Top 25 Movies of the 1970s

Cafe Society
21

I really liked Paper Moon. Still do.

22

Not so remarkable in that the Hays Code ended in 1968, which had stifled Hollywood movies with moral requirements since the 30s. Of course the 70s saw an explosion of creativity and quality.

How many of the movies listed in this thread would have passed muster under the Hays Code? It essentially required every movie to be rated G.

23

I’d add The Spy Who Loved Me to the list.

24

These are the 1970’s films among my 100 favorite films:

Alien (1979, U.S., dir. Ridley Scott)
Amarcord (1974, Italy, dir. Federico Fellini)
Annie Hall (1977, U.S., dir. Woody Allen)
Apocalypse Now (1979, U.S., dir. Francis Ford Coppola)
Barry Lyndon (1975, U.K., dir. Stanley Kubrick)
Carrie (1976, U.S., dir. Brian De Palma)
Chinatown (1974, U.S., dir. Roman Polanski)
Chungking Express (1994, Hong Kong, dir. Kar Wai Wong)
A Clockwork Orange (1971, U.K./U.S., dir. Stanley Kubrick)
Dark Star (1974, U.S., dir. John Carpenter)
Fantastic Planet (1973, France, dir. Rene Laloux)
The Godfather (1972, U.S., dir. Francis Ford Coppola)
The Godfather Part II (1974, U.S., dir. Francis Ford Coppola)
The Last Picture Show (1971, U.S., dir. Peter Bogdanovich)
A Little Romance (1979, U.S., dir. George Roy Hill)
Macbeth (1971, U.K./U.S., dir. Roman Polanski)
McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971, U.S., dir. Robert Altman)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975, U.K., dir. Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones)
Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979, U.K., dir. Terry Jones)
My Brilliant Career (1979, Australia, dir. Gillian Armstrong)
Nashville (1975, U.S., dir. Robert Altman)
One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975, U.S., dir. Milos Forman)
Play it Again, Sam (1972, U.S., dir. Herbert Ross)
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970, U.K./U.S., dir. Billy Wilder)
Saturday Night Fever (1977, U.S., dir. John Badham)
Seven Beauties (1976, Italy, dir. Lina Wertmuller)
Star Wars (1977, U.S., dir. George Lucas)
Starting Over (1979, U.S., dir. Alan J. Pakula)
Taxi Driver (1976, U.S., dir. Martin Scorsese)
The Tree of Wooden Clogs (1978, Italy, dir. Ermanno Olmi)

25

Some good movies of the 1970’s not yet mentioned:
Marathon Man
The Conversation
Cabaret
Mean Streets
Serpico
With the possible exception of Marathon Man, none of these would make my Top Hundred All Time list, but all five would likely make my Top 25 of the 1970’s.