(Photo by Universal / courtesy Everett Collection. JAWS.)
1975 was a landmark year for the movie biz, with Jaws (directed by a 27-year-old Steven Spielberg) creating the summer blockbuster as we know it, where audiences lined up around the block to escape the heat and pick up some aquaphobia along the way.
As you’ll witness in our guide to the 100 best movies of 1975, Jaws was that rare beast that not only made all the money (it was the highest-grossing movie ever, beating 1972’s The Godfather, and to be bested by Star Wars in 1977), but also had critics putting up gone-fishin’ signs, while scooping up Academy Award nominations.
The list of 100 movies begin with Certified Fresh films, all of which were nominated for what might be the strongest Best Picture Oscar class ever. There’s Jaws, acting powerhouse showcase (and ultimate winner) One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Robert Altman’s wandering music opus Nashville, Stanley Kubrick cult fave Barry Lyndon, and progressive drama Dog Day Afternoon.
More 1975 Certified Fresh movies include major international pictures like spooky Australian New Waver Picnic at Hanging Rock, Michelangelo Antonioni The Passenger, and Chantal Akerman’s epic slice-of-life Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles. Paranoid thrillers defined the decade, and ’75 got one of the most prominent ones with Three Days of the Condor, with Robert Redford taking the most ill-timed lunch break ever. And any sour seventies mood was lightened with comedies, from mainstream (Shampoo) to subversive (Monty Python and the Holy Grail) to camp transgressive (The Rocky Horror Picture Show).
#1
Critics Consensus: Compelling, well-crafted storytelling and a judicious sense of terror ensure Steven Spielberg’s Jaws has remained a benchmark in the art of delivering modern blockbuster thrills.
#2
Critics Consensus: Framed by great work from director Sidney Lumet and fueled by a gripping performance from Al Pacino, Dog Day Afternoon offers a finely detailed snapshot of people in crisis with tension-soaked drama shaded in black humor.
#3
Critics Consensus: A cult classic as gut-bustingly hilarious as it is blithely ridiculous, Monty Python and the Holy Grail has lost none of its exceedingly silly charm.
#4
Critics Consensus: Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles offers a lingering, unvarnished, and ultimately mesmerizing look at one woman’s existence.
#5
Critics Consensus: Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher are worthy adversaries in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, with Miloš Forman’s more grounded and morally ambiguous approach to Ken Kesey’s surrealistic novel yielding a film of outsized power.
#6
Critics Consensus: Visually mesmerizing, Picnic at Hanging Rock is moody, unsettling, and enigmatic — a masterpiece of Australian cinema and a major early triumph for director Peter Weir.
#7
Critics Consensus: Robert Altman captures the bravado and cynicism of the American dream in Nashville, a sprawling epic bursting with vivid performances and an unforgettable soundtrack.
#8
Critics Consensus: Antonioni’s classic, a tale of lonely, estranged characters on a journey though the mysterious landscapes of identity, shimmers with beauty and uncertainty.
#9
Critics Consensus: This post-Watergate thriller captures the paranoid tenor of the times, thanks to Syndey Pollack’s taut direction and excellent performances from Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway.
#10
Critics Consensus: Rocky Horror Picture Show brings its quirky characters in tight, but it’s the narrative thrust that really drives audiences insane and keeps ’em doing the time warp again.
#11
Critics Consensus: Cynical, ironic, and suffused with seductive natural lighting, Barry Lyndon is a complex character piece of a hapless man doomed by Georgian society.
#12
Critics Consensus: Shampoo trains a darkly comic lens on post-Nixon America, aiming at — and often hitting — an array of timely targets.
#13
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#14
Critics Consensus: Woody Allen plunks his neurotic persona into a Tolstoy pastiche and yields one of his funniest films, brimming with slapstick ingenuity and a literary inquiry into subjects as momentous as Love and Death.
#15
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#16
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#17
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#18
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#19
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#20
Critics Consensus: Edith and Edie Beale are eccentric subjects who offer a generous amount of themselves in Grey Gardens, an inquisitive and nonjudgmental exploration of the isolated socialites’ lifestyle.
#21
Critics Consensus: The kinetic camerawork and brutal over-the-top gore that made Dario Argento famous is on full display, but the addition of a compelling, complex story makes Deep Red a masterpiece.
#22
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#23
Critics Consensus: Fleet and joyous, Ingmar Bergman’s filmed staging of Mozart’s The Magic Flute captures the opera’s mirth and satire with Scandinavian flair.
#24
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#25
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#26
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#27
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#28
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#29
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#30
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#31
Critics Consensus: Shivers uses elementally effective basic ingredients to brilliant effect – and lays the profoundly unsettling foundation for director David Cronenberg’s career to follow.
#32
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#33
Critics Consensus: Flawed and more conventional than its predecessor, French Connection II still offers a wealth of dynamic action and gritty characterizations.
#34
Critics Consensus: Death Race 2000 is a fun, campy classic, drawing genuine thrills from its mindless ultra-violence.
#35
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#36
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#37
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#38
Critics Consensus: An offbeat, eccentric black comedy, A Boy and His Dog features strong dialogue and an oddball vision of the future.
#39
Critics Consensus: Tommy is as erratic and propulsive as a game of pinball, incorporating The Who’s songs into an irreverent odyssey with the visual imagination that only director Ken Russell can conjure.
#40
Critics Consensus: Escape to Witch Mountain makes up for its lack of high stakes with a charming sense of adventure and excitement.
#41
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#42
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#43
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#44
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#45
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#46
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#47
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#48
Critics Consensus: Thanks to the sparkling chemistry between its stars and Herbert Ross’ gentle direction, this sweetly ambling comedy ranks among Neil Simon’s finest screen adaptations.
#49
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#50
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
As you’ve seen, after the Certified Fresh films are movies rated Fresh on the Tomatometer. It’s not shortage of classics that haven’t reached the critics-review threshold for Certified Fresh status, including Andrei Tarkovsky’s Mirror, giallo centerpiece Deep Red, landmark eccentric documentary Grey Gardens, and sci-fi cult comedy A Boy and His Dog.
Rotten 1975 movies round out the list. Some of the ones that have endured with positive Popcornmeters are True Grit sequel Rooster Cogburn with John Wayne back in the saddle, Terror of Mechagodzilla (closing out Godzilla‘s Showa era), and exploitation icons Dolemite and Switchblade Sisters.
#51
Critics Consensus: The Stepford Wives‘s inherent satire is ill-served by Bryan Forbes’ stately direction, but William Goldman’s script excels as a damning critique of a misogynistic society.
#52
Critics Consensus: In Rollerball, social commentary collides with high-speed action — and the audience is the winner.
#53
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#54
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#55
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#56
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#57
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#58
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#59
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#60
Critics Consensus: Although its source material’s themes are sometimes beyond The Day of the Locust‘s grasp, this is a consistently watchable adaptation that gains its own emotional power.
#61
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#62
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#63
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#64
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#65
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#66
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#67
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#68
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#69
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#70
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#71
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#72
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#73
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#74
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#75
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#76
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#77
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#78
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#79
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#80
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#81
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#82
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#83
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#84
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#85
Bug
(1975)
38%
24%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#86
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#87
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#88
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#89
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#90
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#91
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#92
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#93
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#94
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#95
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#96
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#97
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#98
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#99
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#100
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.