Lifetime Movies: 1974

Coming in later than our beloved Franco...let's get it out of the way and say that the easy choice, and the right choice, is Godfather Part II. Sure it's a no-brainer, but what about why it works..the great acting, the timeless tale, the morality play. Then there are the great actors...the saddest casting choice still is that FFC (Coppola) could not get Robert DuVall to be in The Godfather III...in my mind this would have led him to not focus on his sister and daughter so much in the failed last film of this great saga.

Also...I gotta say that this really was FFC's year, The Conversation also came out--this is a hidden classic, and FFC's last film to be written as an original script till last year's Tetro. Being that GF II is the first in this series lets also get straight that there was no way that Frank or I saw this as infants. I must have been 7 before I saw this film...it was always there, always a part of my life as a kid..the best memories must be reading the Italian and seeing DeNiro as my hero.

Other films that get a nod in 1974 are as follows with comments:

Benji: my first film I ever saw, it was in a church basement in Brooklyn

Godzilla v Mechagodzilla: funny I would have picked this to be made earlier, I loved all Godzilla films as a kid and loved the fact that all other ideas had failed and the Japanese had to resort to building a Mecha- version of Godzilla to defeat him

The Lords of Flatbush: this film is probably terrible...but as a kid from Brooklyn, you have to pay attention to films that specify your hometown, not to mention it features Stallone and the Fonz

A few other thoughts: There was a lot of crap this year, that's 1974...and it goes to show you, every year there is a lot of crap. It's our job to DISTILL it for you.