Film Discussion Lunch: The Films of 1976

At the end of May, the Chicago Film Discussion Group continues our tradition of looking back 50 years, which means it's time to talk about the films of 1976!

The bicentennial year brought some of the most acclaimed works of legendary directors like Martin Scorsese, Brian De Palma and Sidney Lumet. It also provided breakthrough films for “newbies” like John Carpenter, Richard Donner and Clint Eastwood (as a director). With the blockbuster era approaching, the defining film of the year was a relatively small production that changed the way we see sports films and underdog stories (which wasn’t the only big news for sports movies either). The Watergate era also brought us cynical looks at television, high school, NYC the McCarthy witch hunts and…. Watergate.

There's such an overabundance of cinematic gold this year that though we'll provide a list of some of the more notable ones below we want to emphasize that in no way are we going to go through all of them nor are there expectations people have seen any particular one. It will be a more free-form discussion where people bring up the films of 1976 that most interest them, and the list below serves as an inspiration for the variety and quality of films from that remarkable movie year!

Notable 1976 films:

· All the President's Men (Alan J. Pakula)
· Assault on Precinct 13 (John Carpenter)
· The Bad News Bears (Michael Ritchie)
· Carrie (Brian De Palma)
· Face to Face (Ingmar Bergman)
· The Front (Martin Ritt)
· The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (John Cassavetes)
· King Kong (John Guillermin)
· Logan’s Run (Michael Anderson)
· The Man Who Fell to Earth (Nicolas Roeg)
· Marathon Man (John Schlesinger)
· Network (Sidney Lumet)
· The Omen (Richard Donner)
· The Outlaw Josey Wales (Clint Eastwood)
· Rocky (John G. Avildsen)
· Seven Beauties (Lina Wertmüller)
· Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese)