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The 10 Best Movies Turning 50 This Year, According to Rotten Tomatoes

Was 1975 the best year for movie fans?
ByJessica Young|
A scene from ‘Monty Python And The Holy Grail’
A scene from ‘Monty Python And The Holy Grail’ | United Archives/GettyImages

Every generation likes to argue that their decade of film was the greatest, but if you were alive in the year 1975, you may actually win that argument. We’re half a century removed from that cinematic period, and yet its influence on our collective moviegoing experience is still being felt. If you’re planning a marathon of movies turning 50 in 2025, this list of the best of the year according to Rotten Tomatoes is a great place to start.

  1. The Top 10 Films From 1975 

Each title in the top 10 is Certified Fresh by the review aggregator’s Tomatometer, meaning it scored 75 percent or higher based on 80 or more reviews, at least five of which are from so-called “top critics.”

Do you plan your year around the summer blockbuster slate? You can thank Steven Spielberg’s razor-sharp aquatic thriller Jaws for practically coining the concept. Sure, the fictional crew needed a bigger boat to take down that overgrown monster, and the real-life crew needed a bigger budget, but the final film easily conquered the 1975 box office. And modern comedies owe a lot to Monty Python’s cult classic featuring a troupe of knights on a hijinks-filled hunt for the holy grail. 

In 1975, most every genre enjoyed equal playing time in theaters, making the year a milestone for film. Al Pacino turned in an award-worthy performance in Dog Day Afternoon, the movie that established him as a movie star post-Godfather, while Jack Nicholson cemented his status as a Hollywood legend with a stint in a mental ward in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Larger-than-life movie stars like Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway starred in a major motion picture, while smaller, foreign films like Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles experimented with the medium.

It’s impossible to give every worthwhile 1975 flick its deserved shoutout, but if nostalgia is hitting and you’re in the mood to experience some of the greats, check out Rotten Tomatoes’s top 10.

The Top 10 Films From 1975 

  1. Jaws // 97 percent 
  2. Dog Day Afternoon // 96 percent
  3. Monty Python and the Holy Grail // 91 percent
  4. Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles // 95 percent
  5. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest // 93 percent
  6. Picnic At Hanging Rock // 92 percent
  7. Nashville // 89 percent
  8. The Passenger // 88 percent
  9. Three Days of the Condor // 87 percent
  10. Escape to Witch Mountain // 86 percent

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