Wednesday, February 27, 2008

by Ari

The greatest decade in film history? Maybe. The thing about making a list for the ‘70s is that obviously many great films will be excluded. It’s not necessarily because I dislike those movies (I probably enjoy them very much), so if you notice that one of your favorite classics is missing from this list, it’s not because I forgot it or hate it or whatever. There’s just no way to include everything from this magnificent period in film history. And there's still plenty I haven't seen, just to be clear. These are my favorites from each year:

1970:
1. Husbands - John Cassavetes
2. Le Cercle Rouge - Jean Pierre Melville
3. The Conformist - Bernardo Bertolucci
4. Fellini Satyricon - Federico Fellini
5. Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice - Paul Mazursky
6. Five Easy Pieces - Bob Rafelson
7. MASH - Robert Altman
8. The Passion of Anna - Ingmar Bergman
9. Patton - Franklin J. Schaffner
10. The Garden of the Finzi-Continis - Vittorio De Sica

1971:
1. McCabe and Mrs. Miller - Robert Altman
2. A Clockwork Orange - Stanley Kubrick
3. THX 1138 - George Lucas
4. The Hospital - Arthur Hiller
5. Carnal Knowledge - Mike Nichols
6. The French Connection - William Friedkin
7. The Last Picture Show - Peter Bogdanovich
8. Klute - Alan J. Pakula
9. Duck You Sucker - Sergio Leone
10. Sympathy for the Underdog - Kinji Fukasaku

1972:
1. The Godfather - Francis Ford Coppola
2. Cries and Whispers - Ingmar Bergman
3. Aguirre: The Wrath of God - Werner Herzog
4. Cabaret - Bob Fosse
5. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie - Luis Bunuel
6. The Getaway - Sam Peckinpah
7. Solaris - Andrei Tarkovsky
8. Last Tango in Paris - Bernardo Bertolucci
9. Un Flic - Jean Pierre Melville
10. Sleuth - Joseph L. Mankiewicz

1973:
1. Scenes from a Marriage - Ingmar Bergman
2. Mean Streets - Martin Scorsese
3. The Long Goodbye - Robert Altman
4. Serpico - Sidney Lumet
5. Turkish Delight - Paul Verhoeven
6. Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid - Sam Peckinpah
7. The Last Detail - Hal Ashby
8. The Day of the Jackal - Fred Zinneman
9. Badlands - Terrence Malick
10. American Graffiti - George Lucas

(Special Note: '73 was particularly amazing and the order could change depending on my mood. The following films, all brilliant, are tied for #11: Scarecrow, Don’t Look Now, Charley Varrick, Le Magnifique, The Mackintosh Man, Amarcord, My Name is Nobody)

1974:
1. The Godfather Part II - Francis Ford Coppola
2. Chinatown - Roman Polanski
3. F For Fake - Orson Welles
4. A Woman Under the Influence - John Cassavates
5. The Conversation - Francis Ford Coppola
6. The Parallax View - Alan J. Pakula
7. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia - Sam Peckinpah
8. California Split - Robert Altman
9. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul - Rainer Werner Fassbinder
10. Lenny - Bob Fosse

1975:
1. Barry Lyndon - Stanley Kubrick
2. Nashville - Robert Altman
3. Shampoo - Hal Ashby
4. Jaws - Steven Spielberg
5. Dog Day Afternoon - Sidney Lumet
6. The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum - Volker Schlöndorff
7. The Man Who Would Be King - John Huston
8. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest - Milos Forman
9. The Passenger - Michelangelo Antonioni
10. Three Days of the Condor - Sydney Pollack

1976:
1. Taxi Driver - Martin Scorsese
2. Network - Sidney Lumet
3. The Killing of a Chinese Bookie - John Cassavetes
4. All the President’s Men - Alan J. Pakula
5. Marathon Man - John Schlesinger
6. The Man Who Fell to Earth - Nicolas Roeg
7. The Tenant - Roman Polanski
8. The Outlaw Josey Wales - Clint Eastwood
9. Obsession - Brian De Palma
10. 1900 - Bernardo Bertolucci

1977:
1. Star Wars - George Lucas
2. Annie Hall - Woody Allen
3. Cross of Iron - Sam Peckinpah
4. That Obscure Object of Desire - Luis Bunuel
5. Close Encounters of the Third Kind - Steven Spielberg
6. Rolling Thunder - John Flynn
7. Sorcerer - William Friedkin
8. New York, New York - Martin Scorsese
9. Soldier of Orange - Paul Verhoeven
10. Eraserhead - David Lynch

1978:
1. Days of Heaven - Terrence Malick
2. The Deer Hunter - Michael Cimino
3. An Unmarried Woman - Paul Mazursky
4. Autumn Sonata - Ingmar Bergman
5. Coming Home - Hal Ashby
6. Shogun’s Samurai - Kinji Fukasaku
7. The Last Waltz - Martin Scorsese
8. Animal House - John Landis
9. Fingers - James Toback
10. Superman - Richard Donner

1979:
1. Apocalypse Now - Francis Ford Coppola
2. Vengeance is Mine - Shohei Imamura
3. All That Jazz - Bob Fosse
4. The Tin Drum - Volker Schlöndorff
5. The Marriage of Maria Braun - Rainer Werner Fassbinder
6. Manhattan - Woody Allen
7. Woyzeck - Werner Herzog
8. Being There - Hal Ashby
9. Alien - Ridley Scott
10. Monty Python’s Life of Brian - Terry Jones

Continue to 1980 - 1989