The Neglected 70's - Weed, Women and Paranoia
by seanmrcondon | created - 23 Jan 2011 | updated - 23 Jan 2011 | PublicHere are a bunch of films from that great decade that I feel, for whatever reason, are not generally given their due today. Some were originally hits, others were bombs. Some are arguably classic works, others are more curiosity pieces or guilty pleasures.
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1. Fat City (1972)
PG | 96 min | Drama, Sport
Two men, working as professional boxers, come to blows when their careers each begin to take different directions.
Director: John Huston | Stars: Stacy Keach, Jeff Bridges, Susan Tyrrell, Candy Clark
Votes: 10,383
2. Night Moves (1975)
R | 100 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
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: 17,725
3. The Missouri Breaks (1976)
PG | 126 min | Drama, Western
Tom Logan is a horse thief. Rancher David Braxton has horses, and a daughter, worth stealing. But Braxton has just hired Lee Clayton, an infamous "regulator", to hunt down the horse thieves; one at a time.
Director: Arthur Penn | Stars: Marlon Brando, Jack Nicholson, Randy Quaid, Kathleen Lloyd
Votes: 12,199 | Gross: $14.00M
4. Rancho Deluxe (1975)
R | 93 min | Comedy, Romance, Western
Two drifters, of widely varying backgrounds, rustle cattle and try to avoid being caught in contemporary Montana.
Director: Frank Perry | Stars: Jeff Bridges, Sam Waterston, Elizabeth Ashley, Clifton James
Votes: 2,152
5. 3 Women (1977)
PG | 124 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Two roommates/physical therapists, one a vain woman and the other an awkward teenager, share an increasingly bizarre relationship.
Director: Robert Altman | Stars: Shelley Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Janice Rule, Robert Fortier
Votes: 17,292
6. Mr. Klein (1976)
PG | 123 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
In German-occupied Paris, an immoral art dealer, Robert Klein, leads a life of luxury, until a copy of a Jewish newspaper brings him to the attention of the police, linking him with a mysterious doppelgänger. Will Mr. Klein clear his name?
Director: Joseph Losey | Stars: Alain Delon, Jeanne Moreau, Francine Bergé, Juliet Berto
Votes: 8,901 | Gross: $0.03M
7. Old Boyfriends (1979)
R | 103 min | Drama
When her marriage falls apart, a psychiatrist seeks out the former boyfriends who left the biggest impacts on her life, mostly in negative ways.
Director: Joan Tewkesbury | Stars: Talia Shire, Richard Jordan, John Belushi, Keith Carradine
Votes: 600
8. The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970)
R | 121 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A hobo accidentally stumbles onto a water spring, and creates a profitable way station in the middle of the desert.
Director: Sam Peckinpah | Stars: Jason Robards, Stella Stevens, David Warner, Strother Martin
Votes: 10,536 | Gross: $3.50M
9. Loving (1970)
R | 89 min | Comedy, Drama
In this romantic comedy/drama, George Segal stars as a freelance artist who's attempting to revitalize his career just as his marriage to Eva Marie Saint begins to fall apart. Co-starring David Doyle, Sterling Hayden and Kennan Wynn.
Director: Irvin Kershner | Stars: George Segal, Eva Marie Saint, Sterling Hayden, Keenan Wynn
Votes: 719 | Gross: $0.82M
10. The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976)
R | 135 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
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: 14,764
11. Slap Shot (1977)
R | 123 min | Comedy, Drama, Sport
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: 41,254 | Gross: $28.00M
12. The King of Marvin Gardens (1972)
R | 103 min | Drama
A daydreamer convinces his radio personality brother to help fund one of his get-rich-quick schemes.
Director: Bob Rafelson | Stars: Jack Nicholson, Bruce Dern, Ellen Burstyn, Julia Anne Robinson
Votes: 6,080
13. Straight Time (1978)
R | 114 min | Crime, Drama
The difficulties of a career burglar to reinsert himself after being released on parole.
Directors: Ulu Grosbard, Dustin Hoffman | Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Theresa Russell, Gary Busey, Harry Dean Stanton
Votes: 10,170 | Gross: $9.90M
14. North Dallas Forty (1979)
R | 119 min | Comedy, Drama, Sport
A satire of American professional football in which a veteran pass-catcher's individuality and refusal to become part of the team family are bitterly resented by his disciplinarian coaches.
Director: Ted Kotcheff | Stars: Nick Nolte, Charles Durning, Mac Davis, Dayle Haddon
Votes: 5,996 | Gross: $26.08M
15. Hustle (1975)
R | 120 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
At the instigation of a grieving father, a Los Angeles cop investigates the suspicious circumstances of a girl's apparent suicide.
Director: Robert Aldrich | Stars: Burt Reynolds, Catherine Deneuve, Ben Johnson, Paul Winfield
Votes: 2,923
16. Violette (1978)
Not Rated | 124 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
In an interwar France struggling with profound social and political change, 18-year-old Violette Noziere rebels against the constraints of her claustrophobic, working-class (and possibly incestuous) family, with troubling consequences.
Director: Claude Chabrol | Stars: Isabelle Huppert, Stéphane Audran, Jean Carmet, Jean-François Garreaud
Votes: 2,527
17. The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973)
R | 102 min | Crime, Drama
After his last crime has him looking at a long prison sentence for repeat offenses, a low level Boston gangster decides to snitch on his friends to avoid jail time.
Director: Peter Yates | Stars: Robert Mitchum, Peter Boyle, Richard Jordan, Steven Keats
Votes: 12,206
18. Magic (1978)
R | 107 min | Drama, Horror
A ventriloquist is at the mercy of his vicious dummy while he tries to renew a romance with his high school sweetheart.
Director: Richard Attenborough | Stars: Anthony Hopkins, Ann-Margret, Burgess Meredith, Ed Lauter
Votes: 13,459 | Gross: $25.94M
19. Monte Walsh (1970)
PG-13 | 106 min | Western
An aging cowboy realizes that the West he knew and loved will soon be no more--and that there will be no room for him, either.
Director: William A. Fraker | Stars: Lee Marvin, Jeanne Moreau, Jack Palance, Mitchell Ryan
Votes: 3,035
20. The Disappearance (1977)
R | 91 min | Drama, Thriller
Thriller about a contract killer whose wife has disappeared. When he is hired by an international organization to carry out a "shy" or hit, he suspects they are connected with her disappearance.
Director: Stuart Cooper | Stars: Donald Sutherland, Francine Racette, David Hemmings, John Hurt
Votes: 730
21. The American Friend (1977)
Not Rated | 128 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Tom Ripley, who deals in forged art, suggests a picture framer he knows would make a good hit man.
Director: Wim Wenders | Stars: Dennis Hopper, Bruno Ganz, Lisa Kreuzer, Gérard Blain
Votes: 18,612
22. The Hospital (1971)
PG-13 | 103 min | Comedy, Drama, Mystery
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: 7,335 | Gross: $19.71M
23. Juggernaut (1974)
PG | 109 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
A blackmailer demands a huge ransom in exchange for information on how to disarm the seven bombs he placed aboard the transatlantic liner Britannic.
Director: Richard Lester | Stars: Richard Harris, Omar Sharif, David Hemmings, Anthony Hopkins
Votes: 6,327 | Gross: $1.56M
24. The Human Factor (1979)
R | 115 min | Drama, Romance, Thriller
When a leak of information in the African section of British Intelligence is discovered, security man Daintry is brought in to investigate.
Director: Otto Preminger | Stars: Richard Attenborough, Nicol Williamson, Derek Jacobi, Joop Doderer
Votes: 1,578
25. The Driver (1978)
R | 91 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
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: 19,437 | Gross: $4.91M
26. Telefon (1977)
PG | 102 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A Russian officer is sent to the U.S. to try and stop sleeper agents who will mindlessly attack government entities when they hear certain coded words.
Director: Don Siegel | Stars: Charles Bronson, Lee Remick, Donald Pleasence, Tyne Daly
Votes: 6,252
27. The Drowning Pool (1975)
PG | 108 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Harper's a big-city PI, who travels to Louisiana to help an old girlfriend who's worried her husband will find out she's been cheating on him.
Director: Stuart Rosenberg | Stars: Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Anthony Franciosa, Murray Hamilton
Votes: 6,190
28. The Long Goodbye (1973)
R | 112 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
Private investigator Philip Marlowe helps a friend out of a jam, but in doing so gets implicated in his wife's murder.
Director: Robert Altman | Stars: Elliott Gould, Nina van Pallandt, Sterling Hayden, Mark Rydell
Votes: 37,306 | Gross: $0.96M
29. The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid (1972)
PG | 91 min | Drama, Western
The gangs of Jesse James and Cole Younger join forces for a bungled robbery of the bank in Northfield, Minnesota.
Director: Philip Kaufman | Stars: Cliff Robertson, Robert Duvall, Luke Askew, R.G. Armstrong
Votes: 2,391 | Gross: $0.14M
30. The Passenger (1975)
PG-13 | 126 min | Drama, Thriller
Unable to find the war he's been asked to cover, a frustrated war correspondent takes the risky path of co-opting the identity of a dead arms-deal acquaintance.
Director: Michelangelo Antonioni | Stars: Jack Nicholson, Maria Schneider, Jenny Runacre, Ian Hendry
Votes: 26,194 | Gross: $0.62M
31. Fingers (1978)
R | 90 min | Crime, Drama, Music
A dysfunctional young man is pulled between loyalties to his Italian mob-connected loan-shark father and his mentally-disturbed Jewish concert-pianist mother.
Director: James Toback | Stars: Harvey Keitel, Tisa Farrow, Jim Brown, Michael V. Gazzo
Votes: 2,883
32. Save the Tiger (1973)
R | 100 min | Drama
A disillusioned war veteran has two days to let go of his shaken morals if he wants his small fashion company to survive.
Director: John G. Avildsen | Stars: Jack Lemmon, Jack Gilford, Laurie Heineman, Norman Burton
Votes: 5,613 | Gross: $2.33M
33. Breezy (1973)
R | 106 min | Drama, Romance
A young girl runs away from home and meets a grouchy older man who reluctantly takes her in. Eventually they develop a romantic and affectionate relationship.
Director: Clint Eastwood | Stars: William Holden, Kay Lenz, Roger C. Carmel, Marj Dusay
Votes: 5,753
34. I Walk the Line (1970)
PG-13 | 97 min | Drama
Henry Tawes, a middle-aged sheriff in a rural Tennessee town, is usually the first man to criticize others for their bad behavior. Miserable in his marriage, Henry falls in love with teenage Alma, who is the daughter of local criminal.
Director: John Frankenheimer | Stars: Gregory Peck, Tuesday Weld, Estelle Parsons, Ralph Meeker
Votes: 2,335
35. The Boys from Brazil (1978)
R | 125 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
A Nazi hunter in Paraguay discovers a sinister and bizarre plot to rekindle the Third Reich.
Director: Franklin J. Schaffner | Stars: Gregory Peck, Laurence Olivier, James Mason, Lilli Palmer
Votes: 30,586 | Gross: $19.00M
36. WR: Mysteries of the Organism (1971)
Not Rated | 84 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
An homage to the work of psychologist Wilhelm Reich, matched with a story about a Yugoslavian girl's affair with a Russian skater. Sexual repression, social systems and the orgone theory are explored.
Director: Dusan Makavejev | Stars: Milena Dravic, Ivica Vidovic, Jagoda Kaloper, Tuli Kupferberg
Votes: 5,423
37. The Man Who Would Be King (1975)
PG | 129 min | Adventure, Drama, War
In 1880s India, two former British soldiers decide to set themselves up as Kings in Kafiristan, a land where no white man has set foot since Alexander the Great.
Director: John Huston | Stars: Sean Connery, Michael Caine, Christopher Plummer, Saeed Jaffrey
Votes: 52,052
38. The Romantic Englishwoman (1975)
R | 116 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A marriage crisis between a writer and his wife leads her to flee to Germany and eventually return with another man, through whom the writer is going to overcome his writer's block.
Director: Joseph Losey | Stars: Glenda Jackson, Michael Caine, Helmut Berger, Michael Lonsdale
Votes: 1,490
39. 1900 (1976)
Unrated | 317 min | Drama, History
The epic tale of a class struggle in twentieth-century Italy as seen through the eyes of two childhood friends on opposing sides.
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci | Stars: Robert De Niro, Gérard Depardieu, Dominique Sanda, Francesca Bertini
Votes: 27,289
40. Rio Lobo (1970)
G | 114 min | Drama, War, Western
After the Civil War, Cord McNally searches for the two traitors whose treachery caused the defeat of McNally's unit and the loss of a close friend.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: John Wayne, Jorge Rivero, Jennifer O'Neill, Jack Elam
Votes: 13,672 | Gross: $9.27M
41. Black Sunday (1977)
R | 143 min | Adventure, Crime, Drama
When a Black September terrorist group begins a plot to carry out a massive terrorist attack in the United States, an Israeli commando works with the FBI to identify the target and conspirators, and prevent the plan from succeeding.
Director: John Frankenheimer | Stars: Robert Shaw, Bruce Dern, Marthe Keller, Fritz Weaver
Votes: 9,087 | Gross: $15.77M
42. California Split (1974)
R | 108 min | Comedy, Drama
When a casual gambler (George Segal as Bill) befriends a professional one (Elliott Gould as Charlie), he begins to mirror his life, sending both deeper into the sleazy gambling world where the stakes keep getting bigger.
Director: Robert Altman | Stars: George Segal, Elliott Gould, Ann Prentiss, Gwen Welles
Votes: 8,418 | Gross: $10.90M
43. Sorcerer (1977)
PG | 121 min | Adventure, Drama, Thriller
Four unfortunate men from different parts of the globe agree to risk their lives transporting gallons of nitroglycerin across dangerous Latin American jungle.
Director: William Friedkin | Stars: Roy Scheider, Bruno Cremer, Francisco Rabal, Amidou
Votes: 27,686 | Gross: $12.00M
44. The Gambler (1974)
R | 111 min | Crime, Drama
Axel Freed is a literature professor. He has the gambling vice. When he has lost all of his money, he borrows from his girlfriend, then his mother, and finally some bad guys that chase him. Despite all of this, he cannot stop gambling.
Director: Karel Reisz | Stars: James Caan, Paul Sorvino, Lauren Hutton, Morris Carnovsky
Votes: 6,567 | Gross: $1.31M
45. The Day of the Dolphin (1973)
PG | 104 min | Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A marine biologist teaches his dolphins to communicate in English but shady characters plan to kidnap the trained mammals for a more sinister purpose.
Director: Mike Nichols | Stars: George C. Scott, Trish Van Devere, Paul Sorvino, John Dehner
Votes: 3,531 | Gross: $2.30M
46. Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973)
R | 122 min | Biography, Drama, Western
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: 21,096 | Gross: $0.95M
47. The Parallax View (1974)
R | 102 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
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: 21,789 | Gross: $2.15M
48. The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum (1975)
R | 106 min | Crime, Drama
A young woman's life is scrutinized by police and tabloid press after she spends the night with a suspected terrorist.
Directors: Volker Schlöndorff, Margarethe von Trotta | Stars: Angela Winkler, Mario Adorf, Dieter Laser, Jürgen Prochnow
Votes: 4,896
The Lost Honor Of Katharina Blum
49. Rabid (1977)
R | 91 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
A young woman develops a taste for human blood after experimental plastic surgery, and her victims turn into blood-thirsty zombies, leading into a city-wide epidemic.
Director: David Cronenberg | Stars: Marilyn Chambers, Frank Moore, Terry Schonblum, Joe Silver
Votes: 21,396
50. Who'll Stop the Rain (1978)
R | 126 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A Vietnam veteran gets conned into helping an old Marine friend smuggle drugs into the country but ends up having to go on the run with his friend's wife when the deal goes sour.
Director: Karel Reisz | Stars: Nick Nolte, Tuesday Weld, Michael Moriarty, Anthony Zerbe
Votes: 3,282
51. The Seduction of Joe Tynan (1979)
R | 108 min | Drama
Respected liberal Senator Joe Tynan is asked to lead the opposition to a Supreme Court appointment. It means losing an old friend and fudging principles to make the necessary deals, as well... See full summary »
Director: Jerry Schatzberg | Stars: Alan Alda, Barbara Harris, Meryl Streep, Rip Torn
Votes: 1,854
52. Saint Jack (1979)
R | 112 min | Drama
Jack Flowers, an American hustler in early-1970s Singapore, dreams of building a fortune by running a brothel and returning to the States to live a life of luxury.
Director: Peter Bogdanovich | Stars: Ben Gazzara, Denholm Elliott, James Villiers, Joss Ackland
Votes: 2,841
53. The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979)
R | 120 min | Drama
Maria marries Hermann Braun in the last days of World War II, only for him to go missing in the war. Alone, Maria puts to use her beauty and ambition in order to find prosperity during Germany's "economic miracle" of the 1950s.
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder | Stars: Hanna Schygulla, Klaus Löwitsch, Ivan Desny, Gisela Uhlen
Votes: 14,929
The Marriage of Maria Braun
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