100 or 107 Best Movies of the 1970s Survey

[SelwynMcGinty]

Other decade threads are still live, but why wait any longer for many cinephiles' favorite decades to revisit and discuss - - the mighty 1970s.

Once again, it seems prudent to implement a weighted system - this time, participants are asked to list their
Top 25 of theatrical releases between January 1, 1970 and December 31, 1979.

The counting will be as follows:
25 points for the #1 choice, 24 points for the #2 spot, 23 for #3, etc. down the line.

If indicated that there's no particular order, each selection will be awarded 7 points.

If you'd like to list some Honorable Mentions past 25 selections, please do so -
each title past the 25th will be awarded 1 point.
Please, just try not to list 70,000 films!

Don't imagine this will be tallied any time soon, so there's plenty of chances to change titles and lists.

Of course, any comments, thoughts, suggestions, questions or any discourse regarding Cinema of the great 1970s or anything else are encouraged and appreciated.

As always... thank you to everyone and cheers!

Starting off (this order may be subject to change in the coming days):

1. Taxi Driver
2. The Godfather Part II
3. The Godfather
4. Celine and Julie Go Boating
5. A Touch of Zen
6. Barry Lyndon
7. Aguirre, the Wrath of God
8. Alien
9. The Long Goodbye
10. Dog Day Afternoon
11. The Mother and the *****
12. Autumn Sonata
13. All the President's Men
14. Le Cercle Rouge
15. California Split
16. The Devils
17. Sorcerer
18. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul
19. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia
20. Female Trouble
21. The Marriage of Maria Braun
22. Stroszek
23. Invasion of the Body Snatchers
24. Saint Jack
25. Fat City

Honorable Mentions: The Friends of Eddie Coyle, Carrie, The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, F for Fake, Time After Time, The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3, Morgiana, Charley Varrick, Providence, The Laughing Policeman, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Day of the Jackal, Coffy, Patton, Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, Girlfriends, Wanda, The Honeymoon Killers, Truck Turner, Grey Gardens, Death in Venice, Foxy Brown, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, The Night Porter, Network, Hard Times, Why Does Herr R. Run Amok, Rolling Thunder, Up! (Russ Meyer), Savage Messiah, The Stepford Wives, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, The Big Fix, and too many others....

[Cremildo]

01. Alien
02. Autumn Sonata
03. Apocalypse Now
04. The Conversation
05. Chinatown
06. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
07. A Clockwork Orange
08. Taxi Driver
09. Nosferatu the Vampyre
10. Carrie
11. The Godfather
12. Nashville
13. Don't Look Now
14. All the President's Men
15. Jaws
16. Sorcerer
17. Dog Day Afternoon
18. Last Tango in Paris
19. The Molly Maguires
20. Macbeth
21. The Deer Hunter
22. Carnal Knowledge
23. All That Jazz
24. The Ascent
25. The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser

[AKORIS]

01] Jaws
02] Carrie
03] Monty Python and the Holy Grail
04) The Omen
05] Halloween
06] Death Wish
07] Dracula
08] Chinatown
09] Time After Time
10] The Wind And The Lion
11] A Bridge Too Far
12] Invasion Of The Body Snatchers
13] The Exorcist
14] Saturday Night Fever
15] All That Jazz
16] Westworld
17] Alien
18] National Lampoon's Animal House
19] The Three Musketeers
20] Hard Times
21] Patton
22] Kramer Vs Kramer
23] The Spy Who Loved Me
24] Close Encounters Of The Third Kind
25] The Four Musketeers
26] Live And Let Die
27] The Godfather
28] The Shootist
29] Marathon Man
30] The Godfather Part II
31] Play Misty For Me
32] The Rocky Horror Picture Show
33] High Plains Drifter
34] Star Wars
35] Black Christmas
36] Annie Hall
37] The Man Who Would Be King
38] Apocalypse Now
39] The Enforcer
40] Blazing Saddles



***************TONS of movies that I wanted to include.... this decade is very difficult to rate!!!

[Alan T]

1. Jaws
2. Halloween
3. Star Wars
4. The Warriors
5. Assault on Precinct 13
6. Dawn of the Dead
7. Phantasm
8. Alien
9. Dirty Harry
10. Magnum Force
11. Jaws 2
12. Black Christmas
13. Carrie
14. The Spy Who Loved Me
15. Superman
16. Deliverance
17. Enter The Dragon
18. High Plains Drifter
19. The Enforcer
20. Duel
21. The Amityville Horror
22. The Omen
23. Moonraker
24. Invasion of the Body Snatchers
25. Death Race 2000

[Beckford]

My Personal Favorites

1. Dr. Phibes Rises Again(’72-Robert Fuest)
2. Annie Hall(’77-Woody Allen)
3. Close Encounters of the Third Kind(’77-Steven Spielberg)
4. The Boy Friend(’71-Ken Russell)
5. Fellini Satyricon(’70-Federico Fellini)
6. Apocalypse Now(’79-Francis Ford Coppola)
7. Suspiria(’77-Dario Argento)
8. Saturday Night Fever(’77-John Badham)
9. Death on the Nile(’78-John Guillermin)
10. Ryan’s Daughter(’70-David Lean)
11. Obsession(’76-Brian De Palma)
12. Godspell(’73-David Greene)
13. The Abominable Dr. Phibes(’71-Robert Fuest)
14. Lady Caroline Lamb(’72-Robert Bolt)
15. The Hindenburg(’75-Robert Wise)
16. What’s Up, Doc?(’72-Peter Bogdanovich)
17. Days of Heaven(’78-Terrence Malick)
18. The Medusa Touch(’78-Jack Gold)
19. Young Frankenstein(’74-Mel Brooks)
20. Roseland(’77-James Ivory)
21. Stalker(’79-Andrei Tarkovsky)
22. Starting Over(’79-Alan J. Pakula)
23. Jaws(’75-Steven Spielberg)
24. The Tenant(’76-Roman Polanski)
25. The Last Valley(’71-James Clavell)

Honorable Mention(chronological)

Goin’ Down the Road(’70-Don Shebib)
Something for Everyone(’70-Harold Prince)
Fat City('72-John Huston)
Play It Again, Sam(’72-Herbert Ross)
Ash Wednesday(’73-Larry Peerce)
The Golden Voyage of Sinbad(’73-Gordon Hessler)
Paper Moon(’73-Peter Bogdanovich)
Day for Night(’74-Francois Truffaut)
Phase IV(’74-Saul Bass)
Fox and His Friends(’75-Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
Nashville(’75-Robert Altman)
Smile(’75-Michael Ritchie)
From Noon Till Three(’76-Frank D. Gilroy)
Autumn Sonata(’78-Ingmar Bergman)
The Boys from Brazil(’78-Franklin J. Schaffner)
Breaking Away(’79-Peter Yates)
Dracula(’79-John Badham)

[steel_breeze]

My favorite decade!

1. Star Wars
2. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
3. Halloween
4. Alien
5. Apocalypse Now
6. Assault on Precinct 13
7. Jaws
8. The Last Picture Show
9. Taxi Driver
10. The Godfather
11. All That Jazz
12. Days of Heaven
13. Harold and Maude
14. The Conformist
15. Five Easy Pieces
16. Network
17. All The President's Men
18. The Godfather Part II
19. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
20. Grease
21. Annie Hall
22. M*A*S*H
23. Star Trek: The Motion Picture
24. The Warriors
25. Dawn of the Dead

[Gacivory]

1. All That Jazz
2. Fat City
3. The Conversation
4. The Godfather
5. The Godfather Part II
6. Le Cercle Rouge
7. Network
8. Eraserhead
9. Jeanne Dielman
10. Cries & Whispers
11. Autumn Sonata
12. Day For Night
13. Real Life
14. Ludwig
15. Thunderbolt & Lightfoot
16. Carnal Knowledge
17. A New Leaf
18. F For Fake
19. All The Presidents Men
20. 3 Women
21. The Exorcist
22. The Last Detail
23. Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion
24. The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant
25. Nashville

[Streamingsux]

Star Wars
Jaws
Halloween
Alien
The Exorcist
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
...everything else..

[Rzzzz]

Man, what a decade for film. This was the hardest to narrow down to 25...

1. Apocalypse Now
2. Eraserhead
3. The Godfather
4. The Godfather Part II
5. Dirty Harry

6. The Shootist
7. Jaws
8. Deliverance
9. Death Wish
10. Dawn of the Dead

11. The Poseidon Adventure
12. Jeremiah Johnson
13. Soylent Green
14. Blazing Saddles
15. Marathon Man

16. A Clockwork Orange
17. Young Frankenstein
18. The Cowboys
19. Westworld
20. The Warriors

21. The Mechanic
22. The Towering Inferno
23. Chinatown
24. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
25. Three Days of the Condor

Honorable mention:

[Show spoiler]Taxi Driver
Jesus
Paper Moon
Alien
The Exorcist
The Wicker Man
The Three Musketeers
High Plains Drifter
Sleeper
Zardoz
Gator
Little Big Man
Myra Breckinridge
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask)
Barry Lyndon
What's Up, Doc?
Willard
The Deer Hunter
Emperor of the North
The Outlaw Josey Wales
Phantasm
White Lightning
Hausu
Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens
Smokey and the Bandit
A Boy and His Dog
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
They Call Me Trinity
The Tenant
The Getaway
Logan's Run
All the President's Men
Enter the Dragon
Play Misty for Me
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
Chisum
The Seven-Ups
Desperate Living
Kelly's Heroes
Five Easy Pieces
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth
Tommy
The Return of the Pink Panther
Rollerball
Animal House
Five Summer Stories
Heaven Can Wait
Halloween
Gargoyles
The Omen
Get Carter
The Man Who Would Be King
Sextette
The Sting
Magnum Force
Bananas
Man in the Wilderness
American Graffiti
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Carrie
My Name is Nobody
The Longest Yard
Slap Shot
Damien - Omen II
The Mighty Peking Man
Freebie and the Bean

[ophone]

Although I like every movie decade, doing this list I realise the 70s were stacked.

1) The Godfather (1972: Francis Ford Coppola)
2) The Godfather Part II (1974: Francis Ford Coppola)
3) Giù la testa [Duck, You Sucker] (1971: Sergio Leone)
4) Network (1976: Sidney Lumet)
5) ...continuavano a chiamarlo Trinità [Trinity Is Still My Name] (1971: Enzo Barboni)
6) Il mio nome è nessuno [My Name Is Nobody] (1973: Tonino Valerii)
7) Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975: Terry Jones & Terry Gilliam)
8) L'aveu [The Confession] (1970: Costa-Gavras)
9) Papillon (1973: Franklin J. Schaffner)
10) Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970: Richard Fleischer, Kinji Fukasaku & Toshio Masuda)
11) Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii (1972: Adrian Maben)
12) L'aile ou la cuisse [The Wing or the Thigh?] (1976: Claude Zidi)
13) Les Aventures de Rabbi Jacob [The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob] (1973: Gérard Oury)
14) Les 12 travaux d'Astérix [The Twelve Tasks of Asterix) (1976: René Goscinny & Albert Uderzo)
15) Alien (1979: Ridley Scott)
16) Buffet froid (1979: Bertrand Blier)
17) Angst essen Seele auf [Ali: Fear Eats the Soul] (1974: Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
18) Le cercle rouge (1970: Jean-Pierre Melville)
19) Die Blechtrommel [The Tin Drum] (1979: Volker Schlöndorff)
20) Una giornata particolare (1977: Ettore Scola)
21) Paper Moon (1973: Peter Bogdanovich)
22) L'emmerdeur [A Pain in the A**] (1973: Édouard Molinaro)
23) Les valseuses [Going Places] (1974: Bertrand Blier)
24) All That Jazz (1979: Bob Fosse)
25) All the President's Men (1976: Alan J. Pakula)

Honorable mentions:
Apocalypse Now (1979: Francis Ford Coppola)
La cage aux folles (1978: Édouard Molinaro)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977: Steven Spielberg)
I due superpiedi quasi piatti [Crime Busters] (1977: Enzo Barboni)
Le grand blond avec une chaussure noire [The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe] (1972: Yves Robert)
Jo [Joe: The Busybody] (1971: Jean Girault)
Life of Brian (1979: Terry Jones)
Little Big Man (1970: Arthur Penn)
Lo chiamavano Trinità [They Call Me Trinity] (1970: Enzo Barboni)
Midnight Express (1978: Alan Parker)
New York, New York (1977: Martin Scorsese)
Nosferatu - Phantom der Nacht (1979: Werner Herzog)
Pari e dispari [Odds and Evens] (1978: Sergio Corbucci)
Patton (1970: Franklin J. Schaffner)
Stalker (1979: Andrei Tarkovsky)
Star Wars (1977: George Lucas)
Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum [The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum] (1975: Volker Schlöndorff & Margarethe von Trotta)
La vie devant soi [Madame Rosa] (1977: Moshé Mizrahi)

[Rayjg]

Annie Hall
Assault on Precinct 13
Barry Lyndon
Brewster McCloud
The Brood*
California Split
Charley Varrick
A Clockwork Orange
Cross of Iron
Doomed Love*
Eraserhead
F for Fake
Frenzy*
The Kremlin Letter
The Long Goodbye
Mad Max
McCabe & Mrs. Miller
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid
Phantom of the Paradise
Picnic at Hanging Rock
Real Life
Solaris
Taxi Driver
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
Zardoz

[DR Herbert West]

1. Halloween
2. Alien
3. Phantasm
4. Dawn of the Dead
5. Eraserhead
6. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
7. Suspiria
8. The Conversation
9. The Exorcist
10. Assault on Precinct 13
11. Duel
12. Jaws
13. The Brood
14. Superman: The Movie
15. A Clockwork Orange
16. Sorcerer
17. The Warriors
18. Invasion of the Body Snatchers
19. Apocalypse Now
20. Star Trek: The Motion Picture
21. Black Christmas
22. The Spy Who Loved Me
23. THX 1138
24. Carrie
25. Star Wars

[Leslie Dame]

1. The Godfather (1972)
2. Apocalypse Now (1979)
3. The Godfather Part II (1974)
4. Taxi Driver (1976)
5. Chinatown (1974)
6. Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977)
7. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
8. Jaws (1975)
9. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
10. Annie Hall (1977)
11. The Exorcist (1973)
12. Rocky (1976)
13. Alien (1979)
14. Network (1976)
15. The French Connection (1971)
16. Barry Lyndon (1975)
17. Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
18. Mean Streets (1973)
19. Patton (1970)
20. Days of Heaven (1978)
21. The Last Picture Show (1971)
22. All the President’s Men (1976)
23. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
24. Don’t Look Now (1973)
25. The Conversation (1974)

[merlinjones]

Network
Superman
What's Up Doc?
Paper Moon
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Harold & Maude
Young Frankenstein
Blazing Saddles
Cabaret
The Three Musketeers
The Poseidon Adventure
Star Wars
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Being There
Duel
Alien
Jaws
Carrie
Taxi Driver
American Grafitti
The Life of Brian
The New, Original Wonder Woman
Snoopy Come Home
Pufnstuf
House of Dark Shadows
Bedknobs and Broomsticks
Escape to Witch Mountain
The Rescuers

[Cpt. Feeney]

This really is the best and toughest decade.
Coppola with his run of four straight classics, does he get to hog four top spots? Gah!

Glad to see Fat City scoring big, and a King Hu film making a top ten.

[Juan de Internet]

1. The Godfather
2. Paper Moon
3. The Godfather Part II
4. Apocalypse Now
5. The Deer Hunter
6. Annie Hall
7. Chinatown
8. Days of Heaven
9. American Graffiti
10. The Bad News Bears
11. Slap Shot
12. Dersu Uzala
13. Star Wars
14. Grease
15. Scenes from a Marriage
16. Autumn Sonata
17. Cries & Whispers
18. A Clockwork Orange
19. Barry Lyndon
20. Two-Lane Blacktop
21. The Last Picture Show
22. Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
23. M*A*S*H
24. 1900
25. Kramer vs. Kramer

[Mothravka]

1. Pastoral: To Die in the Country (1974, Shūji Terayama)
2. Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975, Chantal Akerman)
3. Mirror (1975, Andrei Tarkovsky)
4. The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1975, Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
5. Solaris (1972, Andrei Tarkovsky)
6. The Meetings of Anna (1978, Chantal Akerman)
7. Himiko (1974, Masahiro Shinoda)
8. The Wishing Tree (1976, Tengiz Abuladze)
9. Demons (1971, Toshio Matsumoto)
10. The Assassination of Ryoma (1974, Kazuo Kuroki)
11. Stalker (1979, Andrei Tarkovsky)
12. Les Hautes solitudes (1974, Philippe Garrel)
13. Uski Roti (1970, Mani Kaul)
14. Fantastic Planet (1973, René Laloux)
15. Still Life (1974, Sohrab Shahid Saless)
16. Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970, Elio Petri)
17. The Man Who Sleeps (1974, Bernard Queysanne)
18. The Order (1973, Jean-Daniel Pollet)
19. A Woman Under the Influence (1974, John Cassavetes)
20. Edvard Munch (1974, Peter Watkins)
21. This Transient Life (1970, Akio Jissoji)
22. Barry Lyndon (1975, Stanley Kubrick)
23. Heroic Purgatory (1970, Yoshishige Yoshida)
24. Pictures of the Old World (1970, Dušan Hanák)
25. Ecstasy of the Angels (1972, Kōji Wakamatsu)

[DKLou]

Originally Posted by Rzzzz

Man, what a decade for film.

Pulled this quote out as it sums it up. Honestly, the 70's and 80's pretty much dominate the film eras for sheer number of quality titles and how much cultural influence and impact so many have had.

Hell, we are STILL getting prequels, sequels and other milk-jobs of several IPs that began in those decades. Cant say that about most other decades where there seems to be more "watch and forget".

[Rzzzz]

Originally Posted by DKLou

Pulled this quote out as it sums it up. Honestly, the 70's and 80's pretty much dominate the film eras for sheer number of quality titles and how much cultural influence and impact so many have had.

Hell, we are STILL getting prequels, sequels and other milk-jobs of several IPs that began in those decades. Cant say that about most other decades where there seems to be more "watch and forget".

So true. Hollywood needs a major awakening like they had in the 70's. Most of the films I listed could never get made today. Every time Hollywood takes a chance on something different and it fails for whatever reason, the sycophants in the media (and the ones on here, you know who they are ) cry out out, "See? See? People only want comic book movies, sequels, prequels and remakes." No, people just want good, creative, fun, pure ENTERTAINMENT, with no scolding, lecturing or preaching.

I am not sure that the no talent hacks who have taken over the industry even have the discipline to attempt that kind of comeback though.

[DKLou]

Originally Posted by Rzzzz

So true. Hollywood needs a major awakening like they had in the 70's. Most of the films I listed could never get made today. Every time Hollywood takes a chance on something different and it fails for whatever reason, the sycophants in the media (and the ones on here, you know who they are ) cry out out, "See? See? People only want comic book movies, sequels, prequels and remakes." No, people just want good, creative, fun, pure ENTERTAINMENT, with no scolding, lecturing or preaching.

I am not sure that the no talent hacks who have taken over the industry even have the discipline to attempt that kind of comeback though.

Amen, friend. People do not want only comic book films. We want good, creative films with quality production values, good editing and all that stuff. And yes, leave the "message" in your pockets, please. .

Of course, good comic book films and even prequel/sequels are not all bad. I enjoyed the latest FF movie quite a bit. Mostly though, I am tired of the formula stuff and am especially done with heavily-milked older franchises. Just stop. They are also free to stop live action remakes of cartoons & reboots in general, unless the original was truly a pile of crap.