form of someone dying in various supernaturally influenced ways. Apart from the boy’s mother. No, the boy himself does for her! His father eventually allows himself to be convinced of what is happening and plots the boy’s demise. Doesn’t it make you wonder just how the Hell this became the great film it so obviously is? Who makes a movie what it is? Was it the Studios, back in the 1940s? Or the Directors, in the Seventies? Or the Stars, of the Two-Thousand-Tens? I am firmly of the belief that it is some alchemical mix of all three. Not forgetting to add the seasoning of a good script. The Omen , as much as any other film, shows, however, that the script, like the seasoning in a good winter soup, is variable. One wonders if The Omen c...

Roger Ebert , in ‘The Great Movies’ (Broadway Books, 2002), praises Stanley Kubrick’s ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ for not being about a character with a goal and, because of this, it is a rarity among film, it is “transcendent” and works “upon our minds and imaginations like music or prayer or a vast belittling landscape”. I suspect it may be some kind of blasphemy to discuss 1971’s ‘Vanishing Point’ in reference to the much revered ‘2001’, but, first of all, ‘Vanishing Point’ made as much of an impression on me as any film I’ve ever seen – definitely a once-seen-never-forgotten experience – as well as having, akin to 2001’s Dave Bowman, a main character it isn’t necessary to identify with. Whatever Kowalski’s goal is, that ending would imply it is one we’d not be too eager to emulate. Kowalski does have a goal – to get to ‘Frisco by 3pm the following day – a feat deemed so improbable that his friend, Jake, is willing to bet the price of the speed he’s just provided to keep Kowalski awa...