My longtime readers may remember that I did similar lists for the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, back in 2020. Well, I finally decided to push back a few years further to cover the 1970s. You will notice that a few (e.g., Willy Wonka, The Shaggy D.A.) are decidedly more kid- or youth-oriented, while others (e.g., Game of Death, Alien) — which I watched years later, I promise — are a bit more “mature” due to blood and violence. But, I look back fondly on them all.
Escape from the Planet of the Apes (71)
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (71)
Game of Death (72)
Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (72)
Battle for the Planet of the Apes (73)
Digby, the Biggest Dog in the World (73)
Enter the Dragon (73)
The Three Musketeers (73)
The Strongest Man in the World (75)
Zorro (75)
King Kong (76)
The Shaggy D.A. (76)
Star Wars (77)
Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (77)
Battlestar Galactica (78)
Superman (78)
Star Trek the Motion Picture (79)
Alien (79)
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (79)
Time After Time (79)
A few others didn’t quite make it for whatever reasons, but Honorable Mentions go to: Patton (70), Beneath the Planet of the Apes (70), Dirty Harry (71), The Godfather (72), Westworld (73), The Godfather Part II (74), The Four Musketeers (74), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (77), Damnation Alley (77). The James Bond franchise should probably get an H.M. for entertainment value, as well, for the five films it put out during this decade. (I really need to watch that whole series again….)
As usual, I counted up how many of the 20 had certain popular actors as the leads (or co-leads). A few may have had ensemble casts, but The Three Musketeers had the most “big” names. One of the kid-oriented ones had a dog and a boy as leads (Digby). Other than those, I tried to focus on the most recognizable names and threw the rest into “Other”:
Roddy McDowall: 3
Bruce Lee: 2
Gene Wilder: 1
Kurt Russell: 1
Jeff Bridges: 1
Harrison Ford: 1
William Shatner: 1
Christopher Reeve: 1
Sigourney Weaver: 1
Other: 8
I gotta admit, as enjoyable as it is to makes lists like this one, some of the choices ain’t easy! Anybody want to compare lists? Put your 1970s favorites in a comment below…
Heroes and Aliens 