Movie of the 70's

11-07-2008 12:11

The forties and fifities may have been a time of cinema icons and classic cinema and the sixties a time of cult pictures and musicals but the seventies brought a new kind of cinema experience... the blockbuster.

Despite the collapse of the studio system and the beginning of the decade opening with a financial slump cinema soon picked up as a stream of quality movies flooded onto the bog screen.

Some of the most financially successful movies of the decade were war movies such as Patton, about World War II, and M*A*S*H, about the Korean War. However the most successful movie in this genre came in 1979 in form of Francis Ford Coppola's Vietnam drama Apocalypse Now.

It was 1975 when Jaws was released the big budget movie was born, it cost $9 million to make and went on to gross $260 million in America alone.

The massive success of the film spawned a sequel which also did well at the box office. But all this paled in comparison when the science fiction franchise Star Wars hit cinemas in 1977.

Helmed by George Lucas the film used breakthrough special effects and, like Jaws before it, enjoyed massive success upon release and was recognised by the Academy.

While the blockbuster was making a name of itself at the box office the gritty crime drama was also doing well with audiences as movies like A Clockwork Orange, Taxi Driver and The French Connection were all released either creating a storm of controversy or winning over the critics ensuring their success, the latter won Best Picture at the 1972 Oscars.