Ah, I should have read the fine print when talking to a lawyer.

On to 1968 with only slightly over a week between.  But first, let's get a big controversial thing out of the way.  I don't like 2001: A Space Odyssey.  Yeah, I get it.  Beautiful film (and it is).  Masterpiece.  Deep.  Meaningful.  Blah, blah, blah.  I don't care.  It bores the crap out of me.  I'll happily recognize it as a great film.  I just never want to see it again.  

Once Upon a Time in the West - Leone had planned to retire from westerns but was lured back by big dollars from Paramount and Henry Fonda.  When Eastwood wasn't interested he brought in Charles Bronson as the protagonist.  He made an excellent (very long) film that was a huge success in Europe and which was cut down in length by the studio and was not very successful in the U.S.   Critically it's a very influential film, cited by Scorsese, Lucas, Tarantino and Vince Gilligan as influences.  I personally think it's a very good, but flawed film.  The plot is byzantine and really doesn't remotely come together until near the end.  Claudia Cardinale does not give a great performance.  Henry Fonda is excellent and it's wonderful to see him play a villain.  It may well be Bronson's best performance.  For me it's a very good, sometimes great film that simply doesn't resonate with me the way that Leone's earlier pictures did.  



Planet of the Apes - This movie came out when I was three months old.  It was still resonating heavily in the popular culture throughout my entire childhood.  It was and is, quite simply, huge, spawning a franchise that is still chugging along today.  Beyond that it's a really fine film.  A great story.  Ground-breaking make-up.  An incredible screenplay by Michael Wilson and Rod Serling.  Yes, Charlton Heston is his usual scene-chewing self, but Roddy McDowell, Kim Hunter and Maurice Evans are great.  Still one of the best SF films ever. 



Night of the Living Dead - It's been quite a while since I've seen this movie, but it is just so important.  George Romero revolutionized horror movies and set the template for Zombie films that is pretty much still in place.  The casting of Duane Jones, a black man in 1968, as the heroic figure, whether a conscious decision by Romero or not, was a huge deal.  It's a fine film and it's qualities may well be overshadowed by its historical importance.  



The Lion in Winter - As I mentioned in Beckett, I have a soft spot for The Plantagenet family.  And I really love this film.  I mean, c'mon, Peter O'Toole and Katherine Hepburn verbally jousting with each other.  Add in Anthony Hopkins, Timothy Dalton and Nigel Terry and I'm all in.  This is a film about ideas and really, about great actors giving life to an amazing script.  It is truly a joy to watch them work. I've had some bad Christmas'...but never one like this.  



Bullit - Well you can't get much more different from The Lion in Winter than this.  By 1968, Steve McQueen was a superstar.  And Bullit may be his best superstar film.  An excellent cop action film, with particularly well written dialogue, it's simply a perfect vehicle for McQueen at this point in his career.  And it has what still is probably the best car chase scene in movie history.  



Where Eagles Dare - Excellent adaptation of the Alistair MacLean novel.  The movie was definitely off-brand for Richard Burton who had not done action films before and was a very "serious" actor.  Much more on-brand for Clint Eastwood.  The real star of the film, honestly, is the stunt crew.  Veteran stuntman Yakima Canutt was the second-unit director and directed most the action sequences.  This is just an amazing, and at this late date terribly underrated, action film.  



The Odd Couple - Film adaptation of the Neil Simon stage play with Walter Matthau reprising his role as slob Oscar and Jack Lemmon taking up the mantle of prissy Felix.  This is just a fun comedy with good performances, though its stage origins are sometimes a bit too evident.  I'm a big fan of Walter Matthau so that's a huge plus.  



Hang em' High - Clint Eastwood took the money from his Sergio Leone films and parlayed it in to his own production company The Malpaso Company.  This was, I believe, its first release.  It's a nice revisionist western starring Eastwood and Inger Stevens.  A big hit for Eastwood and a high quality western.  



Hell in the Pacific - I probably like this movie more than it deserves.  But really, how can you not love Lee Marvin and Toshiro Mifune fighting it out on a small Pacific island?  I would say that this is probably Mifune's best work that wasn't in a Japanese picture (though I have a huge soft spot for the mini-series Shogun).  




So what's my favorite film of 1968? Tough call between The Lion in Winter and Planet of the Apes.  Honestly it kind of depends on what mood I'm in.  Today it's probably The Lion in Winter.  But tomorrow it could be Apes.  


As usual (maybe more than usual) there are many films I've either not seen or not seen in far too long. Including; most of the big foreign language films; Rosemary's Baby; 


As usual 1968 in film for those as need a look.

Ah, yes. 1968. A good year. Lots of extraordinary people were born...

Some pretty good movies were released as well. I think I'll go with "I Have Two Mothers and Two Fathers" (which is how the title is translated at the IMDB - personally I think "I Have Two Mommies and Two Daddies" would have been better).

This was quite popular in the former Yugoslavia at the time and picked up a few awards; at the time it was rather unique and even considered a bit controversial for dealing with themes like divorce and familial dysfunction front and center. It's still considered one of the better products of Croatian cinematography.

Otherwise, I have to say that much as I love Leone's Dollars Trilogy, I really didn't like "Once Upon a Time in the West." I think the only thing about it I like is Morricone's score. And I like 2001 just fine.

1968 is another easy one for me since 2001: A Space Odyssey is probably my favourite movie of all time. Lots of other great films out that year, includng several that Slam mentioned in his post, but I'll try to go through the list later to find my other top picks for that year.

There are a lot of great movies listed so far. But I pick Pretty Poison as my favorite film of 1968.

I don't see any technology limits in the much-criticised last segments of the movie although obviously they're there, as they are and always will be in any movie ever made at any time. What I mean is, that's the last thing on my mind when I'm watching the film: I just get lost in the experience. Heaven help us if some genius ever decides to update Kubrick's 2001 with today's technology, itself destined to become outmoded in the probably not too distant future.

1969 features two films from my top 10 -- Costa-Gavras' political thriller, Z, and Marcel Ophuls' documentary, The Sorry and the Pity, about the the collaboration between the Vichy government and Nazi Germany during World War II. The latter is roughly 250 minutes long, so I'd only recommend it if you have a particular interest in the subject. I was drawn to it initially because Woody Allen references it in Annie Hall. The former is one of the great films of the 60s and accessible to just about anyone. 

Other films I enjoyed -- The Wild Bunch, Melville's Army of Shadows (Melville is another directer who even if you don't watch a lot of foreign films, you'd probably enjoy), My Night at Maud's, Ken Russell's Women in Love, and the delightful Kes by Ken Loach. 

I'll go with Z this time.