WATCHED THEM AGAIN. “Escape from New York.” / “Saturday Night Fever.” / “The Man Who Fell to Earth.” / “The Seventh Seal.”

“Escape from New York” (1981, Roku) science fiction action film. Set in a then-near-future world of 1997, a crime-ridden United States has converted Manhattan Island in New York City into the country's sole maximum security prison. 

       Repeat: This is the year 1997 and the movie was made in 1981. And we are now in the year 2026. And we haven't yet seen the “dystopian future” regardless of the eerie divide among us. Uh huh.

       Still in those years, movies of this “futuristic” sort never failed to entertain. As does Kurt Russell's Snake Plissken. When I first saw this, I was in awe. Whoa! 1997? LOL! 🎥💻📽

“Saturday Night Fever” (1977, Pluto TV) dance drama. Stars John Travolta as a young Italian-American man who spends his weekends dancing and drinking at a local disco while dealing with social tensions and disillusionment in his working class ethnic neighborhood in Brooklyn. The story is based on "Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night,” a mostly fictional 1976 New York article by music writer Nik Cohn.

       So cool to watch this movie again, which I think I saw 15 times already. LOL! Stereotypical story but treated smartly and with lots of fun! Of course, the classic Bee Gees disco soundtrack, and John Travolta’s breakthrough role as Tony Manero, and that kickass dance segment! Hey, this movie earned $237.1 million at the box office from a budget of #3.5 million! 🎥👍📽

“The Man Who Fell to Earth” (1976, Plex) British science fantasy, directed by Nicolas Roeg. This movie, which was adapted from Walter Tevis's 1963 novel, stars David Bowie. That’s the major attraction. Also, Mr Tevis is the same fine writer who gave us “The Hustler,” “The Color of Money,” and “The Queen’s Gambit,” which was a recent Netflix hit as a miniseries. Walter died in 1984 from lung cancer. 

       This film though isn’t as outstanding as the book. I viewed this more as sheer entertainment. Sort of what critic Pauline Kael (The New Yorker) described as "The Little Prince for young adults, the hero, a stranger on earth, is purity made erotic." I won’t talk about the flaws and faults though, just watch it yourself. 

       By the way, it is alluring to watch Candy Clark as Mary-Lou. I had a huge crush on her after her breakthrough Debbie Dunham in 1973’s “American Graffiti,” for which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. 🎥💻📽

“The Seventh Seal” (1957, Tubi) Swedish historical fantasy film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. Set in Sweden during the Black Death, it tells of the journey of a medieval knight and a game of chess he plays with the personification of Death, who has come to take his life. 

       The storyline is too esoteric and complex to me but the overall cinematic value, notably the precedent-setting black and white cinematography is subtly powerful enough to render steely seriousness in Max von Sydow’s Antonius Block (the knight) and voluptuous warmth in Bibi Andersson’s Mia. It is as though I was watching a series of inter-related photographs in a museum or a silent movie in my dream. I didn’t really get the profundities of his thoughts but I am nevertheless enthralled by Mr Bergman’s visual sensitivity. 🎥💻📽