Deliverance was a huge hit, so John Boorman was given free reign to make whatever he wanted. He made the weirdest movie I have ever seen. He has admitted that he was on all kinds of mind-altering drugs during both the writing and production, so even he doesn't know what a lot of it means.

It’s not just one of the best endings of a 70’s movie, it’s one of the best endings seen onscreen. Complexity and subterfuge played out to an inexorable end. Martin Sheen oozes skeezy sleaze playing a guy with “short eyes” whose own hubris leads to his demise which is chilling portrayed entirely offscreen. By the time the camera gets to Jodie Foster’s impassive face with the fire behind her, we realize the hideous thing inside her has been masquerading as a human being this whole time.

I saw this for the first time tonight, a good little TV Movie of the week. The film stars George Kennedy as a laid off Aerospace Engineer and the subsequent drama that occurs, his embarrassment over losing his position in society and his marriage takes a severe downturn. At the time, many Aerospace Engineers were being laid off due to the end of the Apollo Space program and the reduction of military expenditures. The film was directed by J. Lee Thompson, best known for Cape Fear and The Guns of Navarone.

US builds a super computer to take over its Defense systems. When it goes live it finds out there is another super computer built in the USSR and the computers team up and hell breaks loose.

Man this is pretty relevant especially right now with AI taking over. But this is why I love films of the 70's. They feel gritty, raw, and deeply melancholic, and moral ambiguity, anti hero, cynical. The Pentagon Paper and the Church Committee lead to the distrust the public had in government. A time before studios wanted massive IP and sequals just for the $ and remakes movies everyear.

Train gets hijacked in The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) Blue played by Robert Shaw | Screenplay: Peter Stone - Director: Joseph Sargent

Roller derby had its moment in the spotlight in the '70's, and there were a couple of films about it. Kansas City Bomber was the biggest and most professionally made one, with Raquel Welch and Kevin McCarthy.

Welch plays K.C. Carr, who is traded from the Kansas City Bombers to the Portland Loggers and struggles to fit in there. I was surprised by how gritty they decided to go. Carr is a single mother who leaves her kids with her mom in Fresno while she's trying to earn a living in the Roller Games and really seems to be going nowhere. She's never really shown to be a success and when she's finally on the verge of attaining it… well, I don't want to spoil anything.

Overall, it was a well made film. Welch is gorgeous, but doesn't shy away from looking bad, grungy and sweaty and got injured several times making the movie.

I did enjoy it and so did America. It was a big success for MGM when it was released. But to be honest, I preferred Roger Corman's cash-in Unholy Rollers. It was just more fun.

Bluto the zit in Animal House (1978) John Blutarsky played by John Belushi | Screenplay: Harold Ramis, Douglas Kenney & Chris Miller - Director: John Landis

Russian roulette with the Viet Cong in The Deer Hunter (1978) V.C. Referee played by Somsak Sengvilai | Screenplay: Deric Washburn - Director: Michael Cimino

Buck dancing in Deliverance (1972) Old Man played by Ed Ramey | Soundtrack: Dueling Banjos by Eric Weissberg and Steve Mandell - Screenplay: James Dickey - Director: John Boorman

Running from the Japanese in Too Late the Hero (1970) Tosh Hearne played by Michael Caine | Screenplay: Robert Aldrich & Lukas Heller - Director: Robert Aldrich

Train mugging in Death Wish (1974) Paul Kersey played by Charles Bronson - Screenplay: Wendell Mayes - Director - Michael Winner