# You knew it was coming: What movies best sum up the 70's? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 14, 2002, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-knew-it-was-coming-what-movies-best-sum-up-the-70s/132246 "2002-10-14T16:07:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2002, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-knew-it-was-coming-what-movies-best-sum-up-the-70s/132246/1 "2002-10-14T16:07:23Z")
Again, we’re approoaching this from the perspective of an historian 100 years from now. What 10 1970’s movies should he or she watch to catch the “vibe” of the decade? I’ll start with a couple of nominations from opposite ends of the movie-going spectrum: First, there’s **Taxi Driver** , which captures the urban decay and economic distress of the late 70’s. The “malaise,” if you will. Plus you get to see the proto-punk mohawk that spawned them all. On a more light-hearted note, I’ll nominate **Up in Smoke** for a look at 70’s drug culture. Others? ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2002, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-knew-it-was-coming-what-movies-best-sum-up-the-70s/132246/2 "2002-10-14T17:09:37Z")
**Saturday Night Fever** , for all the obvious reasons. ---
**Author:** ![ResIpsaLoquitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b3f665/32.png) [@ResIpsaLoquitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ResIpsaLoquitor)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2002, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-knew-it-was-coming-what-movies-best-sum-up-the-70s/132246/3 "2002-10-14T17:12:38Z")
**Shaft**. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2002, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-knew-it-was-coming-what-movies-best-sum-up-the-70s/132246/4 "2002-10-15T21:01:34Z")
What? Nobody wants to talk 70’s movies? How about **The French Connection**? Or maybe the first couple of **Dirty Harry** movies? **The Eiger Sanction** was very 70’s, too. ---
**Author:** ![Wartime\_Consigliori](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/9d8465/32.png) [@Wartime\_Consigliori](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wartime_Consigliori)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2002, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-knew-it-was-coming-what-movies-best-sum-up-the-70s/132246/5 "2002-10-15T21:08:24Z")
Another vote for the man who would risk his life for his brotherman…the cat who won’t cop out when there’s danger all about… Just talking about **SHAFT** Damn Right! ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2002, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-knew-it-was-coming-what-movies-best-sum-up-the-70s/132246/6 "2002-10-15T21:35:43Z")
I can dig it! Another nomination: **Deep Throat**. What other movie is so emblematic of the sexual revolution, which came to full fruition in the 1970’s. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2002, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-knew-it-was-coming-what-movies-best-sum-up-the-70s/132246/7 "2002-10-15T21:48:13Z")
Speaking of the sexual revolution, how about **Shampoo**? Or **Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice**? ---
**Author:** ![Blackeyes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f6c823/32.png) [@Blackeyes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackeyes)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2002, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-knew-it-was-coming-what-movies-best-sum-up-the-70s/132246/8 "2002-10-15T21:55:59Z")
The 70s, you say? Why, some of the best movies came out of that decade! _Taxi Driver_, _Dog Day Afternoon_. _The Rocky Horror Picture Show_. _Saturday Night Fever_, for obvious reasons already mentioned. _Shaft_ and _Slaughter’s Big Ripoff_, capturing the Blacksploitation era. _Rocky!_ _Annie Hall_, Woody Allen films are so good at that, and this one is especially. _Close Encounters of the Third Kind_. _The Deer Hunter_ definitely, because it is a beautiful character study of a group of friends after the Vietnam War. _Halloween_ because it spawned so many damn sequels. _Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band_, a very famous coke-acid crap movie from that decade. _The Bad News Bears Go to Japan_- WTF? I bet you’re thinking. And you’d be right. _The Jerk_ defininitely. Steve Martin was HUGE in the 70s. And its a good movie too, so I hear. ---
**Author:** ![ResIpsaLoquitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b3f665/32.png) [@ResIpsaLoquitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ResIpsaLoquitor)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2002, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-knew-it-was-coming-what-movies-best-sum-up-the-70s/132246/9 "2002-10-15T23:37:20Z")
Two more: _Airplane!_ Apparently, airport disaster movies were big in the 70’s (I was still in utero and can’t testify). _Airplane!_ was the culmination of them, and hey, it’s contstantly rebroadcast even today. And _Star Wars_. That one had to get in eventually. ---
**Author:** ![Cholo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58f4c7/32.png) [@Cholo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cholo)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2002, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-knew-it-was-coming-what-movies-best-sum-up-the-70s/132246/10 "2002-10-16T01:50:57Z")
I would think JAWS would get a nod. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ad7895/32.png) [@Just\_Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2002, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-knew-it-was-coming-what-movies-best-sum-up-the-70s/132246/11 "2002-10-16T05:09:45Z")
I’d put Death Wish above Dirty Harry for covering the themes of concerns over crime and a desire to see criminals punished in an extreme method. And how about Apocalypse Now if you need your Viet Nam fix? If you want a disaster movie to stand in for the genre that was born, flared, and died out in the seventies then Towering Inferno is the one to go for (though The Posiden Adventure can certainly fit). ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2002, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-knew-it-was-coming-what-movies-best-sum-up-the-70s/132246/12 "2002-10-16T05:56:37Z")
Some movies that represent the vibes of public and private life in America in the 1970s, not movies that best represent Hollywood trends of the 1970s (e.g., disaster movies): **All the President’s Men** , **An Unmarried Woman** , **Taxi Driver** , **Up in Smoke** , **Nashville** , **Claudine** , **Saturday Night Fever**. ---
**Author:** ![Banger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8491ac/32.png) [@Banger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banger)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2002, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-knew-it-was-coming-what-movies-best-sum-up-the-70s/132246/13 "2002-10-16T06:32:27Z")
Another vote for **Shaft** , with an honorable mention for **Superfly** , which has a much better soundtrack 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2002, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-knew-it-was-coming-what-movies-best-sum-up-the-70s/132246/14 "2002-10-16T10:45:54Z")
**Ordinary People** ---
**Author:** ![haardvark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@haardvark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/haardvark)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2002, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-knew-it-was-coming-what-movies-best-sum-up-the-70s/132246/15 "2002-10-16T11:28:50Z")
[Boogie Nights](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0118749). ::d&r:: Okay, more seriously. How about [The Conversation?](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0071360) Mainly because of how it portrays “high-tech” back then, big fat wires and dials and endless loops of analog reel-to-reel audio tape. mo-'vark ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2002, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-knew-it-was-coming-what-movies-best-sum-up-the-70s/132246/16 "2002-10-16T12:22:18Z")
I’m surprised no one has mentioned **Network**. The whole concept of “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!” seemed to capture the mood of the country in 1976. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2002, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-knew-it-was-coming-what-movies-best-sum-up-the-70s/132246/17 "2002-10-16T13:53:31Z")
Annie Hall Woodstock All That Jazz Coming Home ---
**Author:** ![LolaCocaCola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7cd45c/32.png) [@LolaCocaCola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LolaCocaCola)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2002, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-knew-it-was-coming-what-movies-best-sum-up-the-70s/132246/18 "2002-10-16T14:08:41Z")
I will also say **The French Connection**. The location shots really show a teetering on the brink of bankrupcy New York City in the 70’s. ---
**Author:** ![jcgmoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a9adbd/32.png) [@jcgmoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jcgmoi)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2002, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-knew-it-was-coming-what-movies-best-sum-up-the-70s/132246/19 "2002-10-16T14:14:38Z")
Second _All That Jazz_. The ‘me’ movie for the ‘me’ decade. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2002, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-knew-it-was-coming-what-movies-best-sum-up-the-70s/132246/20 "2002-10-16T15:00:47Z")
Just to clarify the OP, we’re looking for movies that capture the vibe of living in the 70’s (even if they’re bad movies). (Star Wars, by way of contrast, captures the vibe of living a long, long time ago in a place far away.) I have a few more: **Meatballs** (which was a pretty close approximation of a couple of summers for me in the 70’s), **Oh, God!** (John Denver screams 70’s), and **Walking Tall** (for the rural South in the 70’s). Say, there ought to be a movie that captured the granola-flavored, back-to-the-country, John-Denverish ethos of the early-to-mid 70’s. Anyone? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-knew-it-was-coming-what-movies-best-sum-up-the-70s/132246.md?page=2)