The Best Movies of the 1970s, According to Top Critical Sources

Chantal Akerman was 24 when she made this film about three days in the life of a widowed mother in Brussels (Delphine Seyrig). Most of its three and a half hours watch her cook, clean and run errands in long, fixed shots, a routine that, slowly and unforgettably, starts to come apart.

In the 2022 Sight & Sound poll, critics voted it #1, making it the first film directed by a woman to top the poll in its 70-year history. That #1 is the highest any 1970s film reaches on any of our seven lists.

Martin Scorsese and screenwriter Paul Schrader's portrait of Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro), a lonely Vietnam veteran driving a cab through the nights of New York, who grows more and more convinced that he has to clean up the city himself. Jodie Foster, then 12, plays a teenage runaway he decides to save.

It won the Palme d'Or at Cannes, and De Niro's "You talkin' to me?" is one of the most quoted lines in film. The critics in the BFI Sight & Sound poll rank it #29.

Robert Altman's sprawling portrait of America follows 24 characters over five days in Nashville, from country stars and hopefuls to a political campaign rolling into town. Its overlapping dialogue and loose, improvised feel are Altman at his most ambitious, and many of the actors wrote and performed their own songs.

Keith Carradine's "I'm Easy" won the Oscar for Best Original Song. Variety ranks it #17 among the greatest films, higher than any 1970s film there except The Godfather.

Miloš Forman's adaptation of Ken Kesey's novel stars Jack Nicholson as Randle McMurphy, a convict who fakes insanity to get out of a work farm and ends up leading a quiet rebellion in a psychiatric ward against Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher).

It became the second film to win all five major Oscars, after It Happened One Night in 1934: Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress and Screenplay. IMDb users rank it #19; only the two Godfather films rank higher among 1970s films there.

Woody Allen's romantic comedy looks back on the relationship between a neurotic New York comedian, Alvy Singer (Allen), and the free-spirited Annie Hall (Diane Keaton). It breaks every rule of the genre: characters talk to the camera, subtitles reveal what they're really thinking, and Marshall McLuhan steps out from behind a poster to settle an argument.

It won four Oscars: Best Picture, Director, Actress for Keaton, and Original Screenplay for Allen and Marshall Brickman. It's on three of the seven lists: AFI, Variety and Rotten Tomatoes.

George Lucas's space adventure follows a farm boy, Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), who joins a smuggler (Harrison Ford) and a captured princess (Carrie Fisher) in a rebellion against the Galactic Empire. Its visual effects, John Williams's score and its sheer box-office success changed what Hollywood studios wanted to make.

It won six Oscars, mostly for its craft, and lost Best Picture to Annie Hall. AFI ranks it #13, the second-highest 1970s film on its list after The Godfather.

Roman Polanski's noir sends private detective J.J. Gittes (Jack Nicholson) into what looks like a routine adultery case and turns out to be a conspiracy over Los Angeles's water supply. Faye Dunaway plays the woman at the center of it, and John Huston is unforgettable as her father.

Robert Towne's script won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and is still taught as a model of the form; it was the film's only win from eleven nominations. Rotten Tomatoes ranks it #7, second among 1970s films only to The Godfather.

Coppola moved Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness to the Vietnam War. Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) travels upriver into Cambodia with orders to find and kill Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando), a decorated officer who has gone rogue. The shoot in the Philippines ran far over schedule and budget, and the film's helicopter attack and Robert Duvall's "I love the smell of napalm in the morning" are among the most famous scenes of the decade.

It shared the Palme d'Or at Cannes. Along with The Godfather Part II, it appears on five of the seven lists; only The Godfather is on more.

Coppola's follow-up tells two stories side by side: Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) tightening his grip on the family in the late 1950s, and his father's rise from a Sicilian orphan to a New York boss in the early 1900s, with Robert De Niro playing the young Vito.

It was the first sequel to win Best Picture, and De Niro and Brando became the first two actors to win Oscars for playing the same character. Letterboxd users rank it #7, higher than any other 1970s film there.

Francis Ford Coppola's adaptation of Mario Puzo's novel follows the Corleone crime family as power passes from the aging Don Vito (Marlon Brando) to his youngest son Michael (Al Pacino), the one who was supposed to stay out of the family business. Its wedding opening, its quiet menace and Gordon Willis's shadowy cinematography set the template for every crime saga since.

It won three Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Brando, who declined his. It's the only 1970s film on all seven of our source lists, and Rotten Tomatoes ranks it #1.