Best Movies List of 1970s

The Godfather (1972)

Aggregate Rating: 292 | Imdb: 9 | Metascore: 100 | Earnings: $134.82M

Lead Role: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Diane Keaton, | Director: Francis Ford Coppola,

The aging patriarch of an organized crime dynasty transfers control of his clandestine empire to his reluctant son.

Star Wars (1977)

Aggregate Rating: 279 | Imdb: 8 | Metascore: 92 | Earnings: $460.94M

Lead Role: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Alec Guinness, | Director: George Lucas,

Luke Skywalker joins forces with a Jedi Knight, a cocky pilot, a Wookiee, and two droids to save the galaxy from the Empire's world-destroying battle-station, while also attempting to rescue Princess Leia from the evil Darth Vader.

Taxi Driver (1976)

Aggregate Rating: 276 | Imdb: 8 | Metascore: 93 | Earnings: null

Lead Role: Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, Albert Brooks, | Director: Martin Scorsese,

A mentally unstable Vietnam War veteran works as a night-time taxi driver in New York City where the perceived decadence and sleaze feeds his urge for violent action, while attempting to save a preadolescent prostitute in the process.

The Godfather: Part II (1974)

Aggregate Rating: 275 | Imdb: 9 | Metascore: 85 | Earnings: $57.30M

Lead Role: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, | Director: Francis Ford Coppola,

The early life and career of Vito Corleone in 1920s New York is portrayed while his son, Michael, expands and tightens his grip on the family crime syndicate.

Patton (1970)

Aggregate Rating: 271 | Imdb: 8 | Metascore: 91 | Earnings: null

Lead Role: George C. Scott, Karl Malden, Stephen Young, Michael Strong, | Director: Franklin J. Schaffner,

The World War II phase of the career of the controversial American general, George S. Patton.

Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Aggregate Rating: 269 | Imdb: 8 | Metascore: 81 | Earnings: $290.16M

Lead Role: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams, | Director: Irvin Kershner,

After the rebels are overpowered by the Empire on their newly established base, Luke Skywalker begins Jedi training with Master Yoda. His friends accept shelter from a questionable ally as Darth Vader hunts them in a plan to capture Luke.

Alien (1979)

Aggregate Rating: 268 | Imdb: 8 | Metascore: 83 | Earnings: $78.90M

Lead Role: Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, John Hurt, Veronica Cartwright, | Director: Ridley Scott,

After a space merchant vessel perceives an unknown transmission as a distress call, its landing on the source moon finds one of the crew attacked by a mysterious life-form, and they soon realize that its life cycle has merely begun.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)

Aggregate Rating: 267 | Imdb: 8 | Metascore: 80 | Earnings: $112.00M

Lead Role: Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, Michael Berryman, Peter Brocco, | Director: Milos Forman,

A criminal pleads insanity after getting into trouble again and once in the mental institution rebels against the oppressive nurse and rallies up the scared patients.

The Deer Hunter (1978)

Aggregate Rating: 263 | Imdb: 8 | Metascore: 81 | Earnings: null

Lead Role: Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, John Cazale, John Savage, | Director: Michael Cimino,

An in-depth examination of the ways in which the U.S. Vietnam War impacts and disrupts the lives of people in a small industrial town in Pennsylvania.

The Exorcist (1973)

Aggregate Rating: 262 | Imdb: 8 | Metascore: 82 | Earnings: $204.57M

Lead Role: Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Linda Blair, Lee J. Cobb, | Director: William Friedkin,

When a teenage girl is possessed by a mysterious entity, her mother seeks the help of two priests to save her daughter.

A Clockwork Orange (1971)

Aggregate Rating: 261 | Imdb: 8 | Metascore: 78 | Earnings: null

Lead Role: Malcolm McDowell, Patrick Magee, Michael Bates, Warren Clarke, | Director: Stanley Kubrick,

In the future, a sadistic gang leader is imprisoned and volunteers for a conduct-aversion experiment, but it doesn't go as planned.

Apocalypse Now (1979)

Aggregate Rating: 253 | Imdb: 8 | Metascore: 90 | Earnings: $78.80M

Lead Role: Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Frederic Forrest, | Director: Francis Ford Coppola,

During the Vietnam War, Captain Willard is sent on a dangerous mission into Cambodia to assassinate a renegade colonel who has set himself up as a god among a local tribe.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)

Aggregate Rating: 232 | Imdb: 8 | Metascore: 93 | Earnings: $1.23M

Lead Role: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, | Director:

King Arthur and his knights embark on a low-budget search for the Grail, encountering many, very silly obstacles.

Jaws (1975)

Aggregate Rating: 227 | Imdb: 8 | Metascore: 86 | Earnings: $260.00M

Lead Role: Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss, Lorraine Gary, | Director: Steven Spielberg,

A giant great white shark arrives on the shores of a New England beach resort and wreaks havoc with bloody attacks on swimmers, until a local sheriff teams up with a marine biologist and an old seafarer to hunt the monster down.

The Sting (1973)

Aggregate Rating: 227 | Imdb: 8 | Metascore: 80 | Earnings: $159.60M

Lead Role: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Robert Shaw, Charles Durning, | Director: George Roy Hill,

In Chicago in September 1936, a young con man seeking revenge for his murdered partner teams up with a master of the big con to win a fortune from a criminal banker.

MASH (1970)

Aggregate Rating: 227 | Imdb: 7 | Metascore: 79 | Earnings: $81.60M

Lead Role: Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Tom Skerritt, Sally Kellerman, | Director: Robert Altman,

The staff of a Korean War field hospital use humor and high jinks to keep their sanity in the face of the horror of war.

Halloween (1978)

Aggregate Rating: 224 | Imdb: 7 | Metascore: 78 | Earnings: $47.00M

Lead Role: Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tony Moran, Nancy Kyes, | Director: John Carpenter,

Fifteen years after murdering his sister on Halloween night 1963, Michael Myers escapes from a mental hospital and returns to the small town of Haddonfield to kill again.

Rocky (1976)

Aggregate Rating: 224 | Imdb: 8 | Metascore: 69 | Earnings: $117.24M

Lead Role: Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, | Director: John G. Avildsen,

Rocky Balboa, a small-time boxer, gets a supremely rare chance to fight heavy-weight champion Apollo Creed in a bout in which he strives to go the distance for his self-respect.

The Shining (1980)

Aggregate Rating: 218 | Imdb: 8 | Metascore: 61 | Earnings: null

Lead Role: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers, | Director: Stanley Kubrick,

A family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where an evil and spiritual presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from the past and of the future.

Grease (1978)

Aggregate Rating: 215 | Imdb: 7 | Metascore: 70 | Earnings: $181.36M

Lead Role: John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, Stockard Channing, Jeff Conaway, | Director: Randal Kleiser,

Good girl Sandy and greaser Danny fell in love over the summer. When they unexpectedly discover they're now in the same high school, will they be able to rekindle their romance?