20 Movies That Prove That The 1970s Was The Best Decade For Film

10. Jaws

'You're gonna need a bigger boat'. You can't talk about film in the 1970s without talking about Jaws. Spielberg's 1975 monster movie birthed the blockbuster and changed the face of American motion pictures forever. The idea is, as all good ones are, a simple one: man versus shark. In the hands of a lesser director, this would be an excuse for a cinematic bloodbath, but Spielberg chose to go another direction and the results are spectacular. The shark (which Spielberg admitted to being fake-looking) is rarely glimpsed throughout the film's run time. This just builds up audience suspense and, when the shark finally surfaces, the popcorn flies. There are some truly ingenious scares in Jaws and audiences flocked in droves to see them. Made for $9m, the film grossed $470m at the box-office (and millions more in merchandise). Suddenly, films were released on thousands of screens simultaneously with huge advertising campaigns. The film industry never looked back. A watershed moment (pardon the pun).