Top Ten Movies of the Year: The Seventies

Which were the best films of the 1970s? Here are my selections! The 1970s continued the late ‘60s innovation in terms of storytelling and more a gritty and realistic tone to American cinema. There was a spate of films influenced by the circumstances in the USA at the time, from the Vietnam War to social unrest, to the abuses of power of the Nixon presidency. By the middle of the decade, big budget action films and then intimate domestic dramas played into the agenda. So which were the best films of the decade? I make no apologies for my choices or omissions, as these are my favourites, but I hope you get some inspiration to add to your own film collections when you’re shopping for DVDs!

Here are my favourite movies for each year of the 1970s:

1979

Woody Allen ended the decade with his third masterpiece in as many years. “Manhattan”, a beautiful black and white ode to New York City, followed on from “Annie Hall” (1977) and “Interiors” (1978) in showing his abilities as an all-round filmmaker. “Kramer vs. Kramer” took Best Picture at the Oscars, and while many would argue the case for Coppola’s epic “Apocalypse Now” (particularly after the release of the “Redux” version in 2001), I’m a huge fan of the cycling movie “Breaking Away”, featuring a young Dennis Quaid, Jackie Earle Haley (best known for his creepy turn in “Little Children”), and Daniel Stern. Most critics slam Milos Forman’s “Hair”, and whether you like it or not will depend how you feel about a bunch of hippies singing and dancing their way around New York City! I think it’s great!

1) MANHATTAN
(dir: Woody Allen, stars: Woody Allen, Mariel Hemingway)

2) BREAKING AWAY
(dir: Peter Yates, stars: Dennis Quaid, Dennis Christopher)

3) HAIR
(dir: Milos Forman, stars: Treat Williams, Beverly D’Angelo)

4) APOCALYPSE NOW
(dir: Francis Ford Coppola , stars: Robert Duvall, Martin Sheen)

5) KRAMER VS. KRAMER
(dir: Robert Benton, stars: Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep)

6) STARTING OVER
(dir: Alan J. Pakula, stars: Burt Reynolds, Jill Clayburgh)

7) ALL THAT JAZZ
(dir: Bob Fosse, stars: Roy Scheider, Ann Reinking)

8) NORMA RAE
(dir: Martin Ritt, stars: Sally Field, Ron Leibman)

9) THE CHINA SYNDROME
(dir: James Bridges, stars: Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon)

10) LA CAGE AUX FOLLES
(dir: Edouard Molinaro, stars: Ugo Tognazzi, Michael Serrault)

1978

“The Deer Hunter” deservedly won the Oscar for Best Picture in 1978, but from the first time I saw it, I’ve been particularly attached to Jill Clayburgh’s performance in “An Unmarried Woman” which I find a really enjoyable film. Aside from Cimino’s epic and the intense “Interiors” by Woody Allen, Warren Beatty comes back from the dead as an American Footballer in “Heaven Can Wait”, and you get an acting masterclass from Ingrid Bergman in the Swedish film “Autumn Sonata”. Oh yes, and this was the year of Christopher Reeve stepping out of phone boxes in the guise of “Superman”!

1) AN UNMARRIED WOMAN
(dir: Paul Mazursky, stars: Jill Clayburgh, Alan Bates)

2) THE DEER HUNTER
(dir: Michael Cimino, stars: Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken)

3) INTERIORS
(dir: Woody Allen, stars: Geraldine Page, Diane Keaton)

4) HEAVEN CAN WAIT
(dir: Warren Beatty & Buck Henry, stars: Warren Beatty, Julie Christie)

5) AUTUMN SONATA
(dir: Ingmar Bergman, stars: Ingrid Bergman, Liv Ullmann)

6) DAYS OF HEAVEN
(dir: Terrence Malick, stars: Richard Gere, Brooke Adams)

7) MIDNIGHT EXPRESS
(dir: Alan Parker, stars: Brad Davis, John Hurt)

8) SUPERMAN
(dir: Richard Donner, stars: Christopher Reeve, Gene Hackman)

9) COMING HOME
(dir: Hal Ashby, stars: Jane Fonda, Jon Voight)

10) CALIFORNIA SUITE
(dir: Herbert Ross, stars: Maggie Smith, Richard Pryor)

1977

“Annie Hall” is consistently named as the definitive Woody Allen film about angst-ridden relationships in New York, and while it does feel a bit dated in part, it holds up as an entertaining piece of cinema with plenty of inspired scenes. Luis Bunuel’s films were often rather unusual, but “That Obscure Object of Desire” sticks with me as a masterpiece precisely because the legendary Fernando Rey is obsessed with a woman who throughout the film alters physically between two different actresses. I confess to being a tad confused when I first saw it on TV, but the title goes some way to explaining the philosophical underpinnings for man’s attraction to women! Director Herbert Ross has a big year in 1977, helming two Oscar-nominated films: “The Turning Point” about two ballerinas who made life choices favouring career or family, and the witty “Goodbye Girl” following the love hate relationship between a lodger and his landlady. “Star Wars” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” signalled that a new kind of sci-fi movie had arrived in 1977.

1) ANNIE HALL
(dir: Woody Allen, stars: Diane Keaton, Woody Allen)

2) THAT OBSCURE OBJECT OF DESIRE
(dir: Luis Bunuel, stars: Fernando Rey, Carole Bouquet)

3) THE TURNING POINT
(dir: Herbert Ross, stars: Shirley MacLaine, Anne Bancroft)

4) STAR WARS
(dir: George Lucas, stars: Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill)

5) ISLANDS IN THE STREAM
(dir: Franklin J. Schaffner, stars: George C. Scott, David Hemmings)

6) THE GOODBYE GIRL
(dir: Herbert Ross, stars: Richard Dreyfuss, Marsha Mason)

7) EQUUS
(dir: Sidney Lumet, stars: Richard Burton, Peter Firth)

8) SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER
(dir: John Badham, stars: John Travolta, Karen Lynn Gorney)

9) CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND
(dir: Steven Spielberg, stars: Richard Dreyfuss, Francois Truffaut)

10) LOOKING FOR MR. GOODBAR
(dir: Richard Brooks, stars: Diane Keaton, Richard Gere)

1976

I believe that 1976 was the pinnacle of filmmaking in the 1970s. The first two parts of “The Godfather” had made their mark in ’72 and ‘74, alongside many other dramas delving into the criminal underworlds. 1976 was America’s bicentennial year, and while celebrations for the nation’s 200th birthday seemed somewhat hollow in the wake of Vietnam and Nixon’s resignation from office, the films had a tremendous political and social resonance. “Bound for Glory”, made by one of the most fascinating ‘70s directors, Hal Ashby, follows the folk singer Woody Guthrie during his 1930s Depression era quest to raise worker consciousness. “Network” and its famous “I’m mad as hell and I can’t take it anymore!!” rant by newsreader Peter Finch brilliantly showed the nation how the media’s drive for ratings was superficially papering over what was really happening in the country. “Rocky” won the Best Picture Oscar, “Taxi Driver” is the best known film for its iconic De Niro performance, but “All The President’s Men” should be watched today with one eye on American politics in the 21st century!

1) BOUND FOR GLORY
(dir: Hal Ashby, stars: David Carradine, Ronny Cox)

2) NETWORK
(dir: Sidney Lumet, stars: Faye Dunaway, Peter Finch)

3) ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN
(dir: Alan J. Pakula, stars: Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman)

4) TAXI DRIVER
(dir: Martin Scorsese, stars: Robert De Niro, Cybill Shepherd)

5) ROCKY
(dir: John G. Avildsen, stars: Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire)

6) LOGAN’S RUN
(dir: Michael Anderson, stars: Michael York, Jenny Agutter)

7) MARATHON MAN
(dir: John Schlesinger, stars: Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Olivier)

8) SEVEN BEAUTIES
(dir: Lina Wertmuller, stars: Giancarlo Giannini, Fernando Rey)

9) TWO-MINUTE WARNING
(dir: Larry Peerce, stars: Charlton Heston, John Cassavetes)

10) THE LAST TYCOON
(dir: Elia Kazan, stars: Robert De Niro, Tony Curtis)

1975

If you are ever in any doubt about the quality of Jack Nicholson, he gives a stunning performance as a rebellious inmate of a mental hospital in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”. The film swept all five major Oscars (Picture, Director, Screenplay, Actor and Actress) in 1975. Spielberg’s thriller “Jaws” has proved the most popular film over time, but if you want a couple of great dramas, try Al Pacino as a bank robber with the watching public on his side in “Dog Day Afternoon”, or Robert Redford on the run as a bookish CIA researcher who finds that he has become the target in “Three Days of the Condor”.

1) ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST
(dir: Milos Forman, stars: Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher)

2) DOG DAY AFTERNOON
(dir: Sidney Lumet, stars: Al Pacino, Charles Durning)

3) THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR
(dir: Sydney Pollack, stars: Robert Redford, Faye Dunaway)

4) JAWS
(dir: Steven Spielberg, stars: Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss)

5) SHAMPOO
(dir: Hal Ashby, stars: Warren Beatty, Julie Christie)

6) THE DAY OF THE LOCUST
(dir: John Schlesinger, stars: Donald Sutherland, Burgess Meredith)

7) THE STORY OF ADELE H
(dir: Francois Truffaut, stars: Isabelle Adjani, Bruce Robinson)

8) THE MAN IN THE GLASS BOOTH
(dir: Arthur Hiller, stars: Maxilian Schell, Lois Nettleton)

9) BITE THE BULLET
(dir: Richard Brooks, stars: Gene Hackman, Candice Bergen)

10) THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING
(dir: John Huston, stars: Sean Connery, Michael Caine)

1974

It was the generation of the paranoid political conspiracy thriller! “They’re out to get me” was a common theme in some of the mid-‘70s movies, and in the case of the brilliant “The Parallax View”, Warren Beatty finds that he’s a journalist who knows too much. In Coppola’s “other” movie of 1974, “The Conversation”, the subject is surveillance and the protagonist is a wire-tapping expert played by Gene Hackman. Buddy movies were a mainstay of 1980s cinema, but Clint Eastwood and Jeff Bridges are brilliant sparring partners as they try and find some stashed loot in “Thunderbolt & Lightfoot”. “Chinatown” by Polanski, and Coppola’s epic “The Godfather Part II” are both adored by film critics. I make no apologies for enjoying three movies more than them from the crop released in 1974!

1) THE PARALLAX VIEW
(dir: Alan J. Pakula, stars: Warren Beatty, Hume Cronyn)

2) THUNDERBOLT & LIGHTFOOT
(dir: Michael Cimino, stars: Clint Eastwood, Jeff Bridges)

3) THE CONVERSATION
(dir: Francis Ford Coppola, stars: Gene Hackman, John Cazale)

4) CHINATOWN
(dir: Roman Polanski, stars: Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway)

5) THE GODFATHER PART II
(dir: Francis Ford Coppola, stars: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro)

6) AMARCORD
(dir: Federico Fellini, stars: Bruno Zanin, Armando Brancia)

7) LENNY
(dir: Bob Fosse, stars: Dustin Hoffman, Valerie Perrine)

8) THE LONGEST YARD
(dir: Robert Aldrich, stars: Burt Reynolds, Eddie Albert)

9) ALICE DOESN’T LIVE HERE ANYMORE
(dir: Martin Scorsese, stars: Ellen Burstyn, Kris Kristofferson)

10) THE GREAT GATSBY
(dir: Jack Clayton, stars: Robert Redford, Mia Farrow)

1973

I first saw “The Paper Chase” as a University postgraduate student, and while I did not study at Harvard Law School, the experience of the student Timothy Bottoms combating the college’s revered Professor (the brilliant Supporting Actor Oscar winner John Houseman) really struck a chord with me. It captures superbly the self-imposed pressure of high-powered academic life, and the cream of America’s students desperate to graduate with brain and nerves intact. “The Sting” won the year’s Best Picture Oscar, reuniting the charismatic pairing of Paul Newman and Robert Redford. While many will surely argue that “The Way We Were” is a soppy love story about a couple who never really quite get together, I think Redford and Streisand give great performances in a very engaging movie with quite a political edge running through it. If you’re looking for tense thrillers “The Day of the Jackal” is a fantastic watch, mainly for the cold mannered “Englishness” of Edward Fox’s assassin. “Paper Moon” is extremely witty and showcases the very talented young Oscar-winning Tatum O’Neal playing alongside real-life father Ryan O’Neal.

1) THE PAPER CHASE
(dir: James Bridges, stars: Timothy Bottoms, John Houseman)

2) THE WAY WE WERE
(dir: Sydney Pollack, stars: Barbra Streisand, Robert Redford)

3) THE STING
(dir: George Roy Hill, stars: Paul Newman, Robert Redford)

4) THE DAY OF THE JACKAL
(dir: Fred Zinnemann, stars: Edward Fox, Michael Lonsdale)

5) PAPER MOON
(dir: Peter Bogdanovich, stars: Ryan O’Neal, Tatum O’Neal)

6) SERPICO
(dir: Sidney Lumet, stars: Al Pacino, John Randolph)

7) BADLANDS
(dir: Terrence Malick, stars: Martin Sheen, Sissy Spacek)

8) BANG THE DRUM SLOWLY
(dir: John D. Hancock, stars: Robert De Niro, Michael Moriarty)

9) THE LONG GOODBYE
(dir: Robert Altman, stars: Elliott Gould, Sterling Hayden)

10) THE LAST DETAIL
(dir: Hal Ashby, stars: Jack Nicholson, Randy Quaid)

1972

Before Ben Stiller and the Farrelly Brothers got their hands on “The Heartbreak Kid”, the 1972 original was a perfect comedy of manners, class, and relationships. Charles Grodin had the perfect “loser” quality to him as the newly-married man, convinced his wife was perfect, until a long drive to Florida, combined with a nightmare honeymoon and the sighting of the blonde beauty on the beach, Cybill Shepherd, turned his heart and head. Grodin’s badly sunburnt bride, Jeannie Berlin, steals the show in a film I could watch on repeat! The excellent Eddie Albert (Gregory Peck’s sidekick in “Roman Holiday”) is perfect as the protective father of Cybill Shepherd. “The Godfather” may be revered as a classic having won Best Picture at the Oscars and been added to every film fan’s collection, but watch “The Heartbreak Kid” for a true classic of the time period. Speaking of sequels, the original “Sleuth” with Michael Caine in the younger role (which Jude Law took over in the recent remake) to Laurence Olivier’s cuckolded trickster is very entertaining. If you ever plan a canoeing trip through the impoverished Appalachian Mountains in America, avoid locals who play the banjo and have (allegedly) an inbred quality to them. “Deliverance” should dissuade you, as the words “squeal like a piggy” become ingrained on your consciousness.

1) THE HEARTBREAK KID
(dir: Elaine May, stars: Charles Grodin, Cybill Shepherd)

2) SLEUTH
(dir: Joseph L. Mankiewicz, stars: Laurence Olivier, Michael Caine)

3) DELIVERANCE
(dir: John Boorman, stars: Burt Reynolds, Jon Voight)

4) THE CANDIDATE
(dir: Michael Ritchie, stars: Robert Redford, Peter Boyle)

5) THE GODFATHER
(dir: Francis Ford Coppola, stars: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino)

6) THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE
(dir: Ronald Neame, stars: Gene Hackman, Shelley Winters)

7) CABARET
(dir: Bob Fosse, stars: Liza Minnelli, Michael York)

8) AVANTI!
(dir: Billy Wilder, stars: Jack Lemmon, Juliet Mills)

9) SOUNDER
(dir: Martin Ritt, stars: Paul Winfield, Cicely Tyson)

10) TRAVELS WITH MY AUNT
(dir: George Cukor, stars: Maggie Smith, Alec McCowen)

1971

“The Last Picture Show” is quite simply an American classic. Shot in black and white, Peter Bogdanovich’s film about a small Texan town in the 1950s, where the youth have to cope with boredom, coming of age, and the closing of their cinema is a film that deserves a continuing audience. For curiosity, watch the 1990 sequel “Texasville” to see how time has made the innocence of youth turn to cynicism. “The French Connection”, 1971’s Oscar winner for Best Picture, still holds up as good cinema, but if you’ve grown up on several decades of movies detailing crime and drugs, Hackman chasing the dapper Fernando Rey may feel a little tame. “Summer of ’42” is a charming rose-tinted movie set on the island of Nantucket off the Massachusetts coast about a boy’s love for a woman longing for the return of her soldier husband, off fighting in World War Two. “Harold and Maude” is a very quirky comedy, while “Carnal Knowledge” is a witty look at the sixties sexual revolution that Art Garfunkel and Jack Nicholson are trying to make sense of.

1) THE LAST PICTURE SHOW
(dir: Peter Bogdanovich, stars: Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges)

2) SUMMER OF ‘42
(dir: Robert Mulligan, stars: Gary Grimes, Jennifer O’Neill)

3) CARNAL KNOWLEDGE
(dir: Mike Nichols, stars: Jack Nicholson, Art Garfunkel)

4) HAROLD AND MAUDE
(dir: Hal Ashby, stars: Ruth Gordon, Bud Cort)

5) THE FRENCH CONNECTION
(dir: William Friedkin, stars: Gene Hackman, Roy Scheider)

6) DUEL
(dir: Steven Spielberg, stars: Dennis Weaver, a scary truck!)

7) BANANAS
(dir: Woody Allen, stars: Woody Allen, Louise Lasser)

8) THE HOSPITAL
(dir: Arthur Hiller, stars: George C. Scott, Diana Rigg)

9) WALKABOUT
(dir: Nicolas Roeg, stars: Jenny Agutter, John Meillon)

10) SHAFT
(dir: Gordon Parks, stars: Richard Roundtree, Moses Gunn)

1970

Only a year after his noteworthy turn in “Easy Rider”, Jack Nicholson gives a perfect slow-boiling performance as an apparent working man who returns to his upper class family roots, with ditzy girlfriend in tow. It’s about reopening old wounds, and the title refers to Nicholson’s piano-playing as a younger man. I highly recommend you invest in a copy if you’ve never seen it, or pick up one of the various Jack Nicholson box sets that includes “Five Easy Pieces”. Superb drama! In a similar vein, “I Never Sang for My Father” is not well-known on either side of the Atlantic, but father and son combo Melvyn Douglas and Gene Hackman were both Oscar nominated for their performances. As with Nicholson and his father’s frozen relationship in “Five Easy Pieces”, the potency of “I Never Sang for My Father” is really in the evoking of a stark generation gap. As for “M*A*S*H”, the Altman treatment is far different from the subsequent sanitised television version of the American army’s experiences during the Korean War. Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould are a brilliant double act, focusing only on golf and rather blood-spattered and chaotic medical procedures. The highlight is a morbidly funny ceremony to witness the departure of a depressed colleague, to the tune “Suicide is Painless”! Enjoy!
1) FIVE EASY PIECES
(dir: Bob Rafelson, stars: Jack Nicholson, Karen Black)

2) M*A*S*H
(dir: Robert Altman, stars: Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould)

3) I NEVER SANG FOR MY FATHER
(dir: Gilbert Gates, stars: Gene Hackman, Melvyn Douglas)

4) THE MOLLY MAGUIRES
(dir: Martin Ritt, stars: Sean Connery, Richard Harris)

5) JOE
(dir: John G. Avildsen, stars: Peter Boyle, Susan Sarandon)

6) TRISTANA
(dir: Luis Bunuel, stars: Fernando Rey, Catherine Deneuve)

7) LOVE STORY
(dir: Arthur Hiller, stars: Ryan O’Neal, Ali MacGraw)

8) PATTON
(dir: Franklin J. Schaffner, stars: George C. Scott, Karl Malden)

9) SCROOGE
(dir: Ronald Neame, stars: Albert Finney, David Collings)

10) THE GREAT WHITE HOPE
(dir: Martin Ritt, stars: James Earl Jones, Jane Alexander)

The 1970s is, to my mind, the seminal decade for cinema (so far!). You could go to your local cinema tonight and I would probably win money that you won’t see as good a film as you could see if you stayed hom and turned on a DVD of any of the decade’s classic offerings. Arm yourself with a pile of movies by Sidney Lumet, Hal Ashby, or Scorsese, or Coppola. Pick up any of the performances by Jack Nicholson. Explore a time period where the tone of films was changing, and the darker side of the human animal was explored on screen. To pick a favourite ten movies from the decade is a challenge, but for the record, here they are!


TOP 10 MOVIES OF THE 1970s!

1) FIVE EASY PIECES (1970)
(dir: Bob Rafelson, stars: Jack Nicholson, Karen Black)

2) THE PAPER CHASE (1973)
(dir: James Bridges, stars: Timothy Bottoms, John Houseman)

3) THE LAST PICTURE SHOW (1971)
(dir: Peter Bogdanovich, stars: Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges)

4) ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST (1975)
(dir: Milos Forman, stars: Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher)

5) BOUND FOR GLORY (1976)
(dir: Hal Ashby, stars: David Carradine, Ronny Cox)

6) NETWORK (1976)
(dir: Sidney Lumet, stars: Faye Dunaway, Peter Finch)

7) MANHATTAN (1979)
(dir: Woody Allen, stars: Woody Allen, Mariel Hemingway)

8) AN UNMARRIED WOMAN (1978)
(dir: Paul Mazursky, stars: Jill Clayburgh, Alan Bates)

9) THE PARALLAX VIEW (1974)
(dir: Alan J. Pakula, stars: Warren Beatty, Hume Cronyn)

10) THE DEER HUNTER (1978)
(dir: Michael Cimino, stars: Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken)