Best Films of the 1970s

Best Films of the 1970s
(The Take One critics poll)

As we near the millennium (and remember, that's January 1, 2001 -- not January 2, 2000), we confront the primal urge to summarize and attempt to make sense out of what has come before. Well, it happens every decade. In the 1990s, the 1970s are widely considered to have been a Golden Age of American film -- and it's true that the things being made within the studio system back then put the bulk of today's so-called "indies" (aka "Sundunces") to shame when it comes to daring, artistry, craft, and, well, actually having something to express.

Critic, author, and historian James Monaco surveyed 20 top American Film critics for Take One magazine, asking for lists of best American films and best European films. (There was also a category for best "Third World" film, whatever that means, but the very concept is rather dubious and condescending -- everything outside Europe is "Third World"??? -- so I'm not even going to deal with that here, except to say that a fine Cuban film, Memories of Underdevelopment, was the top vote-getter among those who chose to respond.)

Among the critics included were: Vincent Canby, Richard Corliss, Peter Cowie, Molly Haskell, Richard T. Jameson, Stanley Kauffman, Griel Marcus, Janet Maslin, Frank Rich, Andrew Sarris, Richard Schickel, David Thomson, and François Truffaut. (The latter was a critic for Cahiers du Cinema before he was a filmmaker, naturellement.)

The Take One poll was conducted in 1978. So, for its purposes, the "1970s" were films released between January 1, 1968, and December 31, 1978. (Hey, we know decades don't really follow chronological laws, anyway, right? I mean, "the '60s" really lasted up until Nixon's resignation in 1974....) Wrote Monaco: "It seemed like a good time for stock-taking. It has been ten years, precisely, since the political watershed year (in both the U.S. and Europe) of 1968. This year also marks the twentieth anniversary of the death of André Bazin [see list of essential books of film criticism] and the advent of the [French] New Wave."

This is a fun list that reflects its contributors idiosyncratic (but nonetheless informed and highly evolved) tastes. Let's hear it for great, so-called "disreputable" films like Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, Sweet Sweetback's Baadass Song, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, and Night of the Living Dead! There are other peculiarities, too: Arthur Penn's Alice's Restaurant got two votes and made the list -- but his "official" masterpiece, Bonnie and Clyde, is nowhere to be seen! (And, by the way, Night Moves is better than either of them.)

And will we be able to come up with a list this strong for the 1990s? I don't think so...

The top group in each category is presented in preferential order. The batches below represent groups of tie votes.

I'll show you mine if you show me yours: Post your lists on Jeeem's fridge

Best American films
of the decade

The Godfather (including Part II)
(Francis Ford Coppola, 1972, 1974)
Nashville (Robert Altman, 1975)
Petulia (Richard Lester, 1968)
Annie Hall (Woody Allen, 1977)
Mean Streets (Martin Scorsese, 1973)
2001: A Space Odyssey
(Stanley Kubrick, 1969)

American Graffiti (George Lucas, 1973)
Badlands (Terence Malick, 1973)
Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976)
McCabe and Mrs. Miller
(Robert Altman, 1971)
Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974)
Barry Lyndon (Stanley Kubrick, 1975)

Blume In Love (Paul Mazursky, 1973)
The Conversation
(Francis Ford Coppola, 1974)
Midnight Cowboy (John Schlesinger, 1969)
All the President's Men
(Alan J. Pakula, 1976)

The Man Who Would Be King
(John Huston, 1975)
Klute (Alan J. Pakula, 1971)
Five Easy Pieces (Bob Rafelson, 1970)
The Last Picture Show
(Peter Bogdanovich, 1971)

The Shootist (Don Siegel, 1976)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
(Milos Forman, 1975)
Fat City (John Huston, 1972)
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
(Russ Meyer, 1970)
The Parallax View (Alan J. Pakula, 1974)
Rosemary's Baby (Roman Polanski, 1968)
Sweet Sweetback's Baadass Song
(Melvin Van Peebles, 1971)
Ganja and Hess (Bill Gunn, 1973)
Harlan County, U.S.A.
(Barbara Kopple, 1976)
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid
(Sam Peckinpah, 1973)
The Night of the Living Dead
(George Romero, 1968)
The King of Marvin Gardens
(Bob Rafelson, 1972)
Madigan (Don Siegel, 1968)
Alice's Restaurant (Arthur Penn, 1969)
Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977)
Deliverance (John Boorman, 1972)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
(Steven Spielberg, 1977)

Other swell movie awards & lists:
AFI 100 & AFI 400 ("greatest American films")
National Film Registry
(treasured American films)
Sight & Sound Poll (All-Time Ten Best)
30 Lieblingsfilme (a poll of favorite films)
The Vatican movie list (the Pope's picks)
Jeeem's Pantheon (favorite directors)
Jeeem's 120 Most Beloved Movies

Best European films
of the decade

My Night at Maud's (Eric Rohmer, 1968)
Scenes From A Marriage
(Ingmar Bergman, 1973)
Claire's Knee (Eric Rohmer, 1970)
The Conformist (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1970)
Amarcord (Federico Fellini, 1973)
The Sorrow and the Pity
(Marcel Ophuls, 1971)

Lancelot du Lac (Robert Bresson, 1974)
The Mother and the Whore
(Jean Eustache, 1973)
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
(Luis Buñuel, 1972) [see Buñuel martini recipe and excerpt from film in Jeeem's kitchen]
Le Boucher (Claude Chabrol, 1970)
The Passenger
(Michelangelo Antonioni, 1975)

Aguirre, the Wrath of God
(Werner Herzog, 1972)
Two English Girls (François Truffaut, 1971)
Day For Night (François Truffaut, 1973)
The Wild Child (François Truffaut, 1969)
Last Tango In Paris
(Bernardo Bertolucci, 1972)
Performance
(Nicolas Roeg and Donald Cammell, 1970)
The Merchant of Four Seasons
(Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1971)

The Legend of Kaspar Hauser (Every Man For Himself and God Against All)
(Werner Herzog, 1974)
Once Upon a Time in the West
(Sergio Leone, 1969)
Weekend (Jean-Luc Godard, 1967)
Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000
(Alain Tanner, 1976)
The Passion of Anna
(Ingmar Bergman, 1970)
A Piece of Pleasure
(Claude Chabrol, 1974)
The Marquise of O (Eric Rohmer, 1976)
Stolen Kisses (François Truffaut, 1968)
The Emigrants/The New Land
(Jan Troell, 1972 & 1973)

In the Realm of the Senses
(Nagisa Oshima, 1976)
If... (Lindsay Anderson, 1968)
1900 (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1976)
The Spider's Strategem
(Bernardo Bertolucci, 1970)
Dersu Uzala (Akira Kurosawa, 1975)
Tout va bien (Jean-Luc Godard, 1975)
Belle de Jour (Luis Buñuel, 1967)
Deep End (Jerzy Skolimowski, 1971)
The Touch (Ingmar Bergman, 1971)
Effi Briest (R.W. Fassbinder, 1974)
The Last Woman (Marco Ferreri, 1976)
Tristana (Luis Buñuel, 1970)
The Rise of Louis XIV
(Roberto Rossellini, 1966)
This Man Must Die
(Claude Chabrol, 1969)
Cries and Whispers
(Ingmar Bergman, 1972)
The Devil, Probably
(Robert Bresson, 1977)
The Red and the White
(Miklós Jancsó, 1967)