BEST MOVIES (1970-1979)

by hbinefa | created - 03 Dec 2015 | updated - 1 month ago | Public

The best movies I've watched produced and/or released from 1970 to 1979.

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1. 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

Rating: 10/10

2. 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

Rating: 10/10

3. 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

Rating: 10/10

4. 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

Rating: 9/10

5. 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

Rating: 9/10

6. 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

Rating: 9/10

7. Alien (1979)

R | 117 min | Horror, Sci-Fi

89 Metascore

After a space merchant vessel receives an unknown transmission as a distress call, one of the crew is attacked by a mysterious life form and they soon realize that its life cycle has merely begun.

Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, John Hurt, Veronica Cartwright

Votes: 764,746 | Gross: $78.90M

Rating: 9/10

8. 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

Rating: 9/10

9. 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

Rating: 9/10

10. Play It Again, Sam (1972)

14A | 85 min | Comedy, Romance

77 Metascore

A neurotic film critic obsessed with the movie Casablanca (1942) attempts to get over his wife leaving him by dating again with the help of a married couple and his illusory idol, Humphrey Bogart.

Director: Herbert Ross | Stars: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts, Jerry Lacy

Votes: 24,085 | Gross: $2.30M

Rating: 9/10

11. 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

Rating: 9/10

12. 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

Rating: 9/10

13. 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

Rating: 8,5/10

14. Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

18A | 125 min | Biography, Crime, Drama

86 Metascore

A man robs a bank to pay for his lover's operation, which turns into a hostage situation and a media circus.

Director: Sidney Lumet | Stars: Al Pacino, John Cazale, Penelope Allen, Sully Boyar

Votes: 229,752 | Gross: $50.00M

Rating: 8,5/10

15. 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

Rating: 8,5/10

16. 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

Rating: 8,5/10

17. 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

Rating: 8/10

18. 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

Rating: 8/10

19. 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

Rating: 8/10

20. 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

Rating: 8/10

21. 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

Rating: 8/10

22. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)

PG | 91 min | Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy

93 Metascore

King Arthur (Graham Chapman) and his Knights of the Round Table embark on a surreal, low-budget search for the Holy Grail, encountering many, very silly obstacles.

Directors: Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones | Stars: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam

Votes: 489,611 | Gross: $1.23M

Rating: 8/10

23. The Warriors (1979)

18A | 92 min | Action, Crime, Thriller

65 Metascore

In the near future, a charismatic leader summons the street gangs of New York City in a bid to take it over. When he is killed, The Warriors are falsely blamed and now must fight their way home while every other gang is hunting them down.

Director: Walter Hill | Stars: Michael Beck, James Remar, Dorsey Wright, Brian Tyler

Votes: 91,305 | Gross: $22.49M

Rating: 8/10

24. Love and Death (1975)

85 min | Comedy, War

89 Metascore

In czarist Russia, a neurotic soldier and his distant cousin formulate a plot to assassinate Napoleon.

Director: Woody Allen | Stars: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Georges Adet, Frank Adu

Votes: 35,073

Rating: 8/10

25. 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

Rating: 8/10

26. 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

Rating: 8/10

27. 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

Rating: 8/10

28. Young Frankenstein (1974)

PG | 106 min | Comedy

80 Metascore

An American grandson of the infamous scientist, struggling to prove that his grandfather was not as insane as people believe, is invited to Transylvania, where he discovers the process that reanimates a dead body.

Director: Mel Brooks | Stars: Gene Wilder, Madeline Kahn, Marty Feldman, Peter Boyle

Votes: 139,867 | Gross: $86.30M

Rating: 8/10

29. 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

Rating: 8/10

30. 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

Rating: 8/10

31. 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

Rating: 8/10

32. Bananas (1971)

PG | 82 min | Comedy

67 Metascore

When a bumbling New Yorker is dumped by his activist girlfriend, he travels to a tiny Latin American nation and becomes involved in its latest rebellion.

Director: Woody Allen | Stars: Woody Allen, Louise Lasser, Carlos Montalbán, Nati Abascal

Votes: 33,245 | Gross: $11.80M

Rating: 8/10

33. 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

Rating: 8/10

34. 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

Rating: 8/10

35. 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

Rating: 8/10

36. 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

Rating: 8/10

37. 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

Rating: 8/10

38. Sorcerer (1977)

121 min | Adventure, Drama, Thriller

68 Metascore

Four unfortunate men from different parts of the globe agree to risk their lives transporting gallons of nitroglycerin across dangerous South American jungle.

Director: William Friedkin | Stars: Roy Scheider, Bruno Cremer, Francisco Rabal, Amidou

Votes: 16,964 | Gross: $12.00M

Rating: 7,5/10

39. Giù la testa (1971)

157 min | Drama, War, Western

77 Metascore

A low-life bandit and an I.R.A. explosives expert rebel against the government and become heroes of the Mexican Revolution.

Director: Sergio Leone | Stars: Rod Steiger, James Coburn, Romolo Valli, Maria Monti

Votes: 29,050 | Gross: $0.70M

Rating: 7,5/10

40. Slap Shot (1977)

PA | 123 min | Comedy, Drama, Sport

61 Metascore

A failing ice hockey team finds success with outrageously violent hockey goonery.

Director: George Roy Hill | Stars: Paul Newman, Michael Ontkean, Strother Martin, Jennifer Warren

Votes: 33,540 | Gross: $28.00M

Rating: 7,5/10

41. 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

Rating: 7,5/10

42. The Driver (1978)

14A | 91 min | Action, Crime, Thriller

56 Metascore

A getaway driver becomes the latest assignment for a tenacious detective.

Director: Walter Hill | Stars: Ryan O'Neal, Bruce Dern, Isabelle Adjani, Ronee Blakley

Votes: 13,646 | Gross: $4.91M

Rating: 7,5/10

43. The Getaway (1972)

PG | 123 min | Action, Crime, Thriller

55 Metascore

A recently released ex-con and his loyal wife go on the run after a heist goes awry.

Director: Sam Peckinpah | Stars: Steve McQueen, Ali MacGraw, Ben Johnson, Sally Struthers

Votes: 27,122 | Gross: $36.73M

Rating: 7,5/10

44. 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

Rating: 7,5/10

45. 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

Rating: 7,5/10

46. Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask (1972)

R | 88 min | Comedy

66 Metascore

Seven stories are trying to answer the question: what is sex? Or maybe they are not trying.

Director: Woody Allen | Stars: Woody Allen, Gene Wilder, Louise Lasser, John Carradine

Votes: 37,428

Rating: 7,5/10

47. Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)

PA | 91 min | Action, Crime, Thriller

89 Metascore

An unlikely partnership between a Highway Patrol Officer, two criminals and a station secretary is formed to defend a defunct Los Angeles precinct office against a siege by a bloodthirsty street gang.

Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Austin Stoker, Darwin Joston, Laurie Zimmer, Martin West

Votes: 42,448

Rating: 7,5/10

48. Magnum Force (1973)

18+ | 124 min | Action, Crime, Mystery

58 Metascore

San Francisco Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan is on the trail of vigilante Police Officers who are not above going beyond the law to kill the city's undesirables.

Director: Ted Post | Stars: Clint Eastwood, Hal Holbrook, Mitchell Ryan, David Soul

Votes: 54,523 | Gross: $4.56M

Rating: 7,5/10

49. Profondo rosso (1975)

18+ | 127 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller

89 Metascore

A jazz pianist and a wisecracking journalist are pulled into a complex web of mystery after the former witnesses the brutal murder of a psychic.

Director: Dario Argento | Stars: David Hemmings, Daria Nicolodi, Gabriele Lavia, Macha Méril

Votes: 30,585

Rating: 7,5/10

50. 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

Rating: 7,5/10

51. Robin Hood (1973)

G | 83 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy

57 Metascore

The story of the legendary outlaw is portrayed with the characters as humanoid animals.

Directors: Wolfgang Reitherman, David Hand | Stars: Brian Bedford, Phil Harris, Roger Miller, Peter Ustinov

Votes: 112,162 | Gross: $32.06M

Rating: 7,5/10



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