E.C. Henry at 2009-05-31 17:55:20:

1) "Jesus of Nazareth" (1977)
2) "Beneath the Planet of the Apes
(1970)
3) "King Kong"
4) "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"
5) "Halloween"
6) "Jaws"
7) "The Posidon Adventure"
8) "Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger" (1977: went to the drive in and saw with my parents -- very cool)
9) "The Giant Spider Invasion"
(1975)
10) "Kingdom of the Spiders" (1977)

- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA

Jeff at 2009-05-31 22:03:30:

Best film of the decade, for me, will always be Apocalypse Now.

Wow, E.C., I love the emphasis on raging arachnids at the tail end of your list!

"The Giant Spider Invasion" was shot in Wisconsin, my neck of the woods. The spiders themselves were Volkswagons with eight legs attached. If you look close, you can see a trail of exhaust coming from the spiders' butts... love it!

Ryan Covert at 2009-05-31 22:04:52:

HOW could both of you miss Star Wars?

Also -- SUSPIRIA, but that's not really an "American" movie... Oh, yeah -- The Exorcist. French Connection. Apocalypse Now all the way.

A Clockwork Orange... while we're at it lets slide 2001: ASO in there... sure it was '68 -- but it was ushering in that decade of under the (chemical) influence.

Dog day Afternoon
Serpico
Network
Jeremiah Johnson
Three days of the Condor
Rosemary's Baby
Chinatown
Mean Streets
Taxi Driver
Dirty Harry
Midnight Express
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Straw Dogs
Superman
Tommy
Woodstock
The Parallax View
All the Presidents Men
The Sting
The Towering Inferno
Alien

Man, praise up to the 1970's studio system... No watered down PG-13... Not simply chasing established BRANDS... Not looking to "reboot" everything... And most importantly, audacious filmmakers were allowed to SAY something rather than simply skew all choices based upon market research.

Many of these films on the list could NEVER be made today...

I understand film has and will always be a business... And I'm all for movies creating good business... but that damn corporate greed rears its ugly side when today's films are NO MORE THAN popcorn pushers.

We had to create the "indie" scene in the 90's in order to receive the films in the vein of the 70's style. And now with the independent market nearly drying up... It is hard for anything other than the 150 million dollar tent pole to poke through.

I'm not hating on our market place. Adapt or be left behind. But what I am doing is praising the 70's for that raw art, unencumbered by today's PC and focus group driven marketplace.

E.C. Henry at 2009-06-01 05:36:00:

Paul, "Jesus of Narareth" is definately a sentimental favorite. It's where (I think) I got my artistic skill. Lemme explain...

When I was young I went through a phase where I played with clay. Molded tons of action figures BEFORE the Star Wars merchandising machine took over America.
While watching "Jesus of Nazarath" I molded a cross, and had a religious experience; I was molding a cross and Jesus was getting nailed to a cross... Something inside clicked. Now I grew up Catholic, but God was pretty external to me untill about age 22...
Anyway, it was durring that watching and molding session that (I believe) God imparted gifts to me: the abitly to craft stories; which later through the years manifisted itself in several different ways...

Ryan, good call with "Alien." Forgot about that one. Defiantely a top 10 of the 70s for me.
To answer the "Star Wars" question. Yeah, "Star Wars" had a big effect on me growing up; I had TONS Star Wars action figures that I played and created MY OWN stories with. But that show was SO POPULAR that it never felt like it was mine. Something I could wrap my arms arround, if that makes an sense? "Star Wars" was so big, so public, so EVERYWHERE, it felt more like community property.

- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA

Lisa at 2009-06-01 11:45:28:

Here are many of my favorite movies from the 70's. I listed Star Wars because the effect it had on me was so great, that I really thought I would be a jedi by now.

They are in no particular order:
Annie Hall
Manhattan
Saturday Night Fever
Jaws
Star Wars
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Superman
Kramer vs. Kramer
A Clockwork Orange
Rocky
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Blazing Saddles
"10"
The Goodbye Girl
The Way We Were
All That Jazz
Animal House
Being There
Carrie

What a great decade for films...