Directorial Chronology - 1972
In The American Cinema: Directors and Directions 1929 - 1968, Andrew Sarris provided an extremely useful and entertaining appendix he called "Directorial Chronology." It was basically a best American film of the year list with a highly auteurist, idiosyncratic bent. So you would see things like Man's Favorite Sport (Hawks) ranked well above something more critically exalted (by the mainstream) like Fail Safe (Lumet). He did not numerically rank the films, but they are pretty clearly presented in order of preference (and preferred auteurs). Since it is my aim to pay tribute to great text by the great man, I am going to attempt to do the same. Here is the next entry.
Directorial Chronology - 1972
Francis Ford Coppola The Godfather
Elaine May The Heartbreak Kid
Michael Ritchie Prime Cut
John Huston Fat City
Daryl Duke Payday
Bob Rafelson The King of Marvin Gardens
John Boorman Deliverance
Peter Bogdanovich What's Up, Doc?
Michael Ritchie The Candidate
Billy Wilder Avanti!
Robert Benton Bad Company
Frank Perry Play It as It Lays
Stuart Rosenberg Pocket Money
Robert Aldrich Ulzana's Raid
Sam Peckinpah Junior Bonner
Jack Hill The Big Bird Cage
Bob Fosse Cabaret
Bernardo Bertolucci Last Tango in Paris
Blake Edwards The Carey Treatment
Sam Peckinpah The Getaway
Woody Allen Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask)
Phillip Kaufman The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid
Richard Fleischer The New Centurions
Larry Cohen Bone
George Armitage Hit Man
Sydney Pollack Jeremiah Johnson
Paul Newman The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds
Ivan Dixon Trouble Man
Martin Scorsese Boxcar Bertha
Robert Mulligan The Other
Paul Morrissey Heat
George Roy Hill Slaughterhouse-Five
James Ivory Savages
Martin Ritt Sounder
Gordon Parks Super Fly
Douglas Trumbull Silent Running
Robert Altman Images
Peter Yates The Hot Rock
Cliff Robertson J.W. Coop
Paul Bartel Private Parts
Wes Craven The Last House on the Left
Sidney Lumet The Offence
John Huston The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean
Irvin Kershner Up the Sandbox
Michael Winner The Mechanic
Mark Rydell The Cowboys
Ralph Bakshi Fritz the Cat
John Sturges Joe Kidd
