1.
Apocalypse Now- F. Coppola |
2. Stalker – Tarkovsky |
3. The Godfather – F. Coppola |
4. The Godfather Part II – F. Coppola |
5. Taxi Driver- Scorsese |
6. A Clockwork Orange- Kubrick |
7. Aguirre, the Wrath of God – Herzog |
8. Manhattan- Allen |
9. Days of Heaven – Malick |
10. Nashville
– Altman |
11. Cries and
Whispers – Bergman |
12. Annie
Hall- Allen |
13. The
Conformist – Bertolucci |
14. The
Passenger – Antonioni |
15. Barry
Lyndon- Kubrick |
16. Chinatown-
Polanski |
17. Suspiria-
Argento |
18. Jaws-
Spielberg |
19. A Woman
Under the Influence – Cassavetes |
20. Pat
Garrett & Billy the Kid – Peckinpah |
21. The
Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie- Bunuel |
22. The
Conversation- F. Coppola |
23. Amarcord
– Fellini |
24. Mean
Streets- Scorsese |
25. One Flew
Over the Cuckoo’s Nest- Forman |
26. Star
Wars- Lucas |
27. Performance
– Roeg |
28. Don’t
Look Now – Roeg |
29. Kings of
the Road – Wenders |
30. Alien- R.
Scott |
31. The
Exorcist- Friedkin |
32. Network-
Lumet |
33. The
French Connection- Friedkin |
34. Dog Day
Afternoon – Lumet |
35. McCabe
& Mrs. Miller- Altman |
36. The Deer
Hunter – Cimino |
37. Harold
and Maude- Ashby |
38. Solaris-
Tarkovsky |
39. The Mirror- Tarkovsky |
40. MASH-
Altman |
41. The
Parallax View – Pakula |
42. Badlands-
Malick |
43. Five Easy
Pieces – Rafelson |
44. Cabaret –
Fosse |
45. Carnal
Knowledge – M. Nichols |
46. 1900 –
Bertolucci |
47. The Man
Who Fell to Earth- Roeg |
48. The Last
Tango in Paris- Bertolucci |
49. Halloween-
Carpenter |
50. All the
President’s Men- Pakula |
51. Carrie –
De Palma |
52. The
Killing of a Chinese Bookie- Cassavetes |
53. The Long
Goodbye- Altman |
54. Lady
Snowblood – Fujita |
55. Scenes
From a Marriage – Bergman |
56. Day for
Night- Truffaut |
57. All that
Jazz- Fosse |
58. The
Marriage of Maria Braun – Fassbinder |
59. The Wild
Child- – Truffaut |
60. The Last
Picture Show – Bogdanovich |
61. Ali: Fear
Eats the Soul – Fassbinder |
62. Two
English Girls – Truffaut |
63. Dawn of
the Dead – Romero |
64. The
Outlaw Josey Wales – Eastwood |
65. Eraserhead
– Lynch |
66. Nosferatu
the Vampyre – Herzog |
67. Little
Big Man – Penn |
68. Patton –
Schaffner |
69. Dirty
Harry – Siegel |
70. Deliverance
– Boorman |
71. The Man
Who Would Be King – Huston |
72. The Sting
– Roy Hill |
73. Lenny –
Fosse |
74. Scarecrow
– Schatzberg |
75. Zabriskie
Point – Antonioni |
76. Love and
Death – Allen |
77. Fox and
His Friends – Fassbinder |
78. Klute –
Pakula |
79. The Texas
Chainsaw Massacre – Hooper |
80. Bring Me
the Head of Alfredo Garcia – Peckinpah |
81. The Tree
of Wooden Clogs – Olmi |
82. California
Split- Altman |
83. Le Cercle
Rouge – Melville |
84. 3 Women –
Altman |
85. Close
Encounters of the Third Kind – Spielberg |
86. The
Spirit of the Beehive – Erice |
87. Life of
Brian – Jones |
88. Vengeance
is Mine – Imamura |
89. Midnight
Express- Parker |
90. Three
Days of the Condor- Pollack |
91. The
Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant – Fassbinder |
92. Walkabout
– Roeg |
93. Rocky –
Avildsen |
94. American
Graffiti – Lucas |
95. The
Getaway – Peckinpah |
96. Serpico –
Lumet |
97. World on
a Wire – Fassbinder |
98. In the
Realm of the Senses – Oshima |
99. In a Year
with 13 Moons – Fassbinder |
100. The Black Stallion – Ballard |
1. Apocalypse Now
2. Taxi Driver
3. The Godfather
4. Chinatown
5. Barry Lyndon
6. Mirror
7. A Clockwork Orange
8. Stalker
9. The Godfather Part II
10. The Holy Mountain (yup, this is my oddball choice)
I’ve only seen “The Holy Mountain” once but yeah, it didn’t seem like it belongs in these company after one viewing. The one here that fascinates me though is Tarkovsky’s “Mirror”. i seem to be in the minority having it as far down as i do- i had a breakthrough with Tarkovsky with “Nostalgia” in the fall of 2017. I haven’t seen “Mirror” since that so perhaps after the next viewing I’ll share your admiration for it.
Well done! Very thorough list. It’s always so amusing to debate best/worst movies. My 70’s top ten: (I’m not including my best animations because I personally feel those deserve their own category of greatness)
1. Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
2. Kramer vs Kramer
3. Murder on the Orient Express
4. Star Wars IV
5. Barry Lyndon
6. The Godfather
7. Rocky
8. All the President’s Men
9. Alien
10. Jaws
Most apparitions in the « Best Performances of the Year » category, in the 70’s :
Al Pacino (5) :
} 1# en 1972.
} 6# en 1973.
} 7# en 1973.
} 1# en 1974.
} 1# en 1975.
Jack Nicholson (5) :
} 1# en 1970.
} 4# en 1971.
} 3# en 1973.
} 4# en 1974.
} 2# en 1975.
Robert DeNiro (4) :
} 2# en 1973.
} 2# en 1974.
} 1# en 1976.
} 1# en 1978.
Marlon Brando (3) :
} 1# en 1972.
} 1# en 1972.
} 2# en 1979.
Gene Hackman (3) :
} 2# en 1971.
} 5# en 1973.
} 5# en 1974.
Dustin Hofmann (3) :
} 4# en 1970.
} 6# en 1974.
} 5# en 1979.
Malcolm McDowell (1) :
} 1# en 1971.
Harvey Keitel (1) :
} 1# en 1973.
Richard Dreyfuss (1) :
} 1# en 1977.
Martin Sheen (1) :
} 1# en 1979.
George C. Scott (1) :
} 2# en 1970.
Klaus Kinski (1) :
} 2# en 1972.
William Holden (1) :
} 2# en 1976.
Woody Allen (1) :
} 2# en 1976.
Christopher Walken (1) :
} 2# en 1978.
Jean-Louis Trintignant (1) :
} 3# en 1970.
Warren Beatty (1) :
} 3# en 1971.
Fernando Rey (1) :
} 3# en 1972.
John Cazale (1) :
} 3# en 1973.
Ryan O’Neal (1) :
} 3# en 1975.
David Bowie (1) :
} 3# en 1976.
Bruno Ganz (1) :
} 3# en 1977.
Richard Gere (1) :
} 3# en 1978.
Aleksandr Kaydanovskiy (1) :
} 3# en 1979.
James Caan (1) :
} 4# en 1972.
Erland Josephson (1) :
} 4# en 1973.
Robert Shaw (1) :
} 4# en 1975.
Ben Gazzara (1) :
} 4# en 1976.
Harrison Ford (1) :
} 4# en 1977.
John Hurt (1) :
} 4# en 1978.
Roy Scheider (1) :
} 4# en 1979.
Elliot Gould (1) :
} 5# en 1970.
Ben Johnson (1) :
} 5# en 1971.
Peter Finch (1) :
} 5# en 1976.
Bruce Dern (1) :
} 5# en 1978.
Sylvester Stallone (1) :
} 6# en 1976.
@KidCharlemagne — appreciate all the work here. Pacino and Jack– and at the same time– 5 mentions a piece between 1970-1975
It’s your work. Just collecting data 🙂
A friend is a fan of Altman, and he mentioned that Altman was the best director of the 70s, above of Coppola, do you think he’s right?
@Aldo
It’s hard to argue that anyone could have had a better decade than the man with 3 of the top 5 (by Drake’s estimation) films of the decade and then a 4th masterpiece to boot. So I don’t think one could reasonably argue that Altman had a ‘better’ 1970s than Coppola. However, I do think Altman is perhaps a better and more protoypical example of the 1970s auteur driven new-Hollywood and from that perspective perhaps a “better 1970s” director. Coppola directed big classical masterpieces in the 1970s. Altman directed great 1970s films. Not sure if that distinction makes sense, but there it is.
Again having posting issues, and this time definitely not a character limit thing. Oh well.
My take is that Coppola directed better films in the 1970s, but Altman directed better 1970s films. That distinction may not make any sense, but it feels right to me.
@Matt Harris. I honestly didn’t understand haha, Altman directed more movies in the 70s, but only one of them is in the top 10, Coppola has 3 in the top 10
@Aldo I posted something longer that didn’t work and then just threw up the cliff notes. I’ll try again. Coppola directed better films during the 1970s than Altman. Some people (possibly including your friend) might argue that, but I think it’s close to objectively true. However, when you look at the 1970s, and specifically at the auteur driven, European influenced, New Hollywood movement itself, Altman’s films feel far more representative of that time than Coppola’s to me. Coppola’s films are great masterworks, but they don’t feel wedded to the period. So while Coppola directed better films during the 1970s, Altman is a better example of 1970s filmmaking. Hopefully that made more sense.
@Matt Harris. You’re right, Nashville is the perfect representation of American cinema
and it is probably the most influential movie in American cinema of the last 50 years.
Abusing your generosity, i was thinking if Scorsese and Kubrick had released their movies in 1979 (The shining and raging bull) instead of 1980, do you think either of them would be the director of the decade or would Coppola beat them?
@Aldo- Perhaps your friend’s argument is based on volume. If you go by sheer volume, I had Altman with 11 archiveable films in the 1970’s. That’s ridiculous. Coppola had 4… Altman had all 11 in an eight year stretch between 1970-1977— more archiveable films than Coppola (10) had his entire career.
Again, I’m not making this argument– but I’m sure that is a big part of it- along with what Mr. Harris has to say about his films being more of the 1970’s (outside of Apocalypse Now they’re just way more political)
Still– I don’t see how you overcome The Godfathers and Apocalypse Now.
@Aldo
It’s hard to argue that anyone could have had a better decade than the man with 3 of the top 5 (by Drake’s estimation) films of the decade and then a 4th masterpiece to boot. So I don’t think one could reasonably argue that Altman had a ‘better’ 1970s than Coppola. However, I do think Altman is perhaps a better and more protoypical example of the 1970s auteur driven new-Hollywood and from that perspective perhaps a “better 1970s” director. Coppola directed big classical masterpieces in the 1970s. Altman directed great 1970s films. Not sure if that distinction makes sense, but there it is.
@Aldo
Again having posting issues. Oh well. Coppola directed better films in the 1970s. Altman directed better 1970s films. Not sure if that distinction makes sense, but it feels right to me.
An interesting question. I part company (very slightly) from Drake in believing that Raging Bull is the greatest American film ever made, so that would certainly make things interesting, but I think you’d still have to go with Coppola. That would give Scorsese 2 enormous masterpieces, 1 must see, and a couple solid additional entries to flush out a phenomenal decade. Still doesn’t match 3 of the greatest films ever made plus an additional masterpiece.
As for Kubrick, you’d have to push The Shining back a year to 1979 and 2001 forward two years to 1970. A decade of 2001, A Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon, and The Shining would stand pretty much shoulder to shoulder with Coppola’s decade.
All of this is to say that Coppola’s 1970s were just obscene.
What are other options (in your opinion) for greatest American film ever made?
I thought about it, but it’s just a lot, if it had come out in 1969, it could be included in the discussion, In this case we should also include a movie that came out three years out of the decade Rumble fish
Comparing him to Renoir, I think Coppola crushes him.
Okay, i know you are a fan of Kurosawa, between the 50s (Kurosawa) and the 70s (Coppola)
who thinks had a better decade?
Rashomon and 7 samurai line up with Apocalypse now and the
Godfather
With Kurosawa I look at the 17 year run from Drunken Angel (1948) to Red Beard (1965) and come to the unavoidable conclusion that it is the single most brilliant and productive stretch of filmmaking in history. 17 films in 17 years, all of them in the archives, and including somewhere in the range of 6-8 masterpieces. Now for our purposes this is complicated by the fact that those 17 years are spread over 3 seperate decades. As much as I love Drunken Angel (1948) and especially Stray Dog (1949) we can safely set the 1940s aside for this conversation.
I believe Kurosawa’s 1950s are unimpeachible. Seven Samurai (1954), Rashomon (1950), and Ikiru (1952) are simply 3 of the greatest films ever made (including my choice for the single greatest). Now I am far more taken with Throne of Blood (1957) than Drake and believe it has a very strong argument for masterpiece status and I also think The Hidden Fortress (1958) is stronger than he gives it credit for, though it is certainly on a lower tier than the other 4. Suffice it to say, I think Kurosawa’s 1950s can stand comfortably next to Coppola’s 1970s.
Then when you look at the 1960s, Drake raises the suggestion that Kurosawa may have begun that decade even more strongly than the 1950s. The Bad Sleep Well (1960), Yojimbo (1961), Sanjuro (1962), High and Low (1963), and Red Beard (1965) is about as impressive a start to a decade as one could imagine… but unfortunately the wheels fall off in the back half of the decade.
This is probably a more longwinded response than you wanted, but to directly answer your question, Kurosawa’s 1950s are one of very few candidates that I’d put up against Coppola’s 1970s. Hitchcock’s 1950s, Godard’s 1960s, and (if I’m being transparently honest) Nolan’s 2010s would also be worth considering here.
Thank you for your answer @Matt Harris, when you have finished your study, you could publish your ranking of Kurosawa movies.
As for Godard, i’m not sure Godard is the director of the 60s, there’s a pretty strong case for at least 5 filmmakers Fellini, Antonioni, Kurosawa, Bergman, Leone.
As for Nolan, I’m not convinced that he competes with the ones you mention
It’s kind of funny that Kubrick who gave (probably) the best movie of the 60s not in the conversation
1. Apocalypse Now
2. The Godfather, Part II
3. The Godfather
4. The Conversation
5. Monty Python’s Life of Brian
6. Taxi Driver
7. Being There
8. Star Wars
9. Annie Hall
10. American Graffiti
@James Robbins– talk about dominance for Francis Ford!
I love the 1970s but It’s another decade where the academy got it completely wrong especially in the best supporting actor side. Real Winners 1)Karl Malden-Patton(1970) 2)James Caan-The Godfather(1972) 3)Robert De Niro-Mean Streets(1973) 4)J.Cazale/R.De Niro-Godfather Part2(1974) 5)J.Cazale/R.Shaw-Jaws(1975) 6)L.Olivier-Marathon Man(1976) 7)Christopher Walken-Deer Hunter(1978) 8)Robert Duvall-Apocalypse Now(1979) They only got two right(Walken,De Niro) and six wrong. They didn’t even nominated Karl Malden(Patton),De Niro(Mean Streets),John Huston(Chinatown),John Cazale(Godfather 2),John Cazale(Dog day afternoon),Robert Shaw(Jaws),Gene Hackman(Superman),Marlon Brando(Apocalypse Now) or Denis Hopper(Apocalypse Now).The academy should be ashamed of themselves.Any disagreements with the above mentions?
I love Apocalypse Now, but I don’t see how anyone can get an academy award for supporting role, Duvall is great but he has less than 10 minutes of screen time, Brando’s performance is just too weird for the establishment critics at the academy, and Dennis Hopper isn’t acting he was just high the entire time. The academy is wrong a lot but I don’t blame them for nominating no one from Apocalypse.
@James Robbins- so you’re good with them giving it to Melvyn Douglas in Being There over them? I’d give it to either Brando or Duvall in a heartbeat.
Marlon absolutely should have gotten it. William Hurt got nominated for a history of violence for like 5-10 mins of screentime….marlon didn’t even get nominated. he was incredible in apocalypse now
What is the definite version of Apocalypse Now?The theatrical(1979),Redux(2001) or Final Cut(2019)?There is no way a film stays the same when you add 40 minutes of extended footage.
@Anderson- I have yet to catch Final Cut. I want to. I don’t think there’s a definitive version. Maybe it’ll be final cut. I’ve seen both the theatrical and redux multiple times. I think both are worthy of watching and study. I do find myself going back to the theatrical more often.
1. Stalker
2. Suspiria
3. Apocalypse Now
4. Alien
5. Taxi Driver
6. A Woman Under the Influence
7. Don’t Look Now
8. Halloween
9. Barry Lyndon
10. The Godfather
My love for the Horror genre is showing through on this one.
@Bonehica- well this is the decade for horror! great top 10!
1. apocalypse now
2. the godfather part 2
3. taxi driver
4. a clockwork orange
5. the godfather
6. suspiria
7. one flew over the cuckoo’s nest
8. mean streets
9. dirty harry
10. halloween
Best directors of the 70s: Coppola