10 Greatest Films of the 1970s

There are many that will argue that the 1970s were the greatest decade for film. The old studio system had collapsed in the 1960s and the new one wouldn’t start until the 1980s. For a decade, the lunatics were running the asylum — lunatics like Francis Ford Coppola, Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese, Peter Bogdanovich, Roman Polanski, Werner Herzog, and Milos Forman.

The Hays code was out the window. Films were raw and uncensored, letting out the roars of anguish and passion of two generations experiencing a social overhaul.

This was a hard list to whittle down. As with all these decadal lists, this is a list of 10 films I would present when asked to represent the decade. That means it may not be the ten truly greatest films. If two great films were too similar, one had to go. I tried not to repeat artists. There are two repetitions in this list — Robert Duvall and Cybil Shepherd both appear in two of these films.

If anything, I am comfortable that these ten films have dramatically effected the four decades of film that have come since. For each of these films, if you can’t come up with five films that wouldn’t exist without it, I’ll be surprised.

But, I’m quite sure a film you love was unable to fit into this list.

10. Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972) — Long before Alejandro González Iñárritu and Leonardo DiCaprio ventured into the forests to make their film, Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski did the same, to tell the story of a Spanish soldier from the expedition of Pizarro, gone mad.

“I am the great traitor. There must be no other. Anyone who even thinks about deserting this mission will be cut up into 198 pieces. Those pieces will be stamped on until what is left can be used only to paint walls. Whoever takes one grain of corn or one drop of water… more than his ration, will be locked up for 155 years. If I, Aguirre, want the birds to drop dead from the trees… then the birds will drop dead from the trees. I am the wrath of God. The earth I pass will see me and tremble. But whoever follows me and the river, will win untold riches. But whoever deserts…” — Don Lope de Aguirre

9. The Godfather (1972) — I’m just not a fan of the Godfather films, but I do like Robert Duvall’s performance as Tom Hagen, the consigliere of the Corleone family. Regardless of my opinion, I have to recognize the importance of this film to the art.

“Mr. Corleone never asks a second favor once he’s refused the first, understood?” — Tom Hagen

8. The Exorcist (1973) — I first saw The Exorcist, when I was five, at a drive-in theater. I think I spent the next ten years awaiting demonic possession. Director William Friedkin’s adaptation of William Peter Blatty’s bestseller is shocking and terrifying. Set in the nation’s capital — home of many of our society’s institutions it is the story of another societal institution (the church), powerless against what appears to be a young girl.

“Especially important is the warning to avoid conversations with the demon. We may ask what is relevant but anything beyond that is dangerous. He is a liar. The demon is a liar. He will lie to confuse us. But he will also mix lies with the truth to attack us. The attack is psychological, Damien, and powerful. So don’t listen to him. Remember that — do not listen.” — Father Merrin

7. Apocalypse Now (1979) — Duvall’s brief appearance in this classic is probably the most remembered. His character, Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore is confident, commanding, competent, caring, and crazy.

“I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for 12 hours. When it was all over, I walked up. We didn’t find one of ’em, not one stinkin’ dink body. The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like…victory. Someday this war’s gonna end…” — Lt. Colonel Bill Kilgore

6. The Last Picture Show (1971) — If you can take your eyes off of Cybill Shepherd, you’ll see Jeff Bridges playing the captain of the football team in this adaptation of the somewhat autobiographical Larry McMurtry novel about life in a small Texas town in the early 1950s.

“I’ll see you in a year or two if I don’t get shot.” — Duane Jackson

5. Chinatown (1974) — one of the best neo-noir. Directed by Roman Polanski, it stars Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway. Nicholson plays a Sam Spade type character investigating a corrupt reservoir deal.

“‘Course I’m respectable. I’m old. Politicians, ugly buildings, and whores all get respectable if they last long enough.” — Noah Cross

4. Rocky (1976) — the perfect underdog movie.

“Ah come on, Adrian, it’s true. I was nobody. But that don’t matter either, you know? ’Cause I was thinkin’, it really don’t matter if I lose this fight. It really don’t matter if this guy opens my head, either. ’Cause all I wanna do is go the distance. Nobody’s ever gone the distance with Creed, and if I can go that distance, you see, and that bell rings and I’m still standin’, I’m gonna know for the first time in my life, see, that I weren’t just another bum from the neighborhood.” — Rocky

3. All the President’s Men (1976) — William Goldman’s script and Alan Pakula’s direction converts Woodward & Bernstein’s book into a compelling, suspenseful drama. Redford and Dustin Hoffman play Woodward and Bernstein. They are well supported by Jason Robards and Hal Holbrook.

“If you’re gonna do it, do it right. If you’re gonna hype it, hype it with the facts. I don’t mind what you did. I mind the way you did it.” — Bob Woodward

2. Taxi Driver (1976) — It’s a little tougher to watch Taxi Driver today, when its story happens in real life, all too often. It’s a story of an alienated loner that expresses his rage via a bloodbath. It’s definitely DeNiro’s film, but he’s supported well by Harvey Keitel, Jodie Foster, Cybil Shepherd, and Peter Boyle.

“You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me? Then who the hell else are you talking… you talking to me? Well I’m the only one here.” — Travis Bickle

1. Jaws (1975) — The film that created the blockbuster. I remember my father saying that he never thought a movie could be better than the book, until he saw Jaws. Jaws is the perfect horror film and the perfect example of man vs. nature — three men on a boat against an unstoppable force.

“Mr. Vaughn, what we are dealing with here is a perfect engine, an eating machine. It’s really a miracle of evolution. All this machine does is swim and eat and make little sharks, and that’s all. Now, why don’t you take a long, close look at this sign.” — Hooper

Here are some of the many of other films that could easily have been included in this list:

Nashville, A Clockwork Orange, The Conversation, Alien, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The Deer Hunter, Network, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Barry Lyndon, Annie Hall, M*A*S*H, Badlands, The French Connection, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Deliverance, Papillon, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Harold and Maude, Dirty Harry, and The Man Who Would be King.

What would make your list?