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Brian Saur

Blair Zykan

Brian Saur is a cinephile and Podcaster. He is the founder of the long running Just the Discs Podcast and YouTube channel as well as the co-host of the Pure Cinema Podcast (the Official Podcast of Quentin Tarantino's New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles).

Just the Discs YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCffVK8TcUyjCpr0F9SpV53g

Just the Discs Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/just-the-discs-podcast/id1205661081

Pure Cinema Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/pure-cinema-podcast/id1204885502

1. Scarecrow (Blu-ray)

The road movie subgenre is one of the great gifts to cinema. It’s among my preferred types of films, and within it I count many personal favorites. Scarecrow is one of the very best, due in no small part to Gene Hackman (only a few years removed from The French Connection) and a young Al Pacino. The two acting titans meet on a lonely, barren rural road, captured beautifully by master cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond. Director Jerry Schatzberg—whose 1971 film The Panic in Needle Park helped inspire Francis Ford Coppola to cast Pacino in The Godfather—not only handles the material with confidence (from a strong script by Gary Michael White), but also shoots in widescreen 2.35:1, a choice that enhances the film’s expansive, desolate feel. What begins with the gruff, guarded nature of Hackman’s character (whose distrust is later explained) gradually gives way to genuine camaraderie and friendship as the story unfolds. It remains one of my favorite films of the 1970s, and still feels somewhat underappreciated.

2. Fandango (Blu-ray)

This is one of many films I discovered thanks to Quentin Tarantino. Back in the mid-1990s, not long after being completely blown away by Pulp Fiction, I came across a list of his favorite movies and made it a mission to track them all down.I’ve read that Tarantino once said director Kevin Reynolds “is going to be the Stanley Kubrick of this decade,” and that Fandango is “one of the best directorial debuts in the history of cinema.” He’s absolutely right about it being a remarkable debut. It’s also a fantastic showcase for a young Kevin Costner, who more or less steals the film—even with a very solid performance from Judd Nelson as a weenie ROTC cadet in his first role. It’s a highly rewatchable road trip movie that only improves with each viewing. Supposedly, Tarantino saw it five times during its opening week, and it even seems to have influenced the use of the on-screen “definition” at the start of Pulp Fiction, which is a pretty cool connection.

3. Night Shift (Blu-ray)

Oh to have been in the audience when Ron Howard’s memorable offbeat comedy first hit theaters! Not only did viewers get to see Henry Winkler completely flip his “Fonzie” persona as the nebbish morgue worker Chuck Lumley, but they also met one of cinema’s great comedic breakout characters in Michael Keaton’s Billy Blaze Blazejowski. Chuck is everyone’s doormat—his boss, his fiancée, even the guy who delivers his sandwiches all walk over him. Billy Blaze, on the other hand, is his polar opposite in nearly every way, yet together they form a hilarious and unexpectedly perfect duo. I can’t count how often I’ve found myself slipping into Keaton’s quotes from this one. It’s still probably my favorite Ron Howard film to date.

4. City of Hope (Blu-ray)

I’m a huge John Sayles fan and have been ever since I first saw Lone Star in theaters back in 1996. I had already dipped into his earlier films by then, but Lone Star really blew me away. It’s a fantastic ensemble piece that follows multiple, seemingly disconnected characters with ease, often giving each of them small but memorable moments to shine—a storytelling approach I’d come to recognize throughout Sayles’ work. I came to City of Hope later, but it had a similar impact on me. The film explores an unnamed American city and the inner workings of its politics and social dynamics, moving fluidly between residents at every level, from everyday citizens to high-ranking officials. While it’s never officially credited as an influence on David Simon’s HBO series The Wire, it’s hard not to notice some clear similarities, especially considering it predates the show by more than a decade. It’s great that the Blu-ray presents the film in widescreen—especially since, as far as I know, it hadn’t been released beyond VHS and Laserdisc before this. The inclusion of a John Sayles commentary track is a real bonus as well.

5. The Clock (Blu-ray)

One of my favorite romance films. Robert Walker plays a G.I. on a 48-hour leave, and Judy Garland is the woman who quite literally stumbles into him while stepping off an escalator at Grand Central Station. That charming meet-cute—along with the broken heel it causes—sets them off on a mission to get it fixed, which turns into a delightful, all-night date. In some ways, it feels like a proto-Before Sunrise, capturing that same fleeting, intimate connection between two strangers. It’s a film that never fails to leave me feeling warm and a little wistful whenever I watch it.

6. Safe in Hell (Blu-ray)

One of my favorite pre-Code films, and one of the many standouts directed by William A. Wellman. It also introduced me to the remarkable Dorothy Mackaill, who absolutely radiates here. She brings a world-weary cynicism to the role that’s oddly compelling, and it’s hard to overstate the impression she left on me—what a presence. She plays a prostitute forced to go on the run after a bad situation leaves her wanted for murder. Desperate, she turns to a sailor boyfriend to smuggle her to a remote island—Tortuga in the Caribbean—where she hopes to escape prosecution. It sounds like a solid plan, but things quickly sour when she arrives and finds the island populated by aggressive, predatory men all vying for her attention.Watching how she navigates that situation is gripping in itself, but what really elevates the film is the darkness running beneath it. That edge gives the story a weight that lingers well after it’s over.

7. Two on a Guillotine (Blu-ray)

A fun discovery for me—one I only found thanks to the Warner Archive disc. I like to think of it as William Castle meets live-action Disney: it balances a slightly creepy atmosphere with a light, playful tone. The story follows a woman (Connie Stevens) who’s summoned back to Los Angeles for the reading of her estranged father’s will. He leaves her a spooky old mansion—and a substantial inheritance—on the condition that she spends seven nights there. Enter Dean Jones, playing a reporter who adopts a false identity to cover the story of the mysterious heiress, only to find himself falling for her.Along the way, there are plenty of hijinks and clever tricks courtesy of her late father, an eccentric magician known as The Great Duquesne, who specialized in convincingly gruesome illusions (played, briefly but memorably, by Caesar Romero). It’s a charming, slightly spooky love story that I find myself revisiting often.

8. The Last of Sheila (Blu-ray)

One of the greatest whodunits of the 1970s—and perhaps of all time—The Last of Sheila boasts a remarkable ensemble cast that serves as a literal "Who’s Who" of the era. The stellar lineup features James Coburn, Richard Benjamin, James Mason, Dyan Cannon, Joan Hackett, Raquel Welch, and a young Ian McShane.

The story centers on Coburn’s character, a wealthy producer who invites a group of friends on a Mediterranean cruise aboard his private yacht. But there is a malicious twist: the guests are forced into an elaborate game of clues and riddles. Each player receives a secret identity that mirrors a dark event from their actual past. Predictably, the game goes off the rails and grows increasingly tense as the guests start getting bumped off one by one. This hidden gem features a brilliant script co-written by actor Anthony Perkins and Broadway legend Stephen Sondheim, who famously loved staging complex parlor games for their own real-life party guests. It remains a massive favorite of filmmaker Rian Johnson, who cites it as the definitive blueprint for his Knives Out franchise, particularly Glass Onion. It is truly remarkable stuff.

9 . The Gumball Rally (Blu-ray)

The 1963 comedy behemoth It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World left a lasting impact on cinema. Its epic, zany, all-star formula revolutionized the genre, and its core plot—a diverse group of eccentrics racing to find buried treasure—became a highly influential storytelling device. While later films like Scavenger Hunt (1979) and Midnight Madness (1980) successfully reused this trope, the specific movie highlighted here actually predates both.

Directly inspired by the Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash—a real, unsanctioned cross-country automobile race held five times in the 1970s—this film laid the groundwork for future racing comedies like Cannonball (1976), The Cannonball Run (1981), and Speed Zone (1989). Much like its successors, it features a stacked ensemble cast including Michael Sarrazin, Raúl Juliá, Gary Busey, Tim McIntire, Nicholas Pryor, Joanne Nail, Steven Keats, and Coleen Camp. It remains a wonderfully zany, fast-paced cross-country adventure that deserves far more recognition than it receives today.

10. Rafferty & The Gold Dust Twins (Blu-ray)

This release was a long time coming, and I am thrilled it finally received a proper Blu-ray transfer from Warner Archive. For years, I frequently spotted the old clamshell VHS tape in video stores; while the title and artwork always caught my eye, I only recently watched the film. Part of the delay was due to the movie's 2.35:1 widescreen format, which was severely cropped on older home video releases and initially received only a standard-definition digital release. It is an excellent film—a prime example of those unique, "only in the '70s" road movies. It is both funny and bittersweet, driven by character depth in a way modern narrative cinema rarely achieves. Alan Arkin stars as Gunny Rafferty, an ex-Marine working for the DMV who spends his lunch hours drinking quietly in a nearby park. On the day the story unfolds, he is gently taken hostage at gunpoint by two drifter girls: Mac (Sally Kellerman) and Frisbee (Mackenzie Phillips).The wayward duo brandishes a revolver and demands that Gunny drive them to New Orleans. He reluctantly agrees, kicking off a meandering adventure packed with half-baked philosophies and scams to fund their journey. Along the way, they encounter an array of fascinating characters played by icons like Alex Rocco, Harry Dean Stanton, Charles Martin Smith, and Louis Prima. While I won't spoil the ending, it leaves a bittersweet impression that perfectly captures the distinct spirit of 1970s Hollywood cinema.

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