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Moving back through film history, it owned dawned on me the other day that, oh yeah, I’m going to be covering 1972. Now, off the top of my head there is only one movie I know is from 1972. Having said that, it’s such a seminal movie it dominates the landscape. Of course I will be writing about that movie, but I also want to go a little deeper and not just make this the year of…well, let’s get to it.
The highest-grossing film, and the Best Picture winner, are the same movie: The Godfather. You know, the movie a lot of people consider the best of all time. Indeed, I find it to be a true masterpiece as well. Also, it’s definitely better than The Godfather Part II, even though some will argue otherwise. No dice! The Godfather is full of great performances. Al Pacino has never been better. It made twice as much money as any other movie in 1972. It was a blockbuster and a critical darling. The Godfather is seminal cinema.
Here’s the thing, though. There was another huge Oscars success in 1972. If not for The Godfather, everybody would be talking about Cabaret. It was nominated for 10 Oscars and won eight of them. Liza Minnelli won for Best Actress and Joel Grey pulled off a real coup in winning Best Supporting Actor. Bob Fosse actually beat Francis Ford Coppola for Best Director. Cabaret’s eight wins is the most ever for a movie that didn’t win Best Picture.
In terms of the box office, the next two films are decidedly more of the “crowd pleasing” variety. There’s The Poseidon Adventure, an old-school disaster film, and the screwball comedy What’s Up, Doc?. I actually saw both of those movies for the first time in the last year. The Poseidon Adventure is solid, exactly what you would expect from a ‘70s disaster flick. What’s Up, Doc? didn’t quite land with me. Barbra Streisand’s character was a little too aggravating to deal with.
Otherwise, this isn’t all that notable of a year for movies. However, June of 1972 was kind of like a passing of the torch. Martin Scorsese released his movie Boxcar Bertha, his second-ever film, a Roger Corman production. His next movie would be Mean Streets, which would propel him to his iconic career. Meanwhile, Alfred Hitchcock released Frenzy, his penultimate film.
You know, maybe this really is just “The Year of The Godfather.” Looking back at the year in movies, that seems like a fair assessment.
