Tarantino loves '70s movies. He has often praised that decade as being an era of creativity and rule-breaking in the film business. On his 2012 list of his favorite movies of all time for Sight and Sound, a full seven of his choices were from the 1970s. At the 2016 Lumière Festival, Tarantino presented a 15-film retrospective dedicated to movies just from 1970. He will explore these ideas in greater depth in his upcoming book Cinema Speculation, set to be released this November, which will examine several key films of the 1970s.

RELATED: 10 More Underrated Movies Recommended by Quentin TarantinoIndeed, Tarantino has recommended dozens of '70s movies over the years, so there are plenty of interesting selections for his fans to dive into. His picks range from exploitation movies to thoughtful dramas, sci-fi satires to epic revenge sagas. Fans of the idiosyncratic director are to find a few classics they haven't seen or hidden gems they haven't heard of.

'Five Easy Pieces' (1970)

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Jack Nicholson stars in this drama about Bobby, a child piano prodigy who grows into a directionless man finding work on an oil rig. When Bobby learns that his father is dying, he sets out on a road trip to visit him. He brings his girlfriend (Karen Black) along for the journey.

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Nicholson gives a great performance, as usual. He succeeds in conveying the vulnerable boy Bobby still is, now trapped in his adult life. He makes for a fascinating character; one ground down by life, but possibly still with some spark in him. This shows through in one of the movie's best scenes, where Bobby spontaneously starts playing a piano on the back of a truck in a traffic jam. For a moment, the years melt away, and the boy is free again.

'Sisters' (1972)

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Tarantino is a massive fan of Brian De Palma, the director behind violent classics like Blow Out, Carrie, and Scarface. One of his lesser-known movies is this psychological thriller inspired by the films of Alfred Hitchcock. It follows model Danielle (Margot Kidder) after her separated conjoined twin becomes a suspect in a murder investigation.

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Despite its paltry budget, Sisters has madcap energy and bursts with interesting ideas, not least the split-screen editing De Palma uses to great effect to show multiple characters' viewpoints. It's easy to why Tarantino liked it. In fact, one of the characters in the film looks suspiciously similar to the knife-wielding Manson killers in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood...

'Lady Snowblood' (1973)

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Based on a manga, Lady Snowblood follows a young woman named Yuki (Meiko Kaji), an assassin who kills her enemies with a sword she hides inside an umbrella. She sets out to take revenge on the people who raped her mother and murdered her father and brother.

Lady Snowblood has aged remarkably well despite being almost fifty years old. The action scenes still pack a punch and Kaji's performance more than holds up. Lady Snowblood was a major inspiration behind Kill Bill and the two films share a lot in common, including similar locations, some of the same music, and a non-chronological plot.

'Dark Star' (1974)

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Dark Star is the debut film from horror icon John Carpenter, based on a script he co-wrote with Dan O'Bannon. It's a sci-fi comedy following the crew of a spaceship on a multi-decade mission to destroy unstable planets. It's particularly interesting as a satirical sci-fi made in the era before Star Wars dominated the genre.

On an episode of his Video Archives podcast with Roger Avary, Tarantino called Dark Star a "masterpiece." It might not live up to Carpenter's best work, but it's an entertaining space opera parody that breezes by at just 83 minutes long. It's notable for its interesting, low-budget practical effects, including a hilarious battle with an alien that looks like a beach ball.

'Switchblade Sisters' (1975)

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"Everybody's gotta be in a gang." Tarantino has expressed his affection for the work of director Jack Hill, the filmmaker behind exploitation classics like Coffy and Foxy Brown starring Pam Grier. One of Tarantino's favorites is Switchblade Sisters which revolves around an all-female gang. A new girl moves into the neighborhood and upsets the group's dynamics, with violent consequences.

QT liked the film so much that he re-released it under his Rolling Thunder Pictures label in 1996, with bonus content including commentary by him and Hill. Fans of Switchblade Sisters should also check out Hill's film The Swinging Cheerleaders.

'Executioners from Shaolin' (1977)

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Executioners from Shaolin is a Shaw Brothers kung fu film directed by Lau Kar-leung, perhaps best known for The Legend of Drunken Master starring Jackie Chan. It follows a boy raised by two martial artists: his father, who knows tiger style, and his mother, who is adept at crane style. After the boy's father dies, he learns crane style from his mother and studies tiger style from his dad's old books.

While not particularly groundbreaking, Executioners from Shaolin serves up plenty of fantastical martial arts fun. The highlight is the villainous kung fu master Pai Mei, played excellently by Lieh Lo. Pai Mei is one of the Five Elders of Shaolin in Chinese folklore and appears in several Shaw Brothers movies. He also notably mentors The Bride (Uma Thurman) in Tarantino's own Kill Bill Vol 2.

'Rolling Thunder' (1977)

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After being assaulted in a brutal home invasion, a Vietnam vet sets out for revenge against his attackers. It delivers classic '70s action and a no-bolds-barred tale of vengeance. Tarantino went so far as to call it "ass-kicking nirvana". The film is worth it for the gritty lead performance from William Devane and the smart, tough script co-written by First Reformed director Paul Schrader.

Schrader has described Rolling Thunder as a kind of companion piece to Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver, which Schrader also wrote. Both films follow outcasts attempting to find solace through violence. However, Rolling Thunder easily surpasses Taxi Driver in terms of sheer mayhem.

'Smokey and the Bandit' (1977)

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Smokey and the Bandit is a road movie about two criminals, Bandit (Burt Reynolds) and Snowman (Jerry Reed), attempting to smuggle 400 cases of beer from Texas to Georgia. Snowman drives a truck carrying the liquid cargo, while Bandit serves to distract law enforcement in his Pontiac Trans Am. Things get complicated when runaway bride Carrie (Sally Field) jumps into Bandit's car with the local sheriff in pursuit.

Smokey and the Bandit remains an entertaining flick packed with jokes and car chases. Notably, it was the directorial debut of stuntman Hal Needham, who would go on to collaborate with Reynolds on several more films. The friendship between Needham and Reynolds served as some inspiration behind the characters of Rick Dalton and Cliff Booth in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

'Suspiria' (1977)

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Suspiria is one of the classic films by giallo master Dario Argento. It follows Suzy (Jessica Harper), a young ballerina who begins studying at an elite dance academy, but a series of murders turn the school upside down. Suzy begins investigating, and eventually stumbles across a conspiracy involving black magic.

One of Argento's most visually stylish and vivid films, Suspiria acquired cult status over the decades and influenced several filmmakers, including Luca Guadagnino who remade it in 2018. Guadagnino's version is very different, and ditches the bright colors for a muted, wintry aesthetic, but is still well-crafted and worth watching.

'Sorcerer' (1977)

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Sorcerer is a gritty thriller from The Exorcist director William Friedkin. It follows four people in Colombia who are assigned the task of transporting large cargoes of unstable dynamite by truck. The dynamite is leaking nitroglycerin and threatens to explode at the slightest provocation.

Sorcerer was a box office flop, grossing just $6 million against a roughly $20 million budget, and drew negative reviews. However, in the decades since, it has come to be regarded by many fans and critics as one of Friedkin's best movies. Tarantino described the film's climactic bridge scene as "one of the great suspense moments in cinema".

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