The 100 Best Films Of The 1970's

by ecmblume | created - 28 Dec 2010 | updated - 05 Jan 2011 | Public

The best decade for films. End of story. Some are undisputed masterpieces. Some are excellent. Some aren't. Some are ripe for rediscovery. And maybe some you just haven't seen. Either way, this is The 100 Best Films Of The 1970's. Enjoy and feel free to comment. (And also let me know if I overlooked any good ones). As usual, they are NOT ranked in order.

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1. Taxi Driver (1976)

18A | 114 min | Crime, Drama

94 Metascore

A mentally unstable veteran works as a nighttime taxi driver in New York City, where the perceived decadence and sleaze fuels his urge for violent action by attempting to liberate a presidential campaign worker and an underage prostitute.

Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, Albert Brooks

Votes: 698,804 | Gross: $28.26M

2. Mean Streets (1973)

18+ | 112 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller

96 Metascore

A small-time hood aspires to work his way up the ranks of a local mob.

Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel, David Proval, Amy Robinson

Votes: 96,254 | Gross: $3.13M

3. Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974)

PG | 112 min | Drama, Romance

78 Metascore

A recently widowed woman is on the road with her precocious young son, determined to make a new life for herself as a singer.

Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Ellen Burstyn, Kris Kristofferson, Mia Bendixsen, Alfred Lutter III

Votes: 20,729 | Gross: $18.60M

4. Five Easy Pieces (1970)

98 min | Drama

85 Metascore

A dropout from upper-class America picks up work along the way on oil rigs when his life isn't spent in a squalid succession of bars, motels, and other points of interest.

Director: Bob Rafelson | Stars: Jack Nicholson, Karen Black, Billy Green Bush, Fannie Flagg

Votes: 32,312 | Gross: $5.51M

5. The Last Detail (1973)

R | 104 min | Comedy, Drama

89 Metascore

Two Navy men are ordered to bring a young offender to prison, but decide to show him one last good time along the way.

Director: Hal Ashby | Stars: Jack Nicholson, Randy Quaid, Otis Young, Clifton James

Votes: 21,435 | Gross: $0.06M

6. Chinatown (1974)

18A | 130 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller

92 Metascore

A private detective hired to expose an adulterer finds himself caught up in a web of deceit, corruption, and murder.

Director: Roman Polanski | Stars: Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston, Perry Lopez

Votes: 285,131 | Gross: $29.20M

7. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)

13+ | 133 min | Drama

83 Metascore

A criminal pleads insanity and is admitted to a mental institution, where he rebels against the oppressive nurse and rallies up the scared patients.

Director: Milos Forman | Stars: Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, Will Sampson, Michael Berryman

Votes: 886,808 | Gross: $112.00M

8. The Godfather (1972)

18A | 175 min | Crime, Drama

100 Metascore

The aging patriarch of an organized crime dynasty transfers control of his clandestine empire to his reluctant son.

Director: Francis Ford Coppola | Stars: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Diane Keaton

Votes: 1,562,999 | Gross: $134.97M

9. The Godfather: Part II (1974)

PG | 202 min | Crime, Drama

90 Metascore

The early life and career of Vito Corleone in 1920s New York City is portrayed, while his son, Michael, expands and tightens his grip on the family crime syndicate.

Director: Francis Ford Coppola | Stars: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton

Votes: 1,092,371 | Gross: $57.30M

10. The Conversation (1974)

G | 113 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller

85 Metascore

A paranoid, secretive surveillance expert has a crisis of conscience when he suspects that the couple he is spying on will be murdered.

Director: Francis Ford Coppola | Stars: Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Allen Garfield, Frederic Forrest

Votes: 94,947 | Gross: $4.42M

11. Apocalypse Now (1979)

R | 147 min | Drama, Mystery, War

94 Metascore

A U.S. Army officer serving in Vietnam is tasked with assassinating a renegade Special Forces Colonel who sees himself as a god.

Director: Francis Ford Coppola | Stars: Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Frederic Forrest

Votes: 587,603 | Gross: $83.47M

12. The French Connection (1971)

R | 104 min | Action, Crime, Drama

94 Metascore

A pair of NYC cops in the Narcotics Bureau stumble onto a drug smuggling job with a French connection.

Director: William Friedkin | Stars: Gene Hackman, Roy Scheider, Fernando Rey, Tony Lo Bianco

Votes: 106,729 | Gross: $15.63M

13. French Connection II (1975)

PG | 119 min | Action, Crime, Drama

68 Metascore

"Popeye" Doyle travels to Marseille to find Alain Charnier, the drug smuggler who eluded him in New York.

Director: John Frankenheimer | Stars: Gene Hackman, Fernando Rey, Bernard Fresson, Philippe Léotard

Votes: 16,260 | Gross: $12.48M

14. The Exorcist (1973)

R | 122 min | Horror

81 Metascore

When a 12 year-old girl is possessed by a mysterious entity, her mother seeks the help of two priests to save her.

Director: William Friedkin | Stars: Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Linda Blair, Lee J. Cobb

Votes: 352,764 | Gross: $232.91M

15. Jaws (1975)

R | 124 min | Adventure, Thriller

87 Metascore

When a killer shark unleashes chaos on a beach community, it's up to a local sheriff, a marine biologist, and an old seafarer to hunt the beast down.

Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss, Lorraine Gary

Votes: 533,591 | Gross: $260.00M

16. The Wicker Man (1973)

14A | 88 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller

87 Metascore

A puritan Police Sergeant is sent to a Scottish island village in search of a missing girl who the townsfolk claim never existed; stranger still are the pagan rites that take place there.

Director: Robin Hardy | Stars: Edward Woodward, Christopher Lee, Diane Cilento, Britt Ekland

Votes: 66,833 | Gross: $0.06M

17. The Omen (1976)

R | 111 min | Horror

62 Metascore

Mysterious deaths surround an American ambassador. Could the child that he is raising actually be the Antichrist? The Devil's own son?

Director: Richard Donner | Stars: Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, Harvey Stephens, David Warner

Votes: 104,312 | Gross: $4.27M

18. A Clockwork Orange (1971)

(Banned) | 136 min | Crime, Drama, Sci-Fi

80 Metascore

In the future, a sadistic gang leader is imprisoned and volunteers for a conduct-aversion experiment, but it doesn't go as planned.

Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Malcolm McDowell, Patrick Magee, Michael Bates, Warren Clarke

Votes: 736,838 | Gross: $6.21M

19. Star Wars (1977)

14 | 121 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy

90 Metascore

Luke Skywalker joins forces with a Jedi Knight, a cocky pilot, a Wookiee and two droids to save the galaxy from the Empire's world-destroying battle station, while also attempting to rescue Princess Leia from the mysterious Darth Vader.

Director: George Lucas | Stars: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Alec Guinness

Votes: 1,199,438 | Gross: $322.74M

20. Coming Home (1978)

14+ | 127 min | Drama, Romance, War

61 Metascore

A woman whose husband is fighting in Vietnam falls in love with another man who suffered a paralyzing combat injury there.

Director: Hal Ashby | Stars: Jane Fonda, Jon Voight, Bruce Dern, Penelope Milford

Votes: 12,024 | Gross: $32.65M

21. Klute (1971)

18A | 114 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller

81 Metascore

A small-town detective searching for a missing man has only one lead: a connection with a New York prostitute.

Director: Alan J. Pakula | Stars: Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, Charles Cioffi, Roy Scheider

Votes: 21,471 | Gross: $17.44M

22. The Deer Hunter (1978)

18+ | 183 min | Drama, War

86 Metascore

An in-depth examination of the ways in which the U.S. Vietnam War impacts and disrupts the lives of people in a small industrial town in Pennsylvania.

Director: Michael Cimino | Stars: Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, John Cazale, John Savage

Votes: 302,842 | Gross: $48.98M

23. Shampoo (1975)

R | 110 min | Comedy, Drama

65 Metascore

On Election Day, 1968, a hairdresser and ladies' man is too busy cutting hair and dealing with his various girlfriends and his mistress, whose husband he meets and finds out is having an affair with his ex-girlfriend.

Director: Hal Ashby | Stars: Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, Goldie Hawn, Lee Grant

Votes: 10,633 | Gross: $49.41M

24. Straight Time (1978)

R | 114 min | Crime, Drama

64 Metascore

After being released on parole, a career burglar assaults his former probation officer, returns to a life of crime, and goes on the run.

Directors: Ulu Grosbard, Dustin Hoffman | Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Theresa Russell, Gary Busey, Harry Dean Stanton

Votes: 7,338 | Gross: $9.90M

25. Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)

PG | 105 min | Drama

77 Metascore

Ted Kramer's wife leaves him, allowing for a lost bond to be rediscovered between Ted and his son, Billy. But a heated custody battle ensues over the divorced couple's son, deepening the wounds left by the separation.

Director: Robert Benton | Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep, Jane Alexander, Justin Henry

Votes: 128,697 | Gross: $106.26M

26. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

PG | 138 min | Drama, Sci-Fi

90 Metascore

Roy Neary, an electric lineman, watches how his quiet and ordinary daily life turns upside down after a close encounter with a UFO.

Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Richard Dreyfuss, François Truffaut, Teri Garr, Melinda Dillon

Votes: 179,377 | Gross: $132.09M

27. American Graffiti (1973)

PG | 110 min | Comedy, Drama

97 Metascore

A couple of high school grads spend one final night cruising the strip with their buddies before they go off to college.

Director: George Lucas | Stars: Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat, Charles Martin Smith

Votes: 79,680 | Gross: $115.00M

28. National Lampoon's Animal House (1978)

AA | 109 min | Comedy

79 Metascore

At a 1962 college, Dean Vernon Wormer is determined to expel the entire Delta Tau Chi Fraternity, but those troublemakers have other plans for him.

Director: John Landis | Stars: John Belushi, Karen Allen, Tom Hulce, Stephen Furst

Votes: 109,558 | Gross: $0.20M

29. High Plains Drifter (1973)

PG | 105 min | Drama, Mystery, Western

69 Metascore

A gun fighting stranger comes to the small settlement of Lago and is hired to bring the townsfolk together in an attempt to hold off three outlaws who are on their way.

Director: Clint Eastwood | Stars: Clint Eastwood, Verna Bloom, Marianna Hill, Mitchell Ryan

Votes: 48,431 | Gross: $15.70M

30. The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)

14A | 135 min | Western

69 Metascore

Missouri farmer Josey Wales joins a Confederate guerrilla unit and winds up on the run from the Union soldiers who murdered his family.

Director: Clint Eastwood | Stars: Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, Chief Dan George, Bill McKinney

Votes: 63,787 | Gross: $31.80M

31. Play Misty for Me (1971)

R | 102 min | Drama, Thriller

78 Metascore

The life of a disc jockey is turned upside down after a romantic encounter with an obsessed fan.

Director: Clint Eastwood | Stars: Clint Eastwood, Jessica Walter, Donna Mills, John Larch

Votes: 24,836 | Gross: $11.80M

32. Dirty Harry (1971)

18A | 102 min | Action, Crime, Thriller

90 Metascore

When a madman calling himself "the Scorpio Killer" menaces the city, tough as nails San Francisco Police Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan is assigned to track down and ferret out the crazed psychopath.

Director: Don Siegel | Stars: Clint Eastwood, Andrew Robinson, Harry Guardino, Reni Santoni

Votes: 139,944 | Gross: $35.90M

33. Badlands (1973)

14A | 94 min | Action, Crime, Drama

93 Metascore

An impressionable teenage girl from a dead-end town and her older greaser boyfriend embark on a killing spree in the South Dakota badlands.

Director: Terrence Malick | Stars: Martin Sheen, Sissy Spacek, Warren Oates, Ramon Bieri

Votes: 63,519

34. Carrie (1976)

14A | 98 min | Horror

85 Metascore

Carrie White, a shy, friendless teenage girl who is sheltered by her domineering, religious mother, unleashes her telekinetic powers after being humiliated by her classmates at her senior prom.

Director: Brian De Palma | Stars: Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, Amy Irving, John Travolta

Votes: 163,099 | Gross: $33.80M

35. Little Big Man (1970)

PG-13 | 139 min | Adventure, Comedy, Drama

63 Metascore

Jack Crabb, looking back from extreme old age, tells of his life being raised by Native Americans and fighting with General Custer.

Director: Arthur Penn | Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Faye Dunaway, Chief Dan George, Martin Balsam

Votes: 32,088 | Gross: $31.56M

36. Three Days of the Condor (1975)

14A | 117 min | Mystery, Thriller

63 Metascore

A bookish CIA researcher finds all his co-workers dead, and must outwit those responsible until he figures out who he can really trust.

Director: Sydney Pollack | Stars: Robert Redford, Faye Dunaway, Cliff Robertson, Max von Sydow

Votes: 46,526 | Gross: $41.51M

37. The Last Picture Show (1971)

18+ | 118 min | Drama, Romance

93 Metascore

In 1951, a group of high schoolers come of age in a bleak, isolated, atrophied North Texas town that is slowly dying, both culturally and economically.

Director: Peter Bogdanovich | Stars: Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd, Ben Johnson

Votes: 40,972 | Gross: $29.13M

38. Black Sunday (1977)

18A | 143 min | Adventure, Crime, Drama

57 Metascore

Black Sunday is the powerful story of a Black September terrorist group attempting to blow up a Goodyear blimp hovering over the Super Bowl stadium with 80,000 people and the president of the United States in attendance.

Director: John Frankenheimer | Stars: Robert Shaw, Bruce Dern, Marthe Keller, Fritz Weaver

Votes: 6,513 | Gross: $15.77M

39. Saturday Night Fever (1977)

R | 118 min | Drama, Music

77 Metascore

Anxious about his future after high school, a 19-year-old Italian-American from Brooklyn tries to escape the harsh reality of his bleak family life by dominating the dance floor at the local disco.

Director: John Badham | Stars: John Travolta, Karen Lynn Gorney, Barry Miller, Joseph Cali

Votes: 69,123 | Gross: $94.21M

40. The Bad News Bears (1976)

PG | 102 min | Comedy, Drama, Family

84 Metascore

An aging, down-on-his-luck ex-minor leaguer coaches a team of misfits in an ultra-competitive California little league.

Director: Michael Ritchie | Stars: Walter Matthau, Tatum O'Neal, Vic Morrow, Joyce Van Patten

Votes: 19,813 | Gross: $42.35M

41. Rocky (1976)

PG | 120 min | Drama, Sport

70 Metascore

A small-time boxer gets a supremely rare chance to fight a heavy-weight champion in a bout in which he strives to go the distance for his self-respect.

Director: John G. Avildsen | Stars: Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers

Votes: 503,925 | Gross: $117.24M

42. Enter the Dragon (1973)

13+ | 102 min | Action, Crime, Drama

83 Metascore

A martial artist agrees to spy on a reclusive crime lord using his invitation to a tournament there as cover.

Director: Robert Clouse | Stars: Bruce Lee, John Saxon, Jim Kelly, Ahna Capri

Votes: 93,959 | Gross: $25.00M

43. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

18+ | 83 min | Horror

75 Metascore

Two siblings and three of their friends en route to visit their grandfather's grave in Texas end up falling victim to a family of cannibalistic psychopaths and must survive the terrors of Leatherface and his family.

Director: Tobe Hooper | Stars: Marilyn Burns, Edwin Neal, Allen Danziger, Paul A. Partain

Votes: 131,483 | Gross: $30.86M

44. Halloween (1978)

R | 91 min | Horror, Thriller

87 Metascore

Fifteen years after murdering his sister on Halloween night 1963, Michael Myers escapes from a mental hospital and returns to the small town of Haddonfield, Illinois to kill again.

Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tony Moran, Nancy Kyes

Votes: 221,305 | Gross: $47.00M

45. Marathon Man (1976)

14A | 125 min | Crime, Thriller

64 Metascore

A graduate history student is unwittingly caught in the middle of an international conspiracy involving stolen diamonds, an exiled Nazi war criminal, and a rogue government agent.

Director: John Schlesinger | Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Olivier, Roy Scheider, William Devane

Votes: 56,508 | Gross: $21.71M

46. Papillon (1973)

PA | 151 min | Biography, Crime, Drama

58 Metascore

A man befriends a fellow criminal as the two of them begin serving their sentence on a dreadful prison island, which inspires the man to plot his escape.

Director: Franklin J. Schaffner | Stars: Steve McQueen, Dustin Hoffman, Victor Jory, Don Gordon

Votes: 118,780 | Gross: $53.27M

47. Serpico (1973)

R | 130 min | Biography, Crime, Drama

87 Metascore

An honest New York cop named Frank Serpico blows the whistle on rampant corruption in the force only to have his comrades turn against him.

Director: Sidney Lumet | Stars: Al Pacino, John Randolph, Jack Kehoe, Biff McGuire

Votes: 105,846 | Gross: $29.80M

48. MASH (1970)

PA | 116 min | Comedy, Drama, War

80 Metascore

The staff of a Korean War field hospital use humor and high jinks to keep their sanity in the face of the horror of war.

Director: Robert Altman | Stars: Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Tom Skerritt, Sally Kellerman

Votes: 66,223 | Gross: $81.60M

49. The Sting (1973)

PG | 129 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama

83 Metascore

Two grifters team up to pull off the ultimate con.

Director: George Roy Hill | Stars: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Robert Shaw, Charles Durning

Votes: 235,204 | Gross: $159.60M

50. Patton (1970)

14A | 172 min | Biography, Drama, War

91 Metascore

The World War II phase of the career of controversial American general George S. Patton.

Director: Franklin J. Schaffner | Stars: George C. Scott, Karl Malden, Stephen Young, Michael Strong

Votes: 92,087 | Gross: $61.70M

51. Nashville (1975)

PG | 160 min | Comedy, Drama, Music

96 Metascore

Over the course of a few hectic days, numerous interrelated people prepare for a political convention as secrets and lies are surfaced and revealed.

Director: Robert Altman | Stars: Keith Carradine, Karen Black, Ronee Blakley, Shelley Duvall

Votes: 22,981 | Gross: $14.82M

52. All the President's Men (1976)

14 | 138 min | Biography, Drama, History

84 Metascore

"The Washington Post" reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein uncover the details of the Watergate scandal that leads to President Richard Nixon's resignation.

Director: Alan J. Pakula | Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford, Jack Warden, Martin Balsam

Votes: 99,248 | Gross: $70.60M

53. All That Jazz (1979)

18A | 123 min | Drama, Music, Musical

72 Metascore

Director/choreographer Bob Fosse tells his own life story as he details the sordid career of Joe Gideon, a womanizing, drug-using dancer.

Director: Bob Fosse | Stars: Roy Scheider, Jessica Lange, Ann Reinking, Leland Palmer

Votes: 26,988 | Gross: $37.82M

54. Deliverance (1972)

18A | 109 min | Adventure, Drama, Thriller

80 Metascore

Intent on seeing the Cahulawassee River before it's dammed and turned into a lake, outdoor fanatic Lewis Medlock takes his friends on a canoeing trip they'll never forget into the dangerous American back-country.

Director: John Boorman | Stars: Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty, Ronny Cox

Votes: 96,263 | Gross: $7.06M

55. Breaking Away (1979)

PG | 101 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

91 Metascore

A small-town boy obsessed with the Italian cycling team vies for the affections of a college girl.

Director: Peter Yates | Stars: Dennis Christopher, Dennis Quaid, Daniel Stern, Jackie Earle Haley

Votes: 21,188 | Gross: $16.42M

56. Carnal Knowledge (1971)

18A | 98 min | Drama

77 Metascore

Chronicling the lifelong sexual development of two men who meet and befriend one another in college.

Director: Mike Nichols | Stars: Jack Nicholson, Candice Bergen, Art Garfunkel, Ann-Margret

Votes: 11,066 | Gross: $28.62M

57. Midnight Express (1978)

18A | 121 min | Biography, Crime, Drama

59 Metascore

Billy Hayes, an American college student, is caught smuggling drugs out of Turkey and thrown into prison.

Director: Alan Parker | Stars: Brad Davis, Irene Miracle, Bo Hopkins, Paolo Bonacelli

Votes: 71,318 | Gross: $35.00M

58. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)

120 min | Drama, Western

93 Metascore

A gambler and a prostitute become business partners in a remote Old West mining town, and their enterprise thrives until a large corporation arrives on the scene.

Director: Robert Altman | Stars: Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, Rene Auberjonois, William Devane

Votes: 21,312 | Gross: $8.20M

59. Blue Collar (1978)

114 min | Crime, Drama

77 Metascore

When three workers try to steal from the local union, they discover the corruption of the union instead and decide to blackmail them.

Director: Paul Schrader | Stars: Richard Pryor, Harvey Keitel, Yaphet Kotto, Ed Begley Jr.

Votes: 6,860

60. Ultimo tango a Parigi (1972)

R | 129 min | Drama, Romance

77 Metascore

A young Parisian woman meets a middle-aged American businessman who demands their clandestine relationship be based only on sex.

Director: Bernardo Bertolucci | Stars: Marlon Brando, Maria Schneider, Maria Michi, Giovanna Galletti

Votes: 48,413 | Gross: $36.14M

61. Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973)

14A | 122 min | Biography, Drama, Western

53 Metascore

Pat Garrett is hired as a lawman on behalf of a group of wealthy New Mexico cattle barons to bring down his old friend Billy the Kid.

Director: Sam Peckinpah | Stars: James Coburn, Kris Kristofferson, Richard Jaeckel, Katy Jurado

Votes: 17,642 | Gross: $0.95M

62. Straw Dogs (1971)

13+ | 113 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller

73 Metascore

A young American and his English wife come to rural England and face increasingly vicious local harassment.

Director: Sam Peckinpah | Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Susan George, Peter Vaughan, T.P. McKenna

Votes: 55,060

63. Scarecrow (1973)

112 min | Drama

72 Metascore

Max, an ex-con drifter with a penchant for brawling is amused by Lion, a homeless ex-sailor, and they partner up as they head east together.

Director: Jerry Schatzberg | Stars: Gene Hackman, Al Pacino, Dorothy Tristan, Ann Wedgeworth

Votes: 14,992 | Gross: $0.60M

64. Silver Streak (1976)

PG | 114 min | Action, Comedy, Crime

41 Metascore

On a long-distance train trip, a man finds romance but also finds himself in danger of being killed, or at least pushed off the train.

Director: Arthur Hiller | Stars: Gene Wilder, Richard Pryor, Jill Clayburgh, Patrick McGoohan

Votes: 17,345

65. Paper Moon (1973)

13+ | 102 min | Comedy, Drama

77 Metascore

During the Great Depression, a con man finds himself saddled with a young girl who may or may not be his daughter, and the two forge an unlikely partnership.

Director: Peter Bogdanovich | Stars: Ryan O'Neal, Tatum O'Neal, Madeline Kahn, John Hillerman

Votes: 40,998 | Gross: $30.93M

66. Being There (1979)

14A | 130 min | Comedy, Drama

83 Metascore

A simpleminded, sheltered gardener becomes an unlikely trusted advisor to a powerful businessman and an insider in Washington politics.

Director: Hal Ashby | Stars: Peter Sellers, Shirley MacLaine, Melvyn Douglas, Jack Warden

Votes: 63,895 | Gross: $30.18M

67. Harold and Maude (1971)

14A | 91 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

62 Metascore

Young, rich, and obsessed with death, Harold finds himself changed forever when he meets lively septuagenarian Maude at a funeral.

Director: Hal Ashby | Stars: Ruth Gordon, Bud Cort, Vivian Pickles, Cyril Cusack

Votes: 69,100

68. Annie Hall (1977)

PG | 93 min | Comedy, Romance

92 Metascore

Neurotic New York comedian Alvy Singer falls in love with the ditzy Annie Hall.

Director: Woody Allen | Stars: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts, Carol Kane

Votes: 247,402 | Gross: $39.20M

69. Manhattan (1979)

18A | 96 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

83 Metascore

The life of a divorced television writer dating a teenage girl is further complicated when he falls in love with his best friend's mistress.

Director: Woody Allen | Stars: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Mariel Hemingway, Michael Murphy

Votes: 128,631 | Gross: $45.70M

70. Superman (1978)

PG | 143 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

80 Metascore

An alien orphan is sent from his dying planet to Earth, where he grows up to become his adoptive home's first and greatest superhero.

Director: Richard Donner | Stars: Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, Gene Hackman, Marlon Brando

Votes: 155,736 | Gross: $134.22M

71. Bound for Glory (1976)

PG | 147 min | Biography, Drama, Music

70 Metascore

The early life of Woody Guthrie as a vagabond folk singer.

Director: Hal Ashby | Stars: David Carradine, Ronny Cox, Melinda Dillon, Gail Strickland

Votes: 4,580

72. Don't Look Now (1973)

18A | 110 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller

A married couple grieving the recent death of their young daughter are in Venice when they encounter two elderly sisters, one of whom is psychic and brings a warning from beyond.

Director: Nicolas Roeg | Stars: Julie Christie, Donald Sutherland, Hilary Mason, Clelia Matania

Votes: 47,437 | Gross: $0.98M

73. An Unmarried Woman (1978)

124 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

A wealthy woman from Manhattan's Upper East Side struggles to deal with her new identity and her sexuality after her husband of sixteen years leaves her for a younger woman.

Director: Paul Mazursky | Stars: Jill Clayburgh, Alan Bates, Michael Murphy, Cliff Gorman

Votes: 4,476 | Gross: $24.00M

74. The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976)

135 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller

65 Metascore

A proud strip club owner is forced to come to terms with himself as a man, when his gambling addiction gets him in hot water with the mob, who offer him only one alternative.

Director: John Cassavetes | Stars: Ben Gazzara, Timothy Carey, Seymour Cassel, Robert Phillips

Votes: 10,631

75. A Woman Under the Influence (1974)

PG | 155 min | Drama, Romance

88 Metascore

Mabel, a wife and mother, is loved by her husband Nick but her mental illness proves to be a problem in the marriage.

Director: John Cassavetes | Stars: Gena Rowlands, Peter Falk, Fred Draper, Lady Rowlands

Votes: 20,386 | Gross: $13.34M

76. Stay Hungry (1976)

13+ | 102 min | Comedy, Drama

60 Metascore

So-called 'special agent' infiltrates into the gym, which is targeted by a dirty business fraud.

Director: Bob Rafelson | Stars: Jeff Bridges, Sally Field, Arnold Schwarzenegger, R.G. Armstrong

Votes: 3,925

77. Smokey and the Bandit (1977)

PG | 96 min | Action, Comedy

50 Metascore

The Bandit is hired on to run a tractor trailer full of beer over state lines, in hot pursuit by a pesky sheriff.

Director: Hal Needham | Stars: Burt Reynolds, Sally Field, Jerry Reed, Mike Henry

Votes: 43,926 | Gross: $126.74M

78. Phantasm (1979)

R | 89 min | Horror, Sci-Fi

72 Metascore

A teenage boy and his friends face off against a mysterious grave robber known only as the Tall Man, who keeps a lethal arsenal of terrible weapons with him.

Director: Don Coscarelli | Stars: A. Michael Baldwin, Bill Thornbury, Reggie Bannister, Kathy Lester

Votes: 31,080 | Gross: $11.99M

79. Salem's Lot (1979)

200 min | Horror

A novelist and a young horror fan attempt to save a small New England town which has been invaded by vampires.

Stars: David Soul, James Mason, Lance Kerwin, Bonnie Bedelia

Votes: 19,902

80. Suspiria (1977)

R | 99 min | Horror

79 Metascore

An American newcomer to a prestigious German ballet academy comes to realize that the school is a front for something sinister amid a series of grisly murders.

Director: Dario Argento | Stars: Jessica Harper, Stefania Casini, Flavio Bucci, Miguel Bosé

Votes: 76,421

81. Piranha (1978)

14A | 94 min | Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi

71 Metascore

When flesh-eating piranhas are accidentally released into a summer resort's rivers, the guests become their next meal.

Director: Joe Dante | Stars: Bradford Dillman, Heather Menzies-Urich, Kevin McCarthy, Keenan Wynn

Votes: 18,353 | Gross: $6.00M

82. Silent Running (1972)

PG | 89 min | Drama, Sci-Fi

In a future where all flora is extinct on Earth, an astronaut is given orders to destroy the last of Earth's botany, kept in a greenhouse aboard a spacecraft.

Director: Douglas Trumbull | Stars: Bruce Dern, Cliff Potts, Ron Rifkin, Jesse Vint

Votes: 26,000 | Gross: $0.69M

83. Lenny (1974)

18A | 111 min | Biography, Drama

61 Metascore

The story of acerbic 1960s comic Lenny Bruce, whose groundbreaking, no-holds-barred style and social commentary was often deemed by the Establishment as too obscene for the public.

Director: Bob Fosse | Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Valerie Perrine, Jan Miner, Stanley Beck

Votes: 14,123

84. The Way We Were (1973)

PG | 118 min | Drama, Romance

61 Metascore

Two disparate people have a wonderful romance, but their political views and convictions drive them apart.

Director: Sydney Pollack | Stars: Barbra Streisand, Robert Redford, Bradford Dillman, Lois Chiles

Votes: 21,673

85. The Main Event (1979)

PG | 112 min | Comedy, Romance, Sport

A bankrupt entrepreneur attempts to recoup some of her losses by getting a washed-out boxer she picked up as a tax loss back into the ring - an idea her protégé isn't fond of.

Director: Howard Zieff | Stars: Barbra Streisand, Ryan O'Neal, Paul Sand, Whitman Mayo

Votes: 2,593 | Gross: $42.80M

86. The Parallax View (1974)

PG | 102 min | Drama, Thriller

65 Metascore

An ambitious reporter gets in way-over-his-head trouble while investigating a senator's assassination which leads to a vast conspiracy involving a multinational corporation behind every event in the world's headlines.

Director: Alan J. Pakula | Stars: Warren Beatty, Paula Prentiss, William Daniels, Walter McGinn

Votes: 14,710

87. Every Which Way but Loose (1978)

114 min | Action, Comedy

41 Metascore

The San Fernando Valley adventures of trucker turned prize-fighter Philo Beddoe and his pet orangutan Clyde.

Director: James Fargo | Stars: Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, Geoffrey Lewis, Beverly D'Angelo

Votes: 22,603 | Gross: $106.00M

88. Network (1976)

14+ | 121 min | Drama

83 Metascore

A television network cynically exploits a deranged former anchor's ravings and revelations about the news media for its own profit.

Director: Sidney Lumet | Stars: Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter Finch, Robert Duvall

Votes: 141,098

89. Professione: reporter (1975)

PG | 126 min | Drama, Thriller

90 Metascore

A frustrated war correspondent, unable to find the war he's been asked to cover, takes the risky path of coopting the identity of a dead arms dealer acquaintance.

Director: Michelangelo Antonioni | Stars: Jack Nicholson, Maria Schneider, Jenny Runacre, Ian Hendry

Votes: 20,595 | Gross: $0.62M

90. Sleuth (1972)

138 min | Mystery, Thriller

A man who loves games and theater invites his wife's lover to meet him, setting up a battle of wits with potentially deadly results.

Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz | Stars: Laurence Olivier, Michael Caine, Alec Cawthorne, John Matthews

Votes: 43,929 | Gross: $4.08M

91. Sisters (1972)

R | 93 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller

A fledgling Staten Island journalist witnesses a brutal murder in the neighboring apartment of a French-Canadian model, but the police do not believe that the crime took place. With the help of a private detective, she seeks out the truth.

Director: Brian De Palma | Stars: Margot Kidder, Jennifer Salt, Charles Durning, William Finley

Votes: 14,836 | Gross: $0.35M

92. A Touch of Class (1973)

106 min | Comedy, Romance

Romantic comedy about a pair of clandestine lovers in a London-Spain tryst.

Director: Melvin Frank | Stars: George Segal, Glenda Jackson, Paul Sorvino, K Callan

Votes: 2,694 | Gross: $18.31M

93. Barry Lyndon (1975)

PG | 185 min | Adventure, Drama, History

89 Metascore

An Irish rogue wins the heart of a rich widow and assumes her dead husband's aristocratic position in 18th-century England.

Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Ryan O'Neal, Marisa Berenson, Patrick Magee, Hardy Krüger

Votes: 144,250

94. Duel (1971 TV Movie)

PG | 90 min | Action, Thriller

A business commuter is pursued and terrorized by the malevolent driver of a massive tractor-trailer.

Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Dennis Weaver, Jacqueline Scott, Eddie Firestone, Lou Frizzell

Votes: 60,953

95. Night Moves (1975)

100 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller

82 Metascore

Los Angeles private investigator Harry Moseby is hired by a client to find her runaway teenage daughter. Moseby tracks the daughter down, only to stumble upon something much more intriguing and sinister.

Director: Arthur Penn | Stars: Gene Hackman, Jennifer Warren, Edward Binns, Harris Yulin

Votes: 11,327

96. Kingdom of the Spiders (1977)

97 min | Horror, Sci-Fi

In rural Arizona, countless killer tarantulas are migrating through a farm town, killing every living thing in their path. The town's veterinarian will do everything in his power to survive the onslaught.

Director: John 'Bud' Cardos | Stars: William Shatner, Tiffany Bolling, Woody Strode, Lieux Dressler

Votes: 4,416 | Gross: $17.00M

97. Earthquake (1974)

PG | 122 min | Action, Drama, Thriller

56 Metascore

Various interconnected people struggle to survive when an earthquake of unimaginable magnitude hits Los Angeles, California.

Director: Mark Robson | Stars: Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner, George Kennedy, Lorne Greene

Votes: 13,315 | Gross: $79.70M

98. The Poseidon Adventure (1972)

PG | 117 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

70 Metascore

Nine people explore a cruise ship at sea in a manner that turns their whole lives upside down.

Director: Ronald Neame | Stars: Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine, Shelley Winters, Red Buttons

Votes: 39,847 | Gross: $84.56M

99. Airport (1970)

PG | 137 min | Action, Drama, Thriller

42 Metascore

A bomber on board an airplane, an airport almost closed by snow, and various personal problems of the people involved.

Directors: George Seaton, Henry Hathaway | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin, George Kennedy, Jean Seberg

Votes: 16,961 | Gross: $100.49M

100. The Towering Inferno (1974)

165 min | Action, Drama, Thriller

69 Metascore

At the opening party of a colossal, but poorly constructed, office building, a massive fire breaks out that threatens to destroy the tower and everyone in it.

Director: John Guillermin | Stars: Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, William Holden, Faye Dunaway

Votes: 38,142 | Gross: $116.00M



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