Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of weekly features titled “The Retro Review,” which will run every Monday. In an effort to pay homage to past entertainment milestones, “The Retro Review” will select a year from the past and review a movie and an album released in the course of that year.
The year 1974 is best remembered for the Watergate scandal and subsequent resignation of President Richard M. Nixon.
Yet the year cannot be properly understood without considering its contribution to the legacies of three of America’s foremost cultural icons, actors Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, who both starred in “The Godfather, Part II” and singer Bob Dylan, who released “Before the Flood.”
Many critics claim “The Godfather, Part II” is the rare sequel that surpasses the original. That point is endlessly debatable, but “Part II” is undeniably a cinematic triumph.
Pacino stars as Michael Corleone, a man of Nixonian wealth and power who destroys his adversaries with cold-blooded ease. Pacino emerges from the shadow that Marlon Brando cast over the original and delivers a performance of immeasurable depth. For movie fans familiar only with his stock performances of the past decade, Michael Corleone is hardly recognizable as Pacino. “Part II” provides glimpses of the vintage Pacino: understated, nuanced, brilliant.
Despite Pacino’s powerhouse performance, it is De Niro who is remembered for truly testing the limits of acting. In preparation for his role as a young Vito Corleone, De Niro mastered a Sicilian dialect. Speaking almost entirely in a foreign tongue, Deniro is exceptional.
As Michael Corleone brings the family to the heights of power, the flashbacks to Vito in 1920s New York demonstrate the Corleones’ humble origins.
The collapse of Michael’s personal life as he ruthlessly defends his professional territory is a lasting statement on the addiction of power. The film’s climax, a wife’s justification of abortion to her unknowing husband, and a man’s vengeance on his slow-witted brother, is simply unforgettable.
Bob Dylan’s “Before the Flood” is not one of his most memorable albums; his two-disc live recording with The Band is often forgotten during arguments of the greatest Dylan albums. A subtle masterpiece, “Before the Flood” was nonetheless a seminal release in the great songwriter’s career.
In 1974, Dylan had already enjoyed a full professional life, replete with dramatic ups and downs. After assailing the nation’s leaders in “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan” and “The Times They Are A-Changin’,” Dylan had adopted a softer, more personalized tone for albums like “Nashville Skyline” and “Blonde on Blonde.” In the mid-1960s, Dylan had been branded a traitor by the folk music community for his dabbling with electric guitar, yet later remade himself through genre-defying collaborations with artists like Johnny Cash. “Before the Flood” represents Bob Dylan’s musical rebirth.
Following a tumultuous period in the late 1960s in which he almost died of a motorcycle accident, The Band was largely responsible for reinvigorating Dylan’s musical passion. Music lecturer Sean McCollough said The Band “infused Dylan with a new energy both because they had great energy themselves and because Dylan wasn’t really sure what he was looking for. In other words, he was open to the possibilities, and the result was something exciting and new – a melding of sound and lyric that would change rock history forever.”
It is no coincidence that the album following “Before the Flood,” “Blood on the Tracks,” is widely considered the best of his career.
Somehow, “Before the Flood” captures elements of every facet of Dylan’s career up until 1974. Protest anthems like “Blowin’ in the Wind” are set next to gentler ballads such as “Lay Lady Lay.” Both the acoustic and the electric Dylan appear, resulting in his most diverse collection of music in one album.
To merely discuss “Before the Flood” in regard to Bob Dylan is an injustice to The Band. For a handful of songs in each disc, Dylan steps aside as the Robbie Robertson-led outfit powers through some of the best live material The Band has ever recorded. From “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” to “The Weight,” their full array of hits are interspersed among Dylan’s music.
American history without 1974 is hard to picture. Without Watergate, Nixon could be described as the best Republican president since Abraham Lincoln. Without “The Godfather, Part II” and “Blood on the Tracks,” the careers of three of America’s cultural icons are incomplete.
“The Godfather, Part II,” cemented the immortality of America’s premier on-stage Italians. With “Before the Flood,” a songwriting legend proved he was far from finished. 1974 was a year to remember.
