The 50s vs the 70s in Film

1970
Patton, great film. Great performance by Scott in it too. MASH was quite good too. You also have The Aristocats, Tora! Tora! Tora!, Catch-22, Cromwell, and Kellys Heroes as very good films.

1971
Nicholas and Alexandria was good. So was Fiddler on the Roof. Diamonds are Forever wasn't too bad. Also there was the Andromeda Strain, Death in Venice, Dirty Harry, Duel, the Omega Man, Straw Dogs and Up Pompeii.

1972
Cabaret is one of the Other Half's favourite movies. Oh, and the Godfather was released...Oh, and the Posiedon Adventure...

1973
The Exorcist was not bad. Live and Let Die, one of the best Bond films. Badlands, Day of the Jackal, Don't Look Now, Enter the Dragon, Soylent Green, and of course, THE WHICKER MAN!!!!

1974
THE TOWERING INFERNO! They managed to get McQueen and Newman on the screen together. It's the disaster film to end all disaster films. William Holden's in there too. Brilliant stuff. Blazing Saddles! Young Frankenstien! Black Christmas, F for Fake, The Odessa File, the Taking of Pelham 123 also.

1975
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - United Artists - Saul Zaentz, Michael Douglas
Barry Lyndon - Warner Bros. - Stanley Kubrick
Dog Day Afternoon - Warner Bros. - Martin Bregman, Martin Elfand
Jaws - Universal - Richard D. Zanuck
Nashville - Paramount - Robert Altman
Was the OScar nomination list, and they're all great films. Also, Three Days of the COndor, The Man Who Would Be King, Monty Python and the Holy Grail...

1976
Rocky, Taxi Driver, All The Presidents Men - all good. Network is my favourite of the Oscar bunch. It's a witty scripted thing, filled with 3 absolutely sensational performances - Peter Finch, William Holden, and Ned Beatty in his cameo. And it doesn't seem to drag either. Great film. Recommended. THE OMEN - with Gregory Peck, Lee Remick and a convincing cameo from Patrick Troughton. Bugsy Malone. Carrie. Family Plot (worth a mention as the LAST Hitchcock, alas). The Man who fell to Earth. Logans Run. Murder by Death. Silent Movie. And of course, one of my favourite films of all time, The Eagle Has Landed: Michael Caine as a Nazi, trying to assassinate Winston Churchill. Top stuff.

1977
Aye, Star Wars was good. Close Encounters, The Spy Who Loved Me, A Bridge Too Far, MacArthur.

1978
The Deer Hunter. Boys from Brazil. Eyes of Laura Mars. Halloween. Invasion of the Bodysnatchers.

1979
Apocalypse Now, I guess. Alien too.

I'm sure there's more I'm missing, and WIki isn't helping - but a solid decade by anyone's standards!


Then again, we lost a fair few talented movie folk in the 70s too - Harold Lloyd, Brian Donlevy, George Sanders, Nigel Green (of Zulu fame), Margaret Rutherford, Noel Coward, Betty Grable, Lon Chaney Jr, Jack Hawkins, Bruce Lee, Sam Goldwyn, Abott of Abott and Costello, Jack Benny, Susan Hayward, Sal Mineo, Peter Finch, Joan Crawford, Elvis, Groucho Marx, Bing Crosby, Charlie Chaplin, Howard Hawks, Robert Shaw, Jack Warner, Mary Pickford and John Wayne. And a name that most folk on here'll know, John Cazale.


I still think the 50s are my favourite film decade, but the 1970s are pretty damn good.


I'd say the 50s really would give it a run for its money. You had Jimmy Stewart and Cary Grant in the acting form of their lives. You had Hitchcocks best decade. Otto Preminger's best films. Grace Kelly's run. The start of Kubrick's greatness. The barnstorming last seven years of Bogart's life, and the on/off that was Monroe.

All About Eve, Rashomon, Harvey, Sunset Boulevard, Stage Fright, The Third Man, A Streetcard Named Desire, The African Queen, Strangers on a Train, The Thing from Another World, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Singing in the Rain, High Noon, Othello, The Quiet Man, The Cruel Sea, Rear Window, The Caine Mutiny, A Star is Born, Godzilla, Dial M for murder, On the Waterfront, Seven Samurai, Lady and the Tramp, The Dam Busters, The Lady Killers, East of Eden, Rebel without a Cause, Night of the Hunter, to Catch a Thief, The Trouble With Harry, The King and I, the Original Invasion of the BodySnatchers, The Searchers, The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Wrong Man, Bridge on the River Kwai, 12 Angry Men, Night of the Demon, Whats Opera Doc, the Seventh Seal, Vertigo, Touch of Evil, North by Northwest, Anatomy of a Murder, and no doubt many more I'd remember if I wasn't just glancing over Wiki to refresh my memory.

Any decade with THOSE films in it has to be considered as a candidate for the best. I mean, there's about three quarters of those are strong contendors for any list of the best 100 films of all time.