“Based on the success of this thread and what seems to me to be a plurality of disapproval of the quality of the movie, may I suggest another thread that tries to find other “dogs” from that era that excel in their awfulness. Billy Jack may lead the parade, but I suspect we each have at least one other to put alongside it for a “Do Not See” prize.”
please post, for all our Dopers, a “Do not See” (aka worst…movie…ever) list of movies from the 1970s.
Somebody recently posted that they liked the movie Moment by Moment (1978). Which surprised me because it was one extremely bad movie. I saw it on HBO back around 1979, which was pretty much the last time it was possible to see it - it’s never been released for home viewing on any format.
It’s a torrid tale. One we’ve all heard. A teenage loner stumbles upon alien technology that turns his arm into a laser cannon, and then goes on a incinerating murder spree. I give you the pure torture that is: Laserblast.
I would suggest missing The Cross and the Switchblade (1970) despite the fact that I haven’t seen it and can’t give a good reason to miss it beyond the star.
I have looked over quite a few “Worst Movies of the 70’s” lists and find that I have either not seen the ones on the list or would not deign to rank them below Billy Jack. This is harder than I predicted!
Some Firesign Theater guys did a sort of “Bergman drops acid and makes a Western.” Country Joe and the Fish and the James Gang are in it. Amazingly bad, given the talent of some of the people who made it.
My dad used to repair the airconditioning for the local theater and got free tickets which he would give to me. So I saw ALOT of movies.
Some of the worse in my opinion
Earthquake – cheesy. My friends were all a bit disturbed by it, it just made me hungry with all the visbration of the theater. Oh yeah the theater had huge speakers which they put a low base sound in that shook the theater.
Emperor of the North – now there will be those that disagree w/me on this one cause it was Ernest Borgnine. But all it was was killing hobos by a train conductor. Blood and guts everywhere.
Heavy Traffic – ah to be at your first R rated movie as a teenie bopper. I laughed at it then, I tried to watch it about 15 yrs ago. It didn’t wear at all well. I believe this would be the same w/ all the Fritz The Cat type movies, too political to transcend the decade.
200 Motels.
Frank Zappa at his self-indulgent absolute worst.
…
And yet at the same time, I think the soundtrack to this movie is one of his four or five best albums, and the greatest rock/classical fusion album ever recorded.
Emperor of the North is flawed (as are all of Aldrich’s movies due to his open contempt of the audience), but not unwatchable.
The Great Gatsby is stupid, a 1970’s fashion magazine treatment of a pretty good ( but not great) novel. All the themes of envy and selfishness and insecurity lost. Worse part is that it did so well that nobody has attempted a new version that gets it right.
This movie confounds me. I’ve always liked it, a lot, for Lee Marvin and Keith Carradine’s performances. Borgnine is effective although a bit over the top for my taste in this one. But unfortunately, your synopsis of the plot is accurate, and I find myself liking it less these days.
A Matter of Time- a damned near unwatchable 1976 Liza Minnelli/Ingrid Bergman movie directed by Vincente Minnelli.
At Long Last Love- a musical starring world renowned singing sensations Burt Reynolds and Cybill Shepard. All music was recorded live as it was sung (i.e. not dubbed over in the sound studio later). Awful.
The worst '70s movie that I am forced to watch every now and again, Coffy. Both my husband and daughter love Pam Greer (but for different reasons), they watched it last month via Netflix.
A nurse by day and a vengeful, booby-baring bad-ass by night, Coffy seeks justice for her addict hooker sister who was given tainted drugs. Sample dialog:
Arturo Vitroni: Crawl, nigger!
Coffy: [pulls out gun] You want me to crawl, white mother fucker?
Arturo Vitroni: What’re you doing? Put that down.
Coffy: You want to spit on me and make me crawl? I’m gonna piss on your grave tomorrow.
Movies that could have been good, but were just frickin’ awful: Bobby Deerfield and Cruising, both with Al Pacino. Putting him in a bad movie borders on felonious.