1974 was quite a year for movies. Several of the most famous films of all time were released; pictures that remain widely viewed even to this day, a full half a century later.
It was also a transitional year for film; it was the time when the young directors of the so-called “New Hollywood” movement began to suffer their first flops, and another crop of more commercially-minded filmmakers began to find their first footing at the studios. Within a year, Steven Spielberg would release Jaws. American films would never be the same again.
Looking at the box-office chart for 1974, theaters were dominated by disaster movies, a genre that remains hugely popular to this day (especially on streaming), and by spoofs, which are sadly in desperate need of a revival. (When we do get a spoof these days, it is almost always terrible.) The Oscars were more into honoring gangster and detective films, of which 1974 had several iconic masterpieces — including one that modern audiences still consider one of the greatest sequels in the entire history of cinema.
But in between those well-known hits there were all sorts of other lesser-known movies too; musicals and romances and science-fiction oddities and women-in-prison-pictures and drive-in fare and blaxploitation favorites. All these movies deserve recognition, so here are 50 of the most notable films released 50 years ago, in 1974…
50 Movies Turning 50 in 2024
1974 was a great year for movies — 50 years ago.
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70s Movies That Could Never Be Made Today
These movies include some of the biggest of the decade — a few even won Academy Awards. But all of them would have trouble getting made today.