The Films of 1979:The End of a Decade for Great Cimema

One of the greatest war movies to ever come out of the 1970's. Directed with finesse and class by the great Francis Ford Coppula based on the novel of Joesph Conrad's Hearts Of Darkness.

Brilliant 70's science fiction flick that started it all. It was in fact the rebirth of the monster genre that began in the 1950's resurrected for the 1970's. And this one is a classic. It made a unknown actress named Sigourney Weaver into a mega superstar because of this movie.
It will scare the daylights out of you. Best way to see this film is on the widescreen format the way it should be seen. I saw this film back in the late 1970's and on the big screen in 70MM-Six Track Dobly Stereo. It was mindblowing.

As a second wave of blaxploitation flicks that emerge out of the 1970's,the movie Penitentiary is still bedeviled by the uncomfortable contradictions of its macho forebearers,which made it a huge boxoffice hit when it was released in 1979. It's basically the servicable yarn of a young stranger on a bum rap,sentenced to an institutional hell-hole,and eventually bucking the terror regime with two righteous fists. And daubed onto the screen with the vitality of all around excess,teetering craziliy between heavy amounts of gore,rough language and all outright farce. But its assumptions for the better of its sake,either worked beyond the comprehendsion of some of its scenes which were very honest and sometimes brutal. This was a grand film that looked into the life of a penal institional system as seen through the eyes of his character,played by Leon Issac Kennedy.
Another example of black cimema that was still standing at the end of the decade with some of the most replusive stereotyping ever imagine while the audience cheers on the victor who must fight in a system to stay alive at all costs. Done on a low budget,it was consciousness. A sequel followed in 1982 with Leon Issac Kennedy reprising the role.