10. COUSIN, COUSINE
35 LISTS | 0 TOP SPOTS Jean-Charles Tacchella | 95 mins | Comedy/Romance Marie-Christine Barrault | Victor Lanoux | Marie-France Pisier | Guy Marchan
“We surrendered, you surrendered, all surrendered, sort of, to Jean-Charles Tachella’s extremely unrealistic but nevertheless charming slice of souffle suggesting what romance would be like between the best of all possible mates. No hangups, no frustrations, no inhibitions, no guilt, just total and instant gratification, sans souci, all the time. Marie-Christine Barrault and Victor Lanoux are the distant cousins, each stuck with boorish and adulterous spouses, who fall in love with each other and proceed to beguile us for a couple of hours with the notion of innocent eroticism as a viable lifestyle. This fairytale vision makes even such mundane stuff as munching pastries and swatting flies at the beach look loverly.” – Randy Sue Coburn and Donia Mills, Washington Evening Star
9. FACE TO FACE
34 LISTS | 1 TOP SPOT Ingmar Bergman | 114 mins | Drama/Fantasy Liv Ullmann | Erland Josephson | Aino Taube | Gunnar Björnstrand
“Mass audiences, which do not attend his movies, have to accept critics’ word for it that Swedish writer-director Ingmar Bergman has no peer when it comes to making movies about people, as opposed to filming events.
Liv Ullman gave a virtuoso performance as perhaps the most complete, if imperfect, woman ever seen in the screen. It is easy to see why actresses want to work for Berman. He writes of the inner problems people face, especially those of women, as well as any contemporary writer, prose or pictures.
It also is understandable that Bergman films are not well attended by people who prefer action as entertainment. People are complex, not easy to appreciate or understand, especially when they impose their problems on audiences that may share the problems and may have gone to the movies to forget them.” – James Meade, San Diego Union
8. THE SHOOTIST
35 LISTS | 0 TOP SPOTS Don Siegel | 100 mins | Drama/Romance/Western John Wayne | Lauren Bacall | Ron Howard | James Stewart
“John Wayne played a dying legend and did his best acting since “True Grit.” Dan Siegel directed.” – Perry Stewart, Fort Worth Star Telegram
7. THE BAD NEWS BEARS
40 LISTS | 0 TOP SPOTS Michael Ritchie | 102 mins | Comedy/Drama/Family Walter Matthau | Tatum O'Neal | Vic Morrow | Joyce Van Patten
“Bad News Bears is a movie about kids, baseball and honesty. Walter Matthau and Tatum O’Neal costar in this fresh and satisfying tale of Little Leaguers and the pressures of competition. Acting, story and direction are all top drawer.” – Frances Taylor, Newhouse News Services
6. SEVEN BEAUTIES
44 LISTS | 2 TOP SPOTS Lina Wertmüller | 116 mins | Comedy/Drama/War Giancarlo Giannini | Fernando Rey | Shirley Stoler | Elena Fiore
“Linda Wertmuller’s fascinating study of the temporary taming of an Italian stud, with sly and far-reaching vibrations. So much happens in every frame of this film, and it starts off so promisingly, that it seems to dwindle in interest as it progresses. But it’s a landmark film that will be studied in cinema classes of the future.” – Philip Wuntch, Dallas Morning News
5. SMALL CHANGE
46 LISTS | 1 TOP SPOT François Truffaut | 104 mins | Comedy/Drama Georges Desmouceaux | Philippe Goldmann | Nicole Félix | Chantal Mercier
“Truffaut swung to the other end of his spectrum to give us this mischievous, vital and generously wise panorama of the world of children. He reigns as one of the greatest of all movie directors – and no one ever has equaled him as a deft, delightful storyteller.
I can’t recall a more wondrous movie opening than that sight of hundreds of children barreling down staircases toward the camera. Or a more gloriously misbehaving pair that the Deluca brothers, administering awful haircuts, trying to pawn their own schoolbooks, reciting dirty jokes with guilty self-delight.
The most shocking image in “Small Change” summarized it: a 2-year -old plummeting from an apartment building window, and crawling away unharmed. Truffaut’s children – like all children – will survive anything, if they are loved.” – Christine Nieland, Chicago Daily News
4. ROCKY
57 LISTS | 3 TOP SPOTS John G. Avildsen | 120 mins | Drama/Sport Sylvester Stallone | Talia Shire | Burt Young | Carl Weathers
“Rocky, a modern fable about a small-time boxer who gets the chance to fight the world’s heavyweight champion, is a tough, tender, funny, if somewhat improbable, film starring Sylvester Stallone, who also wrote the screenplay. His marvelously compelling portrayal of Rocky marks him as a hot new screen talent. John G. Avildsen’s direction compensates for the script’s fallings with a gripping aura of realism. And Talia Shire is exceptionally good as a sensitive spinster whose love helps Rocky through the big fight.” – Stanley Eichelbaum, San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle
3. NETWORK
61 LISTS | 8 TOP SPOTS Sidney Lumet | 121 mins | Drama Faye Dunaway | William Holden | Peter Finch | Robert Duvall
“”There are no nations” Paddy Chayefsky tells us in “Network,” “there is no east, no west. There is only money: dollars, rubles, pounds, shekels.” We all suspect as much, but it’s good to hear it said on the big screen. For all its bombast, pretentions and occasional pomposity, “Network” is not really exaggerated. The creatures who roam television’s vast wasteland, who plot and scheme in its glass and steel caves, are undoubtedly just as venal and vicious as “Network” makes them out to be.” – David Rosenbaum, Boston Herald
2. TAXI DRIVER
67 LISTS | 7 TOP SPOTS Martin Scorsese | 114 mins | Crime/Drama Robert De Niro | Jodie Foster | Cybill Shepherd | Albert Brooks
“Hypnotic film until it ends in one of the most violenty repulsive sequences of the American screen. Robert De Niro – surely this year’s Oscar winner – is superb as the cabbie isolated by madness from the world around him. Young Jodie Foster, playing a child prostitute, equally impressive in her way. Tension and terror build as fine line between reality and nightmare is erased. Night scenes have a bizarre, Fellini-like quality transforming New York into a garishly painted character in her own right. – Bill Morrison, The News Observer
1. ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN
94 LISTS | 24 TOP SPOTS Alan J. Pakula | 138 mins | Biography/Drama/History Dustin Hoffman | Robert Redford | Jack Warden | Martin Balsam
“The best seller found its own shape and nuances for film – the light of the Washington Post newsroom vs. the darkness of Nixon’s conspiratorial Washington. Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman as Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein are Everyman in the dark forest trying to find their way out of the sinister maze and restore order to the kingdom. It was not the ultimate newspaper story, as was predicted, but a low key detective thriller that refused to let the good guys become superheroes.” – Christopher Stoehr, Milwaukee Sentinel
Full List:
| R | Film | L | #1 | AR | L% | #1% | TCL | TCL1 | TCL% | TCL1% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | All the President's Men | 94 | 24 | 3.02 | 82% | 34% | 32 | 7 | 91% | 30% |
| 2 | Taxi Driver | 67 | 7 | 3.66 | 59% | 10% | 18 | 3 | 51% | 13% |
| 3 | Network | 61 | 8 | 3.21 | 51% | 11% | 22 | 4 | 63% | 17% |
| 4 | Rocky | 57 | 3 | 4.48 | 46% | 4% | 18 | 2 | 51% | 9% |
| 5 | Small Change | 46 | 1 | 5.61 | 39% | 1% | 16 | 1 | 46% | 4% |
| 6 | Seven Beauties | 44 | 2 | 4.86 | 38% | 3% | 18 | 0 | 51% | 0% |
| 7 | The Bad News Bears | 40 | 0 | 6.45 | 35% | 0% | 9 | 0 | 26% | 0% |
| 8 | The Shootist | 35 | 0 | 6.16 | 31% | 0% | 12 | 0 | 34% | 0% |
| 9 | Face to Face | 34 | 1 | 6.25 | 30% | 1% | 12 | 0 | 34% | 0% |
| 10 | Cousin, Cousine | 35 | 0 | 6.29 | 29% | 0% | 13 | 0 | 37% | 0% |
| 11 | The Seven-Per-Cent Solution | 32 | 0 | 6.19 | 28% | 0% | 12 | 0 | 34% | 0% |
| 12 | Silent Movie | 30 | 0 | 5.80 | 26% | 0% | 6 | 0 | 17% | 0% |
| 13 | Marathon Man | 29 | 0 | 6.60 | 25% | 0% | 10 | 0 | 29% | 0% |
| 14 | Robin and Marian | 25 | 1 | 6.21 | 22% | 1% | 9 | 0 | 26% | 0% |
| 15 | The Front | 24 | 0 | 6.11 | 21% | 0% | 4 | 0 | 11% | 0% |
| 16 | The Omen | 21 | 0 | 5.36 | 18% | 0% | 3 | 0 | 9% | 0% |
| 17 | Family Plot | 20 | 1 | 5.91 | 18% | 1% | 4 | 1 | 11% | 4% |
| 18 | Carrie | 20 | 0 | 5.82 | 17% | 0% | 7 | 0 | 20% | 0% |
| 19 | Bound for Glory | 21 | 0 | 5.20 | 17% | 0% | 6 | 0 | 17% | 0% |
| 20 | Next Stop, Greenwich Village | 18 | 0 | 7.13 | 16% | 0% | 4 | 0 | 11% | 0% |
| 20 | Obsession | 18 | 0 | 5.54 | 16% | 0% | 5 | 0 | 14% | 0% |
| 22 | The Memory of Justice | 18 | 0 | 4.22 | 15% | 0% | 8 | 0 | 23% | 0% |
| 23 | King Kong (1976) | 17 | 0 | 5.00 | 15% | 0% | 3 | 0 | 9% | 0% |
| 24 | The Marquise of O... | 17 | 1 | 4.60 | 15% | 1% | 6 | 0 | 17% | 0% |
| 25 | Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson | 14 | 0 | 7.00 | 12% | 0% | 6 | 0 | 17% | 0% |
| 26 | The Clockmaker | 13 | 2 | 5.56 | 11% | 3% | 5 | 0 | 14% | 0% |
| 27 | The Bingo Long Traveling All Stars and Motor Kings | 10 | 0 | 7.00 | 9% | 0% | 4 | 0 | 11% | 0% |
Lists Included 114 | Top Critics’ Lists Included 35
R Rank
L Total number of lists where the film was selected as one of the top 10 films of the year
AR Average position on ranked top 10 lists
#1 Total number of lists where the film was selected as the best film of the year
L% Percentage of total lists where the film was selected as one of the top 10 films of the year
#1% Percentage of mentions where the film was selected as the best film of the year
TCL Number of times that the film was selected as one of the top 10 films of the year on top critics’ lists
TCL1 Number of times that the film was selected as the best film of the year on top critics’ lists
TCL% Percentage of times that the film was selected as one of the top 10 films of the year on top critics’ lists
TCL1% Percentage of lists where the film was selected as the best film of the year on top critics’ lists
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