21 Incredible Films Turning 50 in 2024 (And Where to Watch Them)

Ask your average cinephile what the single best year for movies was, and there’s a good chance that 1974 will at least come up in the conversation. New Hollywood was in full swing by then, thanks to instant classics like Roman Polanski’s Chinatown and Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather Part II.

But the silver screen showcased more than just prestige dramas and neo-noirs that year. Comedy lovers had a chance to walk a new kind of way with the release of not one, but two Mel Brooks-helmed parodies: the horror movie sendup Young Frankenstein and the shoot-’em-up western spoof Blazing Saddles. And that’s really just the tip of the iceberg—or, should we say, The Towering Inferno? Below are 21 of the most influential movies to watch that were released 50 years ago, plus exactly where to go if you feel like streaming one tonight.

Blazing Saddles // Released February 7, 1974

Widely recognized as one of the funniest films ever made, Mel Brooks’s western pastiche, joke bag of a movie stars Cleavon Little as a Black sheriff sent to protect the backwater town of Rock Ridge from marauders with the assistance of an alcoholic gunslinger, The Waco Kid (Gene Wilder).

The baddies are part of a scheme from the corrupt Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman), who wants to scare the townsfolk away so he can scoop up the land for cheap and sell it to the railroad for millions. But let’s be real, the plot is only a skeleton from which to hang all the gags: the farting cowboys, Mongo punching out a horse, Sheriff Bart taking himself hostage, and the list goes on for miles. From its brash toying with racial politics to a slew of quotable lines, the movie is beyond iconic.

Where to watch it: The Roku Channel, Prime Video

The Street Fighter // Released February 1974

This iconic martial arts film was the first to be given an X rating in the United States solely for its violence. It’s a showcase for Sonny Chiba’s fighting talent, which helped launch him into international stardom. In the film, he plays Takuma Tsurugi, a martial artist and killer-for-hire who gets on the wrong side of the yakuza and has to destroy dozens and dozens of men to survive their revenge.

It’s an intense ride where the plot exists almost solely to shove Sonny Chiba into group fights where he lays out skilled brawlers with astonishing speed and ferocity. The finale also famously appears in the 1993 crime thriller True Romance, where young lovers Clarence (Christian Slater) and Alabama (Patricia Arquette) end up watching the flick—along with its sequels, Return of the Street Fighter and Sister Street Fighter (also both released in 1974)—on their first date. At one point, Clarence even gives her a very colorful synopsis.

Where to watch it: Tubi, Prime Video

The Great Gatsby // Released March 29, 1974

Based on the book everyone was forced to read in high school, director Jack Clayton’s 1974 film adaptation brought a gauzy sheen to the world of uber-wealthy Jay Gatsby (Robert Redford), wannabe socialite Daisy (Mia Farrow), and all the hollow cares of the champagne set. The movie, as seen through the melancholy eyes of Gatsby’s neighbor Nick (Sam Waterston), floats through the infidelities, violence, and drunkenness of their tangled social web with a keen eye toward glamorous costuming and scenery.

Under all that glitter, Redford and Farrow deliver the romantic fireworks, and Bruce Dern provides the everyman charm and rage of a man whose wife is slipping away from him. In the era of White Lotus, Triangle of Sadness, and other movies about watching vapid rich people fall apart, this movie feels somehow right again for the time.

Where to watch it: Pluto TV, Prime Video

Foxy Brown // Released April 5, 1974

When a drug ring kills her boyfriend, Foxy Brown (Pam Grier) goes undercover to take down an influential “modeling agency” that has its fingers in a lot of governmental pies. This blaxploitation flick from writer/director Jack Hill involves some truly brutal revenge, so it’s easy to imagine why it repulsed most major contemporary critics upon release yet earned an uproarious cult following.

The film was groundbreaking for inventing the blueprint for other exploitation flicks featuring women, propelled by Grier’s profound watchability and intense acting skill. It turned Grier into the first female action star, and its heavyweight violence inspired many filmmakers of the era and beyond, including Quentin Tarantino, who got the honor of teaming with Grier for 1997’s blaxploitation homage, Jackie Brown.

Where to watch it: Tubi, Pluto TV, Prime Video

The Conversation // Released April 7, 1974

Harry Caul (Gene Hackman) is a wire-tapping specialist, haunted by a previous botched job and weighed down by Catholic guilt. When a mysterious man hires him to make a recording of a man and woman seemingly worried for their own lives, he gets pulled into a violent scheme that will amp up his paranoia.

Francis Ford Coppola was inspired by Blow Up, a 1966 psychological thriller from writer/director Michelangelo Antonioni about a photographer who accidentally captures a murder on camera. The two are said to be part of a loose trilogy (along with 1981’s Blow Out, directed by Brian De Palma) because all of them explore the developing phenomenon of being recorded publicly and how a clear recording might still offer a fuzzy version of reality.The Conversation scored a win at Cannes, and serves as a nice spotlight for Hackman’s subtle, powerful acting work. He plays the grizzled veteran here beautifully off the youthful force of Harrison Ford, who co-stars. Sadly, the film won no Academy Awards; Coppola lost to himself for directing The Godfather Part II.

Where to watch it: Prime Video

The Parallax View // Released June 14, 1974

After journalist Lee Carter (Paula Prentiss) witnesses the assassination of a presidential hopeful at the top of the Seattle Space Needle, it puts her life in danger. Though the murder is regarded as the act of a lone gunman, several other witnesses have turned up dead, and she fears she’ll be next—so she reaches out to her ex-boyfriend (Warren Beatty), a fellow investigative reporter, to figure out what’s really going on. What follows is a masterful political thriller of paranoia and large-scale deceit, anchored by a phenomenally charismatic performance from Beatty. It also features an electric cast, including a young William Daniels (a.k.a. Mr. Feeny from Boy Meets World).

Where to watch it: Prime Video

Chinatown // Released June 20, 1974

In 1971, screenwriter Robert Towne turned down $175,000 to adapt The Great Gatsby and instead took $25,000 to develop his own story about corruption, greed, and a hardboiled detective with a nose for the truth. We’re lucky he did, because his pay cut became one of the best films of all time.

Jack Nicholson stars as Jake Gittes, a private investigator duped into discrediting an important official for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. After that person ends up floating face down in a reservoir, Gittes is drawn deeper into a conspiracy of massive proportions, with little chance of a happy ending shining through the other side of the tunnel. Co-starring Faye Dunaway as a wealthy femme fatale, this neo-noir is pure dynamite with a slew of Oscar nominations to prove it.

Where to watch it: Paramount+, Prime Video

Death Wish // Released July 24, 1974

The image of the normal man driven over the edge into violence was a common theme in the 1970s, but it was never better than in Death Wish, Michael Winner’s vigilante action film where Charles Bronson becomes Batman in a herringbone coat. Bronson plays Paul Kersey, an architect with a house in Manhattan and a loving family, but it all falls apart when muggers kill his wife and sexually assault his daughter. His solution? Start killing random muggers. This movie hit an exposed nerve during that high-crime era, especially because Bronson is the ideal blend of cranky everyman and badass.

Where to watch it: Prime Video

The Longest Yard // Released August 30, 1974

Car chase movies and the 1970s were very good to Burt Reynolds, one of the era’s biggest box-office draws. So it’s no surprise that director Robert Aldrich was able to sneak in some fast stunt driving into this classic prison football flick. The movie opens with former all-star QB Paul “Wrecking” Crewe (Reynolds) stealing his girlfriend’s Citroën SM and flat-out embarrassing the police on a merry chase.

The joker jock also fights some cops, so he ends up in prison, where the warden wants to flex his control and make an example of him. They end up in a football match that pits the inmates against the guards, but things don’t quite go according to plan in the jail yard. Like many films of the 1970s, the tone jumps happily from wacky comedy to life-and-death drama, all with some fantastic sports cinematography of a game with just as many broken bones as touchdowns.

Where to watch it: Pluto TV, Prime Video

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre // Released October 1, 1974

Still creating nightmares five decades later, Tobe Hooper’s visionary horror film is perhaps the height of grisly terror. Hooper and company infused classic horror tropes with an exploitation style to produce something that sloughed off the theatrical sheen that came with most other shlock pictures of the era, leaving behind an uncomfortably realistic experience. The film follows a group of teenagers road-tripping through Texas when they fall victim to a family of deranged cannibal killers, including the iconic Leatherface, whose swinging chainsaw became an indelible image of modern fear.

Where to watch it: Tubi, Pluto TV, Peacock, Prime Video

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three // Released October 2, 1974

This thriller wastes no time in getting dangerous. It opens with four men taking a subway car hostage and threatening to kill a passenger every minute until they get a million dollars (about $6.7 million in today’s money). They’ll start shooting in precisely one hour, so New York City needs to hustle. The core of The Taking of Pelham One Two Three involves conversations between the hijackers, which reveal their own distrust and paranoia, as well as discussions between the bad guys and police Lt. Garber (Walter Matthau), whose canny instincts help him puzzle out who they might really be. It’s a phenomenal mix of tension and explosive action with dynamite performances from Robert Shaw, Héctor Elizondo, Martin Balsam, and more.

Where to watch it: Tubi, Pluto TV, Prime Video

Phantom of the Paradise // Released October 31, 1974

Rock opera. Comedy. Horror. Camp. Cult classic. An indescribable cinematic experience, Brian De Palma’s glam version of The Phantom of the Opera moves the story into the cutthroat recording industry. Winslow Leach (William Finley) is a talented singer-songwriter. Still, uber-producer Swan (Paul Williams) only wants Leach’s music, so he steals it, frames Leach for drug dealing, and gets him imprisoned, where his teeth end up replaced with metal. What results is a chaotic spree through fame, fortune, pop star assassination attempts, and enough capital S style to choke a horse. Naturally, Williams wrote the music for the film, and—also, naturally—it’s all a trip.

Where to watch it: Prime Video

Lenny // Released November 10, 1974

Comedian Lenny Bruce is one of the most fascinating icons of the 20th century, enduring multiple arrests for public obscenity while capturing the lurid imagination of a culture begging to cast off the puritanical chains of so-called decency. Without Bruce, modern stand-up comedy simply would not exist, and Dustin Hoffman nails his performance of the twisted mastermind, delivering an intimate profile of the persona and the struggling man left on stage once the lights go out. Directed by Bob Fosse and shot by master cinematographer Bruce Surtees, the film is photographed in deep, rich black and white, turning every second into a painting of sharp contrast. It’s a stellar biopic about a towering entertainer.

Where to watch it: Tubi, Pluto TV, Prime Video

A Woman Under the Influence // Released November 18, 1974

Mabel isn’t sick—she’s just unusual. Boasting a powerhouse performance from Gena Rowlands as a profoundly frustrated housewife with a considerable drinking problem, this sensational John Cassavetes film began life as a play. Still, it would have been too emotionally intense for Rowlands to perform eight times a week (and you know why if you’ve already seen the film). Rowlands and Peter Falk shine with despair and dynamism in an absolute triumph of indie filmmaking. No one wanted to finance it. No one wanted to distribute it. And yet, by the end of 1974, everyone was talking about it.

Where to watch it: Max

Murder on the Orient Express // November 24, 1974

Sidney Lumet’s adaptation of one of Agatha Christie’s most famous novels features an astonishingly stacked cast. Albert Finney takes on the iconic role of detective Hercule Poirot, and his “little grey cells” are joined by Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Sean Connery, Anthony Perkins, Vanessa Redgrave, and British theater titan John Gielgud (among many more).

In this outing, Poirot hops aboard the Orient Express hoping for a holiday, only to be confronted by the confounding murder of a detestable American businessman and a slew of suspects who seem to have no connection to him ... until it seems like all of them do. This fantastically fun whodunnit is a classic of the genre and imminently rewatchable, with plenty of twists, turns, and tunnels to keep you guessing.

Where to watch it: Pluto TV, Prime Video

Space is the Place // Released November 1974

In this Afrofuturist sci-fi flick, Sun Ra has been reported lost since a 1969 European tour—but don’t worry, he’s been on an alien planet where he’s decided to help Black Americans migrate. Through wondrous, mind-expanding imagery, this film creates a speculative future to test how Black Americans might thrive in a new world where the music is blessed by peaceful rhythms instead of anger, violence, and racism. Sun Ra’s trippy music accompanies throughout this dreamscape, and it’s the only film to date where NASA tries to assassinate a jazz musician on another planet.

Where to watch it: Max

Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore // Released December 9, 1974

Alice (Ellen Burstyn) is a widowed mother who is struggling to make ends meet. She strikes up a relationship with a man (Harvey Keitel), but then things get violent when his wife finds out. So she flees with her young son to Arizona, but dreams of eventually getting back to her childhood home in Monterey, California, and picking up a singing career she abandoned when she got married.

Directed by Martin Scorsese, Burstyn won the Oscar for her performance in this romantic dramedy, offering a stirring and funny turn as a determined woman reluctant to get into a new relationship (even if it’s with ’70s-era Kris Kristofferson). It also launched the hit sitcom Alice, which ran for nine seasons on CBS from 1975 to 1985, although the show is mostly remembered for one very memorable catchphrase.

Where to watch it: Prime Video

The Godfather Part II // Released December 12, 1974

It’s rare for a filmmaker to have two movies released in the same year, let alone two enduring classics. But Francis Ford Coppola struck pay dirt in 1974 and couldn’t have been too upset about losing out on the Oscar for directing The Conversation, seeing as he ultimately won it for The Godfather Part II.

What can be said about The Godfather Part II that hasn’t already been said a thousand times over? It’s an enduring fan and critical favorite, not just topping but dominating movie lists for decades. The sequel (which almost didn’t get made at all) jumps in time between Vito Corleone’s (Robert De Niro) early days leaving Sicily for Little Italy in New York City and Michael’s (Al Pacino) tribulations after taking over the family crime business. While some critics (like Roger Ebert) were mixed upon release, it was quickly recognized as a peerless filmmaking effort.

Where to watch it: Paramount+, Prime Video

Young Frankenstein // Released December 15, 1974

Werewolf, there wolf. Just as Francis Ford Coppola scored two hits with The Conversation and The Godfather Part II, Mel Brooks also dominated movie screens in 1974 with the one-two punch of Blazing Saddles and this impeccable parody where Victor Frankenstein’s grandson (Gene Wilder) reluctantly takes up the family trade in Transylvania.

Once there, he meets the weird crew of Igor (Marty Feldman), Frau Blücher (Cloris Leachman), and assistant Inga (Teri Garr), who proceed to build a tap-dancing monster together (played by Peter Boyle). Wilder came up with the idea and pitched it to Brooks as they finished filming Blazing Saddles. They wrote it together, producing a film with dozens of quotable gag lines and a profound sense of silliness that honors and mocks classic Hollywood.

Where to watch: Prime Video

The Towering Inferno // December 16, 1974

Before there was Bayhem, there was The Towering Inferno. Part of the 1970s obsession with large-scale disaster flicks, this explosive action film is a bit like if the RMS Titanic were a really tall building. Paul Newman stars as the architect of the world’s tallest skyscraper. It catches fire on its 81st floor during the dedication ceremony, as a party celebrating the building rages on the 135th floor. Firefighters led by their chief (Steve McQueen) work alongside Newman and others to evacuate as many as they can. It’s a fiery spectacle that’s fun, sometimes dumb, and classically thrilling.

Where to watch it: Prime Video

Black Christmas // December 20, 1974

Black Christmas is essentially the grandmother of all slasher films, pre-dating John Carpenter’s Halloween and inspiring a hundred other copycats. In this taut horror flick, a killer makes obscene phone calls and torments a group of unsuspecting sorority girls over the holiday break. Olivia Hussey stars as a young woman whose sorority sister has gone missing. The police don’t seem to take it seriously at first, but after they tap the phone line ... yes, the calls are in fact coming from inside the house.

Bob Clark, the director of A Christmas Story (seriously), filled Black Christmas with gruesome kills that are realistically chaotic and yet uncomfortably intimate. It got the remake treatment in 2006 and 2019, but the 1974 original is infamous for its extended POV camera shots, which put viewers in the killer’s shoes—and the climax is capable of producing panic attacks.

Where to watch it: Tubi, Peacock

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