Smithsonian Associates

The ’70s Movies a Real Cinephile Should See Compiled by Noah Gittell

Listed by director ALAN J. PAKULA MARTIN SCORSESE Klute Who’s That Knocking at My Door? The Parallax View Mean Streets All the President’s Men Taxi Driver Harold and Maude The Last Waltz Being There FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA Coming Home The Landlord New York, New York The Last Detail The Conversation SIDNEY LUMET The Godfather, Part II Apocalypse Now The Anderson Tapes STEVEN SPIELBERG Dog Day Afternoon Network Jaws ROBERT ALTMAN Close Encounters of the Third Kind GEORGE LUCAS M*A*S*H Nashville Star Wars The Long Goodbye BARBARA LODEN McCabe and Mrs. Miller Wanda WILLIAM FRIEDKIN ELAINE MAY The Exorcist A New Leaf JIM SHARMAN Mikey and Nicky PETER BOGDANOVICH The Rocky Horror Picture Show SYDNEY POLLACK The Last Picture Show MICHAEL RITCHIE Jeremiah Johnson The Candidate GORDON PARKS MILOS FORMAN Shaft One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Sweetback’s Sweet Badass Song BOB RAFELSON JACK HILL Five Easy Pieces Foxy Brown MICHAEL CIMINO SERGIO LEONE The Deer Hunter The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly LUIS BUNUEL INGMAR BERGMAN The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie Cries and Whispers PAUL SCHRADER Autumn Sonata Blue Collar RAINER WERNER FASSBINDER BOB FOSSE The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant Cabaret Ali: Fear Eats the Soul All That Jazz DAVID LYNCH MEL BROOKS The Elephant Man Young Frankenstein Eraserhead Blazing Saddles WILLIAM FRIEDKIN HERBERT ROSS The French Connection The Goodbye Girl ALBERT AND DAVID MAYSLES TERRY JONES AND TERRY GILLIAM Grey Gardens Monty Python and the Holy Grail BARBARA KOPPLE TERRY JONES Harlan County, U.S.A. Monty Python and the Life of Brian JOHN CARPENTER JAMES WILLIAM GUERCIO Dark Star Electra Glide in Blue Halloween JOAN MICKLIN SILVER RIDLEY SCOTT Hester Street Alien JOHN CASSAVETES ROMAN POLANSKI A Woman Under the Influence Chinatown The Killing of a Chinese Bookie Husbands