Gothamist

A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.

Gothamist

Listen Live

Donate

Arts & Entertainment

Best Decade For NYC Movies: 1970s

By

Jacob Dobkin

Published Oct 12, 2005

Modified Mar 7, 2008

Share

FacebookTwitterRedditEmail

Never miss a story

 Email address

By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .

By

Jacob Dobkin

Published Oct 12, 2005

Modified Mar 7, 2008

Share

FacebookTwitterRedditEmail

We rely on your support to make local news available to all

Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

After all the comments on yesterday's post about books set in NYC, we got to thinking, has anyone bothered to come up with a list of all the movies set in the city? The answer, of course, is yes-- at Wikipedia, of course. What an amazing site-- it's like having a genie who's only job is to distract us with useless NYC trivia! They've probably missed a couple of movies here and there, but the list looks fairly comprehensive. Absolute, undisputable fact: the 1970s was far and away the most interesting time for NYC movies-- check these out:

• Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970) * The Out-of-Towners (1970) * The French Connection (1971) * Klute (1971) * The Panic in Needle Park (1971) * Plaza Suite (1971) * Shaft (1971) * The Godfather (1972) * The Hot Rock (1972) * Godspell (1973) * From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (1973) * Live and Let Die (1973) * Mean Streets (1973) * Serpico (1973) * The Seven-Ups (1973) * Soylent Green (1973) * The Godfather: Part II (1974) * Death Wish (1974) * Harry and Tonto (1974) * The Lords of Flatbush (1974) * The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) * Three Days of the Condor (1975) * Dog Day Afternoon (1975) * The Prisoner of Second Avenue (1975) * Deadly Hero (1976) * King Kong (1976) * Network (1976) * Next Stop Greenwich Village (1976) * Taxi Driver (1976) * Annie Hall (1977) * The Goodbye Girl (1977) * New York, New York (1977) * Saturday Night Fever (1977) * All That Jazz (1979) * Hair (1979) * Manhattan (1979) * The Warriors (1979)

We're not entirely sure why people even bother making movies anymore-- because there is no way they are going to top Manhattan, The Warriors, or Taxi Driver. Hell, even bad movies in the 1970s rocked-- they had Beneath the Planet of the Apes, and we get The Dukes of Hazzard? We are really living in the wrong decade, man.

Tagged

annie hall

Basil E

books

comments

death

death wish

dog day afternoon

green

greenwich

greenwich village

hair

hot

jazz

king kong

live

manhattan

Mean Streets

movies

needle park

new york

night

nyc

part II

Pelham One Two Three

people

rock

saturday night

saturday night fever

Second Avenue

Soylent Green

taxi driver

the city

The Dukes

The French

the french connection

the godfather

the out

The Taking

the warriors

Three Days

Up Files

warriors

Jacob Dobkin

Jake Dobkin co-founded Gothamist with Jen Chung. In 2019, Jake released Ask a Native New Yorker, a book based on his Gothamist advice column.

Read more

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

MORE arts-entertainment

Will Barnes and Noble in the East Village spell doom for smaller shops? It's complicated.

Independent booksellers are grappling with whether the big-box chain is a threat or an ally in the fight against Amazon.

By

Sonia Rao

Published Oct 16, 2026 at 12:55 p.m. ET

Can eligible NYC singles find love with 30 minutes and some really spicy food?

We went to the Spiciest Supper Club singles night to take the temperature of New York City's dating scene.

By

Elizabeth Shwe

and

James Ramsay

Arts & Entertainment

Can eligible NYC singles find love with 30 minutes and some really spicy food?

We went to the Spiciest Supper Club singles night to take the temperature of New York City's dating scene.

By

Elizabeth Shwe

and

James Ramsay

How the NYC Marathon has changed in the last 50 years

By

Hannah Frishberg

A visit to Art of Play, the Brooklyn store in an animatronic bird beef with Kelly Clarkson

By

Sonia Rao

The hottest way to show you're an authentic New Yorker is… riding a Citi Bike?

By

Lindsay Lee Wallace

Never miss a story

Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.

Sign upEmail address

By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .