Entertainment
The Best '70s Movies
List Rules
Vote up the best movies released between 1/1/70 and 12/31/79
This list of the best movies of the '70s has all of the top films from the 1970s, including some of the best movies ever featuring some of the greatest actors and actresses of all time. The greatest action films from the '70s, the best dramas of the decade, and the funniest movies from the '70s are all on this list of the top movies of the 1970s.
The 1970s were a great era for filmmaking, with a dark and dirty New York City for storytellers to play in. Practical special effects were reaching their peak, and artistic styles were unrestrained. Remember, this is the decade that brought us classic '70s movies like Rocky, Jaws, and even Star Wars. The death throes of the Hays Code were finally over and Hollywood was free to enter a new Golden Age, as you'll see when perusing this list of the most popular '70s films.
What is the greatest movie of the 1970s? Vote and find out! If your favorite '70s film isn't on the list, please feel free to add it to the list of the best '70s films yourself. If you disagree with what others are voting up as the best movie of the decade, vote for your favorite films from the 1970s and vote down the most overrated films from the '70s.
Ranked by
- 1Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan
- Released: 1972
- Directed by: Francis Ford Coppola
Widely regarded as one of the greatest films of all time, this mob drama, based on Mario Puzo's novel of the same name, focuses on the powerful Italian-American crime family of Don Vito Corleone ...more - 2Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher
- Released: 1977
- Directed by: George Lucas
The Imperial Forces -- under orders from cruel Darth Vader (David Prowse) -- hold Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) hostage, in their efforts to quell the rebellion against the Galactic Empire. Luke ...more - 3Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, John Hurt
- Released: 1979
- Directed by: Ridley Scott
In deep space, the crew of the commercial starship Nostromo is awakened from their cryo-sleep capsules halfway through their journey home to investigate a distress call from an alien vessel. The ...more - 4Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss
- Released: 1975
- Directed by: Steven Spielberg
When a young woman is killed by a shark while skinny-dipping near the New England tourist town of Amity Island, police chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) wants to close the beaches, but mayor Larry ...more - 5Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burgess Meredith
- Released: 1976
- Directed by: John G. Avildsen
Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone), a small-time boxer from working-class Philadelphia, is arbitrarily chosen to take on the reigning world heavyweight champion, Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers), when the ...more - 6Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, Brad Dourif
- Released: 1975
- Directed by: Milos Forman
When Randle Patrick McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) gets transferred for evaluation from a prison farm to a mental institution, he assumes it will be a less restrictive environment. But the martinet Nurse ...more - 7Al Pacino, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton
- Released: 1974
- Directed by: Francis Ford Coppola
The compelling sequel to "The Godfather," contrasting the life of Corleone father and son. Traces the problems of Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) in 1958 and that of a young immigrant Vito Corleone ...more - 8Marlon Brando, Martin Sheen, Robert Duvall
- Released: 1979
- Directed by: Francis Ford Coppola
In Vietnam in 1970, Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) takes a perilous and increasingly hallucinatory journey upriver to find and terminate Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando), a once-promising officer who ...more - 9Clint Eastwood, Harry Guardino, Reni Santoni
- Released: 1971
- Directed by: Don Siegel
Cop Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) attempts to track down a psychopathic rooftop killer before a kidnapped girl dies. When he is found Harry abuses the murderer's civil rights putting him back on ...more - 10Ellen Burstyn, Linda Blair, Max von Sydow
- Released: 1973
- Directed by: William Friedkin
One of the most profitable horror movies ever made, this tale of an exorcism is based loosely on actual events. When young Regan (Linda Blair) starts acting odd -- levitating, speaking in tongues --Â ...more - 11Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd
- Released: 1976
- Directed by: Martin Scorsese
Suffering from insomnia, disturbed loner Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) takes a job as a New York City cabbie, haunting the streets nightly, growing increasingly detached from reality as he dreams of ...more - 12Gene Wilder, Jack Albertson, Peter Ostrum
- Released: 1971
- Directed by: Mel Stuart
The last of five coveted "golden tickets" falls into the hands of a sweet but very poor boy. He and his grandpa then get a tour of the strangest chocolate factory in the world. The owner leads five ...more - 13Gene Wilder, Peter Boyle, Cloris Leachman
- Released: 1974
- Directed by: Mel Brooks
Respected medical lecturer Dr. Frederick Frankenstein (Gene Wilder) learns that he has inherited his infamous grandfather's estate in Transylvania. Arriving at the castle, Dr. Frankenstein soon ...more - 14Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Madeline Kahn
- Released: 1974
- Directed by: Mel Brooks
In this satirical take on Westerns, crafty railroad worker Bart (Cleavon Little) becomes the first black sheriff of Rock Ridge, a frontier town about to be destroyed in order to make way for a new ...more - 15Clint Eastwood, Chief Dan George, Sondra Locke
- Released: 1976
- Directed by: Clint Eastwood
Josey Wales (Clint Eastwood) watches helplessly as his wife and child are murdered, by Union men led by Capt. Terrill (Bill McKinney). Seeking revenge, Wales joins the Confederate Army. He refuses to ...more - 16Richard Dreyfuss, François Truffaut, Teri Garr
- Released: 1977
- Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Science fiction adventure about a group of people who attempt to contact alien intelligence. Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) witnesses an unidentified flying object, and even has a "sunburn" from its ...more - 17Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Robert Shaw
- Released: 1973
- Directed by: George Roy Hill
Following the murder of a mutual friend, aspiring con man Johnny Hooker (Robert Redford) teams up with old pro Henry Gondorff (Paul Newman) to take revenge on the ruthless crime boss responsible, ...more - 18John Belushi, Kevin Bacon, Donald Sutherland
- Released: 1978
- Directed by: John Landis
When they arrive at college, socially inept freshmen Larry (Thomas Hulce) and Kent (Stephen Furst) attempt to pledge the snooty Omega Theta Pi House, but are summarily rejected. Lowering their ...more - 19Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam
- Released: 1975
- Directed by: Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones
A comedic send-up of the grim circumstances of the Middle Ages as told through the story of King Arthur and framed by a modern-day murder investigation. When the mythical king of the Britons leads ...more - 20George C. Scott, Karl Malden, Michael Bates
- Released: 1970
- Directed by: Franklin J. Schaffner
Biography of controversial World War II hero General George S. Patton. The film covers his wartime activities and accomplishments, beginning with his entry into the North African campaign and ending ...more - 21Clint Eastwood, Patrick McGoohan, Jack Thibeau
- Released: 1979
- Directed by: Don Siegel
Frank Morris (Clint Eastwood), a hardened con with a history of prison breaks, is sent to serve the rest of his life sentence at Alcatraz -- America's most infamously brutal and inescapable maximum ...more - 22Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty
- Released: 1972
- Directed by: John Boorman
Four city-dwelling friends (Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty, Ronny Cox) decide to get away from their jobs, wives and kids for a week of canoeing in rural Georgia. When the men arrive, they are ...more - 23Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis, Nancy Kyes
- Released: 1978
- Directed by: John Carpenter
On a cold Halloween night in 1963, six year old Michael Myers brutally murdered his 17-year-old sister, Judith. He was sentenced and locked away for 15 years. But on October 30, 1978, while being ...more - 24Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat
- Released: 1973
- Directed by: George Lucas
On the last day of summer vacation in 1962, friends Curt (Richard Dreyfuss), Steve (Ronny Howard), Terry (Charles Martin Smith) and John (Paul Le Mat) cruise the streets of small-town California ...more - 25Christopher Reeve, Gene Hackman, Marlon Brando
- Released: 1978
- Directed by: Richard Donner
Just before the destruction of the planet Krypton, scientist Jor-El (Marlon Brando) sends his infant son Kal-El on a spaceship to Earth. Raised by kindly farmers Jonathan (Glenn Ford) and Martha Kent ...more
