1971

by guimes | created - 29 Jul 2012 | updated - 3 weeks ago | Public

30 RECOMMENDED FILMS OF 1971 (OUT OF 120 I'VE SEEN)

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1. The French Connection (1971)

R | 104 min | Action, Crime, Drama

94 Metascore

A pair of NYPD detectives in the Narcotics Bureau stumble onto a heroin smuggling ring based in Marseilles, but stopping them and capturing their leaders proves an elusive goal.

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

Votes: 135,712 | Gross: $15.63M

2. The Last Picture Show (1971)

R | 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: 52,392 | Gross: $29.13M

3. Fiddler on the Roof (1971)

G | 181 min | Drama, Family, Musical

67 Metascore

In pre-revolutionary Russia, a Jewish peasant with traditional values contends with marrying off three of his daughters with modern romantic ideals while growing anti-Semitic sentiment threatens his village.

Director: Norman Jewison | Stars: Topol, Norma Crane, Leonard Frey, Molly Picon

Votes: 47,877 | Gross: $80.50M

4. Klute (1971)

R | 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: 29,627 | Gross: $17.44M

5. Mary, Queen of Scots (1971)

PG-13 | 128 min | Biography, Drama, History

53 Metascore

During the sixteenth century, the Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots engages in over two decades of religious and political conflict with her cousin, the Protestant Queen Elizabeth I of England, amidst political intrigue in her native land.

Director: Charles Jarrott | Stars: Vanessa Redgrave, Glenda Jackson, Patrick McGoohan, Timothy Dalton

Votes: 4,882 | Gross: $2.33M

6. Dirty Harry (1971)

R | 102 min | Action, Crime, Thriller

87 Metascore

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

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

Votes: 168,312 | Gross: $35.90M

7. Nicholas and Alexandra (1971)

GP | 183 min | Biography, Drama, History

57 Metascore

Tsar Nicholas II, the inept last monarch of Russia, insensitive to the needs of his people, is overthrown and exiled to Siberia with his family.

Director: Franklin J. Schaffner | Stars: Michael Jayston, Janet Suzman, Roderic Noble, Ania Marson

Votes: 5,564 | Gross: $3.96M

8. Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)

R | 102 min | Drama

89 Metascore

While drag-racing through the American Southwest in a Chevrolet 150, a driver and his mechanic cross paths with an enigmatic hitchhiker and the tall-tale-spinning driver of a GTO.

Director: Monte Hellman | Stars: James Taylor, Warren Oates, Laurie Bird, Dennis Wilson

Votes: 13,420

9. Harold and Maude (1971)

PG | 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: 81,852

10. Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971)

G | 100 min | Family, Fantasy, Musical

67 Metascore

A poor but hopeful boy seeks one of the five coveted golden tickets that will send him on a tour of Willy Wonka's mysterious chocolate factory.

Director: Mel Stuart | Stars: Gene Wilder, Jack Albertson, Peter Ostrum, Roy Kinnear

Votes: 227,376 | Gross: $4.00M

11. Blue Water, White Death (1971)

G | 99 min | Documentary

Documentary focusing on great white sharks.

Directors: Peter Gimbel, James Lipscomb | Stars: Tom Chapin, Phil Clarkson, Stuart Cody, Peter Lake

Votes: 437 | Gross: $0.54M

12. All in the Family (1971–1979)

TV-PG | 30 min | Comedy, Drama

A working class man constantly squabbles with his family over the important issues of the day.

Stars: Carroll O'Connor, Jean Stapleton, Rob Reiner, Sally Struthers

Votes: 18,666

Season 1 (1971)

13. Carnal Knowledge (1971)

R | 98 min | Comedy, Drama

77 Metascore

Chronicling the lifelong sexual development of two men who meet and become friends in college.

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

Votes: 14,897 | Gross: $28.62M

14. The Hospital (1971)

PG-13 | 103 min | Comedy, Drama, Mystery

72 Metascore

A hospital's chief-of-staff struggles to find meaning in his life during a spate of staff deaths.

Director: Arthur Hiller | Stars: George C. Scott, Diana Rigg, Barnard Hughes, Richard Dysart

Votes: 7,332 | Gross: $19.71M

15. Columbo (1971–2003)

TV-PG | 100 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery

Los Angeles homicide detective Lieutenant Columbo uses his humble ways and ingenuous demeanor to winkle out even the most well-concealed of crimes.

Stars: Peter Falk, Mike Lally, John Finnegan, Bruce Kirby

Votes: 41,999

Season 1 (1971-72)

16. The Boy Friend (1971)

G | 137 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance

When the leading lady of a low-budget musical revue sprains her ankle, the assistant stage manager is forced to understudy and perform in her place, becoming a star and finding love in the process.

Director: Ken Russell | Stars: Twiggy, Christopher Gable, Max Adrian, Bryan Pringle

Votes: 3,585

17. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)

R | 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: 27,653 | Gross: $8.20M

18. Summer of '42 (1971)

PG | 104 min | Drama, Romance

59 Metascore

During his summer vacation on Nantucket Island in 1942, a youth eagerly awaiting his first sexual encounter finds himself developing an innocent love for a young woman awaiting news on her soldier husband's fate in WWII.

Director: Robert Mulligan | Stars: Jennifer O'Neill, Gary Grimes, Jerry Houser, Oliver Conant

Votes: 9,122 | Gross: $7.38M

19. The Anderson Tapes (1971)

GP | 99 min | Action, Crime, Thriller

61 Metascore

After ten years in prison to protect a mafia family, Duke Anderson is released and he cashes in a debt of honor with the mob to bankroll a caper.

Director: Sidney Lumet | Stars: Sean Connery, Dyan Cannon, Martin Balsam, Ralph Meeker

Votes: 8,846 | Gross: $10.90M

20. Taking Off (1971)

R | 93 min | Comedy, Drama, Music

While searching for their runaway teenage daughter, the parents rediscover the pleasures of life as they get acquainted with a self-help group for parents of vanished children.

Director: Milos Forman | Stars: Lynn Carlin, Buck Henry, Georgia Engel, Tony Harvey

Votes: 4,820

21. Cousin Bette (1971)

250 min | Comedy, Drama

A poor and homely spinster, who feels she's been walked on all her life, teams up with a scheming courtesan to wreak elaborate revenge on her rich and handsome relatives.

Stars: Margaret Tyzack, Thorley Walters, Helen Mirren, Ursula Howells

Votes: 205

22. The Snow Goose (1971 TV Movie)

60 min | Drama

An aging artist who lives a solitary life as a lighthouse keeper in an Essex fishing village assists a young orphan girl in caring for a wounded snow goose.

Director: Patrick Garland | Stars: Richard Harris, Jenny Agutter, Graham Crowden, Freda Bamford

Votes: 449

23. The Emigrants (1971)

PG | 151 min | Drama, History

Småland, Sweden, mid-19th century. A farming family struggle with their rocky, unyielding land, and decide to embark on the arduous journey to new hope in America.

Director: Jan Troell | Stars: Max von Sydow, Liv Ullmann, Eddie Axberg, Sven-Olof Bern

Votes: 7,467 | Gross: $1.16M

24. Hannie Caulder (1971)

R | 85 min | Crime, Drama, Western

48 Metascore

After she is raped and her husband murdered, a woman hires a bounty hunter to instruct her in the use of a gun so she can get her revenge on the three outlaws responsible.

Director: Burt Kennedy | Stars: Raquel Welch, Robert Culp, Ernest Borgnine, Jack Elam

Votes: 4,172 | Gross: $0.46M

25. The Beguiled (1971)

R | 105 min | Drama, Thriller, War

66 Metascore

While recuperating in a Confederate girls' boarding school, a Union soldier cons his way into each of the lonely women's hearts, causing them to turn on each other, and eventually, on him.

Director: Don Siegel | Stars: Clint Eastwood, Geraldine Page, Elizabeth Hartman, Jo Ann Harris

Votes: 19,212

26. Trinity Is Still My Name (1971)

G | 117 min | Comedy, Western

Bambino tries to teach his brother Trinity how to become an outlaw, but the two wind up saving a pioneer family and breaking up an arms ring instead.

Director: Enzo Barboni | Stars: Terence Hill, Bud Spencer, Yanti Somer, Enzo Tarascio

Votes: 17,413

27. Murphy's War (1971)

GP | 107 min | Drama, War

A lone survivor from a British naval ship is obsessed with getting revenge on a German U-boat crew that massacred his shipmates in the water.

Director: Peter Yates | Stars: Peter O'Toole, Siân Phillips, Philippe Noiret, Horst Janson

Votes: 3,947 | Gross: $0.21M

28. Big Jake (1971)

PG-13 | 110 min | Drama, Western

57 Metascore

In 1909, when John Fain's gang kidnaps Jacob McCandles' grandson and holds him for ransom, Big Jake sets out to rescue the boy.

Directors: George Sherman, John Wayne | Stars: John Wayne, Richard Boone, Maureen O'Hara, Patrick Wayne

Votes: 14,414 | Gross: $16.35M

29. Raid on Rommel (1971)

GP | 99 min | Drama, War

In 1942 Libya, a German-speaking British Intelligence officer uses former British POWs, some dressed in German uniforms, to fulfill a secret sabotage mission inside German-captured Tobruk.

Director: Henry Hathaway | Stars: Richard Burton, John Colicos, Clinton Greyn, Wolfgang Preiss

Votes: 2,431

30. All in the Family (1971–1979)
Episode: Judging Books by Covers (1971)

TV-PG | 26 min | Comedy, Drama

Archie is irritated at Mike's offbeat friend, who dresses and behaves in a way that leads him to mistakenly conclude he is a homosexual. But Archie soon learns that one of his best friends is gay.

Director: John Rich | Stars: Carroll O'Connor, Jean Stapleton, Rob Reiner, Sally Struthers

Votes: 475

Episode #1.5



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