My Favorites of the Decade - the 1970's

The 1970's are often considered to be the best decade in film history. While I can't say I agree, that may be because I haven't seen anywhere near all the important, revered classics from this illustrious decade. 1975, as an individual year, certainly stands out to me and I've only seen a handful of releases, but four of them (listed below) rank among my Top 100 favorite films and two - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Chinatown - make my Top 10. I look forward to seeing more and more from 70's, so feel free to suggest some of your favorites!

Don't forget to check out Kyle's lists at his blog, Enter the Movies.

My Top 10 Favorite Films of the 1970's, in alphabetical order:

Year: 1979
Director: Ridley Scott

I finally got around to watching Alien last October during my October Challenge and now it ranks among My Favorite Horror Films. In the previous decade or so, I had attempted to watch Alien three separate times and could never get into it. While the first act is a bit slow, I now appreciate what it's doing - establishing the various characters and the setting - and the film really benefits from it. When the titular alien starts hunting and murdering the crew, things have much more of an impact since the audience has gotten to know these characters. Ridley Scott was able to create a masterpiece, blending the best of horror, science fiction, and drama to create a timeless, atmospheric, and scary film. I know some people take issue with how the full grown alien is "obviously" only a guy in a suit, but I must have been too wrapped up in the story and excitement, because it didn't bother me in the slightest. The greatness that is Alien gave movie goers one of the best heroines ever - Sigourney Weaver's Ripley, who just last week appeared on My Favorite Movie Heroes list - and kicked off an immensely interesting and increasingly infuriating franchise. If all the sequels had been even half as good as this film, the Alien franchise might be considered one of the best of all-time.

Year: 1975
Director: Stanley Kubrick

While it's best known as being a gorgeous film to marvel at - and I did place it at #1 on my Top 10 Most Beautiful Films list last year - Barry Lyndon is so much more. What surprised me most when I first watched Barry Lyndon was how funny, in a dark and biting fashion, the film was. Most of the humor comes from the narrator (Michael Hordern) as he follows the titular character through his misadventures. I found myself laughing out loud as he undercuts Barry at nearly every turn. I had "saved" this film as the last as I was working my way through Kubrick's filmography because I had repeatedly read how slow and boring it was, but I had quite the opposite reaction. I especially enjoyed the characters, plot, and wonderful score and my only real complaint is that the performances are average at best. While the 184 minute running time doesn't exactly fly by - there are a lot of long shots where you get to enjoy the beautiful cinematography, costumes, and set design - I was never bored and the film builds to such an emotional high point, that everything that comes before it pays off wonderfully. While many Kubrick films make me laugh, make me think, or frighten me, Barry Lyndon is the only film of his that has made me cry. If nothing else, I think this is a film that everyone should see at least once, but I know I'll revisit it several more times.

Year: 1974
Director: Roman Polanski

Chinatown is often heralded as having one of the best written screenplays of all-time. I can't argue against that claim. The plot, characters, and dialogue are practically flawless. It builds tension and suspense, but also manages to be funny and thought provoking. I also think it should be held up as one of the greatest films, period. There's not an aspect of the film that doesn't work. Roman Polanski is a legendary filmmaker and this is his best film. The acting, especially from Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway is top notch. John Huston, the iconic film director, turns in a menacing and nuanced performance as Nicholson's foil and Dunaway's father. The cinematography, score, editing, and production design are all award worthy. The film is set in Los Angeles in the 1930's and it seems as if it were actually filmed then, too. Everything from the set dressing to the wardrobe to the period specific vehicles are just perfect. Last year, I awarded Chinatown an honorable mention spot on my Top 10 Most Beautiful Films list, but you could easily make a case that it deserves to be in the main list.  Every time I watch Chinatown I love it a little bit more and it sits comfortably among my favorite films from any decade.

Year: 1975
Director: Sidney Lumet

Even if Dog Day Afternoon only had a handful of great performances going for it - last year I ranked Al Pacino and John Cazele on my lists for Favorite Lead Actor Performances and Favorite Supporting Actor Performances, respectively - it would be worth watching. But that's not the case. In addition to those two performances and several more, from the likes of Chris Sarandon and Charles Durning in particular, Dog Day Afternoon features a brilliant script, terrific direction, and a hot, claustrophobic atmosphere. Frank Pierson - who wrote Cool Hand Luke, a favorite of mine from the previous decade - won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, which was richly deserved. The story combines suspense, drama, and comedy to create a wholly unique hybrid of a film: a heist film with remarkably complex characters and a social conscience. Sidney Lumet is no stranger to different genres and handles the script and actors like few other directors could. In my opening paragraph to this post, I mentioned how tremendous 1975 was for cinema. In any year not containing One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, a film as great as Dog Day Afternoon would easily be my favorite of the year - that's how much I love it.

Year: 1975
Director: Steven Spielberg

The greatness of Jaws cannot be overstated. It's a summer action/adventure blockbuster, but it's also a compelling character drama. It's - at different points - suspenseful, scary, funny, frustrating (when dealing with the politicians and their inability to understand the gravity of the situation), and heart breaking. I've never considered it a "horror" movie like some people do, but it's certainly got some scenes that would qualify, like the opening which made my list of Favorite Opening Scenes and during the actual shark attack moments. My favorite scene was recently featured on the list of My Favorite Movie Speeches, Quint's terrifyingly tense monologue about his first encounter with sharks, but the whole film is filled with terrific individual moments that combine to make one of the best movies ever. While Steven Spielberg has had a lot of misses for me personally, he's got just as many hits. Jaws was his first of several masterpieces. A couple of years ago, I got to see this long-time favorite of mine on the big screen for the first time and it made the whole experience even better. Seeing the gorgeous visuals and hearing the iconic score in that setting made me appreciate them even more. Jaws is one of the many films that I can't wait to show my son when he gets a little older and I know he's going to love it just as much as I do.

Year: 1979
Director: Robert Benton

Like the best of films, Kramer vs. Kramer impresses me more and more with each viewing. When I first saw it, as a young man in college, I enjoyed it quite a bit. But it wasn't until I watched it again last year, when my son was about the same age as the child in the movie, that it vaulted up my list of favorite films. I can now emotionally connect with the story and Dustin Hoffman's conflicted father and several different scenes really get to me. If a movie can effect me emotionally, it's bound to get some bonus points from me. Besides the personal connection, Kramer vs. Kramer is simply a well made film on every level. The performances from Hoffman - who made my list of Favorite Lead Actor Performances - and Meryl Streep are fantastic, the characters are well defined and realistic, and the plot is intriguing. While the story is not exactly unique - I'm sure similar movies have been broadcast on the Lifetime channel over the years - every aspect of filmmaking is handed in such a way that the film is elevated to a much higher level. It may not be a flashy film, but when the performances are so good and the writing is so strong, I can't ask for much more.

Year: 1979
Director: Terry Jones

I first saw Life of Brian about 15 months ago and have seen it four times since then. With each viewing, I love it a bit more and it is steadily rising up through the ranks of my favorite films and I could probably safely place it in my Top 5 comedies at this point. Last year, after my second viewing, I wrote a full length review, so feel free to check that out for my in depth thoughts on this hilarious film.

Year: 1970
Director: Robert Altmann

M*A*S*H is another film where I've previously written a full length review, so that's available if you'd like to read my thoughts on the film. One personal bit of trivia I'd like to add, though, is that M*A*S*H was the last film my parents saw together in the theater. My dad laughed so loudly and so frequently that my mom grew embarrassed - which is odd, considering the whole audience was, presumably, laughing along - that she swore never to go to another movie with him. I wish I would have gotten around to seeing the film before my dad passed away as I would have enjoyed talking to him about the movie.

Year: 1976
Director: Sidney Lumet

It was only a couple of weeks ago that I briefly wrote about Network for My Favorite Movie Speeches list, where one of it's many wonderful speeches ranked at #4. Truth be told, Network could have easily earned three or four spots on that list if I hadn't decided to limit it to one entry per film. The writing and acting is so terrific throughout and there are so many standout moments in the film, that it's difficult to choose just one. The main cast - Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter Finch, and Robert Duvall - and supporting players - especially Ned Beatty and Beatrice Straight - are uniformly brilliant and combine to create one of the best acted films I have ever seen. Sidney Lumet's direction and skill working with actors is evident again, just as it was in Dog Day Afternoon and most of his films. The film itself turned out to be quite prophetic in its depiction of how the media would operate and that gives the story an extra little twist when you watch it now, 41 years later. I've seen Network a few times now and each viewing reveals a little bit more - I interpret a line differently or notice a tiny piece of a performance or background work that I had missed previously - which leads me to enjoy the film even more. Writing about it two times so close together has sparked my interest to watch it once more and I'm excited to see what jumps out at me now.

Year: 1975
Director: Milos Foreman

At this point, I've discussed One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest many times on this blog. It's popped up in seven or eight different posts and deserves every bit of praise I can heap onto it. Besides the stellar performances from Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, and Brad Dourif - which I detailed in my Favorite Lead Actor Performances, Favorite Lead Actress Performances, and Favorite Supporting Actor Performances lists - there are a multitude of reasons to love One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. The rest of the cast - including Danny DeVito, William Redfield, Christopher Llyod, Sydney Lassick, Scatman Crothers, and Will Sampson - is excellent and all create memorable characters that wonderfully support the leads. Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman deservedly won the Best Screenplay Oscar and, in my opinion, greatly improved upon the source material. Every single technical aspect, from the direction and editing to the cinematography and production design, is sublime. A bit of trivia: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is one of only three films to win all five "major" Academy Awards - Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor, and Best Actress.

Well, there you have it! Do you love any of these movies? Hate any? Did I miss any of your favorites from the 70's? Let me know in the comments!

Up next, my list of Favorite Movie Villains!