Half a Century Plus One: The 25 Best Films of 1974
The true cinematic fallout wouldn’t happen for another few years (All the President’s Men is 1976), but the Watergate-based vibes are already on display in the same year that Nixon resigned. Did we, as a culture, ever really recover?
25. It’s Alive
A key component of the ‘70s subgenre We’re Worried Our Babies Will Be Fucked Up. Also I always forget that in addition to being both a visceral and psychological horror movie, there’s also a well-executed police procedural at its gooey center.
24. The Night Porter
Charlotte Rampling gives an utterly deranged performance that makes a campy and troubling premise stick.
23. The Lords of Flatbush
What if Rocky and The Fonz tried to help get a friend laid in 1950s Brooklyn? Kind of bad but the jackets are incredible.
22. The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams
Basically a survivalist hangout movie, like if Grizzly Man had a cool and chill ending. I always forget that the reason Grizzly retreats to the wilderness is because he was accused of murder.
21. Blazing Saddles
Funny, but not as funny as the other game-changing Mel Brooks comedy that landed the same year.
20. Lenny
Dustin Hoffman is all wrong for this role but he pulls it off anyway, which I guess is what craft looks like. Lenny Bruce seemed like a rough hang!
19. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
One of the hardest titles out there, with one of the greatest tag lines in history (“Who Will Survive, And What Will Be Left Of Them?”) to boot. Still feels terrifying because it seems like all that stuff is actually happening.
18. The Gambler
James Caan almost makes the desperation of addiction make a sort of twisted sense. Later remade both literally (The Gambler, with Mark Wahlberg) and in spirit (Uncut Gems).
17. Female Trouble
Sick and twisted and low-fi psychedelic, but it’s also funny and has a wonderfully loopy sense of story. Everybody always touts John Waters as a sensationalist but the dude knows how to move a camera.
16. The Phantom of the Paradise
Wild to think that someone with money read this script and was like “Checks out!” and then let Brian De Palma do whatever he wanted. What a time to be alive.
15. Beyond the Door
Another entry in the Seriously Maybe Having Kids Is A Mistake section of your video store.
14. A Woman Under the Influence
I’m broadly not much of a Cassavetes guy but both Gena Rowlands and Peter Falk are jaw-droppingly great in this super fucked up domestic drama.
13. The Towering Inferno
A definitive disaster movie that still looks unbelievable.
12. Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
Sure Ellen Burstyn won an Oscar for her performance, but as great as she is this thing is all about Kris Kristofferson. So rugged!
11. The Front Page
Obviously Lemmon and Matthau are a bulletproof one-liner exchange program but there’s also a ton of physical comedy and slapstick in this that is pitch-perfect. The first time I saw this I was like, “This is just like a classic Billy Wilder comedy!” and then realized it was actually directed by Billy Wilder.
10. Dark Star
Deeply funny and weird big screen debut for both John Carpenter and Dan O’Bannon, two totally normal dudes who would go on to make super regular movies.
9. Chinatown
Weird that this doesn’t get more play as a movie with a legendarily inscrutable plot, but I guess you get a pass when you have the best performances from both Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway and you construct a perfect version of post-war Los Angeles.
8. California Split
I don’t gamble but am deeply compelled by people who do. This is one of those movies where I’m like “Maybe casinos are cool after all?” and then I get inside one and I’m like “No that’s just Robert Altman flexing.”
7. The Conversation
An absolute master class in paranoia that has been ripped off countless times in the past half century. Might be the best Gene Hackman performance, and might also have the best final five minutes of any movie ever.
6. Black Christmas
A massive ur-text in the invention of the slasher. Genuinely scary in that grimy ‘70s way. Both Olivia Hussey and Margot Kidder absolutely rock in this.
5. The Parallax View
More paranoia, this time with Warren Beatty trying to solve a mystery he doesn’t even remotely understand. That opening set piece at the Space Needle is an all-timer.
4. The Taking of Pelham One Two Three
One of my favorite subgenres: A white-knuckle thriller with a laconic guy at the center of it. If I can’t be Elliott Gould in The Long Goodbye, I’ll settle for Matthau in this.
3. F For Fake
The last great statement from Orson Welles, it’s an endlessly engrossing essay film about magic and forgery and the very nature of cinema. There’s a ton of hot ladies in this for no reason but somehow never feels lascivious. The narration by Welles is some of the best there’s ever been on film.
2. The Godfather Part II
I’m in the minority in that I think this is a slightly lesser film than the first one, but it’s still an all-timer that hits all the right notes and expands the scope of the story without letting it drift for a single second. Not quite as good as Young Frankenstein.
1. Young Frankenstein
An obviously sentimental pick for the top spot, but for me this is as perfect as comedy gets and has aged so much better than most everything else in its cohort. Gene Wilder is one of my favorite dudes there’s ever been and this is his pinnacle.