Best Movies of 1970
by terrence-gale | created - 11 Feb 2014 | updated - 23 Jul 2020 | PublicHere are my selections for the best movies of 1970.
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1. M*A*S*H (1970)
R | 116 min | Comedy, Drama, War
The staff of a Korean War field hospital use humor and high jinks to keep their sanity in the face of the horror of war.
Director: Robert Altman | Stars: Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Tom Skerritt, Sally Kellerman
Votes: 76,935 | Gross: $81.60M
2. Patton (1970)
GP | 172 min | Biography, Drama, War
The World War II phase of the career of controversial American general George S. Patton.
Director: Franklin J. Schaffner | Stars: George C. Scott, Karl Malden, Stephen Young, Michael Strong
Votes: 107,960 | Gross: $61.70M
3. Fellini Satyricon (1969)
R | 129 min | Drama, Fantasy
A series of disjointed mythical tales set in first-century Rome.
Director: Federico Fellini | Stars: Martin Potter, Hiram Keller, Max Born, Salvo Randone
Votes: 17,188 | Gross: $1.14M
4. Five Easy Pieces (1970)
R | 98 min | Drama
A dropout from upper-class America picks up work along the way on oil rigs when his life isn't spent in a squalid succession of bars, motels, and other points of interest.
Director: Bob Rafelson | Stars: Jack Nicholson, Karen Black, Billy Green Bush, Fannie Flagg
Votes: 40,548 | Gross: $19.40M
5. Airport (1970)
G | 137 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
A bomber on board an airplane, an airport almost closed by snow, and various personal problems of the people involved.
Directors: George Seaton, Henry Hathaway | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin, George Kennedy, Jean Seberg
Votes: 21,687 | Gross: $100.49M
6. Love Story (1970)
PG | 100 min | Drama, Romance
A boy and a girl from different backgrounds fall in love regardless of their upbringing - and then tragedy strikes.
Director: Arthur Hiller | Stars: Ali MacGraw, Ryan O'Neal, John Marley, Ray Milland
Votes: 37,449 | Gross: $106.40M
7. Little Big Man (1970)
PG-13 | 139 min | Adventure, Comedy, Drama
Jack Crabb, looking back from extreme old age, tells of his life being raised by Native Americans and fighting with General Custer.
Director: Arthur Penn | Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Faye Dunaway, Chief Dan George, Martin Balsam
Votes: 37,899 | Gross: $31.56M
8. Women in Love (1969)
R | 131 min | Drama, Romance
Two best friends fall in love with a pair of women, but the relationships soon go in very different directions.
Director: Ken Russell | Stars: Alan Bates, Oliver Reed, Glenda Jackson, Jennie Linden
Votes: 8,558 | Gross: $1.03M
9. I Never Sang for My Father (1970)
GP | 92 min | Drama, Music
A man living in the towering shadow of his aging father finds it difficult to start a new chapter in his life by marrying his girlfriend and moving to California.
Director: Gilbert Cates | Stars: Melvyn Douglas, Gene Hackman, Dorothy Stickney, Estelle Parsons
Votes: 3,001 | Gross: $0.85M
10. The Great White Hope (1970)
PG-13 | 103 min | Drama, Romance, Sport
A Black champion boxer and his white female companion struggle to survive while the white boxing establishment looks for ways to knock him down.
Director: Martin Ritt | Stars: James Earl Jones, Jane Alexander, Lou Gilbert, Joel Fluellen
Votes: 2,806 | Gross: $2.70M
11. Ryan's Daughter (1970)
R | 200 min | Drama, Romance
Set in the wake of the 1916 Easter Rising, a married woman in a small Irish village has an affair with a troubled British officer.
Director: David Lean | Stars: Robert Mitchum, Trevor Howard, John Mills, Christopher Jones
Votes: 10,685 | Gross: $30.85M
12. Lovers and Other Strangers (1970)
GP | 104 min | Comedy
Mike and Susan's wedding is overshadowed by family drama, including Mike's brother's divorce, Susan's father's affair, her sister's marital troubles, and Mike's friend pursuing the maid of honor.
Director: Cy Howard | Stars: Gig Young, Bea Arthur, Bonnie Bedelia, Diane Keaton
Votes: 1,376 | Gross: $5.48M
13. The Landlord (1970)
PG | 112 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
At the age of 29, Elgar Enders (Beau Bridges) "runs away" from home. This running away consists of buying a building in a black ghetto in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn. Initially, his ... See full summary »
Director: Hal Ashby | Stars: Beau Bridges, Lee Grant, Diana Sands, Pearl Bailey
Votes: 3,088 | Gross: $0.96M
14. Joe (1970)
R | 107 min | Drama, Thriller
Two men--wealthy conservative Bill and far-right factory worker Joe--form a dangerous bond after Bill confesses to Joe about murdering his daughter's drug-dealer boyfriend.
Director: John G. Avildsen | Stars: Peter Boyle, Dennis Patrick, Susan Sarandon, Patrick McDermott
Votes: 4,205 | Gross: $19.32M
15. My Night at Maud's (1969)
GP | 105 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A devout Catholic man's rigid principles are challenged during a one-night stay with Maud, a divorced woman with an outsize personality.
Director: Éric Rohmer | Stars: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Françoise Fabian, Marie-Christine Barrault, Antoine Vitez
Votes: 14,549
16. Darling Lili (1970)
G | 136 min | Comedy, Drama, Musical
Set during World War I, this movie is a cute spin on the Mata Hari legend.
Director: Blake Edwards | Stars: Julie Andrews, Rock Hudson, Jeremy Kemp, Lance Percival
Votes: 2,379 | Gross: $2.59M
17. Scrooge (1970)
G | 113 min | Drama, Family, Fantasy
A musical retelling of Charles Dickens' classic novel about an old bitter miser taken on a journey of self-redemption, courtesy of several mysterious Christmas apparitions.
Director: Ronald Neame | Stars: Albert Finney, Alec Guinness, Edith Evans, Kenneth More
Votes: 12,587 | Gross: $3.70M
18. Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970)
G | 144 min | Action, Drama, History
The story of the 1941 Japanese air raid on Pearl Harbor, and the series of preceding American blunders that aggravated its effectiveness.
Directors: Richard Fleischer, Kinji Fukasaku, Toshio Masuda, Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Martin Balsam, Sô Yamamura, Jason Robards, Joseph Cotten
Votes: 37,217 | Gross: $29.55M
19. Cromwell (1970)
G | 139 min | Biography, Drama, History
Puritan statesman Oliver Cromwell leads England in a civil war against the absolutist and Catholic-sympathetic King Charles I.
Director: Ken Hughes | Stars: Richard Harris, Alec Guinness, Robert Morley, Dorothy Tutin
Votes: 6,961 | Gross: $1.37M
20. Diary of a Mad Housewife (1970)
R | 95 min | Comedy, Drama
A housewife with an abusive husband has an affair with a writer.
Director: Frank Perry | Stars: Richard Benjamin, Frank Langella, Carrie Snodgress, Lorraine Cullen
Votes: 2,160 | Gross: $2.78M
21. Promise at Dawn (1970)
GP | 99 min | Biography, Drama
A Soviet silent-film actress (Melina Mercouri) raises her illegitimate son, who becomes the writer Romain Gary (Assaf Dayan).
Director: Jules Dassin | Stars: Melina Mercouri, Assi Dayan, Didier Haudepin, François Raffoul
Votes: 210 | Gross: $0.43M
22. Puzzle of a Downfall Child (1970)
R | 105 min | Drama
Lou Andreas Sand, a once famous model, recalls her past as she tries to make success in the modeling world of New York, her stressful workdays, her affair with Mark, an advertising ... See full summary »
Director: Jerry Schatzberg | Stars: Faye Dunaway, Barry Primus, Viveca Lindfors, Barry Morse
Votes: 922
23. The Out of Towners (1970)
G | 101 min | Comedy
An Ohio sales executive accepts a higher position within the company and travels to New York City with his wife for his job interview but things go wrong from the start.
Director: Arthur Hiller | Stars: Jack Lemmon, Sandy Dennis, Sandy Baron, Anne Meara
Votes: 9,255 | Gross: $4.34M
24. The Owl and the Pussycat (1970)
R | 95 min | Comedy, Romance
A stuffy author enters into an explosive relationship with his neighbor, a foul-mouthed, freewheeling prostitute.
Director: Herbert Ross | Stars: Barbra Streisand, George Segal, Robert Klein, Allen Garfield
Votes: 4,404 | Gross: $23.68M
25. Something for Everyone (1970)
R | 112 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
In post-war Austria, young, handsome country lad Konrad Ludwig (Michael York) charms his way into a butler position at the castle of the widowed (and destitute) Countess von Ornstein (... See full summary »
Director: Harold Prince | Stars: Angela Lansbury, Michael York, Anthony Higgins, Heidelinde Weis
Votes: 1,081 | Gross: $0.30M
26. The Hawaiians (1970)
R | 134 min | Adventure, Drama
Captain Whip returns to Hawaii. He's inherited "worthless" land. He starts a plantation, staffed with a Chinese couple from his ship. Drilling thru lava for water and stealing/smuggling pineapple from French Guyana, things look brighter.
Director: Tom Gries | Stars: Charlton Heston, Tina Chen, Geraldine Chaplin, Mako
Votes: 1,436 | Gross: $0.28M
27. Husbands (1970)
PG-13 | 154 min | Comedy, Drama
After the death of a common friend, three married men leave their lives together, seeking pleasure and freedom and ultimately leaving for London.
Director: John Cassavetes | Stars: Ben Gazzara, Peter Falk, John Cassavetes, Jenny Runacre
Votes: 7,352 | Gross: $0.78M
28. The Boys in the Band (1970)
R | 118 min | Drama
Tempers fray and true selves are revealed when a heterosexual accidentally intrudes on a homosexual party.
Director: William Friedkin | Stars: Kenneth Nelson, Peter White, Leonard Frey, Frederick Combs
Votes: 5,894 | Gross: $7.63M
29. Kes (1969)
PG-13 | 111 min | Drama, Family
A working-class English boy spends his free time caring for and training his pet kestrel.
Director: Ken Loach | Stars: David Bradley, Brian Glover, Freddie Fletcher, Lynne Perrie
Votes: 22,943
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