There's also the attitudes of the times which should make a modern audience sit up, squirm and utter sotto voce WTF comments on the way women and indeed animals were treated ... not just in films but in adverts and in mainstream TV shows.
Women would have their bums spanked on TV series' like "The Saint" and animals would be dressed up as humans and coralled into participating in the famous tea parties at London Zoo ... as well as appearing in humorous TV ads for PG Tips etc.:-
Nowadays, when anything from '70s TV is repeated or put on disc there will be warnings on the back of the case along the lines of "Contains scenes of smoking" (or "This film contains colonial attitudes") ... not surprising considering something like 45% of the UK population smoked at the time compared to something like 20% now.
Politically incorrect and downright offensive stereotypes were everywhere in mainstream TV shows like "The Goodies" and comedians such as Spike Milligan would happily colour their faces and mimic accents of other nationalities. Films/TV series like "Love Thy Neighbour" - full of racist terminology and insults - could never be made today ... thankfully.
Putting that all to one side there's still plenty there for modern audiences to appreciate and enjoy in the films of the time, not least the cool performances of the leads of the day such as Charles Bronson, Clint Eastwood and Lee Marvin and nowadays the '70s are celebrated for a whole bunch of first class thrillers and epic disaster movies with probably CHARLEY VARRICK my favourite followed by the most stylish revengers of them all - DR. PHIBES and THEATRE OF BLOOD - with the incomparable Vincent Price involved in dispatching people in such gloriously OTT ways not seen again until the FINAL DESTINATION films.
Other notable thrillers of the period include ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13, THE PARALLAX VIEW, DUEL, DELIVERANCE, STRAW DOGS, PLAY MISTY FOR ME, THE GODFATHER I & II, BADLANDS, THE WICKER MAN, THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL, TAXI DRIVER, THE DAY OF THE JACKAL, WESTWORLD, COMA, FRENZY, THE ODESSA FILE, CHINATOWN, SERPICO, THE CONVERSATION, TWO-MINUTE WARNING, JAWS, THE CHINA SYNDROME, THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE, THE TOWERING INFERNO and MARATHON MAN with the rarely seen THE INTERNECINE PROJECT as runner up.
In truth when I recall the '70s - the decade that taste forgot I think someone once said - I recall the famous *Harry Lime speech in THE THIRD MAN as, mixed in with the messiness of the decade and the industrial unrest resulting in extended power cuts throughout the UK leading to "The Winter of Discontent", the 1970s produced some of the best music of any decade from pioneering electronic rock groups such as Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schultz, Kraftwerk and Pink Floyd to the thrills of disco and punk.
Also saw the appearance of the Sony Walkman, the first mobile phone bricks and Post-It notes among other essential items.
* "Don't be so gloomy. After all it's not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."
, once you see it...
