Screen:

...Ironically, the effect of the so-called video revolution-at least so far-has not been to depress filmmaking, but to inspire the industry with the idea that almost any movie can find some sort of market, be it first-run theater, television, or video...

...SCREEN THE YEAR THAT WAS SEVEN WORTH THE PRICE Five hundred and eleven films were released in 1987...

...Ironweed, whose preview fell on a cold and rainy night, and, after falling on cold and rainy criticism, didn't seem worth $7...

...But after seeing the film, one understands that it is not just prices or productivity that are currently undergoing inflation...

...At March's Oscar awards Hollywood, no doubt, will once again honor a good number of films that it refuses to invest in...

...exist for Fatal Attraction, which, despite its manipulativeness, I found compelling as a reflection of the fact-forgotten in the hoopla over its sexual politics-that some women are capable of evil...

...Despite their flaws, The Last Emperor, Hope and Glory, and My Life as a Dog seemed to me the best films of the year...

...The largest newspapers must employ two to three full-time critics to survey the deluge...

...Here is a seven-best list, curtailed not in the curmudgeonly belief that ten good films could not be found, but in deference to the plain fact that readers might want to nominate some of the 511 that this reviewer missed (e.g...

...After mentally arresting the usual suspects-sequels in the Friday the Thirteenth/ Nightmare on Elm Street vein-that still leaves an average of several films released each week, most of them adorned with colorful hyperbole from at least two to three reviewers who have cozied up to them, via studio courtesy, long in advance...

...Columbia distributed The Last Emperor and Hope and Glory...

...Johnson, things worth saying once are worth saying twice...

...TOM O'BRIENM O'BRIEN...

...for this and other acts of good taste, the English producer of Chariots of Fire, David Putnam, who chaired Columbia, has been dismissed...

...My list involves no special courage...

...Except for Fatal Attraction, each of these films was made independent of a major Hollywood studio...

...Exploitation filmmakers follow the Gospel of Barnum ("No one ever went broke underestimating the bad taste of the American public...

...Nuts, which I boycotted on the principle that some egos need no encouragement...

...In the gap between the first awards in January (conferred by the New York Film Critics, the National Board of Review, and other highbrow groups) and the Oscar awards in March, it might be useful to list a few and note their significance...

...Of these 511 films, who could see them all...

...Inflation or no, 1987 did provide some excellent films...

...their technology recapitulates his vulgarity...

...But, according to Dr...

...the films have already been honored, and will probably get more awards...

...reviewers too employ that apt new excuse, "I can always see it on video...

...Aside from ticket pricing and hyperproductivity, this is the most interesting trend of 1987-not the existence of"quality" films, but their increased popularity within an industry that lacks the courage to make them...

...These record numbers reflect two different forms of inflation: one, the dollar kind in the form of a new $7 ticket price in some major cities...

...Who would want to...

...the other, inflated productivity among film studios and independents...

...Behind them come Matewan, I Heard the Mermaids Singing (still showing in cities like Boston and Washington, freed from the deadly indifference of New York critics), Dark Eyes, and The Dead...

...The same market also insures long life for craven X-rated gore...

...so here goes...

...Some sort of special category has to...

...The results are mixed: the "ancillary" markets sometimes mean that a "quality" (or what used to be called an "art'' film) can survive a weak first run and have a second life on videotape...

...Moonstruck, which I am told is fun on its own terms...