The 1970s was the peak of the New Hollywood Movement and introduced audiences to notable films like The Godfather, Chinatown and John Carpenter's cult classic, Halloween. Filmmakers such as Steven Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola were major players in the New Hollywood Movement who explored new concepts and story ideas that had never been seen on the silver screen.

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While there are dozens of memorable films from the 1970s, the decade's thrillers continue to be popular picks among movie lovers. From Gene Hackman's Oscar-winning performance in The French Connection to the suspense-filled, Jaws, these are 10 of the best 1970s thrillers according to Letterboxd!

10 'The French Connection' (1971)

Gene Hackman standing in front of armed men in The French Connection
Image via 20th Century Fox

New York City detectives, Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle (Hackman) and Buddy "Cloudy" Russo (Roy Scheider) discover a large heroin syndicate operated by a French smuggler. With a large shipment of drugs on its way to the United States, Doyle and Russo try to track down the leaders of the operation which proves to be trickier than they had anticipated.

The French Connection is based on the international drug trafficking scheme that started in the 1930s and peaked in the 1960s. The movie earned eight Academy Award nominations and went on to win five Oscars including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Actor for Hackman's performance.

9 'All the President's Men' (1976)

Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman sitting at a desk in All the President's Men
Image via Warner Bros.

After a botched robbery job at the Watergate apartment complex, Washington Post reporters, Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) and Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) look further into the incident. With the help of a mysterious informant known as Deep Throat (Hal Holbrook), the reporters can connect the robbery to the White House.

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All the President's Men is based on the book by the same name written by Bernstein and Woodward about the 1972 Watergate scandal. Redford and Hoffman prepared for their roles for months by spending time at the Washington Post office and attending news conferences. The movie earned eight Academy Award nominations and went on to win four Oscars including Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor for Jason Robards.

8 'Black Christmas' (1974)

Olivia Hussey standing over a lit Christmas tree in Black Christmas
Image via Warner Bros. 

Winter break has just started and Jess (Olivia Hussey) and her sorority sisters start getting ominous phone calls from an unknown male caller. When one of their sorority sisters goes missing and a local girl is murdered, Jess and her friends start to think there is a serial killer on the loose but are unaware of just how close the killer is to campus.

Black Christmas is a cult classic horror film that was inspired by the urban legend, 'The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs', and a string of murders in Canada from 1969 to 1971. The role of the frequently-inebriated Phyllis Carlson was originally accepted by comedian, Gilda Radner, but her previous commitments to Saturday Night Live caused her to back out.

7 'Mad Max' (1979)

Mel Gibson standing in front of car in Mad Max
Image via Roadshow Film

In a dystopian future, the world is at war with itself and on the verge of societal collapse. Australian Main Police Force officer, Max (Mel Gibson) finds his job easier when he occasionally bends the rules but when his wife and son are murdered, he will break every rule to track down their killers and avenge his family.

Gibson made his film debut in George Miller's edgy Australian action film, Mad Max. Before his filmmaking career, Miller had worked as an ER doctor in Sydney and the inspiration for Mad Max came from his experience of treating dozens of horrendous injuries. The film's noted for its decked-out cars and intense roadway chase scenes. By the end of filming, 14 vehicles had been totaled from crash and chase scenes including Miller's personal blue Mazda Bongo van.

6 'Badlands' (1973)

Martin Sheen standing near Sissy Spacek on a street in Badlands
Image via Warner Bros. 

Holly (Sissy Spacek) is a teenager living in a dead-end town in South Dakota and rarely gets along with her father. When she meets and falls in love with an older and rebellious man, Kit (Martin Sheen), her father disapproves of their relationship. After a disagreement turns into murder, Holly and Kit flee to the Badland of Montana committing a string of crimes along the way.

Badlands was inspired by the true story of Caril-Ann Fugate and serial killer, Charles Starkweather who went on a killing spree through the Midwest in 1957 before being apprehended by authorities a year later. In 1999, Sheen said, out of his extensive film career and years in the industry, the script for Badlands is still the best that he has ever read.

5 'Dog Day Afternoon' (1975)

Al Pacino as Sonny in Dog Day Afternoon
Image via Warner Bros.

Inexperienced criminal, Sonny (Al Pacino) and his accomplice, Sal (John Cazale) decide to rob a bank in Brooklyn but what was supposed to be a simple robbery quickly turns into an intense hostage situation. As Sonny slowly reveals the motivation behind his plan, the tension between him and the authorities starts to rise and comes to terms with the inevitable end he'll soon face.

Dog Day Afternoon is an intense rollercoaster of a drama inspired by the robbery of a Chase bank in Brooklyn in 1972, directed by Sidney Lumet. Lumet is a four-time Oscar-winning director who is best known for 12 Angry Men, Child's Play and The Verdict starring Paul Newman. Dog Day Afternoon also marked the second collaboration between Pacino and Lumet who had first worked together on another crime film, Serpico.

4 'Chinatown' (1974)

Two people driving in a car

An elusive woman, Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway) hires private eye, Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson) to look into her husband's activities. While Jake thinks it's a basic case of infidelity, things become complicated when Mr. Mulwray is found dead, and he soon finds himself tangled up in a web of corruption and greed that leads him to Evelyn's father, Noah Cross (John Huston).

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Chinatown is an iconic neo-noir that features Nicholson in one of his signature roles as the hard-nosed, gumshoe, J.J. "Jake" Gittes. In 1971, Paramount producer Robert Evans asked screenwriter Robert Towne to write an adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, The Great Gatsby. Towne, who felt that he could never live up to Fitzgerald's work, instead asked Evan's if he could write his own original story for a fourth of the salary he had initially offered him.

3 'Carrie' (1976)

Sissy Spacek covered in pig's blood in Carrie
Image via MGM

Carrie White (Spacek) is a shy teenager who is the frequent target of her classmates' taunts and soon discovers that she has telekinesis. At home, faces more abuse from her extremely religious mother (Piper Laurie) and when a popular boy invites her to prom, she thinks things are starting to look up for her, but the night takes a deadly turn when Carrie's pushed to her breaking point.

Carrie is an adaption of Stephen King's first published novel by the same name and is also the first of King's works to be adapted for the big screen. While director, Brian De Palma had other actresses in mind, Spacek was determined to land the title role. She arrived to audition without washing her face, put Vaseline in her hair and wore a sailor dress her mother made her in middle school with the hem trimmed off. She got the part on the spot.

2 'Halloween' (1978)

Jamie Lee Curtis peering over a couch with a butcher knife in Halloween
Image via Sony Pictures

Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) is babysitting on Halloween night when convicted murderer, Michael Myers escapes from a psychiatric facility. Michael returns to Laurie's neighborhood and his childhood home to claim more victims but is soon tracked down by his tending physician, Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasance).

Following in her famous mother's footsteps, Janet Leigh, Curtis who was an unknown actress at the time, made her film debut in the independent slasher film, Halloween. Despite a lack of funds for heavy advertising, the movie still did well at the box office and today is considered to be one of the greatest and most influential horror films of all time.

1 'Jaws' (1975)

Roy Scheider fighting off a shark in Jaws
Image via Universal Pictures

When a woman is killed by a shark in a New England tourist town, police chief Martin Brody (Scheider) closes the beaches, but his action's overruled by the mayor who thinks the closure will negatively impact the town's tourist revenue. With the help of an Ichthyologist (Richard Dryfuss) and a gruff sea captain (Robert Shaw) Brody sets out to hunt the shark down but soon realizes that they're going to need a bigger boat.

Jaws was Spielberg's second film to direct and was the highest-grossing film of all time until the release of Star Wars two years later. The movie's surprising success launched Spielberg's career and earned several Oscar nominations including Best Picture and took home three wins for Best Film Editing, Best Sound and Best Original Musical Score.

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