Best Movies about the 1970's

Jaws (1975)

The movie that put Steven Speilberg on the map. Adapted from the Peter Benchley novel and directed by Speilberg who was only 27 at the time. The story follows a giant, great white shark that is terrorizing a local resort beach during the height of the 4th of July tourist season. The town's sheriff, a shark expert and a local big sea fisherman, played wonderfully by Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw, set out to try and kill the "monster". Speilberg had major technical difficulities with the mechanical shark (named Bruce) when filming began, which meant the shark wasn't seen until the last quarter of the film. If anything, this only heighten the suspense. John Williams won a well deserved Oscar for the now classic musical score. The film was the first summer mega-hit and started the summer blackbuster trend.

The Clockwork Orange (1971)

This movie has haunted me for quite some time. I'm not sure how old I was when I first saw it, but I know it was quite young, too young to understand what was going on. My brother had brought it home on video and I watched in horror. Is this what the future had in story for me? I had nightmares for days. This film still scares me, mainly because of how much of it seems to be coming true. The story is set in the not to distant future and centers around Alex (played by Malcolm McDowell) and his gang of "Droogs" whose purpose in life is to cause "a bit of the old ultraviolence". They search for innocent people that they can beat-up, torture, rape and kill. After a burtal assault, made even more terrifying with the joyful song "Signin in the Rain" being sung, Alex is captured by police and is sent to a reprogramming center. He is released after being brainwashed to decriminalize him. The question is, does this truly work? Taken from the Anthony Burgess novel, Stanley Kubrick continued with his amazing run of unique, creative and visually stunning motion pictures. This is NOT for everyone's taste and was orginally released with an X rating because of the violence. Most videos contain the R version, which is still shocking.

American Graffiti (1973)

Before George Lucas became known as the man who created the Star Wars universe, he made another classic film, "American Graffiti". Francis Ford Coppola helped finance less than one million dollars, to this still somewhat unknown Lucas and his movie, which ended up being one of the top grossing films to this date. Based on Lucas's memories of his own teen years in Modesto, California, the film pays tribute to the innocent era of the early 60's. A time of driving around in cars with the top down, picking up girls, eating hamburgers at the drive-in, and listening to the radio. The soundtrack contains all the classics of the early rock era, and the cast would soon be all quite well known; Ron Howard, Richard Dreyfuss, Cindy Williams, Mackenzie Phillips, Suzanne Sommers, Wolfman Jack and Harrison Ford.