The Top 10 Films of 1978
The top-grossing film of 1978 was the throwback musical Grease. It doesn’t appear on Flickchart’s Top 10 list for the year. Nor does 1978’s Star Wars “movie,” the legendarily bad Star Wars Holiday Special. It’s hard to predict what movies will enjoy the most widespread acclaim 40 years on, but five of our top ten got Academy Award wins or nominations. Here they are, along with five that time has been kinder to than the Academy, and some additional picks that we think are worth your time.
10. Autumn Sonata
Autumn Sonata, one of Ingmar Bergman’s most powerful and best known films, was released in 1978, somewhat coincidentally the same year as Interiors, one of Woody Allen’s most Bergmanesque films. The two directly competed against each for Best Original Screenplay and Best Actress at that year’s Academy Awards. The comparison makes clear that what Woody Allen lacks in his attempts to imitate his idol is the ability to dramatize emotional volatility; Allen coldly mutes the drama without giving much idea as to what is happening beneath the surface. The distinction is important to note since the central scene of Autumn Sonata is a 12-round steel-cage emotional death match between Eva (Liv Ullmann) and her mother Charlotte (Ingrid Bergman), a celebrated classical pianist who has returned to her native country after the death of her longtime lover. The movie is deceptive in that it starts with a monologue from Eva’s dutiful husband Viktor (Halvar Bjork) outlining the setting, but leaves out crucial details to be revealed later. Otherwise, he wisely stays out of the way while admiring his wife’s strong will, which she hides behind pigtails and ginormous glasses. Where most directors would frame the story in cliché terms as a daughter working through maternal issues, Bergman sees each character distinctly and three-dimensionally: a daughter valiantly fighting for one last chance to connect with her elusive, clueless mother and get her to care not just about her but also her invalid sister Helena (Lena Nyman). (For the record, Bergman is not going after career women here, as Charlotte is as much a parental disaster when present as she is when absent.) There is neat casting nod in this tale of a prodigal mother returning to her native Sweden; international star Ingrid Bergman does the same for her last big-screen role. Liv Ullmann had also taken on roles in international movies, but with more uneven results.My only serious complaint involves the cause of the sister’s unnamed illness, which Anna speculates about and the movie dutifully confirms without much hard evidence. – Walter Montie
- Global rank: 976
- Wins 52% of matchups
- 399 users have ranked it
- 0 have it at #1
- 13 have it in their top 20
9. Midnight Express
Midnight Express starts out as a dark “Locked Up Abroad” prison thriller, but eventually blossoms (or degrades, depending on your POV) into a meditation on the psychology of lonely desperation and the international legal system. Our “hero” Billy Hayes, played simply and vulnerably by Brad Davis, stands in as a proxy for anybody who finds themselves in way over their head as a result of only minor mistakes, but especially any of the American counterculture denim-heads who would have packed the theaters for the film’s release, and who would have been terrified to see how tame the American brand of The Man is, comparatively. The secret punchline of the film, and most of the 1970s, is that the world is a bigger, more brutal place than any of your post-Hippie idealism could possibly account for. – Doug van Hollen
- Global rank: 901
- Wins 41% of matchups
- 2589 users have ranked it
- 2 users have it at #1
- 27 users have it in their top 20
8. The Last Waltz
If Martin Scorsese‘s name were not attached to this, it would surely reside well outside the global top 1000 with other concert documentaries from the era like Gimme Shelter (#1273), and Woodstock (#1265). Perhaps even lower, because its countercultural cache is compromised by its later release date and by the genre of its music — that perfectly American fusion of soul-baring folk-rock and soul-searching country-folk. People who approach it from the vector of film, lured by the Scorsese name, are sometimes perplexed; the style of the auteur is not readily detectable. It is almost an exercise in cinéma vérité, like D.A. Pennebaker’s Monterey Pop (#4506), largely eschewing the grandiosity of the Woodstock doc and the careful messaging of the Altamont film. This has no pretensions and no hidden motive: it is “just” a concert movie. That’s why it works so well for viewers who approach it from the vector of music, people who know and love the work of The Band and their country-rock ilk. Though the film abbreviates and rearranges the sets that The Band and their friends performed on Thanksgiving Day 1976, and though The Band’s drummer/vocalist Levon Helm harshly (but fairly) criticized Scorsese and his camera crew for focusing on the wrong people at the wrong time, even an imperfect record of this lineup is enough make music buffs prick up their ears: Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Neil Diamond, Dr. John, The Staple Singers, Muddy Waters, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, Van Morrison, and more helped The Band celebrate the end of their touring heyday. This is a film you could “watch” with your eyes closed and perhaps have an experience just as good, and possibly better, than someone who’s looking at the screen wondering what Scorsese has to do with all this. – David Conrad
- Global rank: 829
- Wins 47% of matchups
- 1268 users have ranked it
- 3 have it at #1
- 29 have it in their top 20
7. Superman
Along with Jaws and Star Wars, Superman is part of most conversations about the birth of the blockbuster. In the last few years, as “blockbuster” has become almost synonymous with “superhero film,” it’s surprising that this foundational cape movie hasn’t received more sustained attention as the fulcrum of a cinematic paradigm shift. Perhaps that’s because the character of Superman has struggled to hold his own in a modern movie landscape overrun with his DC and Marvel counterparts; the Man of Steel’s recent outings alongside Batman and the rest of the Justice League have received mixed reviews at best. Paradoxically, then, the movie that launched a four-film franchise and helped to create the modern popcorn movie may in some sense have been an ending as much as a beginning. If you take out the documentaries and the straight-to-video LEGO movies, more than half of the films in Flickchart’s Superman filter are from before 1978. The 1940s and 50s were his heyday as a sole protagonist, as the peerless Übermensch of American comics and film and early television, rather than just one of many overpowered alien/mutant/cybersuited vigilantes. The movie by Richard Donner and Mario Puzo starring Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, Marlon Brando, and Gene Hackman was the culmination of decades of proven audience enthusiasm for a man who could fly, outrace bullets, and overpower steam trains. Though unarguably corny, Reeve’s Clark Kent and Superman are almost impossible not to root for. Superman ’78 got its all-important title character right, and in the wake of all the subsequent sequels and reboots and franchise crossovers, the most praiseworthy legacy of this film might be that it was the last movie to do so. – David
- Global rank: 630
- Wins 44% of matchups
- 43617 users have ranked it
- 66 have it at #1
- 1613 have it in their top 20
6. Invasion of the Body Snatchers
I don’t care what our global rankings say. The best horror film of 1978 is the Invasion of the Body Snatchers remake. It’s one of the best horror films of all-time. I’d enjoyed it immensely after a first viewing, but my second viewing solidified it as a masterpiece. Philip Kaufman’s direction makes the film a fantastic avenue into paranoia mode by constantly building tension. The film practically screams from the slow burn. Donald Sutherland makes a great police detective protagonist and really helps draw the audience into the fear of the film. Leonard Nimoy is also smartly cast as a psychologist examining the events of the film, though with a sinister twist. This remake sharply crafts its characters, creating a sense of realism, and Kaufman’s masterful camerawork adds to the feeling of unease on the way to a classic ending scene that stands as of the most haunting moments in cinema history. That sound will forever resonate in my mind. Those who have seen this masterwork will know what I mean. – Connor Adamson
- Global rank: 606
- Wins 53% of matchups
- 3615 users have ranked it
- 2 have it at #1
- 68 have it in their top 20
5. Halloween
Often thought of as the first “slasher” flick, Halloween sometimes gets lumped in with the myriad thoughtless copycats it inspired, but the one that kicked it all off is actually a really excellent film in its own right. Its genius is in giving just enough information to keep the viewers on edge, but not enough that it explains away all the questions — a criticism often levied at the 2000s remake of the series, which sought to explain what makes Michael Myers tick. The original has none of that. Its Myers is simply a faceless force of mysterious terror, and that’s effective. This is horror at its purest, just a scary situation and an incredible series of builds and releases. The narrative is simple enough that anyone watching can put themselves in the situation, and since this doesn’t require deep character development, it doesn’t hurt the movie to keep the characters a little tropey. And you can’t write a blurb about Halloween without giving a nod to the incredible theme, which, like the movie, immediately sets up a creepy atmosphere from moment one. Even after endless films have copied the Halloween formula, the one that started it all is still an effective horror film, and well worth a watch. – Hannah Keefer
- Global rank: 563
- Wins 46% of matchups
- 33898 users have ranked it
- 133 have it at #1
- 1772 have it in their top 20
4. Dawn of the Dead
Last month I wrote about my first experience with Romero’s masterpiece Night of the Living Dead. I was of course eager to watch his follow-up, but was surprised to find something so vastly different from the first. Dawn of the Dead is not more of the same. In place of the original’s horrifying Civil Rights-era subtext is a scathing satire of bloated American consumerism. Instead of the grainy black-and-white this-might-really-be-happening look of the first, we are treated to a hyper-real Technicolor comic book-style extravaganza. Maybe most shocking (at least for the nihilists who were drawn to the first), is that Dawn, despite its over-the-top violence, has more of a sense of optimism (in the broadest sense of the term), in place of the hopeless we-are-all-screwed finality of Night. Romero proved his zombie revolution was no one-trick pony, and continued to prove it as his themes, and his living dead, evolved over the third and fourth films as well. – Tom Kapr
- Global rank: 468
- Wins 49% of matchups
- 14466 users have ranked it
- 63 have it at #1
- 808 have it in their top 20
3. Animal House
Not many films can claim to have defined quite as many aspects of Western culture as Animal House. It is credited as the first “gross-out” comedy, delighting in property damage, female objectification, and conversation about body functions, and as such was a bold volley in the Landis–Ramis–Lampoon “slobs versus snobs” culture war that would continue in Caddyshack. Animal House has functioned as the definitive stereotype of fraternities and college life in general since its release, despite the fact that it was never like this. It has somehow managed to remain an artistic tentpole in our cultural memory of the 60s, the 70s, and the 80s, without actually resembling any of those decades. But separated from its significance and its badly dated moral compass, Animal House remains an artifact of a brand of filmmaking that is sadly rare, especially in comedy: a kind of lusty, Falstaffian commitment to absurdity and unpopular cultural attitudes, which can win over even the stodgiest viewer through its sheer dedication to the promotion of “fun” as a valid lifestyle choice, worthy of sacrifice and serious pursuit. (Remember when we used to have fun?) – Doug
- Global rank: 425
- Wins 50% of matchups
- 23419 users have ranked it
- 36 have it at #1
- 922 have it in their top 20
2. The Deer Hunter
It’s not unfair to say that the decade after the end of the war was full of Vietnam films. There are several classics covering the subject in a variety of manners. Platoon, Apocalypse Now, Full Metal Jacket, and The Deer Hunter are the big four pillars covering the war with distinct visual and directorial styles. But if you’d ask director Michael Cimino, this isn’t really a ‘Nam film at all. The film is more about the random violence that nature brings and that happens among humanity by virtue of its mere existence. When pressure is applied, all people react differently, and the film explores that by taking different men from a similar background — a rural steel-town near Pittsburgh — and seeing how they all change in response to the horrors of Vietnam. Cimino gives the film an epic scale by detailing the lives of the men in detail leading up to their shipping off to war. In particular we experience an extravagant wedding scene that establishes our protagonists and their friendship before dropping them into hell.
The central metaphor of Russian roulette is harrowing and disheartening. In those famous scenes, you’re apt to feel your knuckles straining from grabbing your chair too hard. But what really brings The Deer Hunter home are the fantastic performances. Robert DeNiro and Christopher Walken are show-stealers, as is the young Meryl Streep. Lately, Streep is often accused of being overrated due to some perhaps less challenging performances in her recent work that have not dissuaded awards ceremonies from making her a predictable nominee. Go back to her early career, though, including The Deer Hunter, and you’ll see why she is still so widely regarded. The Deer Hunter can be hard to watch, and at two and a half hours it is no quick sit. But endure and you will find that fewer films are more emotionally ruinous or more thought-provoking about the nature of mankind. – Connor
- Global rank: 210
- Wins 53% of matchups
- 23632 users have ranked it
- 132 have it at #1
- 2181 have it in their top 20
1. Days of Heaven
In 1973 Terrence Malick made his feature film debut with Badlands, a bleak travelogue starring Ohio boy Martin Sheen and Texas girl Sissy Spacek as a pair of violent runaways on the Great Plains. They were Bonnie and Clyde as they should have been, without a trace of the decidedly adult and unmistakably Hollywood glamour of Beatty and Dunaway, and without their romantic (yes, romantic) ending. It was five years before the then-slow-working Malick released another film, but in 1978 Days of Heaven proved two things: Malick wasn’t a one-hit wonder, and he wasn’t done telling stories of romantic dysfunction in America’s dusty, deadly middle. This movie’s toxic couple, played by Richard Gere and Brooke Adams, are seasonal farm workers. They pose as brother and sister, which leads to confusion and suspicion when the Texas landowner they’re working for (Sam Shepard) takes an interest in Adams’ character. One of the great locust plague sequences in movie history (and there are a number of good ones!) comes midway through this otherwise moody, quiet period drama in which inevitable punctuations of violence are characteristically downplayed. Malick’s movies never lack for conflict — from The Thin Red Line to Tree of Life to this year’s Radegund, conflict shapes the destinies of his characters — but acts of violence per se are seldom his focus. Rather, he is concerned with the geographic and cultural topography in which conflict is a natural (even though socially-constructed) and inevitable (even though seemingly avoidable) byproduct of humans being themselves. People only familiar with Malick’s difficult-to-penetrate recent work, though, should not be afraid to watch Days of Heaven. Unencumbered by abstraction or philosophical dialogue, his sophomore masterpiece works on a simple narrative and emotional level, and well enough to top our Best of 1978 list by almost 100 places. – David
- Global rank: 122
- Wins 57% of matchups
- 2026 users have ranked it
- 16 have it at #1
- 157 have it in their top 20
Blogger’s Picks
Further down the global chart, but favorites in our hearts:
Doug – Interiors
As good as Woody Allen is with comedy (and at his later career of being a myopically terrible person), in his home country he has always been underappreciated as a creator of grand, almost biblical, yet still claustrophobic dramas and tragedies, of which Interiors is his best. Yes, it is painfully obvious that he is channeling Bergman and relying on old masters from his youth for structural support, but by departing from his usual loose semi-improvised dialog and instead crafting lines and deliveries that seem scraped off of marble blocks, he generates an absolutely unique, and uniquely terrible, family atmosphere that, regardless of your family, you will completely understand. Told with no non-diegetic music, in icy plain rooms and pain-stricken faces, Interiors is one of the saddest movies Allen ever made, but it is a sadness that says something and seems to hint at volumes more that it understands about the heart and soul.
- Global rank: 1684
- Wins 46% of matchups
- 685 users have ranked it
- 2 have it at #1
- 10 have it in their top 20
Tom – The Boys from Brazil
Franklin J. Schaffner may not be a director the average person knows by name, but this is a man who could move effortlessly between genres,, from the science fiction of Planet of the Apes to the biographical explorations of Patton and Nicholas and Alexandra to the prison escape film Papillon to this bit of sci-fi inflected horror. Adapted by Heywood Gould from the novel by Ira Levin (who also penned the novel Rosemary’s Baby), The Boys from Brazil explores the premise that Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele, after escaping to Paraguay, continued his ghastly experiments there on the local population, following his obsession with twins to the next logical step, cloning: a premise that has only gotten closer to science fact in the past four decades. (Mengele was still living in Brazil when this film was made.) The film is anchored by great performances from two titans playing against type: Gregory Peck, an actor best known for Atticus Finch and other such characters of upstanding moral integrity, here portraying the Nazi Dr. Mengele; and Laurence Olivier, best known as a Shakespearean thespian and who had himself played a Nazi war criminal only two years earlier in Marathon Man, as the seemingly doddering old Jewish Nazi hunter tracking Mengele down. This film has one of the great sci-fi twists, which I will not spoil here.
- Global rank: 1793
- Wins 45% of its matchups
- 786 users have ranked it
- 0 have it at #1
- 7 have it in their top 20
David – The Lord of the Rings
This movie is probably best watched under the influence of some good pipeweed. Old Toby or Longbottom Leaf, if you can get it. It is a glorious psychedelic disaster — not as funky as it would have been with the Led Zeppelin soundtrack the director wanted, and probably not as insane as The Beatles’ planned version would have been, but as close as we’ll get. Character names are changed inconsistently, flat cel-shaded animation pivots to uncanny-valley Rotoscope at unpredictable intervals, and the movie ends without warning after the Battle of Helm’s Deep because the studio and director couldn’t agree on marketing and sequel issues. Also, what’s going on with Sam’s rubbery face? In the right frame of mind, though, this can be a fun and memorable watch. It moves slower than an Ent, but the scale of the thing is incredible: no previous animated movie had tried to depict epic battles of Tolkien proportions, or had included as many independently-moving figures in a single “shot.” The movie is also interesting as a source of inspiration for Peter Jackson’s artistically and commercially successful trilogy of two decades later; Jackson borrowed the framing of Boromir’s death scene, for example, virtually shot-for-shot. Sadly, we still don’t get any Tom Bombadil.
- Global rank: 2792
- Wins 38% of matchups
- 4512 users have ranked it
- 1 has it at #1
- 52 have it in their top 20
Wayne – Pretty Baby
When most people think of Pretty Baby they think of those two scenes that have made it one of the most controversial movies ever made in America. Let’s forget about that; the movie should not be judged by that alone. Instead let’s look at the movie as a whole. Directed by Frenchman Louis Malle, only his second English speaking film after Black Moon, Pretty Baby puts his fabulous world-building skills front and foremost. The setting of the red light district of New Orleans in 1917 is masterfully crafted, and it was thoroughly believable that you were inside of an everyday brothel of the time. But a great world is not enough. To help pull off a great piece of cinema you also need some superb acting, and that is provided here by Susan Sarandon and Brooke Shields (the supporting cast are no slouches either). Sarandon plays Hattie, the prostitute mother to Shields’ Violet, to near perfection, and you wouldn’t expect much less of her. Shields however was the big surprise, as this was only her second film role, and her first as a lead. It is rare for a young actress to play a role so different from their everyday life and make it feel natural and believable. It is for that reason that when those scenes do finally come, you are so engrossed in the movie that you don’t notice them for what they really are, but just buy into them as natural progressions in the story.
- Global rank: 4400
- Wins 36% of matchups
- 304 users have ranked it
- 1 has it at #1
- 10 have it in their top 20
9. What do I win?
See last month’s comment. :)
7. Although going through the list reminds me that I never got around to the original Dawn of the Dead so I should get on that. And I JUST saw Invasion of the Body Snatchers two weeks ago and it’s incredible!