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When a year in review article comes around, the clichéd line usually goes something like, "It wasn't a great year and I struggled to find enough to fill a best of list" or "It was a fairly rotten year but here were the films that shone through all the crap" etc, etc. And of course, it seems that these sentiments get repeated year after year. I have never bought into this sort of pessimism, thankfully, but the flip side is that I have a hard time determining if one year decidedly stands out among all others. When I chose to ask and answer the question, I quickly saw that yes, one year during my time on Earth held a fair number of the films that I would put on my list of all time favorites. The year is 1975 and I was around for most of it, albeit on the dark side of the womb.

The films released that year that were nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture in early 1976 (mere weeks after I was born!) were Barry Lyndon, Dog Day Afternoon, Jaws, Nashville, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Even if you remain skeptical about the importance (or lack thereof) and meaning (or lack thereof) of the Academy Awards in the great scheme of things, that is an impressive list. I must duly confess that I have still never seen Cuckoo's Nest. This is the kind of statement that results in affronted gasps from some and veiled references to my cinematic manhood (or lack thereof) from others, and I have no good reason why I haven't gotten around to it. It just hasn't happened. I have only seen Jaws once but it was on the big screen a few years ago and I was amazed at how the film that launched the modern block . . . (wait for it) . . . buster seemed almost glacially paced (in a good way) when viewed in light of 30+ years of increased quick editing and frenetic action. The story may be apocryphal of Spielberg's decision to hold off on showing the shark until halfway in, but it was a wise one and in the right hands, less will always be more.

Barry Lyndon and Nashville are the two I have the biggest place in my heart for: Kubrick's finest and one of the most gorgeous color films ever; and top-tier (if not quite my favorite) Altman with an ending so big-hearted and majestic that I get goose bumps if I think about thinking about it. But beyond that were others as worthy of being in that select group:

Three Days of the Condor: Sydney Pollack serves up one of the great paranoid political thrillers and makes Robert Redford run a gauntlet of violence to learn whatever truth there is to be had.

Night Moves: Arthur Penn's still underrated detective film with Gene Hackman as a not quite cynical enough private eye who takes on a case he shouldn't and winds up causing a lot of deaths. The wordless climax out on the Atlantic Ocean is harrowing and tragic.

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