tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8823340817818385797.post6515438909309343880..comments2024-03-24T14:03:33.932-07:00Comments on Every 70s Movie: 1980 Week: The FormulaBy Peter Hansonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11385971732301020652noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8823340817818385797.post-59428104082569322072021-07-19T18:03:41.621-07:002021-07-19T18:03:41.621-07:00“Synfuels”, interesting. Not only am II obsessed w...“Synfuels”, interesting. Not only am II obsessed with 70s films and books, I am also obsessed with 70s radio. I recently found a Rick Dees radio show from 1979 where a news reporter mentions “gasohol”. I hadn’t heard that term in probably 40 years! I’m assuming that was a “synfuel” as well. As the first commenter mentioned, the Carter era was indeed full of odd thrillers (books, film, TV) that had oil, nukes, shady media companies, etc as major plot elements. I remember my folks going to see “Rollover”. Surprised nobody made a Skylab movie!Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07140200838547340308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8823340817818385797.post-30843817075929169102020-05-21T08:56:12.200-07:002020-05-21T08:56:12.200-07:00And those two Oscars of Scott and Brando, which yo...And those two Oscars of Scott and Brando, which you completely fail to mention,<br />were infamously and courageously rejected by both of them, a gesture of iconoclastic contempt towards The Academy and The Great Golden Icon that remains unsurpassed by any other actor or actress to this very day. Now if Olivier had been in this, that would been quite historic, despite any other qualities it might have possessed, either good or bad.Barry Millerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16573287218366341637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8823340817818385797.post-19381953893157743592014-10-22T11:21:43.048-07:002014-10-22T11:21:43.048-07:00Peter, I thank you for being able to mention this ...Peter, I thank you for being able to mention this on this site, because this movie reflects one of the curiosities of the Jimmy Carter Seventies, the push for "synfuels." Eventually someone realized "Hey, weren't the Nazis into synfuels?" Shagan apparently believed that such a formula actually existed -- it's hard to imagine so passionate a project otherwise. It's a shame, because oil from coal (which seems suggestive of our current obsession with shale) -- and pollution-free yet, according to the movie -- sounds like an even bigger fairy tale than "clean coal." Coming off the OPEC oil shocks, we were newly fascinated by our own oil economy -- note how handily an oil war explanation ended 1975's "Three Days of the Condor" -- and we were reading "The Crash of '79," a thriller about Saudi oil and an Iranian nuclear bomb, though the premise was that the Shah would build it. Just now as you were describing how lavish and stately and high-powered and yet unmoving this is -- despite Brando as Steiffel lustily declaring "We ARE the Arabs!" -- I recalled another project, sadly just a little outside your scope: 1981's "Rollover," starring Jane Fonda and Kris Kristofferson, an attempted financial thriller (now there's a difficult genre) about the hazards of our dependence on Saudi billions. It was the issue of a decade, and Hollywood kept trying -- and kept failing. It's a shame.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14984112497088619496noreply@blogger.com