From all the ones I’ve checked out, they’ve all been really good and would love to find more. I know a few below are on YouTube, too.
-Fat City
-Minnie And Moskowitz
-The Visitors
-The Blue Motel
-Wanda
and “Les Chat” (The Cat) from France, featuring Jean Gabin and Simona Signoret
Some are very low-budget (maybe all), but it features some fine acting, script, and the general story… Some don’t have much movement, some take place in one setting. By the mid-70s, it got stylized with “Taxi Driver” and seemed to have died down since in favor of blockbusters, instead of the more personal movie.
Does anyone have any favorites or recommendations?
I don’t know any of the films you listed, but I do know Taxi Driver, and I think that French Connection is a very gritty predecessor. I can’t judge how realistic it was.
Not sure if these are what you’re looking for, but what comes to mind: Bless the Beasts and Children not really a “feel good” kids adventure movie. Vanishing Point (original, not the remake). Yes, essentially a cross-country chase movie, but nothing like “Smokey and the Bandit” Hard Times Charles Bronson as a badass, but not really a “hero”. Survival during the depression. Chato’s Land Bronson again, but as an indian badass. Quite a twist on the typical western.
Cops and Robbers (1973) - I had to settle for a TV-frame copy on DVD but that’s better than nothing. Fantastic buddy cop/caper movie.
Big budget and very well known but IMO it’s hard to beat Dog Day Afternoon (1975) for gritty, natural, realistic mid-70s excellence.
Kill the Moonlight (1994) is just something completely in it’s own era. It’s from 1994 but somehow manages to look, sound and feel as tho it were shot in a bizarre alternate-futuristic 1971 and sat in a can in someone’s closet for 20+ years.
You should check out John Cassavetes’ other movies from this period: Faces (1968), Husbands (1970), A Woman Under the Influence (1974), and The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976).
THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE (1974). Gritty New York City drama, a similar feel to THE FRENCH CONNECTION, in which a New York train is taken hostage.
Short Eyes, an adaptation of a play by Miguel Piñero, taking place entirely in the notorious Manhattan jail known as “The Tombs.” It doesn’t get more “70s hard” than Short Eyes. It has a phenomenal soundtrack by Curtis Mayfield (who also appears in it as one of the prisoners) and some remarkable acting performances full of swaggering menace. Just know, there are some exceptionally disturbing scenes in it. You’ve been duly warned.
I once said that The Friends of Eddie Coyle was the last un-self-consciously film noir. After that, we have neo-noir movies that are aware of being part of the noir genre.
Oh I have, thank you, and every other Cassavetes’ movie
“Payday” is on YouTube in full, as is one of my favorite movies, “MIkey and Nicky”… “Stroszek” is a fine movie, too.
