So here they are, my top twenty-five from the seventies, (once again in order of domestic release date by country of origin). Obviously, this was the hardest list of all—looking back, it turns out this decade contributed TEN to my twenty-five greatest of all-time list; as always, those films noted by an asterisk. So the usual caveats apply to an even greater extent this time around. In particular, I have a very long list of near-misses—and letting go of some of those was not easy. Just behind them were the hidden gems and sentimental favorites; no room at the inn to be that clever with this set. Put another way, this list could have been twice as long, so send your dissents to the usual outlet and I will likely commiserate. Or not. But I will respond. (This is probably also a good time to mention that Hollywood’s Last Golden Age has an Appendix that has a list of “100 Seventies Films of the Last Golden Age,” and that list stops at the end of 1976, is dedicated solely to American films—and, at the time, limiting that to 100 was its own challenge!) And with all that . . . here they are, the best of the best:
The Things of Life (Sautet, 1970) Max and the Junkmen (1971); Vincent, Francois, Paul and the others (1974)
The Conformist (Bertolucci, 1970) Last Tango in Paris (1973)
Just Before Nightfall (Chabrol, 1971)* Innocents with Dirty Hands (1975)
Klute (Pakula, 1971) The Parallax View (1974)
Carnal Knowledge (Nichols, 1971)
The King of Marvin Gardens (Rafelson, 1972) Five Easy Pieces (1970)
Day For Night (Truffaut, 1973)
Scenes from a Marriage (Bergman, 1973)
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (Peckinpah, 1973)
The Friends of Eddie Coyle (Yates, 1973)
The Clockmaker (Tavernier, 1974)*
The Conversation (Coppola, 1974)* The Godfather (1972); The Godfather, Part II (1974)
Alice in the Cities (Wenders, 1974) The American Friend (1977)
Chinatown (Polanski, 1974)*
Shampoo (Ashby, 1975) The Last Detail (1973)
The Passenger (Antonioni, 1975)
Nashville (Altman, 1975)* McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971); The Long Goodbye (1973)
Night Moves (Penn, 1975)*
Three Days of the Condor (Pollack, 1975)*
Taxi Driver (Scorsese, 1976)* Mean Streets (1973)
The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (Cassavetes, 1976)* Opening Night (1977)
Network (Lumet, 1976) Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
Mikey and Nicky (May, 1976)
The Hunters (Angelopoulos, 1977)
Manhattan (Allen, 1979)* Annie Hall (1977); Interiors (1978)
All That Jazz (Fosse, 1979)
Night Moves – The Seventies Film summarized in one frame
Just Before Nightfall – Chabrol at the top of his game
Network – Nixon inevitably haunts the Seventies Film
The Conversation – All I have are my keys
Chinatown – A man is capable of anything
Manhattan – What more is there to say?