My top ten films for each year of the 1970s. These are always up for revision as I watch more films, revisit ones I’ve seen before, and think about them over time. The films as listed in the “Best of Year” section are held fast at the end of the year (and include a listing of all films I saw that year as well as films released that year).

Oh, and I don’t really believe in top “ten” lists, despite using the common nomenclature for the title of this page. This is going to be the top several films of each year, down to whatever point I think the films stop being worthy of inclusion. Might be eight one year, might be twenty-three another.

1979

1. Manhattan
2. All That Jazz
3. The Black Stallion
4. Alien
5. Apocalypse Now
6. Life of Brian
7. Kramer vs. Kramer

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
Being There
Stalker
The Muppet Movie
Nosferatu the Vampyre
The China Syndrome

1978

1. Grease
2. Interiors
3. The Lord of the Rings
4. Halloween
5. Remember My Name
6. Watership Down

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
Days of Heaven
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
The Last Waltz
Autumn Sonata
Drunken Master

1977

1. Annie Hall
2. Star Wars
3. Suspiria
4. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
5. Smokey and the Bandit
6. House
7. 21 Up
8. Jesus of Nazareth

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
Eraserhead
3 Women
New York, New York
Saturday Night Fever
Stroszek

1976

1. Taxi Driver
2. All the President’s Men
3. Carrie
4. Small Change
5. Network
6. That’s Entertainment! Part II

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
The Outlaw Josey Wales
Cria Cuervos
Marathon Man
Assault on Precinct 13
Rocky

1975

1. Nashville
2. Jaws
3. Dog Day Afternoon
4. Deep Red
5. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
6. Picnic at Hanging Rock

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
Barry Lyndon
Love and Death
The Passenger
Graveyard of Honor
The Mirror

1974

1. Chinatown
2. Young Frankenstein
3. The Godfather Part II
4. The Conversation
5. That’s Entertainment!
6. The Sting
7. Celine and Julie Go Boating
8. A Woman Under the Influence
9. The Four Musketeers
10. Lacombe Lucien
11. Amarcord
12. Murder on the Orient Express
13. Foxy Brown

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul
Black Christmas
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia

1973

1. The Long Goodbye
2. Mean Streets
3. The Spirit of the Beehive
4. Paper Moon
5. Jesus Christ Superstar
6. American Graffiti
7. The Wicker Man
8. Badlands
9. The Three Musketeers
10. Don’t Look Now
11. F For Fake
12. Robin Hood
13. Day for Night
14. The Exorcist
15. Charlotte’s Web

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
Enter the Dragon
High Plains Drifter
Serpico
The Mother and the Whore
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid

1972

1. Cabaret
2. Chloe in the Afternoon
3. The Godfather
4. What’s Up, Doc?
5. Sleuth
6. Junior Bonner

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
Solaris
Cries and Whispers
The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean
Un Flic
The Chinese Connection

1971

1. The Last Picture Show
2. McCabe & Mrs. Miller
3. Two-Lane Blacktop
4. Trafic
5. The French Connection
6. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
7. A Clockwork Orange
8. Dirty Harry
9. Klute
10. Shaft
11. Taking Off
12. Bedknobs and Broomsticks

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
Duel
Walkabout
The Panic in Needle Park
Two English Girls
Death in Venice

1970

1. Le cercle rouge
2. Woodstock
3. The Garden of the Finzi-Continis
4. MASH
5. Valerie and Her Week of Wonders
6. The Fruits of Paradise
7. Five Easy Pieces
8. Patton
9. 7 Plus Seven

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage
The Conformist
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes
Donkey Skin
The Spider’s Stratagem