July 11, 2011 / Leslie

Review: It Came From the ’70s

1970s, Movies, Reference

It Came From The ’70s:
From The Godfather to Apocalypse Now
by Connie Corcoran Wilson

Genre: Reference, Movies
Publisher: Quad City Press
Publish Date: August 25, 2010
Format: Paperback, 268 pages
Rating: 4 of 5

My prime movie going years were in the ’70s, so when I was asked to review a copy of It Came From the ’70s, I jumped at the chance to relive those movie experiences. Back then, before cable television and HBO, VCRs, DVDs and streaming video on demand, going to the movie theater once or twice a week was a major source of entertainment for me and my friends. Saturday was date night and I would pour over the movie pages in the newspaper to decide which new release we would see that weekend. Many of these movies live on today to be enjoyed by an entirely new audience.

It Came From The ’70s is a window into a fantastic era of movies, a time when the first of such classics as Star Wars, The Godfather and Dirty Harry appeared on the big screen. The author spent fifteen years as a movie critic during the 1970s and 1980s and saved copies of most of her reviews. She was able to draw on those original impressions when compiling the book which spotlights about 45 movies including the original reviews, new comments by the author, lists of cast and crew, trivia questions, photos and some movie posters.

Even though I have seen many of the movies included in the book and thought I knew a lot about them I was surprised to find a number of tidbits of new-to-me information. Also enjoyable was reading the old reviews and impressions of the movies at the time they were released, something which could never be reproduced today as opinions are often changed by history. The author also included a few one star stinkers because it was sometimes more fun to review those. I’m glad she did as I enjoyed reading her witty comments while she skewered a few particularly bad movies.

This is a great ride through the ’70s with movies good, bad and somewhere in between. With so many excellent titles released during that decade I realize it would be impossible to include them all, much less actually watch and review them. Nevertheless I was sad to find that a few of my favorite movie classics such as American Graffiti, Animal House and Blazing Saddles were not included.

Overall this is a wonderful reference book for movie lovers young and old and would make a great gift for the movie buff on your list.

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Source: Book provided by the author through Premier Virtual Book Tours. Visit their webpage for a list of tour stops during the month of July.