Linda Lee

The aim was to do for country what Saturday Night Fever did for disco. The result was that bars from Kona to Kalamazoo suddenly had mechanical bulls, and slickers walking around in cowboy hats. You might also pinpoint this as the moment in time when "country" music suddenly went cosmopolitan, paving the way for Garth Brooks. Johnny Lee's "Lookin' for Love" was one of the decade's biggest singles, and this album briefly made a star of Mickey Gilley (whose Texas club provided a home for that alpha bull). Fans of Bob Seger, Jimmy Buffet, the Eagles, Dan Fogelberg, and Bonnie Raitt may want this collection for the tunes they lack elsewhere. And it sure recalls an era. But please don't call it "country." --Bill Holdship

Three years after A Boy Named Charlie Brown (1969), Charles Schulz's beloved "Peanuts" characters hit the big screen again in the enjoyable Snoopy, Come Home. This time, everyone's favorite beagle turns the kids' world upside down when he receives a mysterious letter from a girl named Lila and hits the road with best friend Woodstock, evading a sadistic would-be pet owner and other perils along the way. Meanwhile, Charlie Brown is left to wonder: Who is Lila, and will Snoopy ever return? Snoopy, Come Home still holds up well for kids of all ages, though the mod opening sequence and snappy songs by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and other Disney films) are unmistakably from the '70s. Vince Guaraldi's jazzy music is missed, but Thurl Ravenscroft, best known for "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" and the laugh of the Jolly Green Giant, lends his basso profundo to the persistent "No dogs allowed!" (All ages: minor cartoon violence). --David Horiuchi

Snoopy visits his former owner and feels he should stay with her when she becomes ill, rather than return to Charlie Brown.

While critics at the 1971 premiere found the work derivative and even tasteless, audiences loved this ardent, resourceful, somewhat brazen, ultimately moving Theatre Piece for Singers, Players, and Dancers. Leonard Bernstein's affinity for his public and for the age in which he lived enabled him to successfully outfit his Mass with a stylish mix of contemporary and ancient modes--rock, jazz, electronic music, Gregorian chant--and place it in a context somewhere between Broadway and opera. Though it lacks the visual component of a live performance, the work holds up well on this Bernstein-led recording, the only complete version on disc. From the popular "Simple Song" to the Stravinskian rhythmic devices and abundant, memorable melodies, the vital creative force of Bernstein is never absent. --David Vernier

Paul Newman, an American original, would seem to be the perfect choice to direct a film adaptation of the second novel by another American original--Ken Kesey. But Kesey's novel, written under the influence of both LSD and growing fame, was a mishmash, and Newman's film can't rescue it. It also seems strange to see the ultraliberal Newman starring as a strike-busting logger who honors a contract on principle, rather than observe union concerns, bringing all sorts of misery down on his family. Henry Fonda is interesting as Newman's father, but the film never finds its footing. One killer sequence, however: Richard Jaeckel, as Newman's brother, trapped under a log in a river, slowly drowning despite Newman's best efforts to save him. --Marshall Fine

Director William Friedkin was a hot ticket in Hollywood after the success of The French Connection, and he turned heads (in more ways than one) when he decided to make The Exorcist as his follow-up film. Adapted by William Peter Blatty from his controversial bestseller, this shocking 1973 thriller set an intense and often-copied milestone for screen terror with its unflinching depiction of a young girl (Linda Blair) who is possessed by an evil spirit. Jason Miller and Max von Sydow are perfectly cast as the priests who risk their sanity and their lives to administer the rites of demonic exorcism. Ellen Burstyn plays Blair's mother, who can only stand by in horror as her daughter's body is wracked by Satanic disfiguration. One of the most frightening films ever made, The Exorcist was mysteriously plagued by trouble during production, and the years since have not diminished its capacity to disturb even the most stoic viewers. --Jeff Shannon

Director William Friedkin was a hot ticket in Hollywood after the success of The French Connection, and he turned heads (in more ways than one) when he decided to make The Exorcist as his follow-up film. Adapted by William Peter Blatty from his controversial bestseller, this shocking 1973 thriller set an intense and often-copied milestone for screen terror with its unflinching depiction of a young girl (Linda Blair) who is possessed by an evil spirit. Jason Miller and Max von Sydow are perfectly cast as the priests who risk their sanity and their lives to administer the rites of demonic exorcism. Ellen Burstyn plays Blair's mother, who can only stand by in horror as her daughter's body is wracked by Satanic disfiguration. One of the most frightening films ever made, The Exorcist was mysteriously plagued by trouble during production, and the years since have not diminished its capacity to disturb even the most stoic viewers. --Jeff Shannon

Controversial and popular from the moment it opened, The Exorcist marks its historic Blu-ray premiere in a 2-Disc Edition featuring Stunning Hi-Def Presentations of the Original 1973 Theatrical Version and the 2000 Extended Director's Cut. The frightening and realistic tale of an innocent girl inhabited by a terrifying entity, her mother's frantic resolve to save her and two priests--one doubt-ridden, the other a rock of faith--joined in battling ultimate evil always leaves viewers breathless. This greatest supernatural thriller of all time astonishes and unsettles like no other movie.