The Best of 1971
by riverman211179 | created - 10 Dec 2010 | updated - 6 months ago | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Walkabout (1971)
GP | 100 min | Adventure, Drama
Two city-bred siblings are stranded in the Australian Outback, where they learn to survive with the aid of an Aboriginal boy on his "walkabout": a ritual separation from his tribe.
Director: Nicolas Roeg | Stars: Jenny Agutter, David Gulpilil, Luc Roeg, John Meillon
Votes: 27,341 | Gross: $0.02M
2. Death in Venice (1971)
GP | 130 min | Drama, Romance
While recovering in Venice, sickly composer Gustav von Aschenbach becomes dangerously fixated with teenager Tadzio.
Director: Luchino Visconti | Stars: Dirk Bogarde, Romolo Valli, Mark Burns, Nora Ricci
Votes: 23,031 | Gross: $0.15M
3. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)
R | 120 min | Drama, Western
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: 27,634 | Gross: $8.20M
4. Duck, You Sucker! (1971)
PG | 138 min | Drama, War, Western
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: 37,489 | Gross: $0.70M
5. Demons (1971)
134 min | Drama, Horror
After being robbed by a geisha, a ronin warrior carves a bloody path to seek revenge.
Director: Toshio Matsumoto | Stars: Katsuo Nakamura, Jûrô Kara, Yasuko Sanjo, Masao Imafuku
Votes: 2,860
6. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
R | 136 min | Crime, Sci-Fi
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: 881,102 | Gross: $6.21M
7. Straw Dogs (1971)
R | 113 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
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: 64,485
8. Murmur of the Heart (1971)
R | 118 min | Comedy, Drama
As France is nearing the end of the first Indochina War, an open-minded teenage boy finds himself torn between a rebellious urge to discover love, and the ever-present, almost dominating affection of his beloved mother.
Director: Louis Malle | Stars: Lea Massari, Benoît Ferreux, Daniel Gélin, Michael Lonsdale
Votes: 10,843 | Gross: $0.35M
9. Johnny Got His Gun (1971)
R | 111 min | Drama, War
During World War I, a patriotic young American is rendered blind, deaf, limbless, and mute by a horrific artillery shell attack. Trapped in what's left of his body, he desperately looks for a way to end his life.
Director: Dalton Trumbo | Stars: Timothy Bottoms, Kathy Fields, Marsha Hunt, Jason Robards
Votes: 18,345 | Gross: $0.55M
10. Harold and Maude (1971)
PG | 91 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
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: 81,832
11. The Last Picture Show (1971)
R | 118 min | Drama, Romance
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: 52,368 | Gross: $29.13M
12. 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: 4,819
13. The French Connection (1971)
R | 104 min | Action, Crime, Drama
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: 135,631 | Gross: $15.63M
14. Inn of Evil (1971)
121 min | Crime, Drama
The story takes place in feudal Japan, when any commerce with the rest of the world was strictly prohibited. An idealist suddenly appears in an isolated inn (the one that the title refers ... See full summary »
Director: Masaki Kobayashi | Stars: Tatsuya Nakadai, Komaki Kurihara, Wakako Sakai, Kan'emon Nakamura
Votes: 2,061
15. Fiddler on the Roof (1971)
G | 181 min | Drama, Family, Musical
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: 47,850 | Gross: $80.50M
16. Klute (1971)
R | 114 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
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: 29,613 | Gross: $17.44M
17. Wake in Fright (1971)
R | 109 min | Drama, Thriller
After a bad gambling bet, a schoolteacher is marooned in a town full of crazy, drunk, violent men who threaten to make him just as crazy, drunk, and violent.
Director: Ted Kotcheff | Stars: Donald Pleasence, Gary Bond, Chips Rafferty, Sylvia Kay
Votes: 13,956 | Gross: $0.05M
18. Just Before Nightfall (1971)
PG | 100 min | Crime, Drama
Charles Masson, an advertising executive, is having an affair with Laura, the wife of his best friend, the architect François Tellier. Charles strangles Laura when one of their S&M games ... See full summary »
Director: Claude Chabrol | Stars: Celia, Marina Ninchi, Michel Bouquet, Stéphane Audran
Votes: 2,267
19. Soldier of Orange (1977)
R | 165 min | Drama, Romance, Thriller
During World War II, Dutch students join the resistance movement against the German occupation of the Netherlands.
Director: Paul Verhoeven | Stars: Rutger Hauer, Jeroen Krabbé, Susan Penhaligon, Edward Fox
Votes: 13,872
20. The Trojan Women (1971)
GP | 105 min | Drama
The women of Troy face enslavement after the fall of their city.
Director: Michael Cacoyannis | Stars: Katharine Hepburn, Vanessa Redgrave, Geneviève Bujold, Irene Papas
Votes: 1,698 | Gross: $0.11M
21. The Devils (1971)
R | 111 min | Biography, Drama, History
In 17th-century France, Father Urbain Grandier's protection of the city of Loudun from the corrupt Cardinal Richelieu is undermined by a sexually repressed nun's accusation of witchcraft.
Director: Ken Russell | Stars: Vanessa Redgrave, Oliver Reed, Dudley Sutton, Max Adrian
Votes: 18,657 | Gross: $1.13M
22. The Go-Between (1971)
GP | 116 min | Drama, Romance
A tale of torrid and forbidden love between a couple in the English countryside.
Director: Joseph Losey | Stars: Julie Christie, Alan Bates, Dominic Guard, Margaret Leighton
Votes: 6,300 | Gross: $0.75M
23. Little Murders (1971)
PG | 108 min | Comedy, Crime
Pitch black comedy about a young nihilistic New Yorker coping with pervasive urban violence, obscene phone calls, rusty water pipes, electrical blackouts, paranoia and ethnic-racial conflict during a typical summer of the 1970s.
Director: Alan Arkin | Stars: Elliott Gould, Marcia Rodd, Vincent Gardenia, Elizabeth Wilson
Votes: 3,563 | Gross: $0.26M
24. Lawman (1971)
R | 99 min | Adventure, Drama, Western
A lawman from Bannock arrives in Sabbath to arrest all the cattlemen whose wild celebration the year before resulted in the accidental death of an old man.
Director: Michael Winner | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, Lee J. Cobb, Robert Duvall
Votes: 5,901 | Gross: $5.94M
25. Get Carter (1971)
R | 112 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
When his brother dies under mysterious circumstances in a car accident, London gangster Jack Carter travels to Newcastle to investigate.
Director: Mike Hodges | Stars: Michael Caine, Ian Hendry, Britt Ekland, John Osborne
Votes: 36,767 | Gross: $0.39M
26. The Night Visitor (1971)
GP | 106 min | Crime, Thriller, Horror
In a Scandinavian insane asylum, murderer Salem sneaks out at night to exact his revenge on those who he deems responsible for his predicament.
Director: Laslo Benedek | Stars: Max von Sydow, Trevor Howard, Liv Ullmann, Per Oscarsson
Votes: 1,978
27. 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: 78,366
28. 'Doc' (1971)
R | 96 min | Drama, Western
Doc Holliday, the cold-blooded sharp-shooter, reunites with his old friend, Marshall Wyatt Earp, to take down the Clanton gang in the dusty town of Tombstone, in Arizona.
Director: Frank Perry | Stars: Stacy Keach, Faye Dunaway, Harris Yulin, Michael Witney
Votes: 2,045
29. 10 Rillington Place (1971)
GP | 111 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
What happened to the women at 10 Rillington Place? The story of British serial killer John Christie, who committed most or all of his crimes in the titular terraced house, and the miscarriage of justice involving Timothy Evans.
Director: Richard Fleischer | Stars: Richard Attenborough, Judy Geeson, John Hurt, Pat Heywood
Votes: 9,777
30. Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
PG | 120 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
A diamond smuggling investigation leads James Bond to Las Vegas where he uncovers an evil plot involving a rich business tycoon.
Director: Guy Hamilton | Stars: Sean Connery, Jill St. John, Charles Gray, Lana Wood
Votes: 114,119 | Gross: $43.82M
31. The Decameron (1971)
R | 111 min | Comedy, Drama, History
An adaptation of nine stories from Boccaccio's "Decameron".
Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini | Stars: Franco Citti, Ninetto Davoli, Jovan Jovanovic, Vincenzo Amato
Votes: 12,076
32. Beware of a Holy Whore (1971)
Not Rated | 103 min | Comedy, Drama
On a film set there are two things missing, the film material and the director. So the actors and actresses as well as the crew try to make the best out of the situation. When the director ... See full summary »
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder | Stars: Lou Castel, Eddie Constantine, Marquard Bohm, Hanna Schygulla
Votes: 2,575
33. Minnie and Moskowitz (1971)
GP | 114 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A museum curator falls in love with a crazy parking attendant.
Director: John Cassavetes | Stars: Gena Rowlands, Seymour Cassel, Val Avery, Timothy Carey
Votes: 5,285
34. Delusions of Grandeur (1971)
PG | 85 min | Adventure, Comedy, History
In 17th-century Spain, the Minister of Finance tries to dishonor the queen with an overly complex plan.
Director: Gérard Oury | Stars: Louis de Funès, Yves Montand, Alice Sapritch, Karin Schubert
Votes: 7,969
35. 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: 7,325 | Gross: $19.71M
36. Big Jake (1971)
PG-13 | 110 min | Drama, Western
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: 14,404 | Gross: $16.35M
37. Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971)
G | 100 min | Family, Fantasy, Musical
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: 227,249 | Gross: $4.00M
38. The Anderson Tapes (1971)
GP | 99 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
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: 8,840 | Gross: $10.90M
39. Play Misty for Me (1971)
R | 102 min | Drama, Thriller
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: 31,892 | Gross: $11.80M
40. Mandara (1971)
Not Rated | 132 min | Drama
Two student couples stumble upon a cult dedicated to promoting the primordial human state through rape and agriculture.
Director: Akio Jissôji | Stars: Kôji Shimizu, Akiko Mori, Ryô Tamura, Hiroko Sakurai
Votes: 540
41. $ (1971)
R | 121 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
A bank security expert plots with a call girl to rob three safety deposit boxes containing $1.5 million in cash belonging to three very different criminals from a high-tech security bank in Hamburg, Germany.
Director: Richard Brooks | Stars: Warren Beatty, Goldie Hawn, Gert Fröbe, Robert Webber
Votes: 2,885 | Gross: $4.40M
42. Shoot Out (1971)
GP | 95 min | Drama, Western
A former bank robber searches for his double-crossing partner who left him for dead, while having to look after an six-year-old girl.
Director: Henry Hathaway | Stars: Gregory Peck, Patricia Quinn, Robert F. Lyons, Susan Tyrrell
Votes: 2,301 | Gross: $0.10M
43. The Panic in Needle Park (1971)
PG | 110 min | Drama
Follows the lives of heroin addicts who frequent "Needle Park" in New York City.
Director: Jerry Schatzberg | Stars: Al Pacino, Kitty Winn, Alan Vint, Richard Bright
Votes: 20,202
44. Fools' Parade (1971)
GP | 98 min | Comedy, Drama, Thriller
In 1935, after forty years in a West Virginia prison, three released convicts wish to open a legitimate business using the $25,000 earned in prison, but a crooked prison guard in cahoots with the town banker plans to defraud them.
Director: Andrew V. McLaglen | Stars: James Stewart, George Kennedy, Anne Baxter, Strother Martin
Votes: 1,656 | Gross: $0.06M
45. The Hunting Party (1971)
R | 111 min | Action, Drama, Western
A ruthless rancher and his gang use extremely long range rifles to kill the men who kidnapped his infidel wife.
Director: Don Medford | Stars: Oliver Reed, Candice Bergen, Gene Hackman, Simon Oakland
Votes: 3,416
46. The Andromeda Strain (1971)
G | 131 min | Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Top scientists work feverishly in a secret, state-of-the-art laboratory to discover what killed the citizens of a small town and how the deadly contagion can be stopped.
Director: Robert Wise | Stars: James Olson, Arthur Hill, David Wayne, Kate Reid
Votes: 40,427 | Gross: $3.42M
47. A Gunfight (1971)
PG | 89 min | Drama, Romance, Western
Two aging gunfighters in need of money come to an agreement to organize an actual showdown between them and sell tickets for it. The townsfolk is more than interested to see the "show".
Director: Lamont Johnson | Stars: Kirk Douglas, Johnny Cash, Jane Alexander, Karen Black
Votes: 1,428
48. THX 1138 (1971)
R | 86 min | Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
In the 25th century, a time when people have designations instead of names, a man, THX 1138, and a woman, LUH 3417, rebel against their rigidly controlled society.
Director: George Lucas | Stars: Robert Duvall, Donald Pleasence, Don Pedro Colley, Maggie McOmie
Votes: 54,605 | Gross: $2.44M
49. Macbeth (1971)
R | 140 min | Drama, History
A ruthlessly ambitious Scottish lord seizes the throne with the help of his scheming wife and a trio of witches.
Director: Roman Polanski | Stars: Jon Finch, Francesca Annis, Martin Shaw, Terence Bayler
Votes: 14,968
50. The Beguiled (1971)
R | 105 min | Drama, Thriller, War
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: 19,207
51. Carnal Knowledge (1971)
R | 98 min | Comedy, Drama
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: 14,891 | Gross: $28.62M
52. The Big Boss (1971)
R | 99 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A young man sworn to an oath of non-violence works with his cousins in an ice factory where they mysteriously begin to disappear.
Directors: Wei Lo, Chia-Hsiang Wu | Stars: Bruce Lee, Maria Yi, James Tien, Marilyn Bautista
Votes: 29,456 | Gross: $0.04M
53. Daisy Town (1971)
71 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
When the members of a caravan of pioneers find a daisy growing in the middle of the desert they decide to stop there and to build their town on this very spot. Houses soon spring up like ... See full summary »
Director: René Goscinny | Stars: Marcel Bozzuffi, Pierre Trabaud, Jacques Balutin, Jacques Jouanneau
Votes: 2,028
54. The Last Valley (1971)
PG | 128 min | Adventure, Drama, War
During the Thirty Years' War of 1600s, a band of Protestant mercenaries peacefully coexist with German Catholic villagers in a hidden idyllic mountain valley untouched by war.
Director: James Clavell | Stars: Michael Caine, Omar Sharif, Florinda Bolkan, Nigel Davenport
Votes: 3,581 | Gross: $0.25M
55. Friends (1971)
R | 101 min | Drama, Romance
A rich English boy meets an orphaned French girl and as they become friends, create a world that is far away from the adult world we live in.
Director: Lewis Gilbert | Stars: Sean Bury, Anicée Alvina, Ronald Lewis, Toby Robins
Votes: 1,132
56. Images (1972)
R | 104 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
Whilst writing a children's book, a woman interrupted by images unsure if they may, or may not be real
Director: Robert Altman | Stars: Susannah York, Rene Auberjonois, Marcel Bozzuffi, Hugh Millais
Votes: 7,749
57. The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1972)
PG | 100 min | Drama
A middle-aged misfit struggles to raise her daughters, one popular and the other a promising science student.
Director: Paul Newman | Stars: Joanne Woodward, Nell Potts, Roberta Wallach, Judith Lowry
Votes: 2,659 | Gross: $0.18M
58. The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971)
PG-13 | 94 min | Comedy, Horror
Doctor, scientist, organist, and biblical scholar Anton Phibes seeks revenge on the nine doctors he considers responsible for the death of his wife.
Director: Robert Fuest | Stars: Vincent Price, Joseph Cotten, Virginia North, Terry-Thomas
Votes: 16,677 | Gross: $0.55M
59. Sophie's Ways (1971)
97 min | Comedy, Drama
Searching for release, Céline turns to painting and writes essays on the inequity between genders as she asserts her independence and gradually frees herself from her husband's claustrophobic world.
Director: Moshé Mizrahi | Stars: Bernadette Lafont, Michel Duchaussoy, Bulle Ogier, Serge Marquand
Votes: 186
60. A New Leaf (1971)
G | 102 min | Comedy, Romance
Henry Graham lives the life of a playboy. When his lawyer tells him one day that his lifestyle has consumed all his funds, he needs an idea to avoid climbing down the social ladder. So he intends to marry a rich woman and - murder her.
Director: Elaine May | Stars: Walter Matthau, Elaine May, Jack Weston, George Rose
Votes: 7,639
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