American Cinematographer - June 2020 - 80

'70s Cinema in AC

Space explorer Kane (John Hurt) takes a closer look at an extraterrestrial pod in Ridley Scott's Alien (1979), shot by Derek Vanlint, CSC, who was using the
anamorphic format for the first time on his first feature.

80

man must have a high degree of technical skill, acrobatic agility, grim determination and a generous supply of
just plain 'guts' to photograph the
exploits of James Bond," one article
declared.)
King Kong had a whole issue to
himself in February 1977, as did
Superman (AC Jan. '79). Lighter fare
that earned AC coverage included
comedies like Young Frankenstein (AC
July '74), The Return of the Pink Panther
(AC April '75) and Love at First Bite (AC
Feb. '79), along with the occasional
musical, such as Fiddler on the Roof (AC
Dec. '70), Grease (AC Aug. '78) and The
Muppet Movie (AC July '79).
War movies were covered less
frequently than they had been during
the 1960s, although the magazine
published articles on a few that were
noteworthy, such as Tora! Tora! Tora!
(AC Feb. '71), A Bridge Too Far (AC
April '77), Zulu Dawn (AC Feb. '79)
and Spielberg's comedic epic 1941
June 2020

(surveyed with multiple articles in AC
Dec. '79).
Television shows occasionally
made the cut, evidenced by articles on
The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau
(AC Sept. '70); The Odd Couple (AC Oct.
'71, with ASC member Lester Shorr
explaining how the production had
gone "cordless"); the cop series The
New Centurions, shot by Ralph
Woolsey, ASC (AC Sept. '72); An
American Family, a very early forerunner of today's reality-TV shows (AC
May '73); and The Streets of San
Francisco, shot by Jacques Marquette,
ASC (AC Aug. '75).
Still, it's the magazine's highly
detailed coverage of the era's most
famous and revered films that makes
American Cinematographer issues from
the '70s so compelling to read. Other
standout titles examined during the
decade include Coppola's Patton (AC
Aug. '70), shot in the Dimension-150
format by Fred J. Koenekamp, ASC;
American Cinematographer - 100 Years

Michael Ritchie's The Candidate (AC
Sept. '72), framed by Victor J. Kemper,
ASC, who also shot a run of '70s classics that included The Friends of Eddie
Coyle, The Gambler, Dog Day Afternoon
and Slap Shot; Peter Bogdanovich's The
Last Picture Show (AC Jan. '72), which
showcased the evocative cinematography of ASC member Robert Surtees,
whose crisp black-and-white imagery
brought the picture "a dark brooding
intensity that delineates with graphic
precision the hopelessness of a dying
small town"; and Stanley Kubrick's
Barry Lyndon (AC March '76), featuring candlelit scenes that famously
required John Alcott, BSC to employ
specially modified Zeiss 50mm and
36.5mm f/0.7 lenses.
Like the era itself, these articles
have left a lasting mark, and are well
worth revisiting for anyone who
enjoys watching, discussing, or thinking about movies.
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