The 1970s: the Second Golden Age of Cinema. Hollywood had fully embraced mature, intelligent and challenging work – while still producing stuff like Rocky and Star Wars. Directors who had grown up on cinema across the world did some of their finest work. Heck, even the Best Picture winners of this decade were pretty much all great.
1970
 | Airport – laughable, turgid and terrible soap, full of cardboard characters and ends with a disaster epilogue. A massive hit | Director: George Seaton Cast: Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin, Jean Seberg |
 | The Conformist – Psycho-analysis mixes with politics as a Fascist conformer plots assassination in this gorgeous, complex masterpiece | Director: Bernardo Bertolucci Cast: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Stefania Sandrelli, Dominique Sanda |
 | Cromwell – wildly inaccurate but spiritually faithful dramatisation of the English Civil War, the only sympathetic Cromwell flick out there | Director: Ken Hughes Cast: Richard Harris, Alec Guinness, Dorothy Tutin |
 | M*A*S*H – very dated, sexist, counter-culture comedy which I found hugely grating and unfunny | Director: Robert Altman Cast: Donald Sutherland, Elliot Gould, Sally Kellerman |
 | Patton – Best Picture winning biopic, very overlooked with a breathtakingly brilliant, transformative performance by Scott | Director: Franklin J Schaffner Cast: George C. Scott, Karl Malden, Michael Bates |
 | The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes – the purist’s Holmes film of choice, a wonderfully witty deconstruction of the detective | Director: Billy Wilder Cast: Robert Stephens, Colin Blakely, Genevieve Page |
 | Waterloo – practically a reconstruction of the battle, shot on a massive scale; the sort of film I’m a sucker for | Director: Sergei Bondarchuk Cast: Rod Steiger, Christopher Plummer, Orson Welles |
1971
 | The Anderson Tapes – a criminal, recently released from prison, plans a heist – but is unprepared for modern surveillance | Director: Sidney Lumet Cast: Sean Connery, Dyan Cannon, Martin Balsam |
 | A Clockwork Orange – Kubrick’s violent dystopian counter-culture film, banned for decades in the UK. Scared its director | Director: Stanley Kubrick Cast: Malcolm McDowell, Patrick Magee, Michael Bates |
 | A Day in the Death of Joe Egg – a father copes with his son’s disability through jokes in this autobiographical play adaptation | Director: Peter Medak Cast: Alan Bates, Janet Suzman, Peter Bowles |
 | Death in Venice – landmark LGBTQ film of a dying composer falling for a beautiful boy in Venice. Creepier now than it was. | Director: Luchino Visconti Cast: Dirk Bogarde, Mark Burns, Marisa Berenson |
 | The French Connection – Best Picture winner about an obsessed cop chasing down French drugs and damn the consequences | Director: William Friedkin Cast: Gene Hackman, Roy Scheider, Fernando Rey |
 | Get Carter – grim, brutal and brilliant British gangster film, as a gangster returns to Newcastle to find out who killed his brother | Director: Mike Hodges Cast: Michael Caine, Ian Hendry, John Osborne |
 | The Go-Between – an old man remembers the lovers he accidentally betrayed as a boy in this moving memory piece | Director: Joseph Losey Cast: Julie Christie, Alan Bates, Dominic Guard |
 | Gumshoe – a would-be PI in Liverpool investigates murder while apeing Chandler in this off-the-wall spoof | Director: Stephen Frears Cast: Albert Finney, Billie Whitelaw, Frank Finlay |
 | Klute – a call-girl may hold the answer to a murder mystery in one of the first unsettling conspiracy thrillers of the 70s | Director: Alan J Pakula Cast: Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, Charles Cioffi |
 | The Last Picture Show – in small-town America times change but life never does in this coming-of-age classic | Director: Peter Bogdanovich Cast: Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd |
 | Macbeth – Polanski’s dark and violent version of the tale, crammed with nihilism | Director: Roman Polanski Cast: Jon Finch, Francesca Annis, Martin Shaw |
 | McCabe and Mrs Miller – revisionist Western about a crook and madam who find themselves out of their depth | Director: Robert Altman Cast: Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, Rene Auberjoinois |
 | Mary, Queen of Scots – grand but second-tier Tudor history epic, with a little too much sympathy for Mary Queen of Scots | Director: Charles Jarrott Cast: Vanessa Redgrave, Glenda Jackson, Timothy Dalton |
 | Nicholas and Alexandria – grand biopic of the last Tsar and his wife, a film I grew up watching and have no end of affection for | Director: Franklin J Schaffner Cast: Michael Jayston, Janet Suzman, Laurence Olivier |
 | Sunday, Bloody Sunday – a man and a woman share the same lover, a hedonistic young man. | Director: John Schlesinger Cast: Peter Finch, Glenda Jackson, Murray Melvin |
 | Ten Rillington Place – excellent true-life crime drama, focusing on John Christie and the wrongful execution of Timothy Evans | Director: Richard Fleischer Cast: Richard Attenborough, John Hurt, Judy Geeson |
 | Walkabout – dreamlike coming-of-age story set in the Australian outback | Director: Nicolas Roeg Cast: Jenny Agutter, Luc Roeg, David Gulpilil |
1972
 | The Candidate – a young man runs for Senate largely because he looks like Robert Redford and can win. Will he keep his idealism? | Director: Michael Ritchie Cast: Robert Redford, Peter Boyle, Melvyn Douglas |
 | The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie – Parisian snobs keep having their dinners interrupted. Playful, absurdist farce | Director: Luis Buñuel Cast: Fernando Rey, Delphine Seyrig, Stéphane Audran |
 | Fat City – a punch drunk old boxer deals with addiction, failure and knowing he’ll never make the big time. | Director: John Huston Cast: Stacey Keach, Jeff Bridges, Susan Tyrell |
 | The Poseidon Adventure – a cruise liner flips over at sea and the survivors launch a thousand enjoyable disaster film clichés | Director: Ronald Neame Cast: Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine, Shelley Winters |
 | Solaris – Tarkovsky’s first attempt at science fiction, a haunting if cryptic tale as dreams come to life above a mysterious planet | Director: Andrei Tarkovsky Cast: Donatas Banionis, Natalya Bondarchuk, Jüri Järvet |
 | Young Winston – handsome biopic covering the early years of Winston Churchill, from cradle to maiden speech at the commons | Director: Richard Attenborough Cast: Simon Ward, Robert Shaw, Anne Bancroft |
1973
 | Badlands – two young people fall in love, kill people and hit the road in this lyrical, poetic debut from Terrence Malick | Director: Terrence Malick Cast: Martin Sheen, Sissy Spacey, Warren Oates |
 | Charley Varrick – after a job gone wrong, a low-time crook has to use his cunning to escape from the clutches of the mafia | Director: Don Siegel Cast: Walter Matthau, Joe Don Baker, Andy Robinson |
 | Day for Night – romantic entanglements take place on a film set, in this charming, witty film about making movies | Director: François Truffaut Cast: Jacqueline Bisset, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Valentine Cortese |
 | The Day of the Jackal – a hitman is hired by the OAS to assassinate Charles de Gaulle in this creeping thriller. | Director: Fred Zinnemann Cast: Edward Fox, Michael Lonsdale, Delphine Seyrig |
 | The Last Detail – escorting a young sailor to prison, two others decide to help him experience life – in 48 hours | Director: Hal Ashby Cast: Jack Nicholson, Randy Quaid, Otis Young |
 | The Long Goodbye – Philip Marlowe investigates again in this Altmanesque 1970s twist on Raymond Chandler | Director: Robert Altman Cast: Elliot Gould, Nina van Pallandt, Sterling Hayden |
 | The Sting – two conmen tip up in the 1920s to take down a ruthless gangster in this Best Picture winner | Director: George Roy Hill Cast: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Robert Shaw |
1974
 | Chinatown – after a PI he is set up, he tries to find out why. His investigation leads to murder and dark secrets | Director: Roman Polanski Cast: Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston |
 | The Godfather Part II – Best Picture winning sequel that explores the history of Vito Corleone and the corruption of Michael Corleone | Director: Francis Ford Coppola Cast: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, John Cazale |
 | The Man With the Golden Gun – Bond goes face-to-face with a hitman who prides himself on never missing. | Director: Guy Hamilton Cast: Roger Moore, Christopher Lee, Britt Ekland |
 | Murder on the Orient Express – Brilliant all-star adaptation of Agatha Christie’s most famous Poirot novel. A dozen suspects: who did it? | Director: Sidney Lumet Cast: Albert Finney, Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman |
 | The Odessa File – a German journalist goes undercover to find a secret escape route for Nazis | Director: Ronald Neame Cast: Jon Voight, Maximilian Schell, Maria Schell |
 | The Towering Inferno – does exactly what it says on the tin, in this classic all-star disaster film. | Director: Irwin Allen, John Guillermin Cast: Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, Faye Dunaway |
 | Zardoz – in the future a slave hunter discovers he is the tool of the Gods. Or something. Crazy sci-fi, as bad as it sounds | Director: John Boorman Cast: Sean Connery, Charlotte Rampling, Sara Kestelman |
1975
 | Barry Lyndon – an Irish chancer rises up the social ladder in 18th century England in this cold and distant epic | Director: Stanley Kubrick Cast: Ryan O’Neal, Marisa Berenson, Michael Hordern |
 | Dog Day Afternoon – a desperate bank robber finds himself at the centre of a media storm when he takes the bank hostage | Director: Sidney Lumet Cast: Al Pacino, John Cazale, Charles Durning |
 | French Connection II – Popeye Doyle follows those French drugs all the way back to Marseilles in this solid sequel | Director: John Frankenheimer Cast: Gene Hackman, Fernando Rey, Bernard Fresson |
 | Jaws – a killer shark terrorises a town: only three men can stop it. Spielberg’s (literal) monster hit | Director: Steven Spielberg Cast: Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, Robert Shaw |
 | The Man Who Would Be King – in the British Raj, two conmen head out to the furthest reaches of India in search of riches | Director: John Huston Cast: Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Christopher Plummer |
 | Nashville – lives intersect in the city of Nashville over one long weekend. Possibly Altman’s masterpiece. | Director: Robert Altman Cast: Ronee Blakely, Keith Carradine, Lily Tomlin |
 | One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – Best Picture masterpiece as a criminal clashes with a stern matron in an asylum | Director: Milos Forman Cast: Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, Brad Dourif |
 | The Parallax View – a young journalist goes down a conspiracy rabbit hole, up against forces he can’t control | Director: Alan J Pakula Cast: Warren Beatty, Paula Prentiss, Hume Cronyn |
 | The Passenger – a man steals a dead mans identity, then gets in trouble when he tries to follow in his footsteps | Director: Michelangelo Antonioni Cast: Jack Nicholson, Maria Schneider, Ian Hendry |
 | Picnic at Hanging Rock – a series of disappearances take place in an Australian all girls school, in this ghostly masterpiece | Director: Peter Weir Cast: Rachel Roberts, Anne-Louise Lambert, Dominic Guard |
 | Three Days of the Condor – after his whole team is killed on his bosses orders, a young CIA analyst tries to find out why | Director: Sydney Pollack Cast: Robert Redford, Faye Dunaway, Max von Sydow |
1976
 | The Front – a front for Blacklisted writers grows a conscience in this heartfelt mix of comedy and tragedy | Director: Martin Ritt Cast: Woody Allen, Zero Mostel, Michael Murphy |
 | Marathon Man – a college post-graduate’s CIA brother is killed. A renegade Nazi is convinced he passed a secret to his brother. | Director: John Schlesinger Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Oliver, Roy Scheider |
 | Midway – a retelling of the famous WW2 battle, which never quite escapes its made-for-TV roots | Director: Jack Smight Cast: Charlton Heston, Henry Fonda, James Coburn |
 | Network – ahead-of-its-time media satire, as a TV anchorman loses his mind on and the Network turns him into a “mad prophet” | Director: Sidney Lumet Cast: Peter Finch, William Holden, Faye Dunaway |
 | Rocky – a jobbing boxer gets offered a title shot. This Best Picture winner is more kitchen-sink than you’ll remember | Director: John G. Avildsen Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burgess Meredith |
 | The Seven-Per-Cent Solution – Holmes is treated by Freud for addiction in this loving, faithful pastiche | Director: Herbert Ross Cast: Nicol Williamson, Robert Duvall, Alan Arkin |
 | Taxi Driver – a desperate nobody fixates on a woman, a Presidential candidate and a child prostitute. Gripping, essential. | Director: Martin Scorsese Cast: Robert De Niro, Cybil Shepherd, Jodie Foster |
1977
 | Annie Hall – Woody Allen’s Best Picture winner about a neurotic man in a relationship with a lovable ditz. Genuinely funny. | Director: Woody Allen Cast: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts |
 | A Bridge Too Far – reconstruction of the disastrous Battle of Arnhem. A personal favourite and also a powerful call for peace. | Director: Richard Attenborough Cast: Dirk Bogarde, Sean Connery, Michael Caine |
 | Close Encounters of the Third Kind – a number of people have alien encounters and receive a strange calling. Magical film | Director: Steven Spielberg Cast: Richard Dreyfuss, François Truffaut, Teri Garr |
 | Equus – a young boy blinds a stable of horses – a psychiatrist tries to find out why. Crude and literal,makes the play look bad | Director: Sidney Lumet Cast: Richard Burton, Peter Firth, Jenny Agutter |
 | Julia – dubious biopic of Lilian Hellman and her friendship with a left-wing Jewish radical in Nazi Germany | Director: Fred Zinnemann Cast: Jane Fonda, Vanessa Redgrave, Jason Robards |
 | The Spy Who Loved Me – Roger Moore’s ultimate Bond film: huge, silly, crammed with jokes and raised eyebrows | Director: Lewis Gilbert Cast: Roger Moore, Barbara Bach, Curd Jürgens |
 | The Turning Point – two ballet dancers – one who retired young, one near the end of her career – deal with old resentments | Director: Herbert Ross Cast: Anne Bancroft, Shirley MacLaine, Tom Skerritt |
1978
 | Blue Collar – in a car factory, three workers deal with heartless management in this rare slice of Loachian style US film-making | Director: Paul Schrader Cast: Harvey Keitel, Richard Pryor, Yaphet Kotto |
 | Death on the Nile – all-star Agatha Christie murder mystery on the Nile. Perfect Sunday afternoon viewing | Director: John Guillermin Cast: Peter Ustinov, David Niven, Bette Davis |
 | The Deer Hunter – controversial Vietnam-set Best Picture winner as steel workers return from the war but are changed forever | Director: Michael Cimino Cast: Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, John Cazale |
 | The Driver – a nameless getaway driver gets involved in a huge score while being chased by an obsessed cop | Director: Walter Hill Cast: Ryan O’Neal, Bruce Dern, Isabella Adjani |
 | The First Great Train Robbery – in Victorian London a gang of criminals plans a train heist. | Director: Michael Chrichton Cast: Sean Connery, Donald Sutherland, Lesley Anne-Down |
 | Invasion of the Body Snatchers – people’s behaviour changes overnight – could it be they are being replaced by aliens? | Director: Philip Kaufman Cast: Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Leonard Nimoy |
 | Midnight Express – Turkish Prison drama – to say it looks a bit racist and homophobic today is an understatement | Director: Alan Parker Cast: Brad Davis, Randy Quaid, John Hurt |
1979
 | Alien – the classic space horror has the crew of a ship are haunted by a relentless monster. | Director: Ridley Scott Cast: Sigourney Weaver, John Hurt, Tom Skerritt, Ian Holm |
 | Apocalypse Now – landmark Vietnam epic, a demented fever dream version of Hearts of Darkness. I have mixed feelings | Director: Francis Ford Coppola Cast: Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall |
 | All That Jazz – autobiographical film based on Bob Fosse’s life. Electric and dynamic, an overlooked classic. | Director: Bob Fosse Cast: Roy Scheider, Ann Reinking, Leland Palmer |
 | Being There – a mentally handicapped gardener, who has never left his home, is hailed as a sage by the rich and powerful. | Director: Hal Ashby Cast: Peter Sellers, Melvyn Douglas, Shirley Maclaine |
 | The Black Hole – feeble attempt by Disney to do Star Wars with a demented scientist trying to control the power of a black hole | Director: Gary Nelson Cast: Maximilian Schell, Anthony Perkins, Robert Forster |
 | The China Syndrome – a near-meltdown at a nuclear plant is covered up in this well made conspiracy thriller | Director: James Bridges Cast: Jack Lemmon, Jane Fonda, Michael Douglas |
 | Kramer vs Kramer – Best Picture winning divorce and childcare drama as a Dad learns to care for his son than fights for custody | Director: Robert Benton Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep, Justin Henry |
 | Moonraker – James Bond does Star Wars in what’s pretty much a remake of The Spy Who Loved Me | Director: Lewis Gilbert Cast: Roger Moore, Lois Chiles, Michael Lonsdale |
 | Murder by Decree – Holmes investigates Jack the Ripper in this enjoyable mix of pastiche and Bonkers conspiracy theory | Director: Bob Clark Cast: Christopher Plummer, James Mason, Frank Finlay |
 | My Brilliant Career – a young Australian woman struggles to find her path in this impressive feminist period piece | Director: Gillian Armstrong Cast: Judy Davis, Sam Neill, Wendy Hughes |
 | Scum – power struggles between the kids in a brutal expose of the Borstal system. Hardhitting but essential | Director: Alan Clarke Cast: Ray Winstone, Mick Ford, Julian Firth |
 | Stalker – pretentious Russian sci-fi epic, as men travel through a zone given a strange power by an extra terrestrial encounter | Director: Andrei Tarkovsky Cast: Alexander Kaidanovsky, Anatoly Solonitsyn |
 | Star Trek: The Motion Picture – terminally dull launch of the Star Trek franchise, about a mysterious probe in space | Director: Robert Wise Cast: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley |
 | Tess – beautifully shot and tragic (if a little long) Hardy adaptation, filmed in France (for obvious legal reasons) | Director: Roman Polanski Cast: Nastassja Kinski, Peter Firth, Leigh Lawson |
 | Time After Time – HG Wells builds a time machine and chases a fleeing Jack the Ripper to 1970s San Francisco | Director: Nicholas Meyer Cast: Malcolm McDowell, David Warner, Mary Steenburgen |
Movie Musings 