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Post by RobFilth on Nov 22, 2021 0:01:28 GMT
I like the fact that in the 70's we still had a functioning Social Security system, plenty of Social Housing, free adult education, loads of NHS dentists, public services were good and the most wealthy by and large paid their taxes and saw their higher tax burden as being a responsibility which came with their wealth.
Yeah, there were shit things about the 70's such as rampant inflation, a feeling of decline, endless trade disputes, normalised racism and sexism in the media etc, but although we were seen as "The Sick Man of Europe", we were generally an asset-rich country and there was far less wealth inequality and greater social mobility.
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Post by iank on Nov 22, 2021 0:27:52 GMT
We didn't know when we were well off.
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Post by iank on Nov 22, 2021 8:21:08 GMT
Roger Moore as Bond, Halloween, Black Christmas, The Omen (and Omen II), the 70s Hammer Dracula movies.
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Post by burrunjor on Nov 22, 2021 11:08:03 GMT
I think Rob's summed up a lot of the pros and cons from a social and political stand point about the 70s. I would also like to point out however that it was also the era when gay rights made a lot of progress too, at least in the media. The likes of Queen, David Bowie, The Rocky Horror Picture Show made being LGBT trendy for a while, which was pretty incredible considering in the late 60s you still had actors, singers, etc doing all they could to cover up being gay and in the most extreme cases, tragically killing themselves!
I think you can compare the 70s acceptance of gay people to the acceptance of trans people now, in that this previously marginalised group kind of just exploded onto the scene when it was finally accepted and whilst most normal people were okay with it, you did have the moral guardians thinking "it will warp our kids." On top of that however and this might be a controversial thing to say, but there were also a number of celebs and young trendy student types who were seen to have jumped on the bandwagon to show how edgy and different they were. This attitude actually came from members of the oppressed group more than anyone else in both cases. For instance Blaire White, a popular trans woman has accused people of being trans trenders, whilst Graham Chapman famously said that he felt David Bowie was just a poseur who wasn't really gay or bi and that he wanted to punch his lights out for not only cashing in on it, but furthering stereotypes.
Of course nowadays it is known that sexuality has a wider spectrum, but still it is quite an interesting parallel nonetheless.
Sadly however as we know with the aids crisis in the 80s and Thatchers section 28, gay rights and general acceptance of homosexuality would take a huge turn backwards really until the late 00s. Also the fact that gay culture was so wild and sexualized in the 70s I think made a lot of people view them as deviants.
The only reason gay culture in the 70s was so wild and sexualized was ironically because it had been oppressed for so long. That's what always happens when you try and suppress sexuality, it ends up exploding at a later date. (It's why I disagree with all this no fap nonsense and so on.) The same thing happened with heterosexual sex in the 60s. It exploded into a similar wild, some would say deviant culture of sex, drugs and rock and roll with all the free love stuff, because everyone had been so stuffy and repressed for so long. The 70s was really gay people's time to experience that sexual revolution, but again sadly showing that the old homophobic double standards hadn't completely died down, that was later used to demonise gay people as sex crazed perverts.
Overall the 70s probably represented the most tolerant period for homosexuals in the entire 20th century, though again that's not to say that it was perfect and you still did get homophobic slurs like nancy boy, poof etc, but still that is another thing that I think gets overlooked or even forgotten by modern generations who tend to want to bash the 70s as a total dark age. Perhaps however people don't like to admit it, as it's tragically a case of how social progress can go backwards, but that's exactly why it should always be brought up in my opinion.
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Post by burrunjor on Nov 22, 2021 11:44:17 GMT
In terms of entertainment meanwhile the 70s was a golden age.
It sadly saw the end of some icons of the 60s like the Beatles and Hammer Horror, though both would at least go out with a bang. At the same time it also saw many new iconic bands, like Queen, The Sex Pistols, and the Bee Gees either emerge or reach their peak, whilst the Spagehti Westerns and Kung Fu crazes would take over cinema and provide many classic, and also many hilariously cheesy films over the decade. In the world of comic books Marvel would go through arguably their golden age, with ground breaking comics like the Death of Gwen Stacey, the likes of the X-Men finding their feet. In the UK meanwhile 2000 AD would emerge towards the end of the decade, ushering a whole new age and identity for British comics.
British sci fi on tv meanwhile arguably reached its peak during this time. The likes of Survivors, Blake's 7, The Stone Tape, Doomwatch were all among the most memorable and successful genre tv series.
Finally Batman, Doctor Who, and James Bond were 3 60s icons who not only survived but actually all reached their peak during this decade. The way they were reinvented in this decade I think should be taught in creative writing classes for how you reinvent an old character.
Batman, Doctor Who, and James Bond had all gone through a decline towards the end of the 60s, start of the 70s. It wasn't like today, with Batwahman, Jodie and the supposed female Bond where the writers had completely fokked everything up, it was more just that they all ran out of steam.
The campy style of Adam West was played out, the 60s formula of recurring foes like the Cybermen was becoming stale in DW, and finally the Bond vs Spectre formula had reached its climax. Also in Bond and DW's case, Connery and Troughton were both as fed up with the character as could be and their last films, seasons were not happy experiences for both.
As a result of this in all three cases their big recurring foes were rested. The Daleks, Cybermen, Ice Warriors, were all given a break for the start of Pertwee's time. Blofeld and Spectre were let go from Bond, and in Batman all of his main recurring foes, including even the Joker didn't appear for the first four years of the decade.
This forced the writers to come up with new and exciting villains and stories, take them back down to earth a bit, and not get so lazy. Now you'd have to come up with a proper motivation for a villain, rather than just rely on the audiences knowledge of "okay Blofeld is a bad guy." In all three cases this also pushed the series into different directions. DW became briefly more of a Quatermass style series, with slightly more sympathetic and complex villains like the Silurians, Batman delved into the gothic aspect like never before and had him battle supernatural creatures, and Bond started to do things like take its lead character around the world to a greater extent and have him fight wilder villains from voodoo priests to guys with undersea fortresses.
New and iconic villains would also be introduced to all three series as a result of resting the old bad guys too. In time these villains would go on to rival those from the 60s in popularity. Scaramanga, Jaws, Ra's Al Ghul, Davros, the Sontarans and the Master.
At the same time however in Batman and DW's case, the classic villains from the 60s would eventually go on to return, and the rest had done them good. Now rather than just be the old reliable, beatable badguys, they felt like the old guard of the heroes villains, who had persisted whilst so many had been forgotten. The 70s would also see the likes of the Daleks and the Joker star in some of their greatest stories, Genesis, Jokers Five Way Revenge etc both of which influenced depictions of the villains for decades to come.
In both Bond and DW's case we also got a new leading man who reinvented the character, but didn't make it unrecognizable. In fact the way all three characters, not just the series were reimagined I think shows how you do it. Rather than do a Paul Cornell and smash up and rewrite what the 60s did, it simply left the 60s story arcs behind, referencing them now and again, but generally moved on It also abandoned a lot of the gimmicks that the character had become dependent on, and which were in danger of turning him into a parody of himself. In Batman's case the entire Batmobile and Batcave were junked from the early 70s, whilst with Bond they eased up on things like his Martini shaken not stirred catchphrase.
Furthermore in Bond and the Doctors case, the leading actor was given some freedom to do what he wanted. Pertwee was allowed to make the character more of an action hero, Moore got to bring in his humour. However again neither were allowed to completely smash up the core of the character. Bond was still a smooth, secret agent with an eye for the ladies, the Doctor was still in contrast an old professorial, scientist. Essentially in all three cases they brought the character down to his basics, and held on to them, and as a result knew what they could and couldn't change.
It's sadly the total opposite of the "reinvention" the Doctor would suffer in the Chibnall era, where they tore apart the basics of the character, cast an actress with no clear vision and idea of what to do, so she just falls back on autopilot. (In this case a bad Matt Smith impression.) They overuse gimmicks like the sonic screwdriver which can no do anything, and they fall back on the old villains like Daleks and Cybermen and the Master until they all become standing jokes.
Sadly however I don't think Bond, Batman or Doctor Who would ever have as successful a reinvention again as in the 70s. Whilst the 10s would be a low point for all, even before then there was never quite as smooth as transition for all three into a new time as that.
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Post by burrunjor on Dec 5, 2021 23:54:17 GMT
In terms of entertainment meanwhile the 70s was a golden age. It sadly saw the end of some icons of the 60s like the Beatles and Hammer Horror, though both would at least go out with a bang. At the same time it also saw many new iconic bands, like Queen, The Sex Pistols, and the Bee Gees either emerge or reach their peak, whilst the Spagehti Westerns and Kung Fu crazes would take over cinema and provide many classic, and also many hilariously cheesy films over the decade. In the world of comic books Marvel would go through arguably their golden age, with ground breaking comics like the Death of Gwen Stacey, the likes of the X-Men finding their feet. In the UK meanwhile 2000 AD would emerge towards the end of the decade, ushering a whole new age and identity for British comics. British sci fi on tv meanwhile arguably reached its peak during this time. The likes of Survivors, Blake's 7, The Stone Tape, Doomwatch were all among the most memorable and successful genre tv series. Finally Batman, Doctor Who, and James Bond were 3 60s icons who not only survived but actually all reached their peak during this decade. The way they were reinvented in this decade I think should be taught in creative writing classes for how you reinvent an old character. Batman, Doctor Who, and James Bond had all gone through a decline towards the end of the 60s, start of the 70s. It wasn't like today, with Batwahman, Jodie and the supposed female Bond where the writers had completely fokked everything up, it was more just that they all ran out of steam. The campy style of Adam West was played out, the 60s formula of recurring foes like the Cybermen was becoming stale in DW, and finally the Bond vs Spectre formula had reached its climax. Also in Bond and DW's case, Connery and Troughton were both as fed up with the character as could be and their last films, seasons were not happy experiences for both. As a result of this in all three cases their big recurring foes were rested. The Daleks, Cybermen, Ice Warriors, were all given a break for the start of Pertwee's time. Blofeld and Spectre were let go from Bond, and in Batman all of his main recurring foes, including even the Joker didn't appear for the first four years of the decade. This forced the writers to come up with new and exciting villains and stories, take them back down to earth a bit, and not get so lazy. Now you'd have to come up with a proper motivation for a villain, rather than just rely on the audiences knowledge of "okay Blofeld is a bad guy." In all three cases this also pushed the series into different directions. DW became briefly more of a Quatermass style series, with slightly more sympathetic and complex villains like the Silurians, Batman delved into the gothic aspect like never before and had him battle supernatural creatures, and Bond started to do things like take its lead character around the world to a greater extent and have him fight wilder villains from voodoo priests to guys with undersea fortresses. New and iconic villains would also be introduced to all three series as a result of resting the old bad guys too. In time these villains would go on to rival those from the 60s in popularity. Scaramanga, Jaws, Ra's Al Ghul, Davros, the Sontarans and the Master. At the same time however in Batman and DW's case, the classic villains from the 60s would eventually go on to return, and the rest had done them good. Now rather than just be the old reliable, beatable badguys, they felt like the old guard of the heroes villains, who had persisted whilst so many had been forgotten. The 70s would also see the likes of the Daleks and the Joker star in some of their greatest stories, Genesis, Jokers Five Way Revenge etc both of which influenced depictions of the villains for decades to come. In both Bond and DW's case we also got a new leading man who reinvented the character, but didn't make it unrecognizable. In fact the way all three characters, not just the series were reimagined I think shows how you do it. Rather than do a Paul Cornell and smash up and rewrite what the 60s did, it simply left the 60s story arcs behind, referencing them now and again, but generally moved on It also abandoned a lot of the gimmicks that the character had become dependent on, and which were in danger of turning him into a parody of himself. In Batman's case the entire Batmobile and Batcave were junked from the early 70s, whilst with Bond they eased up on things like his Martini shaken not stirred catchphrase. Furthermore in Bond and the Doctors case, the leading actor was given some freedom to do what he wanted. Pertwee was allowed to make the character more of an action hero, Moore got to bring in his humour. However again neither were allowed to completely smash up the core of the character. Bond was still a smooth, secret agent with an eye for the ladies, the Doctor was still in contrast an old professorial, scientist. Essentially in all three cases they brought the character down to his basics, and held on to them, and as a result knew what they could and couldn't change. It's sadly the total opposite of the "reinvention" the Doctor would suffer in the Chibnall era, where they tore apart the basics of the character, cast an actress with no clear vision and idea of what to do, so she just falls back on autopilot. (In this case a bad Matt Smith impression.) They overuse gimmicks like the sonic screwdriver which can no do anything, and they fall back on the old villains like Daleks and Cybermen and the Master until they all become standing jokes. Sadly however I don't think Bond, Batman or Doctor Who would ever have as successful a reinvention again as in the 70s. Whilst the 10s would be a low point for all, even before then there was never quite as smooth as transition for all three into a new time as that. I don't think Bond ran out of stream in the late 60s. You Only Live Twice and OHMSS are very popular entries in the series and introduced the Blofeld arc. To be honest, I think Bond ran out of steam in the late 80s. A View to a Kill was good, but the Dalton films look naff compared to other action films of the time like Die Hard, RoboCop and Lethal Weapon. It was shit in the 90s too mostly. The golden age of Bond for me was 1965-1985. Well I was talking about Diamonds Are Forever which was absolute shit. The worst of either the Connery or Moore films. I like YOLT and OHMSS too. Both classics. I know Diamonds wasn't technically in the 60s (what was it 1970?) Still the start of the 70s does kind of represent the fag end of the 60s, and Diamonds can be seen as a finale to the end of the 60s Bond era. It's Connery's last, the last proper appearance of Blofeld and of Spectre. It's the end of that phase of Bond's story, but sadly it seems to have come one film too late as by that stage Connery is just going through the motions, Blofeld by this stage hasn't got anything else to do. It's clear that big changes need to happen. Again however in contrast to Paul Cornell and Chris Chibnall's bullshit "let's smash everything up." In Bond they still kept the core of the character, rested Blofed and the others and just moved forward, hence why the Roger Moore era was such a rousing success. |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 6, 2021 9:14:49 GMT
I don't think Bond ran out of stream in the late 60s. You Only Live Twice and OHMSS are very popular entries in the series and introduced the Blofeld arc. To be honest, I think Bond ran out of steam in the late 80s. A View to a Kill was good, but the Dalton films look naff compared to other action films of the time like Die Hard, RoboCop and Lethal Weapon. It was shit in the 90s too mostly. The golden age of Bond for me was 1965-1985. Well I was talking about Diamonds Are Forever which was absolute shit. The worst of either the Connery or Moore films. I like YOLT and OHMSS too. Both classics. I know Diamonds wasn't technically in the 60s (what was it 1970?) Still the start of the 70s does kind of represent the fag end of the 60s, and Diamonds can be seen as a finale to the end of the 60s Bond era. It's Connery's last, the last proper appearance of Blofeld and of Spectre. It's the end of that phase of Bond's story, but sadly it seems to have come one film too late as by that stage Connery is just going through the motions, Blofeld by this stage hasn't got anything else to do. It's clear that big changes need to happen. Again however in contrast to Paul Cornell and Chris Chibnall's bullshit "let's smash everything up." In Bond they still kept the core of the character, rested Blofed and the others and just moved forward, hence why the Roger Moore era was such a rousing success. I love Diamonds myself. It's fun and campy with some of the hottest Bond girls and a great Vegas setting. As a follow up to OHMSS it falls flat, but taken as its own thing I think it works quite well. It's certainly a Bond film I revisit a lot. |
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Post by rushy on May 29, 2022 18:30:10 GMT
I like the decade more than I used to. I much prefer the 1980s myself, but the 70s had some good stuff. What do you like about the decade? Caroline Munro Yes. If you see me fawn over anyone, it's her. I mean, good grief. There's having sex appeal, there's oozing sex appeal and then there's the Caroline Munro.  |
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Post by rushy on May 29, 2022 18:36:25 GMT
On a non-horny level:
Phantasm (1979) - my favourite film of all time
The Omen (1976) - Top tier horror
Halloween (1978) - I've grown to prefer Halloween II as of late, but this is still a monumental accomplishment.
1970s Doctor Who - Solid to excellent throughout.
1970s Blake's 7 - Arguably the show's objective highpoint (given the relative aimlessness of the Avon years).
1970s James Bond - The golden era as far as I'm concerned, all entertaining films.
The Godfather films
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Post by Deleted on May 29, 2022 22:17:03 GMT
I like the decade more than I used to. I much prefer the 1980s myself, but the 70s had some good stuff. What do you like about the decade? Caroline Munro Yes. If you see me fawn over anyone, it's her. I mean, good grief. There's having sex appeal, there's oozing sex appeal and then there's the Caroline Munro. She's incredible for sure. I'm slightly more obsessed with Jane Seymour when it comes to 70s actresses. I bought one of the Sinbad films for her. |
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billpatjontom
Certified Mob Rallying Heretic Crank
True Who will rule the Universe!
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Post by billpatjontom on May 30, 2022 10:15:27 GMT
Grew up in the 70s. My fave decade. Wish I'd been a bit older during the Swinging 70s then I could've got even more out of it than I did   OK, it wasn't perfect. What is? Yes, I remember the power cuts etc but I also remember some wonderful stuff too because the 70s rocked. I mean, compared to how everything has become now in this pathetic "woke" era, the 70s was truly an extraordinary time of real freedom and artistic creativity. Great times in the era when Jason was King  Take the music - it started with a hippy hangover from the 60s then took in prog rock, heavy rock, glam rock, punk rock, disco, new wave and ska - true diversity in the best sense of the word! Cinema was magnificent too with some Hammer horrors and Carry On comedies but also the likes of The Godfather, French Connection, The Exorcist, Rocky Horror Show, Jaws, Star Wars, Superman and Alien. And Sean Connery and Roger Moore starred as James Bond just as God intended. We only had three channels to watch on UK television but what fecking great programmes we had! I loved the BBC2 summer horror double bills for instance. And we had everything from The Sweeney to I, Claudius, Monty Python to Morecambe & Wise, Top of the Pops to Kenny Everett Video Show, UFO to Thriller, The Goodies to Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club, et al - there's just far too many to mention! And of course we had Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker starring in Doctor Who just as God intended. Best decade ever imo  |
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Post by rushy on Nov 27, 2022 0:05:36 GMT
You're not wrong, but 1981 Blake's 7 steals its thunder!  |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 27, 2022 0:16:18 GMT
You're not wrong, but 1981 Blake's 7 steals its thunder! Oh, absolutely! Series 4 is my favourite of the bunch too. |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 18, 2023 13:54:42 GMT
Well the Bond movies are great. I'd argue the 70s was the golden period for Bond movies. Then you have one of the greatest sitcoms of all time in Fawlty Towers. As for Who, I love the Williams era and some of the Pertwee and Hinchcliffe stuff too though my favourite era is still McCoy. First two series of Blake's 7 are good and Superman (1978) is probably my favourite movie of all time. In terms of music, I enjoy Abba but not a whole lot else (I prefer the 60s and 80s in that respect). I'd include Agnetha Fältskog's bum as one of the greatest things from the decade too!
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