Will Sampson hugs Jack Nicholson in a scene from the 1975 film 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest.'

Best '70s drama movies

Written by:
November 4, 2022
United Artists // Getty Images

Best '70s drama movies

Stacker compiled a list of the best '70s drama movies of all time based on our own Stacker score, a weighted index split evenly between IMDb user rating and Metascore. To qualify, the film had to have drama as one of its genres on IMDb, have a Metascore, and have at least 5,000 IMDb user votes. Ties were broken by votes.

 

#50. Walkabout (1971)

- Director: Nicolas Roeg
- Stacker score: 82.8
- IMDb user rating: 7.6
- Metascore: 85
- Runtime: 100 minutes

#49. The Long Goodbye (1973)

- Director: Robert Altman
- Stacker score: 83.0
- IMDb user rating: 7.6
- Metascore: 87
- Runtime: 112 minutes

#48. Deliverance (1972)

- Director: John Boorman
- Stacker score: 83.3
- IMDb user rating: 7.7
- Metascore: 80
- Runtime: 109 minutes

#47. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

- Director: Steven Spielberg
- Stacker score: 83.3
- IMDb user rating: 7.6
- Metascore: 90
- Runtime: 138 minutes

#46. Johnny Got His Gun (1971)

- Director: Dalton Trumbo
- Stacker score: 83.4
- IMDb user rating: 7.8
- Metascore: 71
- Runtime: 111 minutes

#45. Serpico (1973)

- Director: Sidney Lumet
- Stacker score: 83.4
- IMDb user rating: 7.7
- Metascore: 81
- Runtime: 130 minutes

#44. All That Jazz (1979)

- Director: Bob Fosse
- Stacker score: 83.5
- IMDb user rating: 7.8
- Metascore: 72
- Runtime: 123 minutes

#43. Harold and Maude (1971)

- Director: Hal Ashby
- Stacker score: 83.5
- IMDb user rating: 7.9
- Metascore: 62
- Runtime: 91 minutes

#42. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)

- Director: Robert Altman
- Stacker score: 83.6
- IMDb user rating: 7.6
- Metascore: 93
- Runtime: 120 minutes

#41. Vengeance Is Mine (1979)

- Director: Shôhei Imamura
- Stacker score: 83.8
- IMDb user rating: 7.7
- Metascore: 85
- Runtime: 139 minutes

#40. The Holy Mountain (1973)

- Director: Alejandro Jodorowsky
- Stacker score: 83.9
- IMDb user rating: 7.8
- Metascore: 76
- Runtime: 114 minutes

#39. Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)

- Director: Robert Benton
- Stacker score: 84.0
- IMDb user rating: 7.8
- Metascore: 77
- Runtime: 105 minutes

#38. Papillon (1973)

- Director: Franklin J. Schaffner
- Stacker score: 84.1
- IMDb user rating: 8.0
- Metascore: 58
- Runtime: 151 minutes

#37. Opening Night (1977)

- Director: John Cassavetes
- Stacker score: 84.2
- IMDb user rating: 7.9
- Metascore: 69
- Runtime: 144 minutes

#36. The Day of the Jackal (1973)

- Director: Fred Zinnemann
- Stacker score: 84.3
- IMDb user rating: 7.8
- Metascore: 80
- Runtime: 143 minutes

#35. Cabaret (1972)

- Director: Bob Fosse
- Stacker score: 84.3
- IMDb user rating: 7.8
- Metascore: 80
- Runtime: 124 minutes

#34. Breaking Away (1979)

- Director: Peter Yates
- Stacker score: 84.4
- IMDb user rating: 7.7
- Metascore: 91
- Runtime: 101 minutes

#33. Badlands (1973)

- Director: Terrence Malick
- Stacker score: 84.6
- IMDb user rating: 7.7
- Metascore: 93
- Runtime: 94 minutes

#32. That Obscure Object of Desire (1977)

- Director: Luis Buñuel
- Stacker score: 84.7
- IMDb user rating: 7.8
- Metascore: 84
- Runtime: 103 minutes

#31. The French Connection (1971)

- Director: William Friedkin
- Stacker score: 84.7
- IMDb user rating: 7.7
- Metascore: 94
- Runtime: 104 minutes

#30. Nashville (1975)

- Director: Robert Altman
- Stacker score: 84.9
- IMDb user rating: 7.7
- Metascore: 96
- Runtime: 160 minutes

#29. The Spirit of the Beehive (1973)

- Director: Víctor Erice
- Stacker score: 85.0
- IMDb user rating: 7.8
- Metascore: 87
- Runtime: 98 minutes

#28. Fiddler on the Roof (1971)

- Director: Norman Jewison
- Stacker score: 85.0
- IMDb user rating: 8.0
- Metascore: 67
- Runtime: 181 minutes

#27. The Conversation (1974)

- Director: Francis Ford Coppola
- Stacker score: 85.0
- IMDb user rating: 7.8
- Metascore: 87
- Runtime: 113 minutes

#26. Alice in the Cities (1974)

- Director: Wim Wenders
- Stacker score: 85.1
- IMDb user rating: 7.9
- Metascore: 78
- Runtime: 113 minutes

#25. Days of Heaven (1978)

- Director: Terrence Malick
- Stacker score: 85.6
- IMDb user rating: 7.8
- Metascore: 93
- Runtime: 94 minutes

#24. Manhattan (1979)

- Director: Woody Allen
- Stacker score: 85.6
- IMDb user rating: 7.9
- Metascore: 83
- Runtime: 96 minutes

#23. All the President's Men (1976)

- Director: Alan J. Pakula
- Stacker score: 85.7
- IMDb user rating: 7.9
- Metascore: 84
- Runtime: 138 minutes

#22. Mirror (1975)

- Director: Andrei Tarkovsky
- Stacker score: 86.3
- IMDb user rating: 8.0
- Metascore: 80
- Runtime: 107 minutes

#21. Rocky (1976)

- Director: John G. Avildsen
- Stacker score: 86.3
- IMDb user rating: 8.1
- Metascore: 70
- Runtime: 120 minutes

#20. Le Cercle Rouge (1970)

- Director: Jean-Pierre Melville
- Stacker score: 86.4
- IMDb user rating: 7.9
- Metascore: 91
- Runtime: 140 minutes

#19. Patton (1970)

- Director: Franklin J. Schaffner
- Stacker score: 86.4
- IMDb user rating: 7.9
- Metascore: 91
- Runtime: 172 minutes

#18. Being There (1979)

- Director: Hal Ashby
- Stacker score: 86.6
- IMDb user rating: 8.0
- Metascore: 83
- Runtime: 130 minutes

#17. Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

- Director: Sidney Lumet
- Stacker score: 86.9
- IMDb user rating: 8.0
- Metascore: 86
- Runtime: 125 minutes

#16. Paper Moon (1973)

- Director: Peter Bogdanovich
- Stacker score: 87.0
- IMDb user rating: 8.1
- Metascore: 77
- Runtime: 102 minutes

#15. Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970)

- Director: Elio Petri
- Stacker score: 87.2
- IMDb user rating: 8.0
- Metascore: 89
- Runtime: 115 minutes

#14. The Conformist (1970)

- Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
- Stacker score: 87.3
- IMDb user rating: 7.9
- Metascore: 100
- Runtime: 113 minutes

#13. Solaris (1972)

- Director: Andrei Tarkovsky
- Stacker score: 87.3
- IMDb user rating: 8.0
- Metascore: 90
- Runtime: 167 minutes

#12. The Last Picture Show (1971)

- Director: Peter Bogdanovich
- Stacker score: 87.5
- IMDb user rating: 8.0
- Metascore: 93
- Runtime: 118 minutes

#11. Network (1976)

- Director: Sidney Lumet
- Stacker score: 87.5
- IMDb user rating: 8.1
- Metascore: 83
- Runtime: 121 minutes

#10. The Deer Hunter (1978)

- Director: Michael Cimino
- Stacker score: 87.8
- IMDb user rating: 8.1
- Metascore: 86
- Runtime: 183 minutes

#9. A Woman Under the Influence (1974)

- Director: John Cassavetes
- Stacker score: 88.0
- IMDb user rating: 8.1
- Metascore: 88
- Runtime: 155 minutes

#8. Barry Lyndon (1975)

- Director: Stanley Kubrick
- Stacker score: 88.1
- IMDb user rating: 8.1
- Metascore: 89
- Runtime: 185 minutes

#7. Chinatown (1974)

- Director: Roman Polanski
- Stacker score: 89.4
- IMDb user rating: 8.2
- Metascore: 92
- Runtime: 130 minutes

#6. The Sting (1973)

- Director: George Roy Hill
- Stacker score: 89.5
- IMDb user rating: 8.3
- Metascore: 83
- Runtime: 129 minutes

#5. Taxi Driver (1976)

- Director: Martin Scorsese
- Stacker score: 89.6
- IMDb user rating: 8.2
- Metascore: 94
- Runtime: 114 minutes

#4. Apocalypse Now (1979)

- Director: Francis Ford Coppola
- Stacker score: 92.5
- IMDb user rating: 8.5
- Metascore: 94
- Runtime: 147 minutes

#3. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)

- Director: Milos Forman
- Stacker score: 93.5
- IMDb user rating: 8.7
- Metascore: 84
- Runtime: 133 minutes

#2. The Godfather Part II (1974)

- Director: Francis Ford Coppola
- Stacker score: 97.1
- IMDb user rating: 9.0
- Metascore: 90
- Runtime: 202 minutes

#1. The Godfather (1972)

- Director: Francis Ford Coppola
- Stacker score: 100.0
- IMDb user rating: 9.2
- Metascore: 100
- Runtime: 175 minutes

Trending Now