It’s a little weird, when you think about it, how compelling intense movies can be. Anxiety is a far from pleasant emotion, it goes without saying, but when a movie makes you feel anxious, it can be absorbing and even a good thing? Maybe it’s not too odd, though. Being scared in real life generally sucks, but ahorror moviebeing scary is great. Similarly, there’s catharsis to be found in a tearjerker, while experiencing something sad in reality is obviously awful.
So, anyway, here are a bunch of very intense movies from a range of genres, yet they’re all tied together by the fact that they were released during the 1970s. What makes something intense is fairly subjective, sure, butthese ones are all some level of uncomfortable, suspenseful, or harrowing… or even all of the above.
10’Scenes from a Marriage' (1974)
Directed by Ingmar Bergman
If you want aconventional or typically satisfying romantic film, you will not find it inScenes from a Marriage. This one goes for almost three hours (longer, if you watch the miniseries cut) and is all about a marriage falling apart over a long stretch of time. Most scenes, though, take place in real-time, or close to it, with numerous extended sequences of arguing strung together.
Things get a little worse with every passing scene, andonce it becomes clear that these scenes from a (dying) marriage are all you’re going to get,Scenes from a Marriagebecomes absolutely despairing. The intensity here is particularly strong because the film feels so unapologetically real and raw, almost as though you’re watching a real relationship fall apart, partly in real-time, and partly across the span of a decade. It really is the worst of both worlds.
Scenes From a Marriage
9’A Clockwork Orange' (1971)
Directed by Stanley Kubrick
It’s no secret thatA Clockwork Orangeis one of the most disturbing films of its time, and maybe even of all time. It’s a look at the dark side of human nature, an uncompromising exploration of morality and justice, a bleak dystopian film, and a grueling crime movie, all at once.It’s also arguably a masterpiece, but one that’s also hard to recommend (at least broadly).
InA Clockwork Orange, an uncaring and ruthless young man has his crime spree abruptly interrupted, and he’s then imprisoned, before finding out his sentence can be shortened if he undertakes an experimental procedure that’ll remove his free will. He’s cast back out into society, and becomes victimized by the very people he once abused and terrorized. The film’s anundoubtedly cynical and uncomfortable onefrom start to finish, withso much of that unease coming from the complete lack of easy answers given to the difficult questionsraised.
A Clockwork Orange
8’The Battle of Okinawa' (1971)
Directed by Kihachi Okamoto
Easily the least well-known film in this ranking,The Battle of Okinawais still worthy of mention, since it is so brutal and uncompromising for a war movie of its time. Things that happen here are all foregone conclusions, probably even for those who don’t know muchWorld War II history, but it’s not so much what happens but how it’s shown happening; how relentless and bloody it all is.
The Battle of Okinawais about the brutality of war, and the way those involved with it respond to inevitable defeat;the feelings one experiences when all hope is lost. It just never lets up across its 2.5-hour-long runtime, and it’s startlingly harrowing, even bythe standards of an anti-war film. It’s as far from an easy watch as movies get, but has to be admired for how timelessly intense it is, despite its age.
7’A Woman Under the Influence' (1974)
Directed by John Cassavetes
It’s hard to find entertainment value in a good deal of whatJohn Cassavetesmade, as a filmmaker, but that’s largely to do with his commitment to capturing an intense feeling of realness so often. His films have a rough and often improvised feel to them, withA Woman Under the Influencedemonstrating this particularly well (and, in turn, feeling especially tense to watch).
It’s along film, and a powerful one, mostly being about one woman’s gradual emotional breakdown, and the way this impacts her family; namely, her husband and their three kids.A Woman Under the Influencewasahead of its time, as an exploration of mental health, and has two absorbing performances at its center,courtesy ofGena Rowlands(who was married to Cassavetes) andPeter Falk.
A Woman Under The Influence
6’Looking for Mr. Goodbar' (1977)
Directed by Richard Brooks
Looking for Mr. Goodbaris a lot to handle, which might be a contributing factor to it being at least a little obscure. It’s not an approachable movie, and not a good one if you’re just looking for something purely entertaining to watch, but it’s a remarkably uncompromising look at what one woman goes through when she visits various singles’ bars, trying to find a romantic and/or physical connection with various men.
It’s not a film that’s shy about exploring how dangerous men can be, in such situations, all leading to ableak and sadly (seemingly) inevitable conclusion. It’s the sort of film that’s hard to imagine revisiting, once you’ve seen it once, butit’s an important and still regrettably relevant piece of cinema that is brutally realistic and eye-opening in equal measure.
Looking for Mr. Goodbar
5’Marathon Man' (1976)
Directed by John Schlesinger
The villain inMarathon Manis both a ruthless war criminal and a dentist, which is a terrifying thing for a person to be, for obvious reasons. The central character, played byDustin Hoffman, gets roped into a complex series of events by his brother, which, unfortunately for him, puts him on a collision course with saidwar criminal/dentist, played byLaurence Olivier.
Marathon Man is quite gripping, and maybe even entertaining, so long as you’re able to handle the darker stuff here.
It’s a film that, once it takes off, never really lets go,feeling continually paranoid and unnerving throughout.Marathon Manis quite gripping, and maybe even entertaining, so long as you’re able to handle the darker stuff here. Italmost rides the lines between being approachable and relentlessly dark at the same time, in a weird way… but screenwriterWilliam Goldmanwas often good at doing stuff like that (see the very differentThe Princess Bride, which was both a parody of fairytales and a compelling fairytale of sorts).
Marathon Man (1976) Movie Poster
Marathon Man
4’Jaws' (1975)
Directed by Steven Spielberg
Jawsdoes a great deal with a very simple premise. It is, essentially, all about a shark terrorizing a coastal town, and three men undertaking a desperate mission to go and kill it out at sea to stop its ongoing murder spree. That’s all it is, and that’s all it needs to be, and the amount of suspense it milks from this – both before and during the main mission – is remarkable.
Steven Spielbergdirected itwhen he was very young, and was probably his first outright masterpiece.His TV movie,Duel, was also intense and very straightforward, butJawswas on a whole other level.It is still the quintessential movie about sharks, about half a century on from release, and holds up unbelievably well, even when watched today.
3’Taxi Driver' (1976)
Directed by Martin Scorsese
One ofMartin Scorsese’s best (and darkest) films,Taxi Driveris about as grim and nightmarish as non-horror movies from the 1970s get. It’s about one man slowly becoming more disillusioned with society and eventually lashing out against it, all while living in New York City and seeing itat its worst, mostly through his work as a late-night taxi driver (hey, that’s the name of the movie).
It’s also a film with one ofRobert De Niro’s most committed performances, and that’s saying a lot, considering how much he’s known fordedicating himself to (most) of his roles.Taxi Driveris remarkable, as a character study, and it also flourishes as a quietly intense drama, feeling very of its time, in many ways, but also feeling surprisingly timeless in other ways.
Taxi Driver
2’The Texas Chain Saw Massacre' (1974)
Directed by Tobe Hooper
The Texas Chain Saw Massacrehas lost little of its ability to shock, even though it’s more than half a century old and is almost far less graphic in terms of its violence than one might expect. It’s not a bloodbath, but it is relentlessly intense, being all about a group of young people finding themselves in immense danger after encountering a family of cannibals.
It’s noteworthy forbeing banned in a bunch of countries, at least initially, mostly because it’s so harrowing and nightmarish, rather than for it being obscenely violent in the more expected sense. As such,The Texas Chain Saw Massacreisa no-brainer pick when the topic of conversation concerns especially intense movies from the 1970s. It’s a classic horror movie for a reason, and stands as a pretty much timeless one, too.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
1’Sorcerer' (1977)
Directed by William Friedkin
Having a comparable level of ferocity to bothThe French ConnectionandTo Live and Die in L.A.,Sorcereralso showshow greatWilliam Friedkinwasat making viewers feel on edge. This film serves as an updated version ofthe also intenseThe Wages of Fear, with both movies revolving around desperate men trying to transport highly explosive material across dangerous terrain.
Thisdoes technically makeSorcereran adventure movie(no fantasy elements, though, despite that title), albeit a very grim and continually uneasy one. It could well be the most persistently intense movie of its decade,since the premise itself is so dead-set on highlighting anxiety, and few directors were on Friedkin’s levelwhen it came to helming set pieces that were all about maximum intensity.
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