Reader Top Ten Greatest Science Fiction Movies of the 1970s: Jeremy Meyer

Reader and friend, Jeremy Meyer, provides us our first list of Saturday, for the top ten greatest science fiction films of the 1970s.

Jeremy writes:

"A wonderful decade to look back on, but unfortunately such backward glances are bittersweet. It seems unlikely now that any major studio would throw financial muscle behind some of the weird and wonderful ideas present in 70s sci-fi, and it may be that such bold and ambitious projects are solely the domain of the indie community in 2013. 

10. Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) [Lucas] - Star Wars put science fiction on the map for big studios, and proved that there was a vast public appetite for space battles and foreign worlds outside of Star Trek. While not the definitive Star Wars movie for me, (a title firmly in the hands of The Empire Strikes Back) A New Hope was a colorful and electrifying space fantasy, anchored by the charismatic performance of Harrison Ford and myriad wonderful locations.

9. Fantastic Planet (1973) [René Laloux , Roland Topor] - Surely a contender for the strangest feature-length animation in history, Fantastic Planet is an LSD-induced phantasmagoria examining in beautiful but often brutal fashion the issues of racism, aggression and technological rebirth. The dynamic between the enormous, cerebral Traags and the reckless abandon of the tiny Oms is wonderfully drawn and made all the more poignant as the film hails from Czechoslovakia, a country which had been in the thrall first of Nazism and then Stalinism.

8. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) [Steven Spielberg] - There is definitely a case to be made for Spielberg having created more iconic science fiction images than any other director. Close Encounters and E.T. in particular have been absorbed into the public consciousness to such a degree that they are as close to canonical as the genre gets. This is Spielberg at his best; spellbinding visuals and a genuine knack for knowing intuitively just what it is that makes certain moments memorable.

7. The Man Who Fell To Earth (1976) [Roeg] - Rarely has there been a more audacious picture from a mainstream studio. Paramount Pictures were willing to back Roeg after the success of 1973's Don't Look Now but lived to regret their decision, refusing to release Roeg's finished work. A cocaine-addicted David Bowie is perfect as the stranded alien Thomas Newton, barely having to act to seem detached, melancholy and thoroughly strange. Rip Torn and Candy Clark are both wonderful as well, but in truth it is Roeg's cinematography that is the real star, oscillating between serenity and paranoia as Newton's motivation to save his family is gradually eroded by the modern evils of sex, drugs and television.

6. Sleeper (1973) [Allen] - A slapstick tour-de-force from the masterful comic pairing of Woody Allen and Diane Keaton, Sleeper is the funniest the future has ever been. Miles Monroe (Allen) goes to hospital for a routine operation and wakes up 200 years later to find himself in an incompetent and disintegrating police state, where naturally he somehow manages to change the world order and win the girl. Part homage to the silent era and part gentle satire of modern sensibilities, Sleeper is easy to overlook but difficult to forget.

5. Silent Running (1971) [Trumbull] - Dern's descent into quiet madness after thrice committing murder is impressively realised, as is the subtlety of the plot which was apparently lost on many critics at the time. Commonly pigeonholed either as an environmental parable or a condemnation of eco-terrorism, Silent Running is actually neither. Lowell commits terrible crimes for wonderful reasons and is immediately filled with regret that not only drives him mad, but also causes him to inadvertently repeat the sins of those he blames for his predicament. Lowell damns mankind for misusing resources and unbalancing ecosystems in hedonistic fashion, yet his misuse and eventual destruction of the droids proves him just as bad as the rest of humanity. Few genre films before or since have possessed such depth.

4. Alien (1979) [Scott] - Set the bar so high for science-fiction and horror that is has never since been equaled. Alien is perfect in almost every respect; it boasts one of the great feminist heroes of cinema in Sigourney Weaver's Ellen Ripley, courtesy of H.R. Giger it has a monster that is stunning and terrifying in equal measure, and courtesy of director Ridley Scott is has an atmosphere of claustrophobia and dread that is almost palpable.

3. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) [Kaufman] - Wonderfully cast with Sutherland, Nimoy and Goldblum each excelling, Kaufman's adaptation of the paranoid 1956 classic was perfectly updated with oozing body horror and almost unbearable tension. Originally an allegory for McCarthyism, the remake manages to find equally fertile ground post-Watergate with the US once more a country deeply divided and full of distrust. The final scene is one of the most effective in film history.

2. Solaris (1976) [Tarkovsky] - Tarkovsky is revered as one of those rare directors whose pictures aspired to transcend the medium and be seen as true art, and Solaris is one of his finest efforts. The best science fiction attempts to use a potential future as a lens to bring aspects of the present into focus, and that is exactly what Solaris achieves with its extra-terrestrial examination of how we perceive reality. That it is quietly beautiful and expertly paced is merely a bonus.

1. A Clockwork Orange (1971) [Kubrick] - Translating Burgess' complex novel onto the screen was not a task achievable for any director, but Kubrick succeeded here in a way perhaps no-one else could have. His dystopia drips with cynicism and darkling imagination, which combined with Burgess' extraordinary dialogue and McDowell's typically unhinged performance creates a world and a film like no other. Crime and punishment have never been given a more thorough nor a stranger examination. 

Jeremy: This is a great list, and I am happy to see Solaris make another reader's tally.  That film is an amazing, one-of-a-kind film, and I always see something new in it when I watch it again.  

But it is also awesome that your list features two titles that haven't appeared on any lists thus far: The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) and Sleeper (1973).  

I love your description (even if bittersweet...) of the 1970s sci-fi cinema, and these titles are perfect representations of what seems missing (save for indies...) in the genre today.