ILX Best Films of the 1970s

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (325 of them)

Days of Heaven
The Muppet Movie

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Friday, 22 July 2005 18:56 (eighteen years ago) link

BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, tho intentionally and somewhat amusingly bad, is still a bad film.

Xala (Sembene) (now on DVD)
Killer of Sheep
The Go-Between
Blume In Love
Dog Day Afternoon
The Twelve Chairs
Wattstax
The Last Waltz
New York, New York
Real Life

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 22 July 2005 19:00 (eighteen years ago) link

Bad News Bears
Breaking Away

― Pete Scholtes, Friday, 22 July 2005 19:08 (eighteen years ago) link

Love and Death
The Holy Grail
The Exorcist
Network
The Last Detail
Harold & Maude
Dawn of the Dead
Phantasm
Lenny

― darin (darin), Friday, 22 July 2005 19:11 (eighteen years ago) link

Network! I so love Network.

― Paunchy Stratego (kenan), Friday, 22 July 2005 19:13 (eighteen years ago) link

I kinda half-heartedly suggest The Wiz now. I love it with all my heart, but I realize it might not really be that great a movie.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 22 July 2005 19:17 (eighteen years ago) link

I just realized that my two favorite films of the 70s are probably THE WIZARDS and THE WIZ.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 22 July 2005 19:17 (eighteen years ago) link

GATES OF HEAVEN

(out on DVD Tuesday or today if you're me)

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Friday, 22 July 2005 19:20 (eighteen years ago) link

The Green Room
Two English Girls
Chloe in the Afternoon
The Man Who Fell to Earth
Hearts & Minds

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 22 July 2005 19:25 (eighteen years ago) link

Alien
Mad Max

― darin (darin), Friday, 22 July 2005 19:29 (eighteen years ago) link

Claire's Knee

― Paunchy Stratego (kenan), Friday, 22 July 2005 19:29 (eighteen years ago) link

There is no way in the universe that Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls is a bad film. Yes, it has self-consciously cheesy bits, but it also has everything! you'd! ever! want! ever! in a film: it is hilarious (eminently quotable); the music is amazing; you can be a seedy lust-merchant if you really want to be; it is truly deranged and psychedelic in places; the cinematography and editing are actually very good and if not comparable to a beautiful art-piece then it's definitely above the level of most Hollywood films and it all fits perfectly into the pace, mood and context of the film; the casting and mise-en-scene creation are perfect; good lord, there is nothing wrong with it at all.

― emil.y (emil.y), Friday, 22 July 2005 19:58 (eighteen years ago) link

Above the level of most Hollywood movies in having a detectably 'unique' sensibility, yes. One of the best 100 films made in the world in the '70s, no.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 22 July 2005 20:09 (eighteen years ago) link

The Wicker Man
Get Carter
Lancelot Du Lac
Even Dwarfs Started Small

― Matt #2 (Matt #2), Friday, 22 July 2005 20:47 (eighteen years ago) link

The only three films I can think of at the moment are Saturday Night Fever, All The President's Men, and Rocky. Those are the three films I think of when I think of '70s films, and I really liked all three, so there you go. Oh! And Rocky Horror Picture Show. Gotta add that to the list. Um, aside from that -- total '80s person & beyond. ;) I think I'll leave the rest of you to do the rest of the nominating.

― The Kind and Benevolent Oracle of Dee (Dee the Lurker), Friday, 22 July 2005 22:36 (eighteen years ago) link

would anyone object if i decided to do a '60s film poll, or should i wait till this one is over?

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Friday, 22 July 2005 23:02 (eighteen years ago) link

I think they're more fun one at a time, but whatever.

I don't actually know if these will make my 20, but worth mentioning:

In the Realm of the Senses
Over the Edge
The Sugarland Express
Across 110th Street

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Friday, 22 July 2005 23:15 (eighteen years ago) link

I have a lot of these I want to see. Here's my current list for the time being, which is a bit mediocre considering that I can't think of many films from the Seventies that I've seen.

20. The Rocky Horror Picture Show
19. Fantasy Mission Force
18. Smokey and the Bandit
17. Apocalypse Now
16. Star Wars
15. Walkabout
14. Young Frankenstein
13. The Woman With Red Boots
12. National Lampoon's Animal House
11. The Story of Adele H.
10. That Obscure Object of Desire
9. Monty Python's Life of Brian
8. The Offence
7. Eraserhead
6. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
5. Aguirre: The Wrath of God
4. The Wicker Man
3. Network
2. The Harder They Come
1. Two-Lane Blacktop

― Kitten, the body needs it, the body cries out for Ian Riese-Moraine! (Eastern Ma, Saturday, 23 July 2005 01:46 (eighteen years ago) link

I'll probably update it latter when I can come up with some better films I've seen.

― Kitten, the body needs it, the body cries out for Ian Riese-Moraine! (Eastern Ma, Saturday, 23 July 2005 01:47 (eighteen years ago) link

3 Women
The Hospital
Dersu Uzala

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Saturday, 23 July 2005 01:49 (eighteen years ago) link

The Warriors

― Seuss, Saturday, 23 July 2005 01:50 (eighteen years ago) link

Young Frankenstein! How could I have forgotten?? (i.e., good one, Ian.) AND speaking of Gene Wilder -- WILLY WONKA & THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY!!!! How much of a part of our childhood was that film, fellow Gen X - and - beyond-ers? ;)

That's it. I think that's all I can name now.

― The Kind and Benevolent Oracle of Dee (Dee the Lurker), Saturday, 23 July 2005 01:57 (eighteen years ago) link

cries and whispers
jaws
a woman under the influence
young frankenstein
weekend
female trouble
harold and maude
nashville
annie hall
eraserhead
monty python and the holy grail
beyond the valley of the dolls
aguirre: wrath of god
ali: fear eats the soul
the act of seeing with one's own eyes

(god my list is boring)

― joseph (joseph), Saturday, 23 July 2005 02:38 (eighteen years ago) link

SHIT weekend is from '67, scratch that off

but add:
the spirit of the beehive
lucifer rising
sweet movie
valentin de las sierras

― joseph (joseph), Saturday, 23 July 2005 02:44 (eighteen years ago) link

am i the only one who always thought the monty python movies were way inferior to the tv show?

i'm having trouble coming up with my own list; i'm a bit bored of the usual crop of classics from this decade (coppola, scorsese, altman blah blah blah) but i can't exactly dismiss them either. a few i like:

f for fake
duel
taxi driver
alien
being there
quadrophenia

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Saturday, 23 July 2005 02:58 (eighteen years ago) link

(actually props to morbs for reminding me of real life! it's been awhile since i've seen it but young'un joe loved it)

― joseph (joseph), Saturday, 23 July 2005 03:00 (eighteen years ago) link

Black Christmas
A Fistful of Dynamite
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia
The Getaway
Straw Dogs
The Ballad of Cable Hogue
The Iron Cross
Junior Bonner
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
High Plains Drifter
Saint Jack

― Gear! (Gear!), Saturday, 23 July 2005 03:08 (eighteen years ago) link

i'm a bit bored of the usual crop of classics from this decade

I'm a bit bored of them in theory, but whenever I actually see most of them I get unbored again.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Saturday, 23 July 2005 03:14 (eighteen years ago) link

eraserhead was so bad. i am the happiest man alive for not blind-buying the dvd from davidlynch.com

― t0dd swiss (immobilisme), Saturday, 23 July 2005 05:30 (eighteen years ago) link

harold and maude, without a doubt.

― bela lugosi meets a brooklyn gorilla (Jody Beth Rosen), Saturday, 23 July 2005 06:03 (eighteen years ago) link

and brewster mccloud.

― bela lugosi meets a brooklyn gorilla (Jody Beth Rosen), Saturday, 23 July 2005 06:06 (eighteen years ago) link

La Maman et La Putain
Picnic at Hanging Rock

― jaymc (jaymc), Saturday, 23 July 2005 06:57 (eighteen years ago) link

i'm a bit bored of the usual crop of classics from this decade

Oh come on. If you're bored watching Patton you need to check your pulse.

If I'm bored with any of these, it's only from overviewing. Like Apocalypse Now.

― Paunchy Stratego (kenan), Saturday, 23 July 2005 11:05 (eighteen years ago) link

i should explain: i'm not actually bored WITH a lot of these movies, i'm just bored of hearing about them! but yeah, most of them do hold up surprisingly well, despite the overexposure.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Saturday, 23 July 2005 11:29 (eighteen years ago) link

(If I buy a DVD player, as I might finally get around to doing this fall, these threads will be very useful, if a bit overwhelming.)

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Saturday, 23 July 2005 12:06 (eighteen years ago) link

don't forget the decade of alan arkin:

7% solution
fire sale
catch-22
deadhead miles (for you malick fans)
last of the red hot lovers
freebie & the bean
rafferty & the gold dust twins
the in-laws
hearts of the west
little murders

― scott seward (scott seward), Saturday, 23 July 2005 12:08 (eighteen years ago) link

Wow, I haven't thought about Young Frankenstein in possibly a decade or so.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Saturday, 23 July 2005 12:12 (eighteen years ago) link

Freebie and the Bean! I love that film. Also Breaking Away and The Bad News Bears.

Not forgetting A Boy and His Dog, the only good thing Don Johnson has ever done.

Did we say Cabaret yet? I didn't see it.

If you had asked me in 1980, when I was ten, what my favourite films of the seventies were, I would have said The Bad News Bears, The Rescuers, Watership Down, and Breaking Away.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Saturday, 23 July 2005 13:49 (eighteen years ago) link

My list will probably be herzog heavy

aguirre
even dwarfs started small
kasper hauser
heart of glass
Stroszek

― Jeff-PTTL (Jeff), Saturday, 23 July 2005 13:50 (eighteen years ago) link

I got A Boy and His Dog as a gift. I don't want to say it was good, but it was certainly different. Better than Mad Max, at least.

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Saturday, 23 July 2005 14:33 (eighteen years ago) link

California Spilt
Who Is Harry Kellerman And Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?
Smile
Letter To Jane
Jonah, Who Will Be 25 In The Year 2000
Night Moves
Vanishing Point
Over The Edge
Bed & Board
The Conformist
Smokey & The Bandit
American Graffiti
Dirty Harry
Little Big Man
Performance
Airport (the one good one in the franchise)

Apologies for any dupes.

― Marxism Goes Better With Coke (Charles McCain), Saturday, 23 July 2005 16:14 (eighteen years ago) link

Also:
The Heartbreak Kid
The Outlaw Josey Wales
Thunderbolt & Lightfoot
Play It Again Sam
The Jerk
Papillon

― Marxism Goes Better With Coke (Charles McCain), Saturday, 23 July 2005 16:37 (eighteen years ago) link

some of my favorite new york films of the '70s:

the out-of-towners
three days of the condor
a new leaf
an unmarried woman

― juicy juice is 100 percent juice (Jody Beth Rosen), Saturday, 23 July 2005 17:15 (eighteen years ago) link

let's throw the hot rock in there too. 1972 redford = hottie.

― juicy juice is 100 percent juice (Jody Beth Rosen), Saturday, 23 July 2005 17:16 (eighteen years ago) link

and harry and tonto.

― juicy juice is 100 percent juice (Jody Beth Rosen), Saturday, 23 July 2005 17:18 (eighteen years ago) link

and the sunshine boys!

― juicy juice is 100 percent juice (Jody Beth Rosen), Saturday, 23 July 2005 17:19 (eighteen years ago) link

Halloween
The Brood
The Fury

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Sunday, 24 July 2005 03:07 (eighteen years ago) link

BUMP.

Good good.

http://www.panix.com/~dangelo/top.html

some good lists here.

― Jeff-PTTL (Jeff), Sunday, 24 July 2005 16:34 (eighteen years ago) link

I wouldn't say so... Dude has Badlands, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Eraserhead as the best of their respective years! And his two best films of 2001 are Memento and The Man Who Wasn't There! Not that any of these really suck, but surely there are better nominees.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Sunday, 24 July 2005 16:48 (eighteen years ago) link

i don't think badlands is such a bad choice for 1973.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Sunday, 24 July 2005 18:26 (eighteen years ago) link

Skipping 225 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

Nobody's cast in a very good light. Even big-eyed baby Susan Sarandon is a fairly whiny weakling with her boyfriend.

― Rock Hardy, Saturday, 5 January 2008 15:41 (sixteen years ago) link

twelve years pass...

My picks!.

― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 31 July 2020 10:10 (three years ago) link

Cool, I've bought like five of those (which I have yet to see) in the past month, good to see my taste is in fact impeccable.

I don't think I will ever see what other people see in Suspiria, sadly.

― Why does this relates to Yoda? (Old Lunch), Friday, 31 July 2020 14:59 (three years ago) link

88. Illustrious Corpses (Francesco Rosi)

OTM; I'm slightly disappointed cadaveri eccellenti didn't do as well as possession (1982)

― oder doch?, Friday, 31 July 2020 15:37 (three years ago) link

Maybe it's a measure of how hard it is to make a comedy that stays funny, but I note a distinct dominance of serious films in your list.

― the unappreciated charisma of cows (Aimless), Friday, 31 July 2020 18:06 (three years ago) link

it's OK, OL, ~~Suspiria is~~ giallos are shit

― brooklyn suicide cult (Dr Morbius), Friday, 31 July 2020 18:15 (three years ago) link

The Driver and Apocalypse Now are both pretty funny.

― brooklyn suicide cult (Dr Morbius), Friday, 31 July 2020 18:18 (three years ago) link

Giallo directors doing poliziotteschi are the best though.

And since Morbz is here, where is The Night Porter?

― oder doch?, Friday, 31 July 2020 18:19 (three years ago) link

ONE of Bunuel's '70s films? And it's not Tristana? Away with thee...

― brooklyn suicide cult (Dr Morbius), Friday, 31 July 2020 18:34 (three years ago) link

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.