Important Movies

Okay, Ring it is.

Next year: 1978

Days of Heaven
Halloween
Dawn of the Dead
Superman
Animal House

LOL

You're right , The Deer Hunter was limited release from December 1978 until February 1979.

So I'll put La Cage Aux Folles in there instead.

Superman
Halloween
Animal House

Do we really have to give Romero another one?

And trust me, he won't make it back here after this one.

Deer Hunter won Best Picture at '78 Oscars. Don't be silly.



Over Drunken Master? You're nuts.



No.



Yup.

1. Superman: First major superhero film.

2. Halloween: Started the slasher craze and brought John Carpenter to the mainstream.

3. Dawn of the Dead: Maybe the most iconic zombie film of all time, and it's setting has been duplicated since. It's also a great mix of escapism and satire which might have served as an influence for people like Paul Verhoeven.

4. Animal House: Very well-loved comedy which had a major influence on comedies that followed.

5. Watership Down: This is another "out there" pick, but this is one of the earliest animated films to be ostensibly aimed at kids while actually being much darker and more violent than expected, and it does this without pushing the content to grotesque extremes. It's organic to the story. Also, apparently the British Board of Film Classification still recieves complaints about how violent the movie is compared to its rating.

Honourable Mentions:

Grease: It's a major blockbuster, but it more feels like a by-product of the 50s nostalgia inspired by American Graffiti.

The Deer Hunter: It was a well-received movie, and while this was one of the first major movies about Vietnam, Apocalypse Now was right around the corner so the influence of this film is questionable.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers: A horror remake which actually improves on its predecessor, and one that creates its own imagery.

I despise Grease, but its a major modern musical and shouldn't be discounted.

I don't really know that it is.  They hardly made a single musical in the decades after it came out and when they somewhat came back in style in the 2000s they mostly had nothing to do with Grease.  

Knerys, don't be afraid to post.



Grease was the highest grossing movie of 1978. The temporary death of musicals had nothing to do with Grease. That's like saying pirate movies don't get made because of Pirates of the Caribbean. Musicals went away because movies like Flashdance and Footloose took its place. Then came Disney cartoons in the 90's. Sometimes audiences like to take breaks from certain genres. That doesn't mean a particular movie ruined things or people abandoned the genre. Hollywood doesn't make buddy cop movies anymore. That doesn't mean Lethal Weapon is responsible or people suddenly hate Lethal Weapon. Things operate in a cycle. You know this.