1970s: Film and Theater

In the 1970s, the film industry continued to thrive by doing what television could not: telling stories that were more complicated, violent, frightening, or sexy than what could be shown to families sitting at home. Two contrasting trends in movie-making were present in the 1970s. On the one hand, a number of filmmakers, both in the United States and in Europe, began to think of film as an art, and they began to make films that were intellectually challenging. Such films were shown at art-house theaters (theaters that show specialty films thought to have artistic merit) and were seen by few. On the other hand, the major studios continued to back what became known as "blockbusters," spectacular films that drew huge audiences. The amount of money spent on and made by movies grew dramatically in the decade.

The string of 1970s blockbusters started with The Godfather (1972), which broke all box-office records. Starring Marlon Brando (1924–) as the boss of a New York mafia family, the film was violent, sexy, and compelling. The Exorcist (1973), based on the novel of the same name by William Peter Blatty (1928–), was so disturbing that it drove some viewers to leave the theater—but it also drew in huge audiences.

Special effects and science-fiction themes were no longer used only in "B"-grade movies. In the 1970s, they contributed to two of the biggest pictures of the decade. The star of Jaws (1975) was a giant fake shark whose menace was made real by the director who went on to become a giant of twentieth-century filmmaking—Steven Spielberg (1946–). Star Wars (1977) used a range of special effects to tell a dramatic space-adventure story. The film—and its sequels, novels, and merchandising—have become a major industry as new films continue to be released in the twenty-first century.

Black performers gained increasing access to movies in the 1970s. They appeared in all-black films, such as the action film Shaft (1971), starring Richard Roundtree (1942–), but also in films with major white stars. From the high drama of the decade's many disaster movies to the high camp of such films as The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), 1970s filmgoers thought they had it all.