Star Wars or Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

If I asked you to choose between those two films for your favorite of the year, I’m guessing for most of you it’s an easy choice since you probably haven’t seen the latter. If I take into consideration what movie I already know I want to put in for my top choice in 1980 I’m leaning toward Richard Dreyfuss and his journey to Wyoming.

I want you to keep in mind this list is for your “favorite” and what you consider to be the “best” of the year. My favorite Pearl Jam album is No Code, but I don’t consider it their best.

Realistically, I am going to have to give the nod to Lucas, if not for the whole “…test of time” aspect, then because I haven’t seen Close Encounters in years and beside having a definite fondness of the film, I don’t remember much of it. Unless you count the fact that I remember noticing John Williams using 10 seconds of the Harry Potter theme in the film some 25 years before Hedwig takes flight.

Here is where I also need to put in the caveat that as much as you may know me as a movie buff, there are still a large number of movies I have yet to see. This is especially important when putting together this kind of list, so I may need to revisit these posts when and if I finally knock off Saturday Night Fever, Eraserhead, Smokey and the Bandit, and Pumping Iron (all from 1977).

Other great films from this year include Slap Shot, A Bridge Too Far, Pete’s Dragon, and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.

I will state that I have seen the Oscar Best Picture of the year Annie Hall and it is definitely not anywhere remotely high on my list. It does bring up another point, though, that I may need to see it again to see if it was merely the circumstances in which I saw the movie that makes have such a lack of appreciation for this movie. By that I mean, watching it on my first portable 5 inch screen portable 100GB hard drive contraption that I just found on the shelf behind me and to my surprise still has an interesting bunch of movies on it.

 
 

My favorite film of 1977: Star Wars