The Five Best Years of Cinema
What’s in a year? We all can recall the defining moments in history, where we were, what we were doing, etc. But did cinema, the most popular medium, join us in those thoughts and feelings? Was cinema able to represent its times, or was it too far behind? Below is a list of possibly the five greatest years in cinema, not just in terms of money but in aesthetic quality, and a look into the events at the time to ask at that age-old question of whether art reflects life or not.
1939
In 2000 a survey amongst film experts and fans discovered that most felt 1939 was the best year in cinema’s history, the start of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Indeed, Gone With the Wind is not only a household name, but it remains the best selling film of all time, adjusting for inflation of course, making an equivalent of 1.4 billion dollars in the US alone. The Wizard of Oz barely looks its age, as it’s so ingrained in our collective consciousness. Plus, three of the USA’s most enduring and liked actors were becoming huge by this year, with Cary Grant’s Only Angels Have Wings, John Wayne’s Stagecoach, and Jimmy Stewart’s rousing tale of one man inspiring the government, in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. But perhaps the true highlight of the year was Jean Renoir’s La Regle du Jeu, a pointed satire on the insincerity of upper classes, which remains unequalled in its biting satire.
2001
Just to show that I’m not one of those naysayers who say “it’s not like the old days”. The year that changed the Western World and brought the concept of terrorism to the forefront of our minds also happened to be ripe with aesthetic creativity. The Royal Tenenbaums was a poignant comedy with a great ensemble of actors. David Lynch made his masterpiece Mulholland Drive, a story about love, loss and identity crisis, all connected to the dream world of Hollywood and its detrimental attrraction. At a time when hollow celebrity is rampant, the film couldn’t have been more appropriately released.
Spielberg realised Kubrick’s last film, the interesting but flawed AI. Monster’s Inc broke records, and boasts one of the best endings of any animation ever. Jean Pierre Jeunet’s Amelie proved that there is still imagination in French cinema. Alfonso Cuaran kick-started his international career with the success of the bawdy yet socially aware Y Tu Mama Tambien. Ghost World and Donnie Darko proved that there was still potential for the US indie cinema scene (which since hasn’t been realised). But of course, the one film most of us were interested in was the first part of a trilogy of films that people had been long waiting for, and most agree that The Fellowship of the Ring was worth the wait. Oh, and there was some kid called Harry Potter.
1941
1941 was the year the USA decided to get involved in WWII, after the bombing of Pearl Harbour. Casablanca was an allegory for this involvement, but that was to see its release the following year. This year is probably best known for Citizen Kane, a consistent favourite in most cinephiles’ lists. Radio and stage actor/director Orson Welles decided to take on cinema, and through his attention to European film and using the subject matter of the media, he managed to reinvent American cinema, making it more technically expressive and playful with narrative. It’s no wonder the film was a box office bomb at the time, winning only a best screenplay Oscar at the time.
The year also saw the explosion of the film noir genre, with the release of classic examples such as John Huston’s impressively atmospheric debut, The Maltese Falcon, starring Humphrey Bogart, as well as High Sierra, Alfred Hitchcock’s tense Suspicion, Manpower, and The Shanghai Gesture. Social themes cropped up in Frank Capra’s Meet John Doe, and in Preston Sturges’s remarkable and reflecting drama Sullivan’s Travels, in which a naive Hollywood director goes on a journey to make a “real film” about humanity’s suffering, only to discover the true power of his usual slapstick comedies. And for the kids, Dumbo was a box office hit which ensured Disney’s place as one of the most powerful studios in history.
1967
It took the world of cinema a while to catch up with the counterculture that was quickly becoming mainstream. While the Summer of Love had people denouncing the norm, whether it was the Vietnam War, drug intolerance, or sexual repression, 1967 was the first year to see cinema break free from its studio-based, Technicolor shackles. Films like Bonnie and Clyde and Point Blank felt grittier and unwilling to adhere to a typical 3-act structure. Race issues were being tackled in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, and the Oscar-winning In the Heat of the Night.
Outside of the US French cinema produced some its most iconic films, including Le Samurai, Bunuel’s exploration about the trauma of passive female sexuality, Belle de Jour, and Jacques Tati’s fascinating and elaborate silent comedy of modern life’s anxieties, Playtime, in which the director virtually constructed his own city to manipulate.
The biggest surprise was the hit of The Graduate, a modest comedy about a disenfranchised student who gets sexually involved with his parents friends, before getting embroiled with her daughter. It propelled Dustin Hoffman into the spotlight, eschewing the typical male star that was either handsome or a tough guy. Hoffman was short, odd looking, and nervous, making him instantly accessible for us human beings.
1974
If the late 60’s saw a rebellion against the norm by immersing the self in unrestricted pleasure, the 1970’s was the comedown from that. The combined the narrative experimentation of previous years with the big bucks of Hollywood studios, often resulting in films expressing a paranoia towards society, corporations (such as 74’s The Parallax View), and a government that can’t be trusted (prompted by the assassination of JFK and continuing through 74’s Watergate scandal).
Despite the popularity of disaster films, the 70’s saw the rise of America’s auteurs, and 1974 saw the release of Scorsese underrated Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Cassavetes’s upsetting A woman Under the Influence, and Polanski’s classic noir Chinatown. But it was Francis Ford Coppolla who excelled in this year. Not only did he make Oscar-winning classic The Godfather Part 2, which is as good as the original, but in the same year he released The Conversation, the ultimate conspiracy thriller starring Gene Hackman as a man trying to record a potentially life-threatening discussion between two strangers.
Not only that but the box office lit up with Mel Brooks’s Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles, offering alternatives to the doom and gloom, and even the generic thrillers were exemplary, such as the downbeat Bring me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, and the wonderfully enjoyable The Taking of Pelham 123, which is getting a sacrilegious make-over next year, with Denzel Washington playing Walter Matthau’s character.
Europe’s legendary directors were also in peak form, with Fellini’s last great film Amarcord getting released worldwide, Bunuel’s playful The Phantom of Liberty, and Werner Herzog’s story of a man born into nature, The Enigma of Kasper Hauser.
Quite simply, 1974 was a stunning year for cinema, both in and outside of the USA. It was a time when the old greats had their last great moments, while upcoming legends took their first steps up the peak. If I was alive to see these movies on their initial release, I would have been too busy in the theatre to hear about Nixon’s resignation, revolution in Portugal, the destruction of Darwin, and the Birmingham Six.
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A nod of approval must be cast towards for 1966 (Battle of Algiers, Persona, Andrej Rublev, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly), 1962 (Lawrence of Arabia, Yojimbo, The Manchurian Candidate), and 1980 (Raging Bull, The Shining, The Elephant Man).
Any thoughts on what you think cinema’s best year was can be posted below.
By Eoin O’Faolain
1993 Schindlers List, The Piano, Jurassic Park, Philadelphia, The Fugitive
definitely you missed 1999!!!!
i like 99 a ton but i’m surprised no one has said ’95
Casino
The usual suspects
Il postino
12 monkeys
Se7en
Babe
Heat
Dead man walking
Braveheart
Apollo 13
Sense and sensibility
Toy story
but a lot of crimes were committed as well
batman forever
waterworld
etc
Thanks for the comments, Paul Leemick. Eyes Wide Shuts gets better the more you watch. BJM is more than quirk, it deals with issues of celebrity, obsession, people’s innate desire to be byond themselves, all while walking a fine line between poignancy and comedy.
Briggs, I don’t see what the Matrix did for effects besides making bullet-time a cliche. And the effects in Revolutions were awful. Anyway, if its effects were its star quality, then the film is worthless. Your point about Fight Club is fair enough. But as I said, it tapped into something that needed to be addressed, I’m just not sure if it succeeded entirely.
Evan, I actually consider the 50′s and the 80′s to be the worst decades of cinema… the 50′s was very dry beyond the 2-3 good films a year.
I agree with others that 1999 and 1994 both had far longer lists of great films than 2001. I would say 1999 and 1994 each have a half dozen films better than the ones mentioned above for 2001.
Please! 1962 outclasses 2001, the year that is:
Lawrence of Arabia
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Dr. No
The Miracle Worker
To Kill A Mockingbird
The Longest Day
Birdman of Alcatraz
Days of Wine and Roses
The Manchurian Candidate
The Longest Day
Ride the High Country
Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
Lolita
Long Day’s Jouney into Night
Orson Welles’ The Trial
1994:
Ed Wood
The Shawshank Redemption
Pulp Fiction
Quiz Show
Bullets Over Broadway
Trois couleurs: Rouge
Heavenly Creatures
Forrest Gump
The Lion King
Natural Born Killers
Four Weddings and a Funeral
La Reine Margot
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
Wyatt Earp
The Madness of King George
Little Women
Hoop Dreams
Great lists here. I think my faves have all been mentioned, but I’d like to extend some further love for 1976 (for Rocky, Network, Taxi Driver), 1982 (for everything already mentioned above, such as The Road Warrior, Star Trek II, and Blade Runner), 1999 (for Fight Club, American Beauty, Being John Malkovich and especially magnolia), and one big explosion of love for 1968 (for 2001: A Space Odyssey, Rosemary’s Baby, Planet of the Apes, Night of the Living Dead).
Also, I didn’t see 1933 mentioned anywhere. Not sure if I missed it or not, but either way, that is another great one. King Kong, The Invisible Man, Duck Soup. Great stuff!
1974:
Mean Streets
Chinatown
The Last Detail
The Godfather, Part II
The Conversation
Amarcord
Scenes from a Marriage
Day for Night
1993:
Schindler’s List
The Age of Innocence
Naked
The Piano
Short Cuts
Menace II Society
Like Water for Chocolate
King of the Hill
Map of the Human Heart
The Fugitive
The Remains of the Day
A Perfect World
Ruby in Paradise
Farewell My Concubine
1996
Fargo
Lone Star
Big Night
Bound
Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills
Secrets & Lies
Breaking the Waves
Welcome to the Dollhouse
2007 was the besy year for me. There were a couple of truly great films, but really there were at least 20 really good films last year
No Country For Old Men, There will be Blood, Tatatouille, Gone Baby Gone, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The Bourne Ultimatum, Knocked Up, Michael Clayton, Before the Devil Knows Your Dead, Superbad, The Band’s Visit, Persepolis, The King of Kong, Eastern Promises, 3:10 to Yuma, Rescue Dawn, Atonement and many others. Great movie every week.
1999: Magnolia (PT Anderson), All About My Mother (Almodovar), Boys Don’t Cry (Kimberly Peirce), The Insider (Michael Mann), The Dreamlife of Angels (Erick Zonca), Bringing Out the Dead (Scorsese), Summer of Sam (Spike Lee), Eyes Wide Shut (Kubrick’s last film!), The War Zone (Tim Roth), Topsy-Turvy (Mike Leigh)…and that’s not counting the honorable mentions, such as American Beauty (Sam Mendes), Any Given Sunday (Oliver Stone), The Straight Story (David Lynch), Man on the Moon (Milos Forman), American Movie (Chris Smith), etc.!
1997: Boogie Nights (PT Anderson), Jackie Brown (Quentin Tarantino), Hard Eight (PT Anderson), Chasing Amy (Kevin Smith), The Game (David Fincher), LA Confidential (Curtis Hanson), Wag the Dog (Barry Levinson), Deconstructing Harry (Woody Allen), Grosse Pointe Blank (George Armitage), U Turn (Oliver Stone), 4 Little Girls (Spike Lee), Gattaca (Andrew Niccol)…the list goes on and on…
1968 was a great year for movies also … 2001: A Space Odyssey, Planet of the Apes, Night of the Living Dead, The Producers, Charge of the Light Brigade, Once Upon a Time in the West, The Odd Couple, Barbarella, The Lion in Winter, Funny Girl, Death Rides a Horse, Bullitt, Rosemary’s Baby, Ice Station Zebra, Where Eagles Dare, Hang ‘Em High, Green Berets, Destroy All Monsters,
and for the kids Oliver, Heidi, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Love Bug, and Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day
1999 is the year. You know it as well. All of you.
These are the reasons why.
The Beach
The Green Mile
American Beauty
Fight Club
The Sixth Sense
Sleepy Hollow
The Matrix
Lock, Stock and two smoking barrels
American Pie
Shakespeare in Love
And out of all of those marvellous films “The Green Mile” is the greatest film never not to win a Oscar – then, past and now. It was and still is a brilliant film, and will stand the test of time 20 to 30 years from now….
It’s pretty to pick just five…
1927 – Sunrise, Metropolis, Seventh Heaven, The Kid Brother
1940 – The Shop Around the Corner, The Thief of Bagdad, My Favorite Wife, Rebecca
1944 – The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek, Double Indemnity, Meet Me in St. Louis
1948 – The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Easter Parade, Red River, A Foreign Affair, Rope
1957 – The Cranes Are Flying, The Bridge on the River Kwai, A Face in the Crowd, Fear Strikes Out
1958 – Mon Oncle, Touch of Evil, Vertigo
1962 – Lawrence of Arabia, David and Lisa, Birdman of Alcatraz, Cape Fear, That Touch of Mink, All Fall Down, The Manchurian Candidate, The Trial
1986 – Stand by Me, River’s Edge, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Hannah and Her Sisters
1982 !!! Hello…
TOOTSIE
THE VERDICT
SOPHIE’S CHOICE
MISSING
VICTOR / VICTORIA
GARP
AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN
GANDHI
FRANCES
E.T.
POLTERGIEST
BLADE RUNNER
What about 75 — Barry Lyndon, Shampoo, Nashville, Cuckoo’s Nest, Dog Day Afternoon, Jaws, Tommy, Day of the Locust, Man Who Would Be King, Night Moves, Monty Python and Holy Grail.
Ultimately, I’d give 74 the top spot — many classics, but also lesser known films such as California Split, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, The Gambler and Lenny.
While the following may not be masterpieces, you could certainly have a fun popcorndrenched movie night composed of 1984 films:
BEVERLY HILLS COP, BUCKAROO BANZAI, GHOSTBUSTERS, GREMLINS, THE KARATE KID, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA, POLICE ACADEMY, REVENGE OF THE NERDS, ROMANCING THE STONE, THE TERMINATOR and THIS IS SPINAL TAP.
At the very least, you could marvel at the many sequels that followed of movies from that year.
2001? C’mon if you’re going to pick a more recent year, 1999 or 1994, if not both. 2001 is an absurd choice.
HERE’S MY 5:
1967: Bonnie and Clyde, Cool Hand Luke, Graduate, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, In the Heat of the Night
1975: Barry Lyndon, Dog Day Afternoon, Jaws, Nashville, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
1976: All the President’s Men, Bound for Glory, Network, Rocky, Taxi Driver
1991: Beauty and the Beast, Boyz N the Hood, Bugsy, JFK, Silence of the Lambs, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Thelma & Louise
1994: Bullets Over Broadway, Ed Wood, Lion King, Pulp Fiction, Quiz Show, Red, Shawshank Redemption
*2007 was a damn good year
*The 70s: best decade for cinema bar none
Caddyshack
The Empire Strikes Back
The Blues Brothers
Superman II
Dressed to Kill
Airplane!
Raging Bull
Friday the 13th, Part 1
1980: Nuff Said.
Maybe a little too early to include it, but 2007 was my favorite year for film since I became a film fan.
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood
Atonement
Zodiac
Into the Wild
3:10 To Yuma
Gone, Baby, Gone
Michael Clayton
GrindHouse (especially Death Proof)
Eastern Promises
Sweeney Todd
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Ratatouille
Sunshine
The King of Kong
The Wind that Shakes the Barley
Before the Devil Knows Your’e Dead
The list goes on and on and on…2007 makes the entire year 2008 look like your average January.
1941 included four great films by Lana Turner: Johnny Eager, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Honky Tonk and Ziegfeld Girl. This only 4 years after breaking into movies with no acting experience whatsoever.
1946, definitely. But what about 1950: All About Eve, Sunset Boulevard, Born Yesterday, Father of the Bride, Cyrano de Bergerac, The Asphalt Jungle, Harvey, King Solomon’s Mines, Winchester ’73….
1927 – The General, Sunrise, Metropolis, Wings, The Jazz Singer, Napoleon and It.
Inarguable in its importance as the pinnacle of Silent Filmmaking, 1927 also marks the end of the era with the arrival of The Jazz Singer (perhaps not a film that has stood the test of time, but an important one nonetheless).
Hi I am a huge film fanatic. have been for 15 years, (I am 24 and I’m from Sweden, hejja Bergman!) I have read all of your comments now and I have to say my oppinion.
The 30′s 40′s 50′s and beginning of the 60′s are HANDS DOWN the best years of cinema!
Sure some of the suggestions from 90′s and 2000′s are great but they are faaaar away from what they did in the early days, (not just you older people who thinks that
Wake up idiots….the page should be titled as best years of Hollywood cinema ….does anyone who commented know that there is better cinema outside hollywood
1933, of course, when Hollywood was turning out high quality pre-Code movies dealing with subjects that were not to be dealt with again in movies for almost 30 years, thanks to the Motion Picture Production Code. King Kong, Dinner at Eight, Lady Killer and, of course, Baby Face. Hollywood by 1933 had shifted entirely to sound on film, with Warner Bros. abandoning the Vitaphone process that used a separate record (playing at 33 1/3 RPM) to provide synchronized sound to the film. 1932 comes in a close second, especially the movies made at Warners, the last full year Darryl Zanuck was production chief. In the 1932 movie The Dark Horse, Warren William hired himself out to run political campaigns, a subject not much covered in later Hollywood movies. Pre-code movies made fast and cheap that have withstood the test of time, even if most of these movies were buried in film archives for 60 years until TCM started showing them on cable.
If you had to pick the best popcorn year, it has to be 1985. Leading off is Back to the Future, followed by: Breakfast Club, Cocoon, Fletch, The Goonies, The Jewel of the Nile, Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, Spies Like Us, St. Elmo’s Fire, Summer Rental and Weird Science.
Also, on a serious note from 1985 are The Color Purple, Jagged Edge, Mask, Out of Africa, Prizzi’s Honor, White Nights and Witness.
And look at these that were also 1985: Brewster’s Millions, Commando, National Lampoon’s European Vacation, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, Murphy’s Romance, Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment, Rocky IV, Silverado, Teen Wolf and A View To A Kill.
1985, a very nice amount of the 80s classics, and a great year for the popcorn movie fan in all of us.
1977-Star Wars,The Rescuers,The spy who loved me.
1981-Outland,Raiders of the Lost Ark,
1982-Blade Runner,E.T.,Sophie’s choice,Tootsie
1983-Flashdance,The Hunger,Return of the Jedi
1997-The Devil’s own,Air Force One,Alien Resurrection,L.A. Confidential,Star Wars re issues.Selena,Dante’s Peak,Breakdown
1982…please
tootsie
officer and a gentleman
et
victor/victoria
sophie’s choice
and there are many more
I am very happy that I found this site.
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1973: All Must have in any movie collection.
The Poseidon Adventure
American Graffiti
Badlands
Bang The Drum Slowly
Charlotte’s Web
Day of the Jackal
Dillinger
Don’t Look Now
Enter The Dragon
The Exorcist
The Getaway
Godspell
High Plains Drifter
Jesus Christ Superstar
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
The Last Detail
Live and Let Die
Mean Streets
Paper Chase
Paper Moon
Papillon
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid
Return of the Dragon
Robin Hood
Save The Tiger
Scarecrow
Serpico
Seven Ups
Sleeper
Soylent Green
The Sting
A Touch of Class
Walking Tall
The Way We Were
Westworld