#266 – The Wild Bunch, 1969, Sam Peckinpah
Aging outlaw, Pike Bishop prepares to retire after one final robbery. Joined by his gang, Dutch Engstrom and brothers Lyle and Tector Gorch, Bishop discovers the heist is a setup orchestrated in part by a former partner, Deke Thornton. As the remaining gang takes refuge in Mexican territory, Thornton trails them—resulting in fierce gunfights with plenty of casualties.
#348 – Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, 1969, George Roy Hill
In late 1890s Wyoming, Butch Cassidy is the affable, clever and talkative leader of the outlaw Hole in the Wall Gang. His closest companion is the laconic dead-shot ‘Sundance Kid’. As the west rapidly becomes civilized, the law finally catches up to Butch, Sundance and their gang. Chased doggedly by a special posse, the two decide to make their way to South America in hopes of evading their pursuers once and for all.
#365 – Kes, 1969, Ken Loach
A young, English working-class boy spends his free time caring for and training his pet falcon.
JUMBO CACTUAR APPROVED FILM
#396 – Funeral Parade of Roses, (薔薇の葬列), 1969, Toshio Matsumoto
The trials and tribulations of Eddie and other transvestites in Japan.
#403 – My Night at Maud’s, (Ma nuit chez Maud), 1969, Éric Rohmer
The rigid principles of a devout Catholic man are challenged during a one-night stay with Maud, a divorced woman with an outsize personality.
#508 – Z, 1969, Costa-Gavras
Repression is the rule of the day in this film that skewers Greek governance of the 1960s. Z, a leftist rabble rouser, is killed in what appears to be a traffic accident. But given the political climate, the death of such a prominent activist raises troubling questions. Though it’s too late to save Z’s life, a postmortem examination suggests that the ruling party was behind his death. As the facts leak out, those who tell the truth pay the price for their honesty.
#540 – Army of Shadows, (L’Armée des ombres), 1969, Jean-Pierre Melville
Betrayed by an informant, Philippe Gerbier finds himself trapped in a torturous Nazi prison camp. Though Gerbier escapes to rejoin the Resistance in occupied Marseilles, France, and exacts his revenge on the informant, he must continue a quiet, seemingly endless battle against the Nazis in an atmosphere of tension, paranoia and distrust.
#627 – Midnight Cowboy, 1969, John Schlesinger
Joe Buck is a wide-eyed hustler from Texas hoping to score big with wealthy New York City women; he finds a companion in Enrico “Ratso” Rizzo, an ailing swindler with a bum leg and a quixotic fantasy of escaping to Florida.
JUMBO CACTUAR APPROVED FILM
#652 – The Color of Pomegranates, (Цвет граната), 1969, Sergei Parajanov
The life of the revered 18th-century Armenian poet and musician Sayat-Nova. Portraying events in the life of the artist from childhood up to his death, the movie addresses in particular his relationships with women, including his muse. The production tells Sayat-Nova’s dramatic story by using both his poems and largely still camerawork, creating a work hailed as revolutionary by Mikhail Vartanov.
#713 – Boy, (少年), 1969, Nagisa Ōshima
A family of four lives off of scams in which they pretend to be injured by automobiles. After suffering an injury during the war, the father believes he is an invalid. He and his wife have a 10-year-old boy and another, younger boy. The adults pretend to be injured by autos in crowded traffic, blackmailing the fearful motorists with threats to call in the police.
Jumbo Cactuar Film Index 