...And Justice for All - Didn't see it.
Annie Hall - Good movie... for a Woody Allen movie. Amazingly, shot in the very same New York that Taxi Driver and Saturday Night Fever were set.
Apocalypse Now - Good movie, but too incoherent to be Coppola's best.
Chinatown - Like AH, I strongly suspect that this is the best movie in the list. There isn't a single flaw in this film and it is a very rewarding 2 hours spent.
A Clockwork Orange - Didn't like it. Kubrick makes great-looking movies that have no soul, and this is the film that kind of defines that rule.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind - An engaging movie that looked upon aliens as our Saviours rather than our Nemesis (Exorcist, Alien)
The Deer Hunter - The movie that gave Michael Cimino the right to destroy United Artists.
Dog Day Afternoon - One of the weaker films on this list, Pacino shows us glimpses of the great over-actor that he will become.
The Exorcist - Best. Horror. Movie. Ever. I'm serious, this is one creepy flick. Get the DVD!
The French Connection - Kudos to those who can name the Three Degrees on sight in this movie (they're the girl band that is singing in the bar that Popeye and his partner rassle.)
The Godfather - I think the Soprano's have finally taken over as the number-one mafia pop-culture reference, but the Godfather remains a class act. Perhaps the greatest Guy Movie ever made. The Godfather changed the way Hollywood handled movie distribution, teaching studio executives to lean towards a wide, heavily advertised initial distribution, rather then letting a movie grow into it's audience over a 3-6 month period.
The Godfather Part II - This movie was so great, it made the previous movie even better.
Jaws - Defined summer blockbuster like no movie before it, Jaws remains a very engaging film with a perfectly paced and gripping last 45 minutes.
The Last Picture Show - Haven't seen it.
MASH - Not bad, but I've never been the biggest fan of Altman.
Nashville - Haven't seen it.
Network - Faye Dunaway screws herself to the top of the rat race at a big-three network.
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest - This was back when Jack Nicholson still acted, rather than playing a variant of the role of "Jack Nicholson." If you know what I mean.
Patton - Coppola wrote this movie, and his Academy Award for the script helped save his position as director on The Godfather.
Rocky - The "Blair Witch" of it's day, Rocky was a local film shot on a shoestring budget that hit it big.
Saturday Night Fever - How can one claim to know 70s American cinema and not watched this movie?
I think that the interesting thing about SNF is that it is yet another New York movie, shot around the same time as Annie Hall and Taxi Driver, and yet it is in a totally different world than the other two films.
Star Wars - Unfortunately, the biggest film of the 1970's was the film that effectively spelled the beginning of the end of literate, adult American cinema for at least a decade.
Taxi Driver - Among the top 3 films of the decade, it is interesting to note that Taxi Driver was written by Paul Schrader, a man who was raised in a strict Calvinist theology by his parents, and who didn't see his first movie until the age of 18. Schrader also wrote American Gigolo, Raging Bull, and The Last Temptation of Christ.
Annie Hall - Good movie... for a Woody Allen movie. Amazingly, shot in the very same New York that Taxi Driver and Saturday Night Fever were set.
Apocalypse Now - Good movie, but too incoherent to be Coppola's best.
Chinatown - Like AH, I strongly suspect that this is the best movie in the list. There isn't a single flaw in this film and it is a very rewarding 2 hours spent.
A Clockwork Orange - Didn't like it. Kubrick makes great-looking movies that have no soul, and this is the film that kind of defines that rule.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind - An engaging movie that looked upon aliens as our Saviours rather than our Nemesis (Exorcist, Alien)
The Deer Hunter - The movie that gave Michael Cimino the right to destroy United Artists.
Dog Day Afternoon - One of the weaker films on this list, Pacino shows us glimpses of the great over-actor that he will become.
The Exorcist - Best. Horror. Movie. Ever. I'm serious, this is one creepy flick. Get the DVD!

The French Connection - Kudos to those who can name the Three Degrees on sight in this movie (they're the girl band that is singing in the bar that Popeye and his partner rassle.)
The Godfather - I think the Soprano's have finally taken over as the number-one mafia pop-culture reference, but the Godfather remains a class act. Perhaps the greatest Guy Movie ever made. The Godfather changed the way Hollywood handled movie distribution, teaching studio executives to lean towards a wide, heavily advertised initial distribution, rather then letting a movie grow into it's audience over a 3-6 month period.
The Godfather Part II - This movie was so great, it made the previous movie even better.
Jaws - Defined summer blockbuster like no movie before it, Jaws remains a very engaging film with a perfectly paced and gripping last 45 minutes.
The Last Picture Show - Haven't seen it.
MASH - Not bad, but I've never been the biggest fan of Altman.
Nashville - Haven't seen it.
Network - Faye Dunaway screws herself to the top of the rat race at a big-three network.
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest - This was back when Jack Nicholson still acted, rather than playing a variant of the role of "Jack Nicholson." If you know what I mean.
Patton - Coppola wrote this movie, and his Academy Award for the script helped save his position as director on The Godfather.
Rocky - The "Blair Witch" of it's day, Rocky was a local film shot on a shoestring budget that hit it big.
Saturday Night Fever - How can one claim to know 70s American cinema and not watched this movie?

Star Wars - Unfortunately, the biggest film of the 1970's was the film that effectively spelled the beginning of the end of literate, adult American cinema for at least a decade.
Taxi Driver - Among the top 3 films of the decade, it is interesting to note that Taxi Driver was written by Paul Schrader, a man who was raised in a strict Calvinist theology by his parents, and who didn't see his first movie until the age of 18. Schrader also wrote American Gigolo, Raging Bull, and The Last Temptation of Christ.
Comment