The Ten Best Films of the Year — 1970-2017 – Part One

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

1. Patton
2. Five Easy Pieces
3. Woodstock
4. Little Big Man
5. MASH
6. Satyricon
7. Goin’ Down the Road
8. The Wild Child
9. The Ballad Of Cable Hogue
10. I Never Sang for My Father

 

1971

1. A Clockwork Orange
2. The Last Picture Show
3. The French Connection
4. Klute
5. The Fiddler on the Roof
6. Carnal Knowledge
7. Sunday, Bloody Sunday
8. The Hospital
9. Silent Running
10. McCabe and Mrs. Miller

 

1972

1. The Godfather
2. Cabaret
3. Deliverance
4. The Emigrants
5. Jeremiah Johnson
6. The Poseidon Adventure
7. The Candidate
8. The King of Marvin Gardens
9. Fat City
10. Pete n Tillie

 

1973

1. American Grafitti
2. Last Tango in Paris
3. The Last Detail
4. The Exorcist
5. The Way We Were
6. Cries and Whispers
7. Day for Night
8. Serpico
9. Paper Moon
10. Cinderella Liberty

 

1974

1. The Godfather Part II
2. Chinatown
3. The Conversation
4. Lenny
5. Badlands
6. Young Frankenstein
7. Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
8. A Woman Under the Influence
9. Phantom of the Paradise
10. Murder On the Orient Express

 

1975

1. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
2. Dog Day Afternoon
3. Jaws
4. Barry Lyndon
5. The Man Who Would Be King
6. French Connection II
7. The Story of Adele H.
8. The Sunshine Boys
9. Tommy
10. Shampoo

 

1976

1. All the President’s Men
2. Taxi Driver
3. Network
4. Rocky
5. Seven Beauties
6. Marathon Man
7. The Shootist
8. Face to Face
9. The Outlaw Josey Wales
10. Bound for Glory

 

1977

1. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
2. Black Sunday
3. Annie Hall
4. Star Wars
5. Julia
6. Looking for Mr. Goodbar
7. 1900
8. Slap Shot
9. Saturday Night Fever
10. The Turning Point

 

1978

1. Coming Home
2. An Unmarried Woman
3. Heaven Can Wait
4. Midnight Express
5. Superman
6. Straight Time
7. The Buddy Holly Story
8. Invasion of the Body Snatchers
9. Same Time Next Year
10. Watership Down

 

1979

1. Apocalypse Now
2. Manhattan
3. Kramer vs. Kramer
4. All That Jazz
5. Hair
6. The China Syndrome
7. Nosferatu the Vampyre
8. Norma Rae
9. The Tin Drum
10. The Onion Field

 

1980

1. Raging Bull
2. Ordinary People
3. The Empire Strikes Back
4. The Stunt Man
5. The Shining
6. The Elephant Man
7. Coal Miners Daughter
8. Urban Cowboy
9. The Great Santini
10. 9 to 5

 

1981

1. Reds
2. Raiders of the Lost Ark
3. Blow Out
4. Ragtime
5. Atlantic City
6. Prince of the City
7. On Golden Pond
8. True Confessions
9. Body Heat
10. The Postman Always Rings Twice

 

1982

1. E.T.  The Extra-terrestrial
2. Tootsie
3. Sophie’s Choice
4. The Verdict
5. Shoot the Moon
6. Victor – Victoria
7. Blade Runner
8. Das Boot
9. Diner
10. My Favourite Year

 

1983

1. Terms of Endearment
2. The Right Stuff
3. Under Fire
4. Tender Mercies
5. Silkwood
6. The Dresser
7. The King of Comedy
8. Fanny and Alexander
9. Star 80
10. The Grey Fox

 

 

1984

1. Amadeus
2. Once Upon a Time in America
3. Places in the Heart
4. Country
5. The Killing Fields
6. Broadway Danny Rose
7. Moscow on the Hudson
8. A Soldier’s Story
9. Country
10. Star Man

 

1985

1. Out of Africa
2. Back to the Future
3. Prizzi’s Honor
4. Witness
5. The Purple Rose of Cairo
6. Kiss of the Spider Woman
7. To Live and Die in LA
8. Runaway Train
9. My Beautiful Laundrette
10. Mask

 

1986

1. Platoon
2. Blue Velvet
3. Hannah and Her Sisters
4. At Close Range
5. Stand By Me
6. Aliens
7. Peggy Sue Got Married
8. The Fly
9. The Color Of Money
10. The Mosquito Coast

 

1987

1. Empire of the Sun
2. Broadcast News
3. Hope and Glory
4. The Last Emperor
5. The Untouchables
6. Moonstruck
7. Full Metal Jacket
8. Fatal Attraction
9. Ironweed
10. Near Dark & Angel Heart (tie)

 

1988

1. The Last Temptation Of Christ
2. Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
3. Mississippi Burning
4. Dangerous Liaisons
5. Bird
6. Rain Man
7. The Unbearable Lightness of Being
8. The Accidental Tourist
9. Tucker
10. Working Girl

 

1989

1. Do the Right Thing
2. Glory
3. Driving Miss Daisy
4. Crimes and Misdemeanors
5. My Left Foot
6. Field of Dreams
7. Dead Poets Society
8. Valmont
9. Casualties of War
10. Drugstore Cowboy