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With the studio system declining, Hollywood’s true golden era began in the 1970s — auteur filmmaking combined with blockbuster appeal. Here are the 25 Greatest Films of the 70s.
25. Patton
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Original Release — April 2, 1970
This war epic brings one of World War II’s most enigmatic yet commanding personalities to light. Thanks to the fully committed performance of George C. Scott, audiences understand why a man like Patton was given such military power — and why it needed to be taken away. A tactically brilliant mind with an irascible personality, General George S. Patton was a man of discipline above all else. His campaigns on nearly every front of the war were filled with victories like the Allies hadn’t seen — but also treated his own soldiers with the same fervor that he applied to all things.
Though Patton was a man who could wield the newest and most terrifying weapons of war, his inability to think like the modern front-line soldier is brilliantly and ironically shown as his downfall. Unable to relate to his soldiers on a personal level, the requests the General makes of those under his command become more and more similar to those the Allies are fighting to defeat. As a man determined to achieve glory above all else, Patton is a film about the race against the enemy — and in the mind of the titular general, anyone who stands in the way of his triumphs is the enemy.
24. MASH
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Original Release — March 18, 1970
With the horrors of the Vietnam War an ongoing event in American minds and media, it seemed a prime time to give in to despair with the greater context of world events. MASH made the wise decision of giving American audiences the exact opposite — a satire of war and those involved. Set in the Korean War, the film focuses on a handful of army doctors who are more content to cheat, steal, and slack off rather than perform their duties. It was a sense of levity to audiences during a time when an entire generation was sent into the harrowing jungles of Vietnam. The images of battle they were now used to seeing had become so depressing, that not even the war films of the late 50s and early 60s could compare to the real-life horrors that television was bringing in.
MASH gave its viewers the chance to breathe a little easier, relating to characters who were begrudgingly in their fatigues and away from home. Much like Brooklyn Nine-Nine brought laughs to the standard drama police procedural, MASH took the patriotic stoicism of wartime movies and let it go AWOL. The central idea that brought so many laughs to audiences gained even greater popularity when the film was adapted into its more well-known television series of the same name that ran from 1972-1983.
23. Deliverance
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Original Release — August 18, 1972
Toxic masculinity is a subject that has been explored and exposed during the MeToo movement, but Deliverance made one of the initial comments on it upon its release in 1972. What begins as a weekend adventure for four alpha male friends descends into a battle for survival against their backwoods pursuers. The city men believe themselves to be the champions of testosterone — well-earning jobs and a thirst for leisurely adventure in the country must equal complete masculinity, right?
In the lawless Georgia woods, they couldn’t be more wrong. Ambushed and brutalized by the subsistence-living people of the forest, the friends come to embrace their primal natures. In a horrifying descent into savagery, they come to the often-tearful realization that this horrible game of cat-and-mouse will be the only way to ensure they come out of this alive. Each character gets the chance to prove they want to survive — a choice that results in them doing something they never thought they would be capable of. Deliverance is above all a horrid deconstruction of masculinity, highlighting both its frailties and its dangerous appeal.
22. American Graffiti
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Original Release — August 11, 1973
Travel back to the good ol’ 1950s, when teenagers could aimlessly cruise the boulevard looking for adventures and love. American Graffiti succeeds in its simplicity — the stakes never get too high, but the endearing nature of these well-meaning characters makes you root for them all the same. In an era where the Vietnam War was dominating every bit of media, Graffiti is a reminder of what life was once like, made by a new generation of filmmakers who were determined to show their stance against the war wasn’t unpatriotic — it was a call to what they wanted to return to.
It is an exploration of an age of innocence, the type of life that America’s politicians should have been creating for their youngest generations. With a soundtrack that defined the childhood of its main audience, this film reintroduced Ron Howard as an adult rather than a child actor — and launched the career of a young director named George Lucas.
21. Blazing Saddles
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Original Release — February 7, 1974
Mel Brooks remains the king of comedy thanks in part to one of his most revered films. Riddled with humor that wouldn’t make it past an assistant’s desk today, this farcical western is a send-up of the John Wayne type of film, the type of wagon train show that showed life on the frontier as great — definitely not the type of place that would be rife with discrimination, brutality, and corruption. Though Blazing Saddles doesn’t necessarily comment on the aforementioned social issues, its foolishness and camp is built upon generations of filmmakers having forgotten to do so.
Filled with anachronisms beyond compare — most famously the Count Basie band performing right in the middle of the prairie — Brooks expertly weaves a joke into every possible moment, whether it be verbal or visual. As a Black sheriff in an all-white town, the incomparable Cleavon Little teams up with the equally stellar Gene Wilder to create a story that is just as daring, provocative, and hilarious today as it was upon release.
20. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
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Original Release — October 11, 1974
One of cinema’s most controversial films is often overlooked for its artistic achievements — unprecedented cinematography, use of natural light atmospheres, and well-directed tension have made this terrifying classic a mainstay of American horror. It starts as most lower-budget slasher films do — frisky teenagers, a backwoods forest, and a skulking villain — but Tobe Hooper’s classic remains as such because it is a film with something to say. A comment on the degradation of the American morality and family unit, critics have given more and more esteem to this 1974 film with each passing decade.
While some view it as a call to vegetarianism, Massacre is a film about the brutality often inflicted on women in the media. Where its male characters are easily — though bloodily — dispatched by the horrid cannibal family at the center of its story, its heroines endure grueling torture, physical and psychological. Hooper’s desire to tell a lurid tale of depravity is well done but ranks among some of the finer horror films due to its social commentary.
19. Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
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Original Release — June 30, 1971
This classic film was a visual treat for the eyes, made all the more wonderful by the treats that inhabited the kooky palace of Gene Wilder’s enigmatic inventor. What child hasn’t dreamed of being in a factory that makes an endless amount of sweets? Yet as with all things lined with sugar, a sentimental lesson is always waiting underneath the shiny wrapper — young Charlie Bucket and his fellow golden ticket winners are all tested in Wonka’s wonky ways to see who will be worthy of inheriting his confectionary palace. An endless source of happiness for generations, Wilder’s performance is what keeps bringing audiences back. With a twinkle in his eye, he never stops his streak of positivity and energy, reminding us that wonder can be behind every corner. Iconic songs, characters, and visuals have made the film nearly on par with The Wizard of Oz as a generation-defining film.
18. The French Connection
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Original Release — October 9, 1971
Often overshadowed by the release of Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry the same year, Inspector Callahan may have a rival as top cop in Gene Hackman’s “Popeye” Doyle. Detective Doyle’s pursuit of a Marseilles-based heroin kingpin becomes a descent into the madness of pursual. As Doyle charges forward in his chase — both literal and figurative — of the French drug dealers, he increasingly disregards the toll it takes on himself or the public around him.
In a rubber-burning embrace of the film’s themes, The French Connection features a ferocious car chase, one of the greatest in cinema history. Tearing through the streets of New York, the assassins meant to take down Doyle feel the wrong end of his ferocity — another example of his pursuit of justice becoming one of vengeance. By the end, Doyle has abandoned all other aspects of this life — the only thing that exists for him is to uncover the French connection. It is no wonder why this film grinds and sparks with tension the whole way through — director William Friedkin’s other great cinematic achievement is The Exorcist.
17. Annie Hall
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Original Release — April 20, 1977
Woody Allen’s exploration of male and female relationships is at the heart of so much of his work — but he never quite topped himself after Annie Hall. He and Diane Keaton star as an on-again, off-again couple who navigate sex and friendship in the (then) modern age. With a plot as simple as that, Allen and Keaton delight in making the small moments burst with energy and comedic opportunity.
Their musings on love and life take place over cocaine, a lobster dinner that goes haywire, and standing in line at a movie — anywhere and everywhere is the perfect place to neurotically meditate over what drives men and women together and apart. That is perhaps the most affecting and greatest accomplishment of Annie Hall: its constant reminder that life rarely happens in roaring, soaring clusters of destiny. It is the quiet moments, the boring days, and the pitifully mundane achievements that seem to make life a bizarre yet enchanting adventure.
16. Dirty Harry
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Original Release — December 23, 1971
In continuing his rebellious hot streak of characters, Clint Eastwood gave us arguably his most recognizably grizzled performance as a cop with a perennial chip on his shoulder. Moving the action away from the typical mean streets of New York, director Don Siegel focuses on the shining city by the sea, San Francisco. Its cleaner atmosphere makes Inspector Harry Callahan the one who stands out as rough and tough. More suited in the lawless Old West than modern society, Harry believes justice can only be carried out through blazing gunfire rather than the slow procession of bureaucratic paperwork.
Fully embracing the handheld camera style of the 70s and infusing it with the grit and grime of real life, Harry patrols the streets like a wolf keeping his pack in line, and Eastwood’s trademark grimace isn’t just for show in this ultimate cop classic. Harry is a fuse that could explode at any moment — his superiors seem to treat him with greater hostility than the suspects he is chasing (and frequently gunning) down. Imbued with the institutional cynicism of the 1970s, Dirty Harry became immediately controversial upon its release — and the rogue cop at the center of the film could have cared less, as long as it got the job done. This ultimate cop film still remains an action-packed, cool-as-ice classic to this day. Job well done, Inspector Callahan.
15. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
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Original Release — December 14, 1977
Released in 1977, the success of cinema’s apex franchise — Star Wars — overshadowed Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of his own student film. An ode to his pianist mother, the film is a celebration of communication through the universal language of music. Though the arrival of aliens on Earth naturally propagates a sense of unease, there is beauty in the near-relaxing atmosphere the film creates. Almost plotless in its execution, the ordinary people at the other end of these close encounters are beautifully deconstructed and examined.
In the seemingly infinite cosmos, there is perhaps one thing that links us all — we want to know where we belong. As all the people who have encountered the aliens are drawn to Wyoming’s Devils Tower, the slow descent of the alien mothership and communication through musical tones is a pure cinematic wonder. Close Encounters takes its time to reveal how lost in life its characters are — and happily reminds us that one day we will all find where we belong in the universe.
14. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
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Original Release — November 19, 1975
Among the most affecting American dramas ever created, this film helped to redefine what it meant to be in a mental institution. Jack Nicholson’s Randle McMurphy voluntarily commits himself — a ploy to stay out of prison — but soon finds it is not the vacation he envisioned. Through McMurphy’s eyes, we are tempted to just see his fellow patients as the butt of cruel jokes — but we are soon introduced to the kind souls that most people wouldn’t give a second thought about.
Under the cruel and domineering shadow of Nurse Ratched, McMurphy builds a rebellion against her, determined to show his new friends that there is more to life than the white walls that ensnare them. The hospital itself dominates nearly every moment of this film, a startling reminder that this is the only home they have known for years. Some strange semblance of a family forms around McMurphy as he battles Ratched philosophically, the two exchanging venomous lashings at group therapy sessions. Their banter — such a friendly word hardly qualifies — electrifies the screen, helping to create one of the most bitter rivalries ever put on film.
13. A Clockwork Orange
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Original Release — February 2, 1972
Remembered for its depiction of “ultraviolence” and the frequent failings of institutional reeducation, audiences forget that Stanley Kubrick’s adaption of A Clockwork Orange is set in a dystopian England, rife with corruption, sadism, and harmful propaganda. As Alex DeLarge’s gang of droogs spend their nights seeking violence and fornication, their horrid spree catches up with them. Sent to prison, Alex endures the misery of having his brain rewired through subliminal messaging — soon enough, even the audience who has abhorred Alex and his actions now suddenly begging the doctors to stop their torturous procedure.
The use of technology of that magnitude being lauded as an institutional treatment beautifully forces us to consider who is more moral — the sadistic and violent Alex? Or the governmental figures that sanction such a horrifying mental realignment? So much of science fiction depicts our own technological follies coming back to haunt us — A Clockwork Orange uniquely frames its hubris and horrors as a drama of the ability to create a personality.
12. Halloween
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Original Release — October 27, 1978
The pantheon of horror slashers is filled with killers all desperate to become the next Norman Bates — and only one succeeded. Seemingly born without a soul and with eyes as dark as the Devil himself, Michael Myers is a legend among the children of Haddonfield, Illinois — a modern-day boogeyman. Brainy babysitter Laurie Strode is forced to learn that startling reality all too well on Halloween night. Director John Carpenter had Psycho at the forefront of his mind when making this killer classic. Jamie Lee Curtis was cast as Strode, not only for her talent, but her mother was the actress behind Marion Crane, the victim of Norman Bates’ brutal shower attack. But Carpenter wisely kept the similarities there.
Where most horror film villains were on the outskirts of society, Michael could easily be in your backyard. It was almost taboo to see death and misery on the streets of American suburbia before Halloween, but Michael brought it right to our doorsteps. While Norman Bates will try to charm you, Michael does not speak — he only acts. Like a rabid wolf, Michael Myers operates on instinct alone, with his only function in life satisfying his overriding sense to kill and maim. Halloween gives no answers as to how or why Michael became the monster he did, and that is perhaps the most frightening aspect of this film — he has simply always been this way.
11. The Godfather: Part II
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Original Release — December 18, 1974
Cited by many as the greatest sequel of all-time, this Oscar-winning follow-up to the classic original stands on its own while expanding the mythology — and tragedy — of its central family. Told as both a sequel following Michael and a prequel focused on a young Vito (Robert De Niro), the parallel timelines show a father and son who at the end of all things, couldn’t be more different. While the up-and-coming Vito uses violence as only a last resort, Part II charts Michael’s further descent into darkness and cements him as the film’s true villain.
Just as Vito begins his ascent as a central figure in the underworld, Michael seeks to legitimize the Corleone family — yet each action he takes only enwraps him in more nefarious and bloody dealings. The contrasts go wider as the comparisons become slimmer. As Vito’s family and connections grow, Michael insulates himself in hatred, greed, and power. Whether you view the film as a pure sequel or more of an epilogue to Part I, there is no debate that The Godfather: Part II is a moving and powerful testament to the lingering question that haunts its characters — how do I achieve the American dream?
10. Alien
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Original Releases — June 22, 1979
Pitched as “Jaws in space,” no description could be more appropriate to highlight the anxiety audiences were about to feel when Alien premiered in 1979. A simple elevator pitch became bone-chillingly expanded upon when the crew of interplanetary hauler Nostromo is stuck in the vacuum of space with an organism far more advanced than them. Adapted to only kill and lay eggs, the titular creature is among cinema’s greatest and most horrifying designs. Director Ridley Scott and designer H.R. Giger’s combination of insectoid features and sexual imagery brought the Xenomorph to life in an all too uncomfortable way.
The creature at the center of the film speaks to humanity’s greatest fear — that which we do not understand. The recent Prometheus franchise prequels foolishly attempted to flesh out a backstory of the Xenomorph’s evolution, which went against Alien’s greatest strength. No explanation is given to the giant corpses found with their chests bursting out. There is no great reveal of how to get the one up on this crawling monstrosity. The Xenomorph was nature at its most deadly — should humanity tread further into the darkness of space, there is no telling what we may find waiting for us.
9. The Exorcist
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Original Release — December 26, 1973
Horror is a genre that sadly prefers to follow trends rather than create or deviate from them. You see your spooky abandoned house that teenagers have shacked up in, and a madman with a knife takes them out one by one. In order to create a truly visceral and horrifying experience, director William Friedkin thankfully abandoned all other tropes. Set among the beautiful estates of Georgetown, evil does not lurk behind every single corner. It’s not even hiding in your closet. It’s right in front of you, in the sickening snarl of a possessed child.
The aforementioned typical teenagers typically endure knives in their backs, but The Exorcist elects to painfully torture the soul of a young girl while a demon slowly takes over her body. With the brilliance of zero reliance on jump scares, the horror comes from an uncomfortably long time spent suffering with young Regan (Linda Blair, who received an Oscar nomination at just fourteen). Her body breaks down, forcing us to absorb every inch of her pain as scars and sores break out across her face. The unrelenting sound design and forked-tongue dialogue work seamlessly to create a creature of pure malice and hate. By the time the titular priest arrives to save young Regan, we’ve nearly forgotten that any form of help is coming at all.
8. Chinatown
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Original Release — June 20, 1974
Widely regarded as one of the best screenplays ever written, Roman Polanski’s slick direction and deeply layered performances from Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway elevated this crime thriller to classic movie status. Meant to emulate the noir-films of the 1940s, Chinatown elects to ditch the overly moody atmosphere of the genre and instead use it as a platform to create detailed and troubled characters. While investigator Jake Gittes (Nicholson) looks into these Los Angeles-based crimes, he is paired with Evelyn Mulwray (Dunaway), the femme fatale stand-in who never makes it clear if she is Jake’s ally or foe.
Her personal pain and suffering end up becoming the emotional crux of the film — and appropriately so. The noirs of yesteryear were too overly content to not dive into the inner workings of their female characters. With Gittes as our harbinger of information, we are able to peel back the layers on all these characters as a fully rounded individual comes into view, eventually giving Chinatown the feeling of a psychological drama by the time it’s all over. Rife with cynicism in a crime-riddled conspiracy, Jake walks away from a situation he realizes he can do nothing about — he may be upset, but we as an audience are perfectly contended to have an ending that reflects more of real life than a phoned-in happy one.
7. Rocky
Original Release — December 3, 1976
Though the 70s were partially defined by their realism and grit, Rocky is the film that makes you want to jump up and down. The fighter’s success becomes our success as we watch him run up those famous steps, his hands victoriously pumping in the cold morning air. The greatest protagonists always strike the perfect balance between who we are and who we want to be. Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky Balboa is no exception to this golden rule. The pursuit of his dreams may be in the boxing ring, but it’s a struggle that all can relate to, regardless of profession or desire.
Just as he begins a relationship with timid Adrian (Talia Shire), his battle against heavyweight champion Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) rears its head. The gladiators trade endless blows, Creed’s technical ability countered by Rocky’s pure determination. As the final bell rings, Creed wins in a split decision — but that doesn’t make him the true victor of the night. Professing his love for Adrian in the ring, Rocky shows us that winning the title doesn’t matter. He gave it his all and proved to himself he could go the distance. That was the battle that mattered. True victory comes from never giving up on your dreams and on yourself.
6. The Deer Hunter
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Original Release — February 23, 1979
The effects of the Vietnam War created such a ripple in American society from top to bottom, a war that highlighted inequality may have shown how similar we all are. A top-notch cast — Robert De Niro, Meryl Street, Christopher Walken, among others — delivers a tragic deconstruction of the psyche of soldiers returning home from war. Eloquently constructed as three major sequences — a wedding before the war, the war itself, and the return home — the lapses in time are startling to the audience as each person is irreversibly damaged and changed.
The Deer Hunter does not ask or wonder if its characters are damaged — it bravely ponders if they can ever be put back together. Beyond that — helped in part due to a mighty run time yet perfectly entertaining pacing — the characters come to understand because they are different people, the “family” units they create are different as well. The friends that celebrated and smiled at the wedding never came home. Men that experienced torture and mayhem came back and must walk the difficult road of connecting with those they left behind.
5. Jaws
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Original Release — June 20, 1975
In 1975, a killer swam to our shores that has gained as much infamy as any film slasher. The peaceful getaway of Amity Island is terrorized by a monstrous shark and it’s up to the police chief, an oceanographer, and a grizzled boat captain to take it down. The sea-faring horror/adventure has given audiences thrills from release to today. Steven Spielberg’s first cinematic triumph plays on our fears of the unknown — in this film, represented by the vastness of the ocean and the horrors that come from beneath us. Shark attacks are well documented in the news — we hear a few stories each year during the summer.
But Spielberg’s visual tension-fueled style and John Williams’ iconic two-note score make these attacks feel like this killer could walk on shore to continue its onslaught — even the sandy beach doesn’t seem so safe as the blood rolls on shore. The final battle at sea is typically a losing one for our heroes who are constantly outsmarted by the massive finned terror. Jaws treats the shark as a horrid hybrid of a mindless beast and a calculated killer — it’s operating on instinct alone, but goodness gracious, what ingenious instinct! Audiences continue to marvel at this beacon of filmmaking excellence — thanks to Jaws, the blockbuster was born and the entire business of cinema has never been the same again.
4. Apocalypse Now
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Original Release — August 15, 1979
Francis Ford Coppola’s approach to the Vietnam War was based on Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness — and what a descent into madness it is. As a young soldier travels deep into the jungle to assassinate an AWOL colonel, each step of his journey brutally captures the horror of war — and the stomach-churning glee of those who embrace it. Though setting the core story in one of America’s darkest historical chapters, it is a tale with universal themes that could have been applied to any time.
Men grapple with the darkness in their soul, and all ask the same question in different ways — did these dangerous jungles produce this insidious cloud? Or was it always lingering inside them? Famous for its incredibly intricate and beautifully photographed helicopter attack scene, Apocalypse Now achieves what all epics strive to — make the quiet contemplation of humanity as brutal and painful as its largest action scenes. Glistening from frame to frame with a color palette that makes you queasy, few films can match the consistent mastery of this cinematic opera.
3. Taxi Driver
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Original Release — February 9, 1976
An appropriately major inspiration for the recent Joker, Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver explores the difficulties of life’s sensory overload by tackling the sadly taboo topic of mental health. As the title suggests, Travis Bickle (Robert DeNiro) battles depression and violent behavior while transporting passengers back and forth across New York City, the only job that lets him forget his horrid lack of sleep. The neon-lit avenues are almost like a blacklight to Travis — he sees the grime, filth, and muck that inhabitants these streets. He attempts to find hope in local lawmakers before he feels the need to take the law into his own hands.
Travis wants to be a hero, a savior, but struggles with exactly what that means. His plans shift from political assassinations to rescue attempts as fast as he can turn the wheel of his car. Taxi Driver painfully captures Travis’ existential crisis — he does not know how to function in society, and at times even exist at all. To him, it could all be a game of charades, his character constantly changing to fit the situation. For a world increasingly disconnected and modernizing, Taxi Driver remains essential viewing to show why simple stable and grounding forces in life are so important.
2. Star Wars
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Original Release — May 25, 1977
No other film in history has been cited more by filmmakers as their career inspiration than 1977’s Star Wars. A cinematic achievement on all fronts, from narrative to technological, the original entry in a galaxy far, far away took us to worlds and introduced us to characters we never thought we could meet. Mythic storytelling reminiscent of King Arthur was combined with lasers and space battles, enthralling and entrancing audiences the world over. Despite its mixture of fantasy and science-fiction, the public has gravitated to Star Wars not because we escaped somewhere else — we love Star Wars because we saw people and stories that reminded us of ourselves.
When young Luke Skywalker looks towards the setting suns of Tatooine, it is the same type of yearning we have all felt in life — who hasn’t looked towards the horizon dreaming of achieving bigger and better feats? Star Wars took that relatability and desire for more and took it to lightspeed. Luke is soon swept up into the greatest adventure the screen has ever seen, meeting the charming rogue Han Solo, the daring Princess Leia, and the fearsome Darth Vader. No matter the generation, Star Wars has become infused with the national consciousness, always giving audiences the chance to come back for more.
1. The Godfather
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Original Releases — March 24, 1972
The Godfather is the apex of cinema. It is infinitely quotable, aesthetically and visually gorgeous, and its story of family — no matter how violent or traitorous — will always be timeless. The story of America is the story of immigrants — people and families who came here to achieve the glorified American Dream. As the leader of his family, Don Vito (Marlon Brando’s greatest performance) brought the Corleones to the forefront of success — through less-than-legitimate means. With enough money, influence, and power on their side, youngest son Michael (Al Pacino) is hoping to break the cycle and become a legitimate businessman outside of his family’s mob dealings.
But when Don Vito is shot in an assassination attempt, love, loyalty, and anger draw Michael further into the dark corners of his family — and as fate would have it, he might be the most ruthless of them all. As Don Vito weeps upon hearing Michael will be the one to exact revenge, The Godfather questions if the fabled American Dream is as golden and moral as we initially imagined. The cycle of violence Michael wanted to avoid is now the one he relishes in — with his family’s safety secured, Michael is free to bring the Corleones into the next generation of behind-closed-door dealings. A true American tragedy through and through, the saga of the Corleone family continues to enwrap us in cinematic wonder.
