We now reach, for me, and many, the best decade that film has ever seen. So many of the greatest films of all time came out this decade, that it truly is baffling, so let’s just get straight to it.
I must also add that I have recycled certain comments regarding films that appeared on my “Top Ten” piece that opened this blog, pardon my laziness, but this was a herculean task.
15. All the President’s Men (Pakula, 1976)
The greatest detective story ever put to film isn’t about a noir tinged mystery, it isn’t about a missing Maltese falcon; it’s about one of the biggest and most politically foul acts of power that we know of in our modern era. The reason we know about it is down to the work of many people, but chiefly Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, whose story is presented to marvellous effect in Alan J. Pakula’s conspiracy thriller All the president’s men. Expertly scripted by one of the greatest screenwriters of all time, William Goldman, the story of Woodward and Bernstein is brought to the screen with a clear precision and tact that it’s tautness leads you to palpitate yourself as you view Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman, both on top form, unravel the dense mystery at the heart of the film. But with Goldman and Pakula’s expertise, the film is made into an absolute undefeated treat in the world of newspaper films, and films in general.
14. Chinatown (Polanski, 1974)
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For me this will always be Polanski’s greatest filmic effort, bringing Robert Towne’s phenomenally ambiguous script to the screen. We spend 2 hours with a flawless Jack Nicholson, put in a position where he can truly play to his best capabilities as Jake Gittes, he is charming, ambivalent and crude to no end and perfectly fits the tone and atmosphere of the film. In those first 2 hours we unravel the mystery at the heart of the film, a mystery regarding water and the Cross family. We meet indelible foes in Faye Dunnaway as Evelyn Murray, the ultimate uncompassionate steely femme fatale of the period, aswell as her father in John Huston as Noah Cross, a true beastly villain whose genuined nature we only come to know of in the final twenty minutes. For as we realise that we have missed the wood for the trees, we realise that all the taut plotting and dense dialogue can do nothing when it comes to facing down fate itself. A truly powerful work of cinema.
13. The Conversation (Coppola, 1974)
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1974 was an incredibly wonderful year for film, along with Chinatown and two Mel Brooks classics, we got two absolute masterpieces from Francis Ford Coppola. One of which stands still as the greatest sequel of all time, which will come as no surprise appears later in this list, rather near the top. But Coppola’s other effort this year was just as masterful and perfect. Where the sequel was wickedly expansive and beautifully epic, his other film The conversation focussed entirely in on the intimate and the personal. We follow Gene Hackman in his finest performance as Harry Caul, a surveillance expert in this tour-de-force Palme Dor winner, featuring some of the most tense sequences of the period and one of the most underrated twists and final scenes of not only the decade, but of the past fifty years.
12. Halloween (Carpenter, 1978)
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The film quite simply strives in its simplicity, from its glorious one-take opening to its thrilling final montage of establishing shots; we are riddled with fear by John Carpenter’s lens and his score. Jamie Lee Curtis shines as the original final girl as Laurie Strode, so painfully vulnerable and under attack by the ultimate cipher villain in Michael Meyers, living up to his original film credit as “The shape”. Creating a whole genre in just 90 minutes, the film hasn’t aged a day and remains incomparable against the over-abundance of slashers that followed it. A true masterwork in horror cinema.
11. The Deer Hunter (Cimino, 1978)
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The godfather and The deer hunter have lots in common; filmed and released in the peak of American’s auteur cinema boom, both share Robert De Niro and John Cazale and both open with an extended wedding sequence. In both of these extended sequences we come to meet and care for our lead characters as if we have known them an entire lifetime. This is most pivotal with Deer hunter as the film consists primarily in three acts; before the war, the war and after the war. Without this extended wedding then the emotions of the ensuing two hours would still be felt as we are dealing with some of the best war film-making of all time, however the construction of the film leads us into a state of complete awe when it comes to viewing this excellent war epic film, and ultimately the tragic arcs of it';s characters. And although I keep referring to the film as a war film, I am neglecting the fact that the most interesting aspects of the film (bar the excruciatingly brilliantly executed Russian roulette sequence) are when our leads return home, or most importantly with Christopher Walken’s Nick, remains.
10. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Sharman, 1975)
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An absolute stone cold musical masterpiece classic; The rocky horror picture show. A cult film immortalised in history, bolstered by seminal performances from Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, Patricia Quinn, Barry Bostwick and Richard O’Brian to name but a few. Never mind Meatloaf and little Nell. But what people I feel fail to understand is that the film is a lot better than what it gets given credit for. The film is gloriously edited and shot, with some of the best musical numbers ever filmed. The film is simultaneously more than its pulp schlocky tune-fest, whilst still being a glorious homage to the B-movie. And then there's Tim Curry... Need I say more.
9. The Exorcist (Friedkin, 1973)
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I stand my ground in believing that this is not only one of the finest horror movies ever made, but one of the better movies made of all time. Similarly to Halloween, the film strives in its own simplicity – at the end of the day it is a film about the pain of losing somebody in your family to a disease, it just so happens that that disease is demonic possession. And it is that four word phrase of “it just so happens” that sets this film apart from its peers, it is the human drama at the core of the film that makes it the classic that it undoubtedly is, bolstered by the completely bare and emotionally raw performance of Ellen Burstyn and the interior battling of Jason Miller. Friedkin’s undisputed masterpiece of horror still holds every ounce of terror that it did in ’73 and quite simply hasn’t aged a day either.
8. Blazing Saddles / Young Frankenstein (Brooks, 1975)
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In 1975, as aforementioned, Mel Brooks released two comedic masterpieces with his frequent and greatest collaborator Gene Wilder. Both are heartfelt parodies of genres they adore that don’t skimp on either the adventure, the gothicness, or most importantly; the comedy. Wilder has never been funnier than in these two films, highlighting why he was and most likely always will be the king of playing it straight (further proof can be found in the greatest segment of Woody Allen’s comedic farce Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex *but were too afraid to ask). Both films are so comedically tight that no frame is spared and no second can’t have another gag put into it. Brooks and his team highlighted with these two films that the best parodies are made by fans, “imitation is the highest form of flattery” after all, and these two imitations are simply marvellous.
7. Harold and Maude (Ashby, 1971)
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Across the seventies, Hal Ashby went on one of the all-time cinematic runs of all time, creating five indelible film classics in the space of less than ten years. With war and music epics like Coming home and Bound for glory, two Robert Towne profanity laden brutalist comedies with Shampoo and The last detail, aswell as two of the best life-affirming dark comedies of all time in Being there and my choice for no.7; Harold and Maude. Seth Rogen tells a tale about how he and his friends sat down to watch what they thought was going to be a whacky comedy and they were crying by the end. I couldn’t describe the initial experience of viewing this film better myself. But for me the joy this film brings me and the love I feel for it lies more so within the territory of its life-affirming philosophy rather than it’s comedy. I will never, for the rest of my life, forget Ruth Gordon singing “If you want to sing out, sing out”, one of the many glorious Cat Stevens tunes that accompany this masterful film.
6. All That Jazz (Fosse, 1979)
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Fosse’s bizarre odyssey into the soul follows a bizarro world version of himself, in the position of Joe Gideon, portrayed wickedly by Roy Scheider, in his sneaky best performance (in an entirely underrated career spanning much depth and many masterful roles). The film is just tone perfect, from its music, to its performance, to its direction. The lines of realism are further blurred with the casting of Anne Reinking, who basically plays the role of herself. It’s a spectacularly odd way to make an auto-biography and where as many might worry about the subject pulling punches as he explores his own life, albeit through a surrogate, that is no issue here. It’s almost like Fosse is intentionally exorcising some off his worst traits through the multiple different metaphors and allusions and dream sequences; but at the end of the day the film never shies away from multiple harsh cuts to brutal reality. Highlighted in it's truly brutal final frame with no music, no fantasy, just cold reality. Brilliant.
5. Jaws (Spielberg, 1975)
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Has there ever been a better blockbuster than Jaws . I know in these articles I have been declaring a lot of films as “the greatest” or “the best”, but that’s because that’s the films we are dealing with today. Jaws is no exception. For me this is undisputedly Spielberg’s finest achievement. A horror/adventure/drama that never loses its human touch, whilst also serving some absolutely horrific deaths and stretches of soaring adventure. Swept up in John Williams’ iconic score, the minute we set off on the Orca for the second hour of the film, to the time we finally kill the shark, we have barely noticed the shrinking in set size; from the entire town of Amity, to a single fishing boat. That’s down solely to the drama at hand, so inexplicable to turn away from, that it doesn’t even cross your mind. Pair that with an all time supporting performance from Murray Hamilton and one of the better trios of characters ever put into a blockbuster film with the three R’s (Scheider, Shaw and Dreyfuss), you’ve got an undeniable hit on your hands that still works as wickedly as it did all those summers ago. And yes, it’s never not scary to go into the sea.
4. Annie Hall (Allen, 1977)
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Our first foray into the incredible work of perhaps the greatest film writer of all-time, Woody Allen, is with the seminal relationship drama, Annie Hall. It’s Woody’s big Oscar winning film and many see it as his best film, I instead vote for Crimes and misdemeanors in that camp, but Annie Hall does deserves ever piece of the credit it gets. This deep dive into the mind of Alvy Singer perpetuates the myth of Allen and solidifies the mumbling neurotic persona that he has so adopted in many a film. But the film is more than just a gag-fest (although every gag is sublime and still hits) and the film is more than a foray into the mind of a neurotic (although those observations are similarly sublime), the film is also perhaps the greatest mediation on a man’s love life ever put to film. By comparing and contrasting Singer’s many relationships against each other like a thesis, we get to understand the man better than we could have ever imagined and by the time we hear “Seems like old times” again we are not only viewing Singer’s life, but we are also ruminating about every relationship, kiss, flirtation, night of sex, day of sex or peck that we have ever had. Or maybe that’s just me. But I’ve heard from others and the effect is not independent to this camp.
3. Network (Lumet, 1976)
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2. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Forman, 1975)
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Jack Nicholson is my favourite actor and
this, his greatest vehicle, will forever be my favourite version of Jack on
screen. Perfectly encapsulating all of the best traits that make him the actor
that we so very much love and admire: the pathos, the humour, the charisma, the
jester nature of him. It’s a triumph of a performance and, as has been a
running theme on this list, that’s just the beginning of why this film is so
excellent. The cold brilliance of Louise Fletcher. The marvellous script from
the Ken Kessey’s book. The almost documentary like direction of Milos Forman.
The producing talent of a young Michael Douglas. The non-stop talent of the
entire supporting cast, from De Vito to Lloyd to Crothers and more. To surmise,
there is also no more endearingly tragic yet simultaneously heart-warming
ending to a film in this past 50 years.
1. The Godfather Parts I and II (Coppola, 1972/74)
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Now I will remove the tension immediately, I prefer the first part. I think the first part is also a better film. That being said, I never (bar the odd moment of channel flicking around) watch just one of these films. Whenever I set about re-watching them, it is always a six and a half hour job, that is to say, for the parts make a whole epic film. They are more than companion pieces, they complete one another. Now of course, either can be seen in solitary, but the whole experience remains one of the finest cinematic achievements of all time. Pacino offers the performance of all time. You can have Brando, you can have De Niro, you can even have Nicholson (my personal favourite actor), because the arc of Michael Corleone across these two films is without a doubt the single greatest performance ever put on a screen, male, female, whatever, film, TV, whatever – it’s Pacino. For me both films fly by and the length never even touches the sides, per say. Coppola’s 70’s run consists of four absolute masterpieces of the medium and these two films begin it and top it.
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Second place tier honourable mentions: Catch 22, 5 Easy Pieces, Carnal Knowledge, Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory, The Hot Rock, Play It Again Sam, A Delicate Balance, Theatre of Blood.
Top tier honourable mentions: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex *but were too afraid to ask, American Graffiti, Grease, The Last Detail, Dog Day Afternoon, Taxi Driver, Interiors, Magic, Manhattan, Being There, Kramer Vs. Kramer, The French Connection, Opening Night, Marathon Man, A Clockwork Orange, The Wicker Man, Don’t Look Now, Apocalypse Now.
And when that’s your list of honourable mentions, that’s a bloody decade for film.
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And so concludes the greatest decade of film of all time, so far. I do hope, naturally, that a decade will come up and beat this, but with the current state of the film world I very much doubt that we will have such a decade of excellence again. Now that is not to say that the other four lists remaining are sh*t, in fact, it’s as far from the truth as possible. As you will come to find out, next week and the week after that and the week after that and the...you get the picture.
- Thomas Carruthers
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