By John H. Foote
More than forty years of ten best lists, that is what I have tasked myself with doing. As an active movie watcher from the time I was seven, I got serious about film after seeing Cecil B. Demille’s re-release Of his blockbuster The Ten Commandments (1956). Learning to type, I would write movie reviews of everything I saw, from the films on the late show, prime time, to the new releases at the cinemas and the re-releases That were shown in double features at the Marks Theatre. It was a dusty old place that smelled funky, but you could trust them to have a great double bill almost every week. It was there I began my formal education in cinema, seeking out the films Pauline Kael or John Simon had raved about. The Toronto Critics I read, George Anthony and Clyde Gilmour were good too, but Kael wrote with such love merged with ferocity, I adore her work. Each time a new collection of her reviews was published, I had it within days consuming her words.
God, she loved movies. It felt like she was talking directly to me, always.
I have the advantage of hindsight in doing this, going back to prepare Ten Best lists, but that can work against a film too. You will not find The Sting (1973) or The English Patient (1996) on my lists, but you might find smaller, well-made films that deserved the attention they did not receive, like Casualties of War (1989).
Beginning with the most exciting ten year period in film history, the seventies, I will move each year, listing my personal choices for the years Best Films.
Starting back in 1970, in order of preference, year by year, here are my choices for the years Ten Best Films.
1970
- Patton
- Five Easy Pieces
- Woodstock
- Little Big Man
- MASH
- Satyricon
- Goin’ Down the Road
- The Wild Child
- The Ballad Of Cable Hogue
- I Never Sang for My Father
1971
- A Clockwork Orange
- The Last Picture Show
- The French Connection
- Klute
- The Fiddler on the Roof
- Carnal Knowledge
- Sunday, Bloody Sunday
- The Hospital
- Silent Running
- McCabe and Mrs. Miller
1972
- The Godfather
- Cabaret
- Deliverance
- The Emigrants
- Jeremiah Johnson
- The Poseidon Adventure
- The Candidate
- The King of Marvin Gardens
- Fat City
- Pete n Tillie
1973
- American Grafitti
- Last Tango in Paris
- The Last Detail
- The Exorcist
- The Way We Were
- Cries and Whispers
- Day for Night
- Serpico
- Paper Moon
- Cinderella Liberty
1974
- The Godfather Part II
- Chinatown
- The Conversation
- Lenny
- Badlands
- Young Frankenstein
- Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
- A Woman Under the Influence
- Phantom of the Paradise
- Murder On the Orient Express
1975
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
- Dog Day Afternoon
- Jaws
- Barry Lyndon
- The Man Who Would Be King
- French Connection II
- The Story of Adele H.
- The Sunshine Boys
- Tommy
- Shampoo
1976
- All the President’s Men
- Taxi Driver
- Network
- Rocky
- Seven Beauties
- Marathon Man
- The Shootist
- Face to Face
- The Outlaw Josey Wales
- Bound for Glory
1977
- Close Encounters of the Third Kind
- Black Sunday
- Annie Hall
- Star Wars
- Julia
- Looking for Mr. Goodbar
- 1900
- Slap Shot
- Saturday Night Fever
- The Turning Point
1978
- Coming Home
- An Unmarried Woman
- Heaven Can Wait
- Midnight Express
- Superman
- Straight Time
- The Buddy Holly Story
- Invasion of the Body Snatchers
- Same Time Next Year
- Watership Down
1979
- Apocalypse Now
- Manhattan
- Kramer vs. Kramer
- All That Jazz
- Hair
- The China Syndrome
- Nosferatu the Vampyre
- Norma Rae
- The Tin Drum
- The Onion Field
1980
- Raging Bull
- Ordinary People
- The Empire Strikes Back
- The Stunt Man
- The Shining
- The Elephant Man
- Coal Miners Daughter
- Urban Cowboy
- The Great Santini
- 9 to 5
1981
- Reds
- Raiders of the Lost Ark
- Blow Out
- Ragtime
- Atlantic City
- Prince of the City
- On Golden Pond
- True Confessions
- Body Heat
- The Postman Always Rings Twice
1982
- E.T. The Extra-terrestrial
- Tootsie
- Sophie’s Choice
- The Verdict
- Shoot the Moon
- Victor – Victoria
- Blade Runner
- Das Boot
- Diner
- My Favourite Year
1983
- Terms of Endearment
- The Right Stuff
- Under Fire
- Tender Mercies
- Silkwood
- The Dresser
- The King of Comedy
- Fanny and Alexander
- Star 80
- The Grey Fox
1984
- Amadeus
- Once Upon a Time in America
- Places in the Heart
- Country
- The Killing Fields
- Broadway Danny Rose
- Moscow on the Hudson
- A Soldier’s Story
- Country
- Star Man
1985
- Out of Africa
- Back to the Future
- Prizzi’s Honor
- Witness
- The Purple Rose of Cairo
- Kiss of the Spider Woman
- To Live and Die in LA
- Runaway Train
- My Beautiful Laundrette
- Mask
1986
- Platoon
- Blue Velvet
- Hannah and Her Sisters
- At Close Range
- Stand By Me
- Aliens
- Peggy Sue Got Married
- The Fly
- The Color Of Money
- The Mosquito Coast
1987
- Empire of the Sun
- Broadcast News
- Hope and Glory
- The Last Emperor
- The Untouchables
- Moonstruck
- Full Metal Jacket
- Fatal Attraction
- Ironweed
- Near Dark & Angel Heart (tie)
1988
- The Last Temptation Of Christ
- Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
- Mississippi Burning
- Dangerous Liaisons
- Bird
- Rain Man
- The Unbearable Lightness of Being
- The Accidental Tourist
- Tucker
- Working Girl
1989
- Do the Right Thing
- Glory
- Driving Miss Daisy
- Crimes and Misdemeanors
- My Left Foot
- Field of Dreams
- Dead Poets Society
- Valmont
- Casualties of War
- Drugstore Cowboy

John H. Foote is a well-recognized Canadian film critic/historian who has been an active critic for 30 years. His deep love for the movies began at a very young age. He began his career as co-host of the popular TV show Reel to Real where he remained for nine years. While on TV he began dabbling in education, eventually ascending to Director of the Toronto Film School, where he also taught film history. After leaving the college to care for his wife, he returned to teaching at Humber College where he taught both Film History and Method Acting Theory. John has written two books: “Clint Eastwood – Evolution of a Filmmaker” and the upcoming “Spielberg – American Film Visionary”. He is currently working on two books, one about the films of the seventies and another on the films of Martin Scorsese. Through his career he has worked in TV, radio, print and the web. John has interviewed everyone in the industry (more than 300 interviews) except Jack Nicholson, he says sadly. Highlights include Martin Scorsese, Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep Robert Duvall, Jane Fonda, Francis Ford Coppola and Kathryn Bigelow.