Top 10 (sorta) films of … 1971

I’m blogging about the top ten (more or less) movies of every year since I was born. It’s gonna take a while …

Inspired by my friend Clay’s roundup of the top 25 movies of 1999 I’ve decided to blog about the top ten (sorta) movies from every year since I was born. I won’t be fully reviewing each movie because that would be ridiculous, instead I’ll briefly share my personal connection with the movie … including whether or not I’ve even seen it! Since biggest doesn’t necessarily mean best, I’ll be working from both the box office stats for the year and the IMDB rankings. In researching this project I’ve discovered that detailed box office records aren’t available prior to 1977.

My preference going forward will be to use the worldwide box office top 10 as reference, but for 1971 through to 1976 I only have access to the US data. If anyone can point me to a better source than the above listings then please let me know in the comments.

So, 1917 was the year I was born – no, wait—1971. Obviously I didn’t go to the cinema at all that year … at least as far as I know … but I’ve definitely seen several of its movies. Read on to find out what I’ve seen, what I’ve not seen, and what I think is also worthy of note. Let’s begin!

A Clockwork Orange

I have only seen this film once, and mostly out of curiosity. There is a myth that it was banned in the UK—caught up in the video nasties era—and, indeed, it wasn’t particularly easy to see it in the UK for many years while I was growing up (no bittorrent or Netflix back then!). However, the truth is that Stanley Kubrick himself withdrew it out of concerns that it would spark a wave of copycat violence. Naturally the film developed a significant sense of notoriety over the years until it was finally released in 1999 and proved to be … well, kinda boring in my opinion. I’ll revisit it one day but I’ve not felt particularly compelled to do so over the last 20 years or so.

Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory

This is one of those films you grow out of and then grow back into again. For me, the main appeal comes from my enjoyment of Gene Wilder’s work and he makes, perhaps, the perfect Willy Wonka, adding just the right balance of charm and menace (oh, I wish we’d had the chance to see him playing an out and out villain). Meanwhile, the saccharine sweetness of the production is nicely offset by the low-level sadism of Roald Dahl’s storytelling. It’s not necessarily a film I go out of my way to watch, but it is one I’m always happy to revisit.

Summer of ‘42

A classic coming of age film that I recall watching at some point in the early eighties when I, too, was coming of age. I remember very little of it, but given it appears in both top 10 lists above perhaps I should give it a second look one day. I’ve only included it in this section because, for some inexplicable reason, the final shot of the movie has always stayed with me. I suspect, if I ever watch it again, I’ll discover that final scene is nothing at all like the one in my memory.

The French Connection

One of the most fascinating things (imo) about cinematic decades is that the first few years typically mark a stage of transition. In the case of the 1970s we see the staples of yesteryear (musicals, melodramas, westerns, historical epics) finally giving way to the more introspective era of New Hollywood, fuelled by auteurs like Kubrick, George Lucas and William Friedkin. In truth the era began in the late sixties, but it would be during the seventies that these directors would come to redefine modern cinema (and we’ll be seeing lots of their efforts in future posts).

For me The French Connection—gritty, downbeat and with a commitment to realism that few films (if any) had dared tackle before—is one of the first real seventies movies. It’s indelibly of its time but also an ageless masterpiece. One of those films I immediately look forward to revisiting again after every viewing.

Diamonds Are Forever

For a long time this was one of my favourite Bond movies, likely because it brought the same epic, yet tongue in cheek sense of the Roger Moore movies (which I grew up on) and yet felt like something of a discovery given it came from a previous era. It still has its charms but is so hugely problematic in so many ways that I suspect I may never be able to watch it again.

Recently I discovered that the very memorable Mr Wint, one of the two idiosyncratic henchmen that pop up throughout the movie, is played by Crispin Glover’s father. Which makes a lot of sense in retrospect.

Dirty Harry

Not quite as groundbreaking, perhaps, as The French Connection, but still a long-time personal favourite of mine. It’s a fascinating film to watch these days given that it’s essentially advocating for fascism and presenting an early version of Republican anti-government talking points (note how government bureaucracy and complacent senior police are presented as constant obstacles in Harry’s quest to save the public from a deranged serial killer). I imagine it’s popular viewing for supporters of the January 6th insurgency.

Regardless, it’s also a classic work of cinema with Clint Eastwood (note: Trump supporter) creating his most (second most?) iconic character, and Andrew Robinson (long before his Deep Space Nine days) portraying one of the most genuinely terrifying and disturbing villains in cinema history.

Get Carter

I had the pleasure of rewatching this in glorious 4k not too long ago. It’s a film I’ve long respected, having probably watched for the first time back in the eighties. However my last viewing delivered a far more profound appreciation for why this movie has so many admirers. It’s got a great story with an almost unique aesthetic, but it’s Michael Caine who really makes this an experience to treasure. I love a good anti-hero, and Jack Carter is a complete bastard of one (he even makes Harry Callahan look like a pussycat), and yet you stick by him for the whole bloody slog.

THX 1138

George Lucas doing sci-fi before Star Wars, and it couldn’t be more different. I’ve only seen this once, but it fits very nicely into that specifically seventies era of science-fiction which eschewed the shiny space-ships and slimy monsters and, well, looked ahead to how we could screw things up all by ourselves without the help of martians or things like other planets colliding with ours.

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The Unseen

I’ve not seen every film in the two lists above, and in a few cases I’ve seen them but remember so little of the experience that I can’t in good conscience include them above.

In this latter category are The Last Picture Show, Straw Dogs and Klute. I should probably (re)watch The Last Picture Show properly one day, but I’ve never felt particularly compelled to do so. I’m even less interested in Straw Dogs, which I suspect is probably just going to be unpleasant and exploitative, and I’m generally not that interested in the revenge-porn genre anyway.

A strong exception is Klute. I’m a big fan of Alan Pakula’s movies, and this one has been on my rewatch list for quite some time … I might even get onto that soon and update this post when I do!

I enjoy a good musical but Fiddler on the Roof is one I’ve never been that interested in. I remember my mother watching it on TV when I was very young, and making me watch Topol (who was great in Flash Gordon!) singing “If I Was A Rich Man”. That’s enough for me. 

As for Bedknobs and Broomsticks, I read the synopsis before writing this and it honestly sounds quite interesting. But I’m probably still not going to watch it.

The real surprise for me is two films that I’ve literally never heard of. I don’t claim to have heard of every film ever made, but I’m impressed that a film can be the number one movie in the US in the year of my birth and still completely escape my awareness. Billy Jack sounds like an interesting piece of cinema history, albeit with a similar message to Dirty Harry, but rather than have me talk about it just give the wikipedia page a quick read. 

In a similar vein, Melvin Van Peeble’s delightfully titled Sweet Sweetback’s Baad Asssss Song (how can I never have heard of a film with that title???) was another independent movie that struggled to find distribution but ended up doing well enough to land in the US top ten for the year. I gather it kickstarted the blaxploitation genre, so it definitely earns its place in cinema history … and is probably worth a watch for that reason alone.

Minor Omissions

Without being too exhaustive here, this year also saw the cult favourite Harold and Maude (which I’ve never seen) released alongside Nicolas Roeg’s classic Walkabout (which I have). 

Two of my [other] favourite films from this year include the science fiction drama The Andromeda Strain which somehow manages to be slightly old school and feel like it’s doing something different with the genre. It was also a very good year for horror, albeit seeing the slide of Hammer studios into its later, more exploitative fare. At the same time there were other studios and film-makers keen to make their stamp in the horror genre, and one of my favourite movies from this era is the somewhat bizarre, but very British folk horror title Blood on Satan’s Claw (which has just seen a 4k release!)

So, what are your favourite films from 1971?