The 70s Movie Legends special edition is now available, offering a look back at a decade often described as Hollywood's Second Golden Age. The publication is on sale at participating retailers and can also be ordered online, with postage and packaging costs applying to online purchases.
A Decade of Classics and Blockbusters
The era produced outright classics such as The Godfather and its sequel, Taxi Driver, and The French Connection, films that regularly appear on lists of the greatest ever shown on cinema screens. The decade also saw huge fan favourites including Jaws and Star Wars, the two movies often cited as giving rise to the modern-day blockbuster.
These were not the only films to draw ticket buyers, as Superman, Rocky, The Sting, Love Story, and Smokey And The Bandit also topped the box-office charts.
Horror, Comedy, and Disaster Movies
Thanks to The Exorcist, Halloween, and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, among others, the 1970s is considered by many to be the most important decade in the history of horror. Comic legends Mel Brooks and Woody Allen were at the top of their game, while the Monty Python team brought their unique take on history and religion from television to the big screen.
The decade also saw the rise and fall of the disaster movie, where terrorists, fires, earthquakes, and planet-ending meteors seemed like regular occurrences.
Cultural Influence and Iconic Stars
The open wound of the Vietnam War, the threatened impeachment of a president, and the resulting distrust in authority informed many great thrillers produced in Hollywood around 50 years ago. A new James Bond emerged, while the British film industry carved its own niche with films like Get Carter and A Clockwork Orange.
The decade saw the rise of some of the greatest screen actors and actresses, including Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro, and Meryl Streep. Robert Redford, Clint Eastwood, Burt Reynolds, Barbra Streisand, Faye Dunaway, and Diane Keaton were among the stars who almost guaranteed audiences. In the UK, Sean Connery, Michael Caine, Roger Moore, Richard Burton, and Richard Harris regularly brought their talents to major releases.
Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, and Steven Spielberg broke with the predictable formulas of the past. For a brief but spectacular period, the director became king, rejecting happy endings in favour of raw realism and moral ambiguity.
