"Gritty" 70's films. I'm totally addicted!

Looking For Mr. Goodbar

 

The Conversation (1974) - IMDb

The Conversation is a must for Hackman fans

 

“God Told Me To”. It’ll take you back to NYC in the 70s and also to outerspace

 

Another vote for the original and still the best.

 

Also, another vote for a gritty film already mentioned.

 

This movie is uh-maze-ing!

I love this thread. Many of these great films mentioned used to be on Netflix in really nice restorations. "Marathon Man", "Serpico", "The Taking of Pelham One Two Three", "Panic in Needle Park", "The Conversation", "Across 110th Street", etc. Some might still be on, but unfortunately I think many of been taken off. So many great films of this genre and era.

dan c

 

Geez!!! That's a harrowing list!! Has anyone mentioned Panic in Needle Park yet? Eddie Coyle... Trick Baby...I can FEEL the rot of the great northeast in these films. I can smell the hot pretzels 'n chestnuts, neidichs, sabretts and Nathan's Dawgs, the Brew and Burger, when Manhattan had REAL photo shops in midtown, hopping on to the red stool at chock full of nuts(the donuts!), Macy's parade with the 77 Yankees. Yep this time of year the memories of the decay years are strong!!

There's a performance near the end of Trick Baby that truly creeps me out and that's SAYING something in this list!! What I wouldn't give to go back for one day with a few this and bucks to a record/audio store back then. LPs for $3.99 at Jimmy's Music World, TSS, Korvettes, Gimbel's... those were the days!

 

Worth noting "Marathon Man" was directed by John Schlesinger, who directed pretty much my favorite movie ever "Midnight Cowboy". Can't recommend "Marathon Man" enough.

dan c

 

Here's another one I forgot: Report To The Commissioner

 

Edit: oops, already mentioned

 

The Landlord (1970)
Women In Revolt (1971)
Klute (1970)
An Unmarried Woman (1978)
The Warriors (1979)

 

Check out 'Friends of Eddie Coyle' and I'd reiterate my enthusiam for a few others already mentioned: "Taking of Pelham 123" (you can smell the subway), "The Laughing Policeman", "Point Blank" and Paul Wendkos' "Special Delivery" (clever plot).

 

"Freebie and the Bean" probably inhabits a slightly different dimension, but its similar. One of those films that makes you wonder how it ever got made. It certainly could never get made today. While the car chase in Bullit seemed designed to avoid hitting cars, "FATB" chases gleefully slam half the cars in San Francisco.

 

For a sports movie, "Rocky" is pretty darn gritty.

 

Panic in Needle Park is on TCM tonight!

 

It may not be as zany as Freebie and the Bean, but Walter Hill penned Hickey & Boggs sure is gritty enough even though it's rated PG.

 

Just by Gould's mustache and the voice of trailer's narrator, you know you'll want to see Busting.

 

man, that thing died a quick death. Whoever thought that taking the witty pair from I Spy and putting them in a drama with no humor would be huge?
I saw it years later, and it is good, but witty it ain't. The ending has a feel of cheapness, to me.

 

I think the film was made to have an anticlimactic vibe equal to what The Monkees' movie Head did compared to their TV series. I think Hickey & Boggs are two washed-out guys who are going through the motions but in reality they've simply given up. It may not make for a great movie ending, but I think it takes guts to try such an approach.

 

70s movie... check. NYC... check. Gritty... check.

 

true, Gutty. The kind of movie that coul never be made today. "Clooney and Pitt in a deep drama, no laughs............[sound of script hitting trash can]"

 

SHAFT!

 

I've got two more "gritty" movies for you, from the 1980s, I didn't check but I don't think they have been mentioned:

Salvador (good work by Oliver Stone)
Under Fire (Joanna Cassidy, Nick Nolte, and Gene Hackman)

Both are terrific, "gritty" dramas . . . wrong decades, but the ultimate "gritty" movie is True Grit (pick your poison -- either 1969 or 2010 remake).

 

Yes!!

 

Atlantic City. Came out in 1980 but has that 70s vibe you are looking for.