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My Name Is Henry Krinkle: The 10 Best Films Of The Seventies

Join us in our decade-based film retrospective, as we delve backwards all the way from 2009 to 1910. Most decade-based best movie lists grant you a whooping 50-100 entries, which makes perfect sense given all the years you have to take into consideration. But what if you were defining a decade in just ten films? Which movies would you recommend to somebody who might only watch a handful from a given decade? This week, we look back at the Seventies.
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T.J. Barnard
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Published: Dec 5, 2012 05:37 pm

This article is over 11 years old and may contain outdated information

1. Apocalypse Now (1979) (Dir. Francis Ford Coppola)

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The story behind Apocalypse Now is almost as great as the movie itself, and has since become the stuff of legend: Francis Ford Coppola threatened to shoot himself; Martin Sheen suffered from a heart-attack half-way through filming; Marlon Brando turned up overweight, demanded heaps of cash and told his director that he hadn’t even read the script. But oh boy was it all worth it: a movie that Coppola himself thought destined to fail emerged as the greatest epic of the seventies, a Vietnam movie that somehow managed to encompass the entire spectrum of that troubling war as its filmmakers went through their own personal hell making the damned thing.

Based loosely on Joseph Conrad’s dark and powerful novella Heart of Darkness, Coppola transfers the story to Cambodia and sends Cpt. Wilard, a Vietnam veteran, on a dangerous mission to assassinate a renegade Green Beret who has set himself up as a God amongst a local tribe. Be it that this movie haunts your dreams, shakes your expectations, or gifts you with great performances from every member of its huge cast, Apocalypse Now remains the definitive masterpiece of the seventies because Coppola lived it thoroughly: it’s there in every frame. It is the ultimate advertisement for perseverance, a hellish and beautiful experience from start to finish, and a war movie that feels both relevant and wholly cinematic all at once.

Last time: Check out our best film lists for The Nineties, The Noughties and The Eighties.

Next time: The Sixties get our top 10 film treatment… stay tuned!

Do you agree with our choices for the 10 best films of the Seventies? Let us know in the comments below.

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T.J. Barnard