Paramount Pictures / Paramount Pictures
Luckily for us , the movies of 1974 are not only groovy , but often mirror the same thought , paranoias , and experience that we see in our present - day life . While overstated to a point and dead position within their time , here are a few films ranging from true classics to underrated gems that are celebrating the enceinte 5 - 0 and are just as successful through a modern lens system .
Chinatown (1974)
You have probably been tell apart by a lot of citizenry to watchChinatown . Well , there ’s a unspoilt reason for that . The neo - noir classic is a highlight of seventies movie house and that ’s due largely toJack Nicholson ’s Oscar - appoint performanceas cop - turn - secret eye J.J. “ Jake ” Gittes . What start as unproblematic surveillance of an apparent chisel husband turns into a web of prevarication surrounding the urine supply of Los Angeles in 1937 . When Jake finds out the original job was a artifice via a proxy married woman , the real , now widowed Evelyn Mulwray ( Faye Dunaway ) want him to investigate the last of her husband .
Nicholson is effortlessly coolheaded as he researches the engineer ’s execution , which takes him to bureaucratic office , local farm , and retirement home , with each add a new breadcrumb to the track . The motion-picture show is perfectly paced , buildinf up the tenseness ( just what is Evelyn concealment , anyway ? ) while also allowing for each hint to not be turn a loss on the looker .
While not the only political conspiracy thriller from this year , Chinatownfeels the most actual as it ditches umbrageous organizations for daily criminal activities like graft and victimization . While it lacks the croaky wallop of true - offence pic like 1967’sIn Cold Bloodand , much later , David Fincher’sZodiac , it still pack a impact , especially that now - iconic ending , and remains the benchmark that other forward-looking plastic film noirs are evaluate by today .
Paramount Pictures / Paramount Pictures
StreamChinatownonAmazon Primenow .
The Parallax View (1974)
Alan J. Pakula’sThe Parallax Viewtakes political conspiracy theory to their soap with a fictional tale of how vestige potbelly are the hole-and-corner creature masters behind America ’s foundation of major power and influence . The film follow reporter Joseph Frady ( Warren Beatty ) as he investigates how many of the same people he was with at the clip of a senator ’s character assassination are mysteriously die . As he pursues the the true behind the deaths , he slowly ravel a plot that go far deeply than he could imagine , putting himself and others at peril in the process .
The movie draws aspiration from the confederacy theories that arose after the assassination of John F. Kennedy , Martin Luther King , and Robert Kennedy and asks , “ What if those conspiracies were true ? ” Pakula uses the movie as an almost surreal journey into what believers think is pass behind the conniption and what would pass to them if the menacing powers that be targeted them . He apply wild speculation to fuel his story and positions Joseph as an ersatz Alice plunging further and further into a wonderland of paranoia .
Even though it came out a half - one C ago , the film remains just as relevant today as it was in its post - Nixon era . At the time , conversation about conspiracies was almost taboo , but now it is impossible to escape the onset of “ they do n’t need you to know ” viewpoints . The Parallax Viewis an riveting political thriller with a twisty narration that will keep you guessing until the very remnant .
RentThe Parallax ViewonVODnow .
California Split (1974)
A brother comedy with a gambling backdrop , Robert Altman’sCalifornia Splitis all about the delectation we get by doing the thing we love with our best buds . Bill ( George Segal ) and Charlie ( Elliot Gould ) first see at a stove poker table , and their shared use for the thrill of gambling takes them on a journey looking for the next big account . Jumping from buck racing to boxing , then back to the casino , there is not a game of chance that the pair does n’t look for to feel the bang of make the kitty .
California Splitworks primarily because of its classic odd couple pairing : Bill is the one focused on his job and who uses play as an wall socket while Charlie has the felicitous - go - favorable , nothing - can - go - wrong attitude that is just as smug as it is endearing . Both bounce off each other effortlessly as Charlie floats through life , even when he lose , who Bill is weighed down by pain feel from each defeat . Some of the item may seem dated now , butCalifornia Splitstill reserve up in its portrait of two friends who defend each other in their shared dependence .
StreamCalifornia SplitonAmazon Primenow .
The Conversation (1974)
The Godfather Part IIwill always be Francis Ford Coppola ’s magnum piece of 1974 , but in the same class , he relinquish a more unostentatious and claustrophobic masterpiece , The Conversation . In the moving picture , surveillance expert Harry Caul ( Gene Hackman ) is the good at what he does : listening in on other people ’s personal lives through any agency necessary to get what he call “ a nice fat recording . ” His latest occupation , eavesdrop on an two-timing duo while they walk around a park , seems elementary , but it quickly devolves into something far more sinister .
Even in 1974,The Conversationwas an intense thriller that spins the mundane action of listening to a conversation into a nail - bitter descent into the lyssa of morals as Harry is force to prefer between doing what he ’s been hired to do versus what is right . The movie provides a fascinating early aspect at the invasion of privateness that we often feel now not only from the tracking of thing like cookies on the cyberspace , but the oversaturation of sharing on societal medium platforms like Twitter / ex andInstagram . And the ending remains one of the most devastating to ever be catch on film .
rip or purchaseThe ConversationonVOD .
