The 200 Greatest Films of the 1970s Magazine

03 November, 2025

WILLKOMMEN, bienvenue, welcome!, as the MC in Bob Fosse’s Weimar Republic era Berlin set musical Cabaret so proudly announced with his gang of misfits for backup. The 1970s was a decade that redefined cinema and announced new names in Hollywood like Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. It was also an era that ushered in the weirdos in independent film, horror and global cinema who all took audacious risks to make their pictures. The legacy of political assassinations from the 1960s and the continuing Vietnam War hung heavy in the air as did the Watergate scandal and with it came portraits of haunted men where innovative filmmakers summoned a claustrophobic ambience of paranoia and alienation. But it wasn’t all introspective gloom. Comedy was alivvvve!! in Mel Brooks’ parodies and satires such as Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles. Razor sharp wit hit hard in Elaine May’s The Heartbreak Kid and warming observant humour brought ensemble comedies from Joan Micklin Silver to life. Since that period there have been multiple retrospectives and reappraisals of the filmmakers who we have long admired and perhaps only recently rediscovered. We’ve tried to include a combination of the classic titles many hold dear and shine a light on the ones that may have got a little lost in history, but thanks to the hard work of archivists, programmers at film festivals and film clubs have been celebrated in modern times. Many of the films we’ve written about starred actors with a deep political conscience and were written and directed by people who felt compelled to examine systemic ethical issues. Take for example, Marlon Brando’s decision to refuse his Oscar for The Godfather at the 45th annual Academy Awards in 1973 – he sent Scaheen Littlefeather to deliver a civil rights message about Native Americans instead. It was a moment met with cheers and boos! Technically it was also a boundary pushing decade which is reflected in our top twenty choices. It was an exhilarating period in cinema where the paradigms of traditional filmmaking were shattered. We hope you enjoy reading - KATHERINE MCLAUGHLIN, EDITOR.