# Gritty, Natural, Realistic Movies of the 1970s **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [February 3, 2021, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gritty-natural-realistic-movies-of-the-1970s/932167 "2021-02-03T23:10:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2021, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gritty-natural-realistic-movies-of-the-1970s/932167/41 "2021-02-04T20:26:10Z")
> [@SwissMan](#): > > One movie that hasn’t been mentioned here that might fit the bill is the original _Rocky_ . Agreed. And while we’re at it, how about _Saturday Night Fever_? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2021, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gritty-natural-realistic-movies-of-the-1970s/932167/42 "2021-02-04T20:46:05Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > t suggests to me that maybe you didn’t link to the trailer you intended to. Nope – it’s there. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2021, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gritty-natural-realistic-movies-of-the-1970s/932167/43 "2021-02-04T21:55:07Z")
One of the best. James Taylor, the singer, Dennis Wilson, of The Beach Boys, and a performance from Warren Oates that should have at least got an Oscar nomination. Two Lane Blacktop. [Two-Lane Blacktop - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-Lane_Blacktop) ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2021, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gritty-natural-realistic-movies-of-the-1970s/932167/44 "2021-02-04T23:03:39Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > > [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > > > t suggests to me that maybe you didn’t link to the trailer you intended to. > > Nope – it’s there. Okay, I’ve watched that trailer five times now. I see the scene with the bearer bonds being shredded. But the actual shredding takes place off camera and I wouldn’t have known they were being shredded if you hadn’t told me. And I can’t tell what scene is supposed to be a ticker tape parade. I’m assuming you’ve seen the movie and know the plot. But I think you’re overestimating how much of the plot is revealed in the trailer to somebody who hasn’t seen the movie. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2021, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gritty-natural-realistic-movies-of-the-1970s/932167/45 "2021-02-04T23:05:23Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#): > > I love that movie. I think it’s one of the best movies ever made. And I think Linda Manz’s performance (and especially her narration) is one of the best performances ever recorded on film. > > But realistic? No. > > Gritty, maybe, I guess. Naturalistic? Not so sure. > > But brilliant? Yes. Very much yes. Sorry, I’m an idiot. I’m mixing up _Badlands_ and _Days of Heaven_. I’m still not sure I’d call _Badlands_ a gritty, naturalistic, realistic movie. Maybe naturalistic. But not gritty. ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2021, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gritty-natural-realistic-movies-of-the-1970s/932167/46 "2021-02-05T02:15:52Z")
[Dealing: Or the Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068455/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0)…because, who _hasn’t_ been in that situation? ---
**Author:** ![MortSahlFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@MortSahlFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MortSahlFan)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2021, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gritty-natural-realistic-movies-of-the-1970s/932167/47 "2021-02-05T13:21:10Z")
I like that movie a lot… Seems to also have started a trend and influencing the movie “Taxi Driver”, “Falling Down”… Notice Peter Boyle is in “Joe” and “Taxi Driver”… He was also in a movie that I haven’t seen made around the early 70s… Not the best movie, but something worth watching, “P.R. Baskin” ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2021, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gritty-natural-realistic-movies-of-the-1970s/932167/48 "2021-02-05T15:16:14Z")
A lot of these movies could be criticized in many ways compared to modern movies, but the title of this thread is apt. These movies burst out of the traditional movie mold. How natural and realistic any of them were is open to argument, except in comparison to more modern films where actors may be barely distinguishable from mannequins, and might just be virtual mannequins before long. Critics would lambaste the timing and pace of some of these films, and many wouldn’t be what a film school student should study in that respect, but they were branching out into new areas of film-making that had been suppressed and ignored by Hollywood previously. Actors like Peter Boyle and Gene Hackman were made for the 70s, allowed to chew the hell out of the scenery just for effect. Sure, the 70s produced some terrible movies also, every decade did, but this was the transition period in modern film, less refined in some ways, but knocking down the doors that limited the art in the past. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2021, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gritty-natural-realistic-movies-of-the-1970s/932167/49 "2021-02-05T15:18:16Z")
“Mandingo,” maybe? Gives a view of slave life not so sanitized as most other movies. But having said, that, there is one humorous (at least to me) scene, where the one of the slave kids is ‘absorbing’ James Mason’s aches and pains. ---
**Author:** ![MortSahlFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@MortSahlFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MortSahlFan)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2021, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gritty-natural-realistic-movies-of-the-1970s/932167/50 "2021-02-05T15:41:16Z")
I don’t know how I forgot my favorite movie ever – “Harry and Tonto” ---
**Author:** ![Guy\_Incognito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guy_incognito/32/3920_2.png) [@Guy\_Incognito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guy_Incognito)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2021, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gritty-natural-realistic-movies-of-the-1970s/932167/51 "2021-02-05T16:33:26Z")
I can see your point, but I think that I’m taking into account how the movie is somewhat based on the real-life story of spree killer Charles Starkweather and his girlfriend Caril Ann Fugate. The killings that “Kit” does during their road trip are chilling in how casually he goes about them - almost treating the murders as a “thing to do” while they go about their merry way. It didn’t feel like their life on the road was glamorized, and the public’s fear of them felt pretty realistic to me. I love the movie, so maybe I’m overselling it as being gritty in order to justify that love. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2021, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gritty-natural-realistic-movies-of-the-1970s/932167/52 "2021-02-05T16:41:08Z")
_Mother, Jugs & Speed_ (1976) – much of the screenplay was inspired by Tom Mankiewicz doing ride-alongs with LA paramedics. ---
**Author:** ![Sefton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Sefton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sefton)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2021, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gritty-natural-realistic-movies-of-the-1970s/932167/53 "2021-02-05T17:02:48Z")
I liked _Night Moves_, with Gene Hackman and Susan Clark. And sure enough, James Woods plays a creep. ---
**Author:** ![cormac262](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f14d63/32.png) [@cormac262](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cormac262)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2021, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gritty-natural-realistic-movies-of-the-1970s/932167/54 "2021-02-05T20:11:19Z")
I’ve always liked this movie, although it always seemed a little disjointed. Jennifer Warren in her prime ! And an extremely young Melanie Griffith. ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2021, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gritty-natural-realistic-movies-of-the-1970s/932167/55 "2021-02-06T04:41:19Z")
Another worth mentioning 1973’s [Charley Varrick](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charley_Varrick), directed by “Dirty Harry’s” Don Siegel, and starring Walter Matthau at his laconic best. Tough little caper flick, which gave Tarantino his “they’re going to go to work on you with a pair of pliers and a blowtorch” line. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2021, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gritty-natural-realistic-movies-of-the-1970s/932167/56 "2021-02-06T04:55:50Z")
> [@MortSahlFan](#): > > and “Les Chat” (The Cat) from France, featuring Jean Gabin and Simona Signoret Nitpick: It’s “ **Le** Chat”, with Simon **e** Signoret and Jean Gabin. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2021, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gritty-natural-realistic-movies-of-the-1970s/932167/57 "2021-02-06T07:56:00Z")
_Five Easy Pieces_ ---
**Author:** ![allyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ec9cab/32.png) [@allyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/allyn)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2021, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gritty-natural-realistic-movies-of-the-1970s/932167/58 "2021-02-06T08:13:13Z")
Neo-noir thriller Hickey & Boggs: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/rrN4shPZw3U/hqdefault.jpg "Hickey & Boggs (1972) - Trailer HD 1080p") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrN4shPZw3U) ---
**Author:** ![alovem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@alovem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alovem)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2021, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gritty-natural-realistic-movies-of-the-1970s/932167/59 "2021-02-07T08:55:17Z")
Glad to see Rocky and Saturday Night Fever mentioned in the same thread. Just a year apart, both films have the protagonist seeking forgiveness (Rocky chasing after his trainer and Tony Manero going to see his dance partner at the end), which doesn’t happen often in the movies, it seems to me. ---
**Author:** ![MortSahlFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@MortSahlFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MortSahlFan)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2021, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gritty-natural-realistic-movies-of-the-1970s/932167/60 "2021-02-07T15:37:02Z")
I knew that! Cat of course is singular, and after I typed it out, I felt something off… Did you like the movie? To me, it was a more realistic (and much better) version of Virginia Woolf. Thanks for correcting me, though 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gritty-natural-realistic-movies-of-the-1970s/932167.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gritty-natural-realistic-movies-of-the-1970s/932167.md?page=4)