Iconic 1970s Movies That Still Hit Today
Most cinephiles consider the 1970s a high point for American movies.
By the end of the 1960s, the studio system that dominated the movies from the beginning broke down, making room for the New Hollywood movement. The New Hollywood emphasized personal voices and experimental filmmaking.
Even big blockbusters such as Star Wars, Alien, and Jaws integrated these elements, changing the language of filmmaking and making those franchises all-time classics.
People still watch Star Wars, Alien, and Jaws all the time. But anyone who wants more should look deeper at other greats from the decade.
1. Halloween (1978)
Of course, most movie fans have seen Halloween. Maybe they saw the 2007 movie directed by Rob Zombie or the 2018 movie directed by David Gordon Green, both entitled Halloween. Maybe they’ve seen one of the many sequels about serial killer Michael Myers.
Those viewers should forget all that bloated baggage and go back to the original, written by Debra Hill and John Carpenter and directed by Carpenter. The original Halloween has efficient filmmaking and a sense of terror that still feels fresh, even after decades of imitators.
2. The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974)
Although movie stars still existed, the New Hollywood movement brought schlubby, regular-looking people on screen. Directed by Joseph Sargent and written by Peter Stone, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three deals with a group of non-descript crooks who take control of a New York subway train and the municipal workers who must stop them.
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three stars Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw, and Martin Balsam, none of whom look like action stars. But that very un-remarkability grounds the movie, heightening the tension.
3. Cabaret (1972)
Even modern movie musicals hold to the structure cemented in the 1950s, with big songs and colorful sets, even when dealing with bleak subject matter. Cabaret bucks that trend, making a gritty musical without sacrificing the killer numbers.
Set in 1931, Cabaret traces the rise of fascism through the perspective of American performer Sally Bowles (a fearless Liza Minnelli). As Sally’s life grows more complicated, the actual cabaret itself becomes a bellwether for the arc of the country, brought to life by legendary dancer-turned-director Bob Fosse.
4. Harlan County, USA (1976)
For a variety of reasons, modern Americans care more about wealth inequality and labor organization than the past few generations. That knowledge makes the documentary Harlan County, USA. feel immediate still today.
Director Barbara Kopple goes to Harlan County in Kentucky to document a miners’ strike against the Duke Power Company. Kopple’s unflinching camera captures the resilience and overwhelming odds that the workers face as they pursue justice. The unvarnished finished work highlights the people whose labor makes the country operate.
5. The French Connection (1971)
The French Connection provides thrilling action scenes and one of the most satisfying closing shots in film history. It also features a loathsome protagonist in the form of Popeye Doyle rule-breaking cop who chases down the source of drugs entering New York City.
A decade after The French Connection, rule-breaking cops would get glorified in films such as Lethal Weapon or Beverly Hills Cop. But in The French Connection, director William Friedkin and writer Ernest Tidyman make no attempt to varnish Popeye, trusting in star Gene Hackman’s performance.
6. The Deer Hunter (1978)
Time and decades of more palatable campaigns have made it easy for later generations to forget the malaise of the Vietnam War. The Deer Hunter cuts through those obstacles to show the human cost of the war.
Michael Cimino’s audacious direction, based on a script by Deric Washburn, makes The Deer Hunter an overwhelming experience. The film follows a trio of steelworkers from Pennsylvania before and after serving in Vietnam, illustrating how their lives have changed for the worse.
7. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
Author Ken Kesey hated what director Miloš Forman and screenwriters Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman did with his novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. In addition to reducing the book’s narrator Chief (played by Will Sampson) to a side character, Forman also made the story into a simple conflict between the individual and his community.
Despite Kesey’s concerns, those no denying that Forman and his collaborators succeed with their take. Jack Nicholson is magnetic as McMurphy, a trouble-maker who gets hospitalized in an institution filled with young character actors, including Danny DeVito and Christopher Lloyd, while Louise Fletcher imbues notes of humanity in her icy authoritarian Nurse Ratched.
8. Rocky (1976)
Some might object to the inclusion of Rocky on this list. After all, the franchise churned out hit after hit in the 1980s and continues to this day in the form of the Creed movies. However, while the character Rocky Balboa still lives in the popular consciousness, the actual movie Rocky gets overshadowed.
Sylvester Stallone wrote Rocky as an ideal project for himself, in which he plays a down-on-his-luck boxer and mob enforcer who gets the chance of a lifetime. Chosen to fight against flamboyant champ Apollo Creed (a magnetic Carl Weathers), Balboa devotes himself to the moment that, in the first film, feels just as pathetic as it does inspiring.
9. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
“Who will survive and what will become of them?” asks the tagline to the poster for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Few posters have better promised the content of the film they advertise. Building off the legends surrounding real-life killer Ed Gein, director Tobe Hooper and his co-writer Kim Henkel tell a relentless movie about a group of city kids beset by a family of oddballs.
Despite its title, just one person dies by chainsaw in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. But Hooper makes up the difference with plenty of other carnage, and more than a little absurd humor. Together, these elements make The Texas Chainsaw Massacre a visceral viewing experience, one that horror movie makers still aspire to match.
10. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Everyone knows about Steven Spielberg’s masterpieces of the 70s and 80s, movies such as Jaws, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and Raiders of the Lost Ark. Close Encounters of the Third Kind often gets overlooked in this run, despite featuring some of the master’s best work.
Released a few years before E.T., Close Encounters offers another look at alien contact. After a variety of brushes with UFOS, family man Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss), single mother Jillian Guiler (Melinda Dillon), and others across the country gather to meet with the visitors. Although uneven, Close Encounters shows off some of Spielberg’s best filmmaking, including a terrifying scene involving Jillian’s young son.
11. The Last Detail (1973)
On the surface, The Last Detail has a lot in common with One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and not just because both star Jack Nicholson. Both movies have an anti-authoritarian approach, with Nicholson and others pushing against restrictive structures, this time the U.S. Navy. However, The Last Detail understands the importance of community, with less individualism than Forman’s film.
Directed by Hal Ashby and written by Robert Towne, The Last Detail follows two committed Navy men (Nicholson and Otis Young) as they take a young sailor (Randy Quaid) to serve an eight-year prison sentence for a petty crime. The trio form an uneasy friendship, one that allows them to deal with questions of freedom and responsibility.
12. All the President’s Men (1976)
The Watergate Scandal changed American politics forever, revealing the corruption and desire for power behind the office of the U.S. Presidency. The details of that scandal came to light via the work of Washington Post reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, portrayed by Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford in the film adaptation of their book All the President’s Men.
In All the President’s Men, director Alan J. Pakula and writer William Goldman turn the process of reporting into the stuff of a Hollywood thriller. Pakula heightens the tension of the reporters’ revelation, dramatizing the death of the nation’s confidence in its leaders.
13. The Conversation (1974)
Few directors can match Francis Ford Coppola for his miracle run of classics in the 1970s, which included both Godfather films and the Vietnam epic Apocalypse Now. It’s easy to see why a quiet movie like The Conversation would get overlooked among those bombastic entries, but it has a power all its own.
A never-better Gene Hackman plays Harry Caul, a deeply private man who makes his living by surveilling others. When Harry thinks that he’s recorded a murder, he must leave the island of isolation he’s created for himself and learn to care about other people.
14. Cooley High (1975)
In 1973, George Lucas made the nostalgic drama a hit genre with American Graffiti. With Cooley High two years later, director Michael Schultz and writer Eric Monte put a decidedly Black twist on the genre. Cooley High stays with high school seniors Preach (Glynn Turman) and Cochise (Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs) as they spend the last days of school on various misadventures.
Schultz and Monte insert moments of high drama in the last act of the movie, but the best parts of Cooley High let viewers just watch the teens having fun and getting in trouble. Between its soundtrack of soul classics and the moving poetry read by Preach, Cooley High has a level of humanity and humor still too little seen on the big screen.
15. Network (1976)
Network seems almost quaint when watched in the 21st century. With Network, writer Paddy Chayefsky and director Sidney Lumet look at the dangers posed by television news and its ability to shape reality. The plot begins when newscaster Howard Beale (Peter Finch) breaks down on air, making a desperate call for proper journalism over profits.
However, Beale’s truth-telling rant soon loses its punch when network executives (played by Robert Duvall and Faye Dunaway) turn him into hit television. Today’s viewers will recognize Network‘s concerns as even more pressing, in our age of media saturation.
