List of Crap #115: Top 50 Movies of the 70s Countdown!

[linszoid]

And just remember that Jek Tono Porkins (the White) may not have been wearing pants during his scenes.

[Cyrusso]

My list:
1.   The Godfather
2.   Star Wars Episode IV a new hope
3.   The Godfather part 2
4.   Close Encounters of the Third kind
5.   Alien
6.   The Sting
7.   Taxi Driver
8.   Monty Python and the Holy Grail
9.   Superman
10.   Chinatown
11.   Life of Brian
12.   A Clockwork orange
13.   Rocky
14.   Barry Lyndon
15.   The Poseidon Adventure
16.   Airport
17.   Kramer Vs Kramer
18.   Animal House
19.   The Towering Inferno
20.   Patton
21.   Halloween
22.   Dirty Harry
23.   American Graffiti
24.   One flew over the Cuckoo's nest
25.   The Black Hole

Thanks again for hosting the list Johnny!

[George-2.0]

Glad I helped get Superstar, Days of Heaven and Amarcord on the list. Otherwise I was barely a blip on the LoC radar.

1. Jaws - Probably the movie I've re-watched the most in my life. It's the first film I saw twice in theaters (actually, 3 times, with the later anniversary showing). I bought it in VHS, then DVD, now BD. Caught it countless times on HBO, etc and of course I've watched it with the Rifftrax commentary. It's a technical marvel - smartly orchestrated via direction, camera work and editing. For all that, and it's impact on the summer season, I gave it my #1.

2. Jesus Christ Superstar

3. Solaris - I'm so very disappointed Tarkovsky was a no show. For some strange reason I thought this one had a shot at making the grade. I guess I over estimated its appeal.

4. Enter the Dragon

5. Annie Hall - re-watched this not long back. It still holds up; it's still funny, it's still my fave from Woody, and it's one of the rare times I'm in accord with Oscars Best Picture winner

6. Chinatown
7. Dirty Harry

8. The Phantom of the Paradise - De Palma's trippy, irresistible mash-up of Faust and Dorian Grey, with a dash of Poe, a pinch of Shelley, all wrapped around Gaston Leroux's timeless tale of love, music and madness. Maybe a weirdo pick? But I think it's pretty great

9. Harold and Maude

10. McCabe and Mrs. Miller - Good news: Altman made the 50 twice, yay! Bad news: Altman's best film didn't make the 50? Aw shucks!

11. Five Easy Pieces - Another classic Nicholson film and performance

12. Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla - okay, I admit this is kind of a silly pick, but then why not. We need to go daft every once in a while

13. Ulzana's Raid
14. Amarcord

15. Last Tango in Paris - speaking of potential LoC land mines...  probably a good thing it didn't make it, in hindsight

16. The Marriage of Maria Braun - I had to have a Fassbinder. And this is fab Fassbinder

17. Cria Cuervos - This is my Best Picture pick for '76. I love Sauara's work in the 60s/70s. Didn't really think he'd make it, but I wanted him represented in some way. This is a slow burn, but considered the directors finest.

18. The Phantom of Liberty - Fellini named it his favorite Bunuel film. It's one of mine as well

19. Stroszek - It might not be the traditional choice, but this is my favorite from Herzog in the 70s.

20. Days of Heaven

21. Stalker - another from Tarkovsky, the only director to place 2 films in my 25

22. Cabaret
23. Day For Night
24. Outlaw Josey Wales

25. The Traveling Players - slow, long, confusing (lots of time slides) exposition heavy... you know. The kind of thing LoC voters feast on. it's also brilliant.

And these were among the final cuts (not including those that made the 50 without my help)
Rock 'n' Roll High School
The Middleman from Ray. I was sad not to have Satyajit on my list
My Cousin Angelica and Elisa, My Life - 2 more from Carlos Saura
Mirror - another from Tarkovsky, who I consider the supreme pizza of all directors
That Obscure Object of Desire - Bunuel, who is my favorite director
The Night Stalker
I Wanna Hold Your Hand
Fiddler on the Roof
Every Man For Himself and God Against All - Herzog
Images - Altman


Great hosting as usual, Johnny. Thanks.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

One of the first discs I watched on my new OLED TV was Harmy's despecialized edition of Star Wars, the changes made to the next 2 movies never really bothered me but there is one change to the first one that always yanks me out of the movie and makes me mad, just after Ben gives his speech about how dangerous the town is and they will have to be on their toes they stuck in new slapstick comedy scenes, where before it cut to them having to get past the storm troopers.

Quite a few came up that are in my "have to get around to watching that someday" list.

Kind of surprised MASH didn't make the list, yes the TV show was better than the movie, but the movie is pretty good. 

My list:

1   Star Wars 1977
2   The Sting  1973
3   Patton 1970
4   Monty Python and the Holy Grail  1975
5   Young Frankenstein 1974
6   Alien 1979
7   Blazing Saddles  1974
8   Close Encounters of the Third Kind 1977
9   Murder on the Orient Express 1974
10   Monty Python's Life of Brian 1979
11   Jaws 1975
12   The Return of the Pink Panther  1975
13   The Jerk 1979
14   MASH 1970
15   The Golden Voyage of Sinbad 1974
16   A Clockwork Orange 1971
17   The Andromeda Strain 1971
18   Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory 1971
19   The Exorcist 1973
20   The Poseidon Adventure 1972
21   What's Up Doc 1972
22   The Man with The Golden Gun 1974
23   Dirty Harry 1971
24   Midway  1976
25   Tora! Tora! Tora! 1970

[RVR II]

I guess my number 1 didn't count anywhere
1-Battlestar Galactica
2-Star Wars
3-Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind
4-Mad Max
5-Star Trek The Motion Picture
6-The Black Hole
7-Buck Rogers of the 25th Century
8-Monty Python and the Holy Grail
9-Animal House
10-Monty Python-The Life of Brian
11-Earthquake
12-Airport 77
13-Moonraker
14-Superman
15-Star Crash
16-Space Battleship Yamato
17-Farwell to Space Battleship Yamato
18-The Bermuda Triangle
19-Invasion of the Body Snatchers
20-Laserblast
21-Hardware Wars
22-The Alien Factor
23-The Island of Dr. Moreau
24-Zardoz
25-Alien

[Cyrusso]

Nice to see someone else put The Black Hole on their list.  For me it's both a great movie yet kind of a nightmare as a child.

[stethacantus]

Wow. When you have to cut both Wilie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and The Godfather films from your 25 list. But the criteria was to list your favorites, and I had 25 films I liked better. I am regretting that some of the less remembered films like Twilight`s Last Gleaming, Midnight Express, Papillon and Rollerball got cut from my list.  I was surprised how many 70s films I liked a lot.

Honorable mention. I probably could have put Mr. Hulot's Holiday on my list which would have been my #1 pick. It turns out the version everyone knows is actually the 1978 Special Edition. Tati re-edited the film, removing some scenes, combining two scenes taking place at a tennis court into one scene, and filmng a brand new scene that has since become the film's funniest gag. It was a gag he had removed back in the 1950s while editing the original film because he decided it was too silly. Since the edited footage no longer existed went back to the original resort and reshot the gag. Also, the entire music track was replaced. Same music, but recorded at a different arrangement. He also stuck an instrumental recording of Hold That Tiger in the scene where he is listening to a record player so it would tie in with Mon Uncle. Basically I could have made the argument that the 1978 version was a completely different film than the 1953 version. But ultimately I decided it would be cheating, just as much as if the Star Wars: Special Edition films ended up on a 90s film list.

So here is my top 25, with a little commentary on the ones that didn't make this LoC.

#25 The Return of the Pink Panther ( 1975 )
NOTE: The Pink Panther Strikes Again would have been #26 on my list, although was basically a tie for both. You could call this film The Pink Panther II, but it was actually A Shot in the Dark II as the characters Chief Inspector Dryfus, Cato Fong and Sergeant Francois were introduced in A Shot in the Dark, as well as the character of Clouseu becoming the bumbling character he wasn't in the first Pink Panther film. Actually, A Shot in the Dark  was not even a Clouseu film. It was a film adaption of a Broadway play of the same name, and the bumbling detective Peter Sellers was to play was named Paul Sevigne. When Blake Edwards was brought on as the director, he decided to rewrite Sevigne as Clouseau to capitalize on the success of The Pink Panther. All the other characters were written for the play, but ended up regulars in the Pink Panther films that followed.

#24 Young Frankenstein ( 1974 )

#23 The Eagle Has Landed ( 1976 )
A team of Nazi commandos are sent to England to kidnap Winston Churchill. A great British war epic with an all star cast.

#22 The Exorcist ( 1973 )

#21 1941 ( 1979 )
The second WWII film on my list, only this one is the hyper manic cartoonish comedy from Steven Spielberg that can only be described as two hours of non stop needless destruction. During the Second World War, Los Angeles goes into a panic over rumors of a Japanes aircraft flying over the city, little realizing that just off shore is a Japanese submarine with instructions to destroy Hollywood.

#20 Car Wash ( 1976 )
You may not have heard of this comedy, but you probably heard it's hit theme song from Rose Royce that reached #1 on the billboard charts. The film is basically the day in the lives of the employees of a Los Angeles car wash.

#19 Enter the Dragon ( 1973 )

#18 Star Wars ( 1977 )
Yes. That's right. There were 17 movies in the 70s  it liked more than Star Wars....

#17 Escape from the Planet of the Apes ( 1971 )
.....and this was one of them. After the producers basically ended the franchise in the previous film, 20th Century Fox asked for another sequel. The solution, have three apes escape from their planet in Charlton Heston's rocket ship and arrive on Earth in the early 70s where everyone at first love the talking apes, but eventually find them a threat to humanity and want them destroyed. It was the reverse of the first film and it worked, right down to the unexpected dark climax.

#16 Man of Iron ( 1972 )
One of three Shaw Brothers films that made my top 25. This was a sequel to Boxer From Shantung, even though everyone in that movie died. So how can there be a sequel? It's all explained in the first few minutes. The sequel takes place on the same street 20 years later. So basically the street came back for the sequel. The entire cast from Boxer From Shantung return, but playing different characters. This was another of Chang Cheh's gangster films where a tough street kid rises up to becoming a crime lord. It did have what I thought was the two best street battle scenes in any Chang Cheh gangster film.

#15 Conquest of the Planet of the Apes ( 1972 )
20th Century Fox wanted yet another sequel, so what the producers gave them was the origin of the Planet of the Apes. A slave ape named Caesar stages a slave revolution against their human masters. What I liked the most about this film is how Caesar uses his intelligence to win the revolution rather than just brute force.

#14 Rocky ( 1976 )

#13 The Omega Man ( 1971 )
This was the second screen adaption of the novel I Am Legend where a lone survivor of a worldwide plauge battles an army of mutants. Although in this version the mutants are more like religious zealots.

#12 Close Encounters of the Third Kind ( 1977 )

#11 Saturday Night Fever ( 1977 )

#10  Phantasm ( 1979 ) 
Not all independently produced horror films ended up like Manos: The Hands of Fate. Don Coscarelli wrote, produced, directed and financed his own low budget horror film with a cast and crew that was mostly friends and family members. The end result a wild nightmare about a tall mortician who is gradually murdering the citizens of a small town so he can turn them into undead slaves.

#9 The Warriors ( 1979  )
Okay, this didn't make the LoC?

#8 National Lampoon's Animal House ( 1978 )

#7 The Avenging Eagle ( 1978 )
The second of the three Shaw Brothers films o my list. Ti Lung is a member of a ruthless criminal clan who has had enough of stealing and murdering and decides to leave. The leader orders the rest of the clan to hunt him down, but he is helped by a mysterious stranger ( Fu Sheng ) who has a secret of his own.

#6 The Savage Five  ( 1974 )
The third of the Shaw Brothers films. A village is taken over by a gang of bandits who had just robbed a bank and made off with a safe. They want the town's locksmith to crack the safe, but in the meantime hold everyone in the village hostage. It is up to five coragious townsfolk to stand up to the army of bandits and save the village.

#5 Blazing Saddles  ( 1974 )

#4 Monty Python's Life of Brian ( 1979 )

#3 Monty Python and the Holy Grail ( 1975 )

#2 Breaking Away ( 1979 )

#1 Jaws  ( 1975 )

[PsychoGoatee]

Great great countdown, great movies, great times! Long live cinema! Here's my list o favs:

01. The Castle of Cagliostro
02. The Long Goodbye
03. The Last Detail
04. The Muppet Movie
05. Suspiria
06. Saturday Night Fever
07. The Spy Who Loved Me
08. The Godfather
09. Star Wars
10. Captain Kronos - Vampire Hunter
11. Assault on Precint 13
12. Dirty Harry
13. Rocky
14. Deep Red
15. The Deer Hunter
16. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
17. The Duellists
18. Wizards
19. Taxi Driver
20. Rocky Horror Picture Show
21. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
22. Rolling Thunder
23. The Sting
24. Murder on the Orient Express
25. Get Carter

[Edward J Grug III]

I think there were some very strange omissions, but what a great list. And what a weird (but mostly fun) lot of conversations that sprang from it.

1   The Muppet Movie
2   Jaws
3   The Wicker Man
4   The Taking of Pelham One Two Three
5   The Long Goodbye
6   Robin Hood (Disney's)
7   Mean Streets - Thought for sure this would make the list. Up until very recently, Scorcese was pretty much a guaranteed win in my mind. I even love some of those ones that people are mixed on, like The Aviator. Still, this is a just about perfect Scorcese film, and I prefer it to Taxi Driver (which is also wonderful and on my list)
8   The Poseidon Adventure
9   Nashville
10   Amacord
11   Cries and Whispers - I am not surprised Bergman didn't make the list. These aren't my favourite Bergman films mind you, but they are excellent.
12   Aguirre: The Wrath of God
13   The Omen - Another shock. After The Wicker Man, my favourite 70s horror film. Thought we'd get more horror in general tbh.
14   Ryan's Daughter - I'm a David Lean lovin' nerd. Robert Mitchum is great in this film.
15   Godfather Part II
16   Autumn Sonata - This is a very difficult watch.
17   Night Moves - Gene Hackman made the list for Poseidon Adventure, and I was sure The French Connection would make it too, but this is actually probably my favourite Gene Hackman film (Poseidon being an ensemble cast)
18   The Castle of Cagliostro
19   Two-Lane Blacktop - I thought this might have an outside chance of making the list. This might be the most 70s film I can think of. Highly recommended if you haven't seen it. The ending may leave your head spinning though.
20   3 Days of the Condor - Much fewer 70s political thrillers on the list than I thought too.
21   Picnic at Hanging Rock - Probably my favourite Australian film.
22   Carrie - Not a huge De Palma guy, but when he was great, he was great! (And I say 'was' because I doubt he'll ever be great again )
23   Taxi Driver
24   Godfather
25   Duel - What an amazing debut film.

[Edward J Grug III]

3. Solaris - I'm so very disappointed Tarkovsky was a no show. For some strange reason I thought this one had a shot at making the grade. I guess I over estimated its appeal.

I've only watched it the once, and I know I need to give it another go.

5. Annie Hall - re-watched this not long back. It still holds up; it's still funny, it's still my fave from Woody, and it's one of the rare times I'm in accord with Oscars Best Picture winner

I thought that was a shoe in - especially after Bananas made the list.

19. Stroszek - It might not be the traditional choice, but this is my favorite from Herzog in the 70s.

Was an extremely near miss on my list.

[Pak-Man]

1. Star Wars
2. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
3. Attack of the Killer Tomatoes! (What. You thought I was joking? OK, I might have boosted this one just a bit to try to get it onto the list...)
4. The Muppet Movie
5. Superman
6. The Castle of Cagliostro
7. The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (It's one of the more "just for kids" movies Disney ever made, but I was a kid at the time and I've adored it my whole life.)
8. Young Frankenstein
9. The Twelve Tasks of Asterix (I only know this one because there was a short period of time in the '80s where Nickelodeon aired it a couple times. It's not very well-known here in the states. I love the whole checklist-of-heroic-tasks bit. It draws me to movies.)
10. Race for your Life Charlie Brown (Another one that gets in because of how much I loved it when I was the right age.)
11. Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
12. Life of Brian
13. Robin Hood (Disney)
14. Snoopy Come Home (See: Race for your Life)
15. The Rescuers (I'm kind of amazed this one didn't sneak in toward the bottom. It's not the most Disneyesque Disney movie, but it tells an interesting story. I've always had a soft spot for Bob Newhart.)
16. Alien
17. The Cat from Outer Space (Another right age-right time movie that I caught on the Disney Channel growing up. It would not be matched until A Talking Cat!?! came along years later.)
18. The Return of the Pink Panther (Kind of surprised this one didn't make the cut. I love Pink Panther movies.)
19. Jaws
20. Pete's Dragon (I'm also a sucker for live action and animation sharing screen time. My memories of this film are actually pretty hazy. I need to rewatch it.)
21. The Hobbit
22. The Rocky Horror Picture Show
23. The Lord of the Rings
24. The Smurfs and the Magic Flute
25. Charlotte's Web

[Edward J Grug III]

[/b]7. The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (It's one of the more "just for kids" movies Disney ever made, but I was a kid at the time and I've adored it my whole life.)

I do love that film, and it wasn't too far off my list.

[Edward J Grug III]

Jaws at three? Jesus guys. ;P

I had it pegged #1 for sure.

I had it at #2, but hoped it would nab 1. I cannot believe there are lists where it didn't even place.

[George-2.0]

19   Two-Lane Blacktop - I thought this might have an outside chance of making the list. This might be the most 70s film I can think of. Highly recommended if you haven't seen it. The ending may leave your head spinning though.

21   Picnic at Hanging Rock - Probably my favourite Australian film.
25   Duel - What an amazing debut film.

Love Hanging Rock. And Duel, which I just plumb forgot about.

Two-Lane Blacktop I've not seen in decades and remember little of it. But after reading this, and then going over to Letterboxd and seeing folks rave about it, I put a hold on it from the library.

[Johnny Unusual]

Though I always like exploring my horizons, my tastes are often a little more meat and potatoes (though Pelham One Two Three feels like a film that should be more talked about than it is.  It is certainly popular among film fans but I feel like it should be discussed and celebrated as much as the Coppola and Spielberg movies of the era)

1. The Taking of Pelham One Two Three
2. The Godfather
3. The Conversation
4. Jaws
5. Chinatown
6. The Muppet Movie
7. Rocky
8. Sorcerer - I'm not surprised this movie didn't make the list, but I was hoping it might place near the bottom.  If you are unfamiliar, its a brilliant thriller by William Friedkin about 4 criminals (a terrorist, an assassin, a robber and a white collar criminal) all trapped in a South American purgatory to escape their crimes and have only one way to get out with money and a passport (and maybe even be celebrated as heroes): Carry two trucks worth of unstable nitro glycerin through the jungle to put out a fire at an oil refinery.  And no matter how hard that might sound, its actually worse.  The film tanked at the box office partially due to competing against Star Wars, partially because people expecting a follow up to the Exorcist thought it was going to be a horror movie (which it is in a loose sense of the word) and maybe partially because people didn't know what to make of it.
9. Star Wars
10. Alien
11. Superman
12. Taxi Driver
13.  The Jerk
14. The Wicker Man
15. Picnic at Hanging Rock - I was super hoping this one would make it.
16. Texas Chainsaw Massacre - A little surprised this one didn't.  There's a chainsaw chase that feels endless and somehow it never looser its impact throughout.
17. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
18. Duel - This is probably the reason I said "TV Movies are allowed"
19. Suspiria
20. The French Connection - A little surprised this didn't make it.
21. Don't Look Now - Not too surprised this didn't but I was hopeful.  Excellent slow burn thriller.  I love titles that seem innocuous but are actually foreboding/menacing/like a cruel joke in context.
22. Dawn of the Dead
23. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
24. Network - This one not making it is a genuine surprise.
25. High Plains Drifter - This one not so much.  A great movie but the rape (where I think we are on the side of the rapist, which is NUTS) early on hurts it a bit for me.  Everything else is a brilliant subversion on the "small town hires gunslinger to fight bad guys" story.

Movies that, for one reason or another, didn't make my list!
Spoilered for size.
Marathon Man
Frenzy
Black Christmas
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Cabaret
The Deer Hunter
Castle of Cogliastro
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Next
Young Frankenstein
House
Life of Brian
Blazing Saddles
The Exorcist
Silent Running
Straw Dogs
The Conformist
A Clockwork Orange
Harold and Maude
THX-1138
Phantasm
Enter the Dragon
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin
Grey Gardens
Nashville
Halloween
The Tenant
Assault on Precinct 13
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
The Legend of Hell House
Solaris
The Outlaw Josey Wales
The Driver
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory