The BBS films: Ranked
Back the late 60's & early 70's, Hollywood was in decline, with attendance rates decreasing & more big budget films were flopping. To remedy this, more daring & edgy films were made, with rebellious characters, influences from foreign cinema (particularly the French New Wave of the early 60's) and more true grit than a handful of John Waynes, in order to capture the mood and angst of young people in the era. One of the forerunners of this was BBS productions (AKA Raybert productions in their early stages) who made many films of this sort, many of which are seen as all time classics of American cinema, whose influence can still be felt to this day. To celebrate this wonderful era of cinema, I'm going to rank their film's from best to worst. Let me know what you think in the comments.
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- DirectorBob RafelsonStarsJack NicholsonKaren BlackBilly Green BushA dropout from upper-class America picks up work along the way on oil rigs when his life isn't spent in a squalid succession of bars, motels, and other points of interest.By far and away the best film of the BBS era, Five Easy Pieces is an all American classic. The characters are extremely well written, mainly that of Bobby Dupea, who despite his misery throughout is an interesting character, both due to his sympathetic ply as well as Nicholson's extraordinary performance. On top of this, the dialogue in this film is great, essentially being the predecessor to Tarantino-esque dialogue, with the highlight being the famous diner scene. It is also very well directed, acted, shot and paced. While the third act isn't perhaps as strong (as the film starts to get slower and become more sappy) the film is still fantastic and is essential viewing of any film fan.
- DirectorJack NicholsonStarsWilliam TepperKaren BlackMichael MargottaThe star player of a college basketball team starts to go off the rails with an illicit love affair and his roommate going crazy to avoid the war draft.Sadly the most overlooked film of the BBS era, Drive, He Said is perhaps one of the studio's strongest films, as it's an interesting character study of youth from two different perspectives, one of a college basketball player who is struggling with the problems of fame, love and the movement into adulthood and the other of his more radical roommate, who lives his life completely off the rails, whether that would include staging protests against the Vietnam war, vandalism, rebelling against authority and even trying to find women to have his way with, with or without their consent. It's very well handled and compelling throughout. It also helps that for a film about basketball, the basketball scenes are very well done, being fast paced, exciting and very enjoyable. It is said that Nicholson was a basketball fan and it clearly shows. Sure there are some problems, as it is sometimes very slow and the multiple narratives can sometimes feel like the film is two scripts stapled together, but overall Drive, He Said is a fantastic film and one of the most underrated films of the 70's.
- DirectorPeter BogdanovichStarsTimothy BottomsJeff BridgesCybill ShepherdIn 1951, a group of high schoolers come of age in a bleak, isolated, atrophied North Texas town that is slowly dying, both culturally and economically.While perhaps not as stylish as the other films in the BBS canon, The Last Picture Show is one of their stronger titles as it's a very charming coming of age story about young American teens in the 50's that has strong characters, good pacing and great writing. Sure at times it can feel like a soap opera, and some of the things in the film are slightly creepy (mainly the relationship between Sonny and Ruth, due to their age difference) but the film works overall.
- DirectorDennis HopperStarsPeter FondaDennis HopperJack NicholsonTwo bikers head from L.A. to New Orleans through the open country and desert lands, and along the way they meet a man who bridges a counter-culture gap of which they had been unaware.A time capsule of a film. While the film was innovative and rebellious back in the late 60's, the film hasn't aged very well, and to those raised on more modern cinema, a lot of the film's innovations aren't very well done. The quick-cut editing feels random and forcefully used, the lack of any true narrative makes the film feel unnaturally episodic & some of themes in the film feel more obvious than they should, clearly showing signs of perhaps amateur film-making (the fact that this was Dennis Hopper's debut as a director was a testament to this). However, the fact that the film has dated is perhaps also its greatest strength, as the film is so wrapped up in the emotions of the hippy era that the film becomes an interesting and fascinating look into the counterculture of the time. The film also has other pleasures as well. The cinematography is great, the soundtrack is very good, the film's style is at least unique, some of the set-pieces are well done (mainly how the drug binge near the end feels crazy and surreal, as it should), the film does have a lot of welcome darker elements to it (including the very downbeat ending) and the acting is great, especially from Jack Nicholson. It's rare that an acting performance elevates the film its in, but this is such an example, whereby Nicholson's fantastic performance oozes charisma and his parts of the film are the film's best, and his subsequent Oscar nod was well deserved. So while the film isn't great, it is at least very good and has some moments of excellence here and there, making it a time capsule well worth revisiting.
- DirectorBob RafelsonStarsPeter TorkDavy JonesMicky DolenzThe Monkees frolic their way through a series of musical set pieces and vignettes containing surreal humor and anti-establishment social commentary.A strong candidate for the strangest film ever made, Head is a weird little arthouse film that is BBS to the core, for better or worse. It is mostly plotless, leading from one little bit to another without much context, like this was some bizarre sketch show. While I guess the film tackles many complex themes, they lack any sort of narrative thread to put them together, leading to a really odd experience. I've heard that this alienated many of the Monkees' fans because of how different this was from their shows leading to their demise, and I can kinda see why. It is at least an interesting piece however, one which is so strange and surreal that it is worth watching just to see how far a film can go down the rabbit hole and still maintain your attention throughout. It also helps that the soundtrack is also quite good too, if not as good as the Monkees' more mainstream tracks, and that makes the film worth watching on that alone.
- DirectorPeter DavisStarsTin ChanChau DiemNgo Dinh DiemA startling and courageous landmark documentary that unflinchingly confronted the United States' involvement in Vietnam at the height of the controversy that surrounded it.BBS' last film is perhaps not their best, but it's still at least worth one watch, as it is an interesting, harrowing and often hard-hitting tale of the Vietnam War, as well as the impact it had on American and Vietnamese lives, and some of the stories in the film are very hard hitting and distressing, mainly that of how some Vietnamese have their families massacred by the bombs or how many Vietnamese make coffins for their children, as they can't afford to buy them. However, its extremely downbeat nature of the film may be too much for some, and it is hard to watch at points. On top of this, you can't help but feel that the film is quite one-sided and Anti-American. Sure some soldiers are portrayed as innocent victims of the war, but for the most part they are shown to be imperialistic psychopaths, and the film never addresses the issue of the viciousness of groups like the Vietcong for instance. So while good, it is an extremely downbeat and subjective film that many would find to be too much to handle.
- DirectorBob RafelsonStarsJack NicholsonBruce DernEllen BurstynA daydreamer convinces his radio personality brother to help fund one of his get-rich-quick schemes.Out of all the BBS films, this is definitely the most boring. While many would tell you how it was about two brothers and how one is trying to stop the other from being conned into a phony real estate deal, it is hard to find any sort of plot structure whatsoever. Sure, the BBS films as a whole aren't really deep in terms of story, but at they have some sort of context to link the scenes together. Here though, random events happen without any sort of context, with occasionally the real estate thread coming up to establish some form of narrative that is never fully developed. It doesn't help that the characters and dialogue aren't as well written as in other BBS films, leading to a film that lacks any sort of focus and becomes a complete bore because of it. Sure the acting's perfectly fine and the cinematography's gorgeous in places, but its otherwise a complete folly from very talented filmmakers. Not recommended at all.
- DirectorHenry JaglomStarsTuesday WeldOrson WellesJack NicholsonA strange young woman lives in a fantasy world where she can never grow up.By far and away, this is the worst film that BBS produced, and it's not hard to see why many have tried to bury this film and forget that it ever existed. It lacks any of the basic ingredients that a film should have. There is no story, just a bunch of random scenes put together without any coherence and context whatsoever. The characters are all one-dimensional, making them very hard to be interested in. The writing is absolutely abysmal, with some of the worst dialogue in history, to the point whereby the inane dialogue of the original Resident Evil game looks like Shakespeare or early Tarantino by comparison. The acting is mediocre at best, and no-one stands out. Hell, even Jack Nicholson phones in his performance, which to be fair is excusable, considering the dire material he's in. The film's style is not unique, and feels recycled from other films from the past without any new ideas at all. There are no redeeming values here, and it shocks me that this was funded at all. Director Henry Jaglom reveals in the Criterion audio commentary that this was meant to originally be a stage show back in 1964, and it's easy to see why he shelved it back then. However, the script when released as a film in 1971 doesn't age well like a fine wine, but makes it seem even more rotten. Stay away.