Top 76 Ranked

Best 1979 Movies

War Dreams and Space Terrors: Cinema’s Last Great Era

Discover the best films from a landmark year in cinema. Explore rankings of cult classics, sci-fi masterpieces, and award-winning dramas.

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About Movies in 1979

If you want to pinpoint the exact moment when the grit of seventies New Hollywood collided with the spectacle of the modern blockbuster era, look no further than 1979. It was a year that felt like a bridge between two worlds. The decade started with a focus on realism and weary cynicism, then drifted toward the cosmic and the fantastical. By the time 1979 rolled around, the industry was operating at a fever pitch, producing masterpieces that managed to be intellectually rigorous while also functioning as massive cultural events.

The most towering achievement of the year was undoubtedly Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now. After a production cycle that nearly killed its cast and crew, the film arrived as a hallucinatory scream about the soul of America. It represented the ultimate ambition of the director-driven era. It was a movie that pushed the medium to its breaking point, proving that a war film could be a psychedelic art piece. Yet even as Coppola was exploring the darkness of the human heart, Ridley Scott was taking us into the darkness of deep space.

Alien changed everything for science fiction and horror. It stripped away the optimism that Star Wars had injected into the genre just two years prior, replacing it with cold industrialism and a terrifying biological threat. It gave us Ellen Ripley, a protagonist who redefined what a hero could look like, and it proved that a B-movie premise could be executed with A-list sophistication. Between the jungle of Vietnam and the corridors of the Nostromo, 1979 was a year defined by atmosphere and dread.

However, it was not all gloom. The year also showcased a remarkable range of human stories. Woody Allen gave us Manhattan, a love letter to a city that functioned as a pinnacle of the sophisticated urban comedy. On the other end of the spectrum, Being There gave Peter Sellers the role of a lifetime in a biting satire about the emptiness of political fame. These films reminded audiences that cinema could be quiet, witty, and deeply observant about the way we live.

We also cannot overlook the cult phenomena that emerged. The Warriors turned a trip through the New York subway into a neon-soaked odyssey, while Mad Max burst out of Australia to introduce a visceral new language of action filmmaking. Even the world of comedy was being upended by Monty Python’s Life of Brian, which remains perhaps the boldest and bravest religious satire ever put to celluloid.

Film fans remember 1979 because it felt like the last year of total creative freedom before the franchise-obsessed eighties truly took hold. It was a year where a movie about a divorce, Kramer vs. Kramer, could become the highest-grossing film of the year and sweep the Oscars. It was a time when the box office and critical prestige were often in total alignment. Cinema was evolving. The tech was getting better, the budgets were getting bigger, but the stories were still deeply human. It was the perfect finale for an incredible decade of film.

The Complete Rankings

Based on the top picks in drafts on SnakeDrafts

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76
1979 in The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie (1979)
The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie
1979

A collection of Warner Brothers short cartoon features, "starring" the likes of Daffy Duck, Porky Pig and Wile.E.Coyote. These animations are interspersed by Bugs Bunny reminiscing on past events and providing links between the individual animations which are otherwise unconnected. This 1979 feature-length compilation includes several of his best cartoons. Among the 11 shorts shown in their entirety are the classics "Robin Hood Daffy," "What's Opera, Doc?," "Bully for Bugs," and "Duck Amuck". The Bugs Bunny Road Runner Movie provides a showcase not only for Jones's razor-sharp timing, but for the work of his exceptional crew, which included designer Maurice Noble, writer Mike Maltese, composers Carl Stalling and Milt Franklyn, and voice actor Mel Blanc.

Animation
Comedy
1h 37m
Chuck Jones
Mel Blanc, Arthur Q. Bryan, Paul Julian, Nicolai Shutorev
75
1979 in The Bronte Sisters (1979)
The Bronte Sisters
1979

In a small presbytery in Yorkshire, England, living under the watchful eyes of their aunt and father, a strict Anglican pastor, the Bronte sisters write their first works and quickly become literary sensations.

Drama
2h 0m
André Téchiné
Isabelle Adjani, Marie-France Pisier, Isabelle Huppert, Pascal Greggory
74
1979 in Chilly Scenes of Winter (1979)
Chilly Scenes of Winter
1979

Charles is a bored civil servant struggling through a harsh Utah winter. He spends most of his time reflecting on his romance with Laura, a coworker who left him to return to her husband, an A-Frame salesman.

Comedy
Drama
1h 35m
Joan Micklin Silver
John Heard, Mary Beth Hurt, Peter Riegert, Kenneth McMillan

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73
1979 in The Onion Field (1979)
The Onion Field
1979

An LA police officer is murdered in the onion fields outside of Bakersfield. However, legal loopholes could keep his kidnappers from receiving justice, and his partner is haunted by overwhelming survivor's guilt.

Crime
Drama
2h 2m
Harold Becker
72
1979 in Elvis (1979)
Elvis
1979

This biopic traces Elvis Presley’s life from his impoverished childhood to his meteoric rise to stardom to his triumphant conquering of Las Vegas.

Drama
Music
Kurt Russell, Shelley Winters, Bing Russell, Robert Gray
71
1979 in The Promise (1979)
The Promise
1979

A rich student's fiancee has her face destroyed by a car accident, and refuses to return to him fearing the loss of his love.

Drama
Romance
1h 37m
Gilbert Cates
Kathleen Quinlan, Stephen Collins, Beatrice Straight, Laurence Luckinbill
70
1979 in The Amityville Horror (1979)
The Amityville Horror
1979

George Lutz, his wife Kathy, and their three children have just moved into a beautiful, and improbably cheap, Victorian mansion nestled in the sleepy coastal town of Amityville, Long Island. However, their dream home is concealing a horrific past and soon each member of the Lutz family is plagued with increasingly strange and violent visions and impulses.

Horror
1h 58m
Stuart Rosenberg
James Brolin, Margot Kidder, Rod Steiger, Don Stroud
69
1979 in Love on the Run (1979)
Love on the Run
1979

Now in his thirties, Antoine Doinel is a divorced proofreader in love with a record seller. Colette Tazzi, now a lawyer, buys his first published autobiography, leading them to a chance meeting.

Romance
Drama
1h 33m
François Truffaut
Jean-Pierre Léaud, Marie-France Pisier, Claude Jade, Dani
68
1979 in The Human Factor (1979)
The Human Factor
1979

When a leak of information in the African section of British Intelligence is discovered, a security man is brought in to investigate.

Thriller
1h 55m
Otto Preminger
Nicol Williamson, Richard Attenborough, Derek Jacobi, John Gielgud
67
1979 in Zulu Dawn (1979)
Zulu Dawn
1979

In 1879, the British suffer a great loss at the Battle of Isandlwana due to incompetent leadership.

Adventure
Drama
1h 57m
Douglas Hickox
Burt Lancaster, Peter O'Toole, John Mills, Denholm Elliott
66
1979 in Woyzeck (1979)
Woyzeck
1979

Having fathered an illegitimate child with his lover, Marie, feckless soldier Franz Woyzeck takes odd jobs around his small town to provide some extra money for them. One job is volunteering for experiments conducted by a local doctor, who puts Woyzeck on a diet of peas. This serves to drive him close to madness, and the discovery that Marie is involved in an affair with the local drum major exacerbates the situation. Pushed too far, Woyzeck resorts to violence.

Drama
1h 22m
Werner Herzog
Klaus Kinski, Eva Mattes, Wolfgang Reichmann, Willy Semmelrogge
65
1979 in Penitentiary (1979)
Penitentiary
1979

A hitchhiker named Martel Gordone gets in a fight with two bikers over a prostitute, and one of the bikers is killed. Gordone is arrested and sent to prison, where he joins the prison's boxing team in an effort to secure an early parole and to establish his dominance over the prison's toughest gang.

Action
Drama
1h 39m
Jamaa Fanaka
Leon Isaac Kennedy, Thommy Pollard , Hazel Spears , Donovan Womack
64
1979 in Yanks (1979)
Yanks
1979

During WWII, the United States set up army bases in Great Britain as part of the war effort. Against their proper sensibilities, many of the Brits don't much like the brash Yanks, especially when it comes to the G.I.s making advances on the lonely British girls. One relationship that develops is between married John, an Army Captain, and the aristocratic Helen, whose naval husband is away at war. Helen loves her husband, but Helen and John are looking for some comfort during the difficult times.

Romance
Drama
2h 18m
John Schlesinger
Richard Gere, Lisa Eichhorn, Vanessa Redgrave, William Devane
63
1979 in Caligula (1979)
Caligula
1979

After the death of the paranoid emperor Tiberius, Caligula, his heir, seizes power and plunges the empire into a bloody spiral of madness and depravity.

Drama
History
2h 36m
Tinto Brass
62
1979 in The Black Hole (1979)
The Black Hole
1979

The explorer craft USS Palomino is returning to Earth after a fruitless 18-month search for extra-terrestrial life when the crew comes upon a supposedly lost ship, the USS Cygnus, hovering near a black hole. The ship is controlled by Dr. Hans Reinhardt and his monstrous robot companion, but the initial wonderment and awe the Palomino crew feel for the ship and its resistance to the power of the black hole turn to horror as they uncover Reinhardt's plans.

Adventure
Science Fiction
1h 38m
Gary Nelson
Maximilian Schell, Anthony Perkins, Robert Forster, Joseph Bottoms
61
1979 in Starting Over (1979)
Starting Over
1979

After divorcing his ambitious singer wife, a middle-aged man begins a new relationship with a teacher.

Comedy
Romance
1h 45m
Alan J. Pakula
Burt Reynolds, Jill Clayburgh, Candice Bergen, Charles Durning
60
1979 in Tale of Tales (1979)
Tale of Tales
1979

Distant, well-worn memories of childhood are inhabited by a little gray wolf. Through astonishing imagery, the memory of all of Russia is depicted.

Animation
29m
Yuri Norstein
Aleksandr Kalyagin
59
1979 in Richard Pryor: Live in Concert (1979)
Richard Pryor: Live in Concert
1979

Richard Pryor delivers monologues on race, sex, family and his favorite target—himself, live at the Terrace Theatre in Long Beach, California.

Comedy
1h 18m
Jeff Margolis
Richard Pryor, Jennifer Lee Pryor
58
1979 in Last Embrace (1979)
Last Embrace
1979

Secret agent Harry Hannan suffers a mental breakdown when a botched mission in Mexico results in the death of his wife. He is sent to a mental asylum, after which he eventually returns to work. But, once again, he begins to doubt his sanity when he receives a bizarre death threat written in Hebrew. Not knowing which of his colleagues wants to kill him, Hannan teams up with pretty young college student Ellie Fabian to attempt to unravel the mystery.

Thriller
Mystery
1h 42m
Jonathan Demme
Roy Scheider, Janet Margolin, John Glover, Sam Levene
57
1979 in Fogo, Fire Island (1979)
Fogo, Fire Island
1979

Documentary about Cape Verde and the island of Fogo produced by the revolutionary government of the new country. A culture learning to live without tutelage.

Documentary
32m
Sarah Maldoror
56
1979 in Luna (1979)
Luna
1979

While touring in Italy, a recently-widowed American opera singer has an incestuous relationship with her 15-year-old son to help him overcome his heroin addiction.

Drama
2h 22m
Bernardo Bertolucci
Jill Clayburgh, Matthew Barry, Veronica Lazăr, Renato Salvatori
55
1979 in The Rose (1979)
The Rose
1979

Rock-and-roll singer Mary Rose Foster's romantic relationships and mental health are continuously imperilled by the demands of life on the road.

Drama
Music
2h 5m
Mark Rydell
54
1979 in 1941 (1979)
1941
1979

In the days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, panic grips California, where a military officer leads a mob chasing a Japanese sub.

Comedy
War
Dan Aykroyd, Ned Beatty, John Belushi, Lorraine Gary
53
1979 in Wise Blood (1979)
Wise Blood
1979

A Southerner--young, poor, ambitious but uneducated--determines to become something in the world. He decides that the best way to do that is to become a preacher and start up his own church.

Comedy
Drama
Brad Dourif, Dan Shor, Amy Wright, Harry Dean Stanton
52
1979 in Going in Style (1979)
Going in Style
1979

Three kindly old men decide to light up the dimming twilight of their lives with a last blaze of glory – by sticking up a Manhattan bank in broad daylight.

Crime
Drama
1h 37m
Martin Brest
George Burns, Art Carney, Lee Strasberg, Charles Hallahan
51
1979 in Fascination (1979)
Fascination
1979

A runaway criminal breaks into an eerie chateau, taking its two frightened chambermaids hostage. As night falls, a group of mysterious aristocratic women arrive and the criminal begins to realize the women are hiding a sinister secret.

Horror
1h 20m
Jean Rollin
Franca Maï, Jean-Marie Lemaire, Brigitte Lahaie, Fanny Magier
50
1979 in The Frisco Kid (1979)
The Frisco Kid
1979

Rabbi Avram arrives in Philadelphia from Poland en route to San Francisco where he will be a congregation's new rabbi. An innocent and inexperienced traveller, he is tricked by con men to pay for the trip to go west, then they leave him and his belongings scattered along a deserted road. He is befriended by a stranger, Tommy, who is a bank robber and have many adventures during their journey.

Adventure
Comedy
1h 59m
Robert Aldrich
Gene Wilder, Harrison Ford, Ramon Bieri, Val Bisoglio
49
1979 in The Black Stallion (1979)
The Black Stallion
1979

While traveling with his father, young Alec becomes fascinated by a mysterious Arabian stallion that is brought on board and stabled in the ship he is sailing on. When it tragically sinks both he and the horse survive only to be stranded on a deserted island. He befriends it, so when finally rescued both return to his home where they soon meet Henry Dailey, a once successful trainer. Together they begin training the horse to race against the fastest ones in the world.

Family
Adventure
1h 58m
Carroll Ballard
Kelly Reno, Mickey Rooney, Teri Garr, Clarence Muse
48
1979 in Heartland (1979)
Heartland
1979

Widowed Elinor Randall and her young daughter Jerrine arrive in a barren stretch of Wyoming in 1910 after Elinor's application for work as a housekeeper is accepted by Clyde Stewart, a rancher. The work is back-breaking and the isolation is brutal, particularly as winter arrives. Elinor begins to think about homesteading her own property near Stewart's ranch, but Stewart tries to dissuade her with explanations about the killing conditions and poor rewards, especially for a woman with no man to help her ranch. Although their temperaments are different and little affection exists, Elinor and Stewart agree to marry and combine homesteads. What lies ahead is the severest test of all.

Drama
Romance
1h 36m
Richard Pearce
Rip Torn, Conchata Ferrell, Barry Primus, Megan Folsom
47
1979 in Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979)
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
1979

Capt. William "Buck" Rogers is a jovial space cowboy who is accidentally time-warped from 1987 to 2491. Earth is engaged in interplanetary war following a global holocaust, and Buck's piloting skills make him an ideal starfighter recruit for the Earth Defense Directorate.

Science Fiction
Adventure
1h 29m
Daniel Haller
Gil Gerard, Pamela Hensley, Erin Gray, Henry Silva
46
1979 in The Driller Killer (1979)
The Driller Killer
1979

An artist slowly goes insane while struggling to pay his bills, work on his paintings, and care for his two female roommates, which leads him taking to the streets of New York after dark and randomly killing derelicts with a power drill.

Horror
1h 41m
Abel Ferrara
Abel Ferrara, Carolyn Marz, Baybi Day, Harry Schultz
45
1979 in The Main Event (1979)
The Main Event
1979

A bankrupt entrepreneur attempts to recoup some of her losses by getting a washed-out boxer she picked up as a tax loss back into the ring — an idea her protégé isn't fond of.

Comedy
Romance
1h 52m
Howard Zieff
Barbra Streisand, Ryan O'Neal, Paul Sand, Whitman Mayo
44
1979 in North Dallas Forty (1979)
North Dallas Forty
1979

A semi-fictional account of life as a professional football player. Loosely based on the Dallas Cowboys team of the early 1970s.

Comedy
Drama
1h 59m
Ted Kotcheff
Nick Nolte, Mac Davis, Charles Durning, Dayle Haddon
43
1979 in Saint Jack (1979)
Saint Jack
1979

Jack Flowers is an American hustler trying to make his fortune in 1970s Singapore in small time pimping. His dreams of building a fortune by running a brothel himself and returning to the States is materialized when he is offered the opportunity by the CIA to run a brothel for the R&R activities of U.S. soldiers on leave in Singapore.

Drama
1h 55m
Peter Bogdanovich
Ben Gazzara, Denholm Elliott, James Villiers, Joss Ackland
42
1979 in Scum (1979)
Scum
1979

Powerful, uncompromising drama about two boys' struggle for survival in the nightmare world of Britain's notorious Borstal Reformatory.

Drama
Crime
1h 36m
Alan Clarke
Ray Winstone, Mick Ford, Julian Firth, John Blundell
41
1979 in The Great Alligator (1979)
The Great Alligator
1979

Tourists on a tropical island anger an island god, who turns himself into a giant alligator and stalks them.

Horror
Mystery
1h 28m
Sergio Martino
Barbara Bach, Claudio Cassinelli, Mel Ferrer, Romano Puppo
40
1979 in Real Life (1979)
Real Life
1979

A pushy, narcissistic filmmaker persuades a Phoenix family to let him and his crew film their everyday lives, in the manner of the ground-breaking PBS series "An American Family".

Comedy
1h 39m
Albert Brooks
Albert Brooks, Charles Grodin, Frances Lee McCain, Lisa Urette
39
1979 in My Brilliant Career (1979)
My Brilliant Career
1979

A young woman who is determined to maintain her independence finds herself at odds with her family who wants her to tame her wild side and get married.

Drama
Romance
1h 40m
Gillian Armstrong
Judy Davis, Sam Neill, Wendy Hughes, Robert Grubb
38
1979 in Over the Edge (1979)
Over the Edge
1979

A group of bored teenagers rebel against authority in the community of New Granada.

Crime
Drama
1h 35m
Jonathan Kaplan
Michael Eric Kramer, Pamela Ludwig, Matt Dillon, Vincent Spano
37
1979 in The Electric Horseman (1979)
The Electric Horseman
1979

A former champion rodeo rider is reduced to using his saddle skills to promote a breakfast cereal in a gaudy Las Vegas show. When he's asked to perform with a $12 million horse, he discovers it is being doped to remain docile. He flees into the desert astride the beast in an act of defiance. A story-hungry female reporter gives chase.

Drama
Romance
Robert Redford, Jane Fonda, Valerie Perrine, Willie Nelson
36
1979 in The Wanderers (1979)
The Wanderers
1979

The streets of the Bronx are owned by '60s youth gangs where the joy and pain of adolescence is lived. Philip Kaufman tells his take on the novel by Richard Price about the history of the Italian-American gang ‘The Wanderers.’

Drama
1h 57m
Philip Kaufman
Ken Wahl, John Friedrich, Karen Allen, Toni Kalem
35
1979 in Norma Rae (1979)
Norma Rae
1979

Norma Rae is a southern textile worker employed in a factory with intolerable working conditions. This concern about the situation gives her the gumption to be the key associate to a visiting labor union organizer. Together, they undertake the difficult, and possibly dangerous, struggle to unionize her factory.

Drama
1h 50m
Martin Ritt
Sally Field, Beau Bridges, Ron Leibman, Pat Hingle
34
1979 in The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979)
The Marriage of Maria Braun
1979

Maria marries a young soldier in the last days of World War II, only for him to go missing in the war. She must rely on her beauty and ambition to navigate the difficult post-war years alone.

Drama
2h 0m
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Hanna Schygulla, Klaus Löwitsch, Ivan Desny, George Eagles
33
1979 in Winter Kills (1979)
Winter Kills
1979

The younger brother of an assassinated US President is led down a rabbit hole of conspiracies and dead ends after learning of a man claiming to be the real shooter.

Drama
Mystery
1h 37m
William Richert
Jeff Bridges, John Huston, Anthony Perkins, Eli Wallach
32
1979 in The Brood (1979)
The Brood
1979

A man tries to uncover an unconventional psychologist's therapy techniques on his institutionalized wife, while a series of brutal attacks committed by a brood of mutant children coincides with the husband's investigation.

Horror
Science Fiction
Oliver Reed, Samantha Eggar, Art Hindle, Henry Beckman
31
1979 in Hair (1979)
Hair
1979

Upon receiving his draft notice and leaving his family ranch in Oklahoma, Claude heads to New York and befriends a tribe of long-haired hippies on his way to boot camp.

Music
Drama
2h 1m
Miloš Forman
John Savage, Treat Williams, Beverly D'Angelo, Annie Golden
30
1979 in ...And Justice for All (1979)
...And Justice for All
1979

An ethical Baltimore defense lawyer disgusted with rampant legal corruption is forced to defend a judge he despises in a rape trial under the threat of being disbarred.

Drama
Al Pacino, Jack Warden, John Forsythe, Lee Strasberg
29
1979 in The In-Laws (1979)
The In-Laws
1979

In preparation for his daughter's wedding, dentist Sheldon Kornpett meets Vince Ricardo, the groom's father. Vince, a manic fellow who claims to be a government agent, then proceeds to drag Sheldon into a series of chases and misadventures from New York to Central America.

Action
Adventure
1h 43m
Arthur Hiller
Peter Falk, Alan Arkin, Richard Libertini, Nancy Dussault
28
1979 in Love at First Bite (1979)
Love at First Bite
1979

Dracula and Renfield relocate to '70s era New York in search of Cindy Sondheim, the reincarnation of Dracula's one true love, Mina Harker. "Trouble adjusting" is a wild understatement for the Count as he battles Cindy's psychiatrist, Jeffrey Rosenberg, a descendant of Van Helsing, who may be in love with Cindy too.

Romance
Comedy
1h 36m
Stan Dragoti
George Hamilton, Susan Saint James, Richard Benjamin, Dick Shawn
27
1979 in Time After Time (1979)
Time After Time
1979

Writer H. G. Wells pursues Jack the Ripper to modern day San Francisco after the infamous serial killer steals his time machine to escape the 19th century.

Adventure
Drama
1h 52m
Nicholas Meyer
Malcolm McDowell, David Warner, Mary Steenburgen, Charles Cioffi
26
1979 in The Europeans (1979)
The Europeans
1979

An adaptation of Henry James' novel about the Countess Eugenia Münster and her brother Robert, expatriate Americans who have grown up in Europe. Returning to prosperous relatives in New England, Eugenia hopes to make an advantageous marriage with a wealthy cousin. While Eugenia encounters obstacles, Robert finds his suit bearing fruit.

Drama
Romance
1h 31m
James Ivory
Lee Remick, Robin Ellis, Wesley Addy, Tim Choate
25
1979 in Zombie Flesh Eaters (1979)
Zombie Flesh Eaters
1979

After an abandoned boat sails into New York harbor with a zombie aboard, a reporter teams up with the daughter of the boat's missing owner to investigate the island where he was last seen conducting research—the site of an alleged zombie outbreak.

Horror
1h 31m
Lucio Fulci
Tisa Farrow, Ian McCulloch, Richard Johnson, Olga Karlatos
24
1979 in Tess (1979)
Tess
1979

A strong-willed peasant girl is sent by her father to the estate of some local aristocrats to capitalize on a rumor that their families are from the same line, but is left traumatised from her experiences.

Drama
Romance
Nastassja Kinski, Peter Firth, Leigh Lawson, John Collin
23
1979 in Meatballs (1979)
Meatballs
1979

Tripper is the head counselor at a budget summer camp called Camp Northstar. In truth, he's young at heart and only marginally more mature than the campers themselves. Tripper befriends Rudy, a loner camper who has trouble fitting in. As Tripper inspires his young charges to defeat rival Camp Mohawk in the annual Olympiad competition, Rudy plays matchmaker between Tripper and Roxanne, a female counselor at Northstar.

Comedy
Bill Murray, Harvey Atkin, Russ Banham, Kristine DeBell
22
1979 in Quadrophenia (1979)
Quadrophenia
1979

Based on the 1973 rock opera album of the same name by The Who, this is the story of 60s teenager Jimmy. At work he slaves in a dead-end job. While after, he shops for tailored suits and rides his scooter as part of the London Mod scene.

Drama
Music
2h 0m
Franc Roddam
Phil Daniels, Leslie Ash, Phil Davis, Mark Wingett
21
1979 in The Tin Drum (1979)
The Tin Drum
1979

In 1924, Oskar Matzerath is born in the Free City of Danzig. At age three, he falls down a flight of stairs and stops growing. In 1939, World War II breaks out.

Drama
History
2h 42m
Volker Schlöndorff
Mario Adorf, Angela Winkler, David Bennent, Katharina Thalbach
20
1979 in Moonraker (1979)
Moonraker
1979

After Drax Industries' Moonraker space shuttle is hijacked, secret agent James Bond is assigned to investigate, traveling to California to meet the company's owner, the mysterious Hugo Drax. With the help of scientist Dr. Holly Goodhead, Bond soon uncovers Drax's nefarious plans for humanity, all the while fending off an old nemesis, Jaws, and venturing to Venice, Rio, the Amazon...and even outer space.

Action
Adventure
2h 6m
Lewis Gilbert
Roger Moore, Lois Chiles, Michael Lonsdale, Richard Kiel
19
1979 in The China Syndrome (1979)
The China Syndrome
1979

While doing a series of reports on alternative energy sources, opportunistic reporter Kimberly Wells witnesses an accident at a nuclear power plant. Wells is determined to publicize the incident, but soon finds herself entangled in a sinister conspiracy to keep the full impact of the incident a secret.

Drama
Thriller
2h 2m
James Bridges
18
1979 in Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)
Nosferatu the Vampyre
1979

A real estate agent leaves behind his beautiful wife to go to Transylvania to visit the mysterious Count Dracula and formalize the purchase of a property in Wismar.

Drama
Horror
1h 47m
Werner Herzog
Klaus Kinski, Isabelle Adjani, Bruno Ganz, Roland Topor
17
1979 in 10 (1979)
10
1979

A Hollywood songwriter goes through a mid-life crisis and becomes infatuated with a sexy blonde newlywed.

Comedy
Romance
Dudley Moore, Julie Andrews, Bo Derek, Robert Webber
16
1979 in The Great Santini (1979)
The Great Santini
1979

As he approaches manhood, Ben Meechum struggles to win the approval of his demanding alpha male father, an aggressively competitive, but frustrated marine pilot.

Drama
1h 55m
Lewis John Carlino
Robert Duvall, Blythe Danner, Michael O'Keefe, Lisa Jane Persky
15
1979 in Rocky II (1979)
Rocky II
1979

After Rocky goes the distance with champ Apollo Creed, both try to put the fight behind them and move on. Rocky settles down with Adrian but can't put his life together outside the ring, while Creed seeks a rematch to restore his reputation. Soon enough, the "Master of Disaster" and the "Italian Stallion" are set on a collision course for a climactic battle that is brutal and unforgettable.

Drama
Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers
14
1979 in The Muppet Movie (1979)
The Muppet Movie
1979

The Muppets gather to watch their newly-finished big-budget rich-and-famous feature film: a talent agent persuades Kermit the Frog to leave the swamp to pursue a career in Hollywood. On his way there, he meets a bear, a pig, a whatever (his future muppet crew), and some special celebrity guest stars, while being chased by the desperate owner of a frog-leg restaurant!

Family
Comedy
1h 35m
James Frawley
Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Jerry Nelson, Richard Hunt
13
1979 in Breaking Away (1979)
Breaking Away
1979

Dave, nineteen, has just graduated high school, with his three friends: the comical Cyril, the warm hearted but short-tempered Moocher, and the athletic, spiteful but good-hearted Mike. Now, Dave enjoys racing bikes and hopes to race the Italians one day, and even takes up the Italian culture, much to his friends' and parents' annoyance.

Drama
Comedy
1h 41m
Peter Yates
Dennis Christopher, Dennis Quaid, Daniel Stern, Jackie Earle Haley
12
1979 in Escape from Alcatraz (1979)
Escape from Alcatraz
1979

San Francisco Bay, January 18, 1960. Frank Lee Morris is transferred to Alcatraz, a maximum security prison located on a rocky island. Although no one has ever managed to escape from there, Frank and other inmates begin to carefully prepare an escape plan.

Drama
Thriller
1h 53m
Don Siegel
Clint Eastwood, Patrick McGoohan, Roberts Blossom, Jack Thibeau
11
1979 in The Jerk (1979)
The Jerk
1979

After discovering he's not really black like the rest of his family, likable dimwit Navin Johnson sets off on a hilarious misadventure that takes him from rags to riches and back again. The slaphappy jerk strikes it rich, but life in the fast lane isn't all it's cracked up to be and, in the end, all that really matters to Johnson is his true love.

Comedy
1h 34m
Carl Reiner
Steve Martin, Bernadette Peters, Catlin Adams, Mabel King
10
1979 in Life of Brian (1979)
Life of Brian
1979

Brian Cohen is an average young Jewish man, but through a series of ridiculous events, he gains a reputation as the Messiah. When he's not dodging his followers or being scolded by his shrill mother, the hapless Brian has to contend with the pompous Pontius Pilate and acronym-obsessed members of a separatist movement. Rife with Monty Python's signature absurdity, the tale finds Brian's life paralleling Biblical lore, albeit with many more laughs.

Comedy
1h 34m
Terry Jones
Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle
Why it ranks

The Monty Python troupe reaches the peak of their irreverent powers with this razor-sharp deconstruction of religious fanaticism and bureaucracy. It manages to be both profoundly silly and intellectually daring, proving that nothing is too sacred for a perfectly timed punchline.

9
1979 in All That Jazz (1979)
All That Jazz
1979

Joe Gideon is at the top of the heap, one of the most successful directors and choreographers in musical theater. But he can feel his world slowly collapsing around him - his obsession with work has almost destroyed his personal life, and only his bottles of pills keep him going.

Drama
2h 3m
Bob Fosse
Roy Scheider, Jessica Lange, Ann Reinking, Leland Palmer
Why it ranks

Bob Fosse turns the lens inward to create a jagged, self-immolating musical that dances on the edge of the grave. The film’s frenetic editing and unapologetic ego provide a searing, kaleidoscopic look at the heavy price of creative obsession.

8
1979 in The Warriors (1979)
The Warriors
1979

Prominent gang leader Cyrus calls a meeting of New York's gangs to set aside their turf wars and take over the city. At the meeting, a rival leader kills Cyrus, but a Coney Island gang called the Warriors is wrongly blamed for Cyrus' death. Before you know it, the cops and every gangbanger in town is hot on the Warriors' trail.

Action
Thriller
1h 34m
Walter Hill
Michael Beck, James Remar, David Patrick Kelly, Dorsey Wright
Why it ranks

Walter Hill transforms a street gang odyssey into a stylized, neon-lit comic book epic. Its lean narrative machinery and rhythmic pacing create a heightened reality where the urban landscape becomes a surreal gauntlet of tribal warfare.

7
1979 in Manhattan (1979)
Manhattan
1979

Manhattan explores how the life of a middle-aged television writer dating a teenage girl is further complicated when he falls in love with his best friend's mistress.

Comedy
Drama
Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Michael Murphy, Mariel Hemingway
Why it ranks

Rendered in breathtaking monochromatic vistas, this love letter to urban neurosis captures a specific moment of intellectual vanity and romantic disillusionment. The visual grandeur of the cinematography provides a sharp contrast to the messy, complicated morality of its protagonists.

6
1979 in Stalker (1979)
Stalker
1979

Near a gray and unnamed city is the Zone, a place guarded by barbed wire and soldiers, and where the normal laws of physics are victim to frequent anomalies. A stalker guides two men into the Zone, specifically to an area in which deep-seated desires are granted.

Science Fiction
Drama
2h 42m
Andrei Tarkovsky
Alisa Freyndlikh, Aleksandr Kaydanovskiy, Anatoliy Solonitsyn, Mykola Hrynko
Why it ranks

Andrei Tarkovsky crafts a meditative, soul-aching odyssey through a landscape of metaphysical ruin. It is an unparalleled exercise in atmospheric tension that challenges the viewer to confront the heavy silence of faith and desire.

5
1979 in Being There (1979)
Being There
1979

A simple-minded gardener named Chance has spent all his life in the Washington D.C. house of an old man. When the man dies, Chance is put out on the street with no knowledge of the world except what he has learned from television.

Comedy
Drama
2h 10m
Hal Ashby
Peter Sellers, Shirley MacLaine, Melvyn Douglas, Jack Warden
Why it ranks

Peter Sellers delivers a masterfully restrained performance in this chillingly relevant satire about the emptiness of political discourse. The film’s quiet, rhythmic irony exposes how easily vacuum-like simplicity can be mistaken for divine wisdom.

4
1979 in Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
Kramer vs. Kramer
1979

Ted Kramer is a career man for whom his work comes before his family. His wife Joanna cannot take this anymore, so she decides to leave him. Ted is now faced with the tasks of housekeeping and taking care of himself and their young son Billy.

Drama
1h 45m
Robert Benton
Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep, Jane Alexander, Justin Henry
Why it ranks

This devastatingly precise portrait of domestic dissolution pivots away from Hollywood artifice to find the raw, agonizing truth in a custody battle. Its emotional intelligence and nuanced performances elevate the family drama into a profound cultural touchstone.

3

In the ravaged near-future, a savage motorcycle gang rules the road. Terrorizing innocent civilians while tearing up the streets, the ruthless gang laughs in the face of a police force hell-bent on stopping them.

Adventure
Action
Mel Gibson, Joanne Samuel, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Steve Bisley
Why it ranks

George Miller’s high-octane vision of a crumbling society is a masterclass in kinetic momentum and low-budget ingenuity. It strips the action genre down to its barest, most visceral elements, heralding a gritty new era for global cult cinema.

2
1979 in Alien (1979)
1979

During its return to the earth, commercial spaceship Nostromo intercepts a distress signal from a distant planet. When a three-member team of the crew discovers a chamber containing thousands of eggs on the planet, a creature inside one of the eggs attacks an explorer. The entire crew is unaware of the impending nightmare set to descend upon them when the alien parasite planted inside its unfortunate host is birthed.

Horror
Science Fiction
Why it ranks

Ridley Scott weaponizes negative space and industrial claustrophobia to redefine the horror genre. By blending high-concept science fiction with a primal, biomechanical nightmare, it creates a sense of dread that is both sterile and terrifyingly intimate.

1

At the height of the Vietnam war, Captain Benjamin Willard is sent on a dangerous mission that, officially, "does not exist, nor will it ever exist." His goal is to locate - and eliminate - a mysterious Green Beret Colonel named Walter Kurtz, who has been leading his personal army on illegal guerrilla missions into enemy territory.

Why it ranks

Francis Ford Coppola translates the psychological rot of war into a hallucinatory fever dream that dwarfs every other cinematic achievement of the decade. Its sensory overload and sheer operatic scale demand a total surrender to the madness of the jungle.

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Everything you need to know about this list and SnakeDrafts

The best movies of 1979 showcase a diverse mix of genres, including drama, science fiction, horror, comedy, and action. Films like 'Alien' and 'Stalker' highlight sci-fi mastery, while 'Kramer vs. Kramer' and 'Apocalypse Now' represent powerful dramatic storytelling.

Movies like 'The Warriors' and 'Mad Max' have achieved cult classic status due to their unique storytelling, memorable characters, and lasting influence on action and thriller genres. Their gritty style and innovative approach helped define a new wave of cinema.

1979 movies blended the gritty realism and cynicism of New Hollywood with spectacular storytelling and ambitious production values seen in modern blockbusters. Films like 'Apocalypse Now' combined intellectual depth with epic scale, marking a pivotal transition in filmmaking.

Noteworthy dramas such as 'Kramer vs. Kramer' and 'All That Jazz' received critical acclaim and awards for their intense character studies and innovative direction. These films exemplified the emotional and technical prowess of cinema in 1979.

'Alien' and 'Stalker' stand out as groundbreaking sci-fi films from 1979, pioneering atmospheric storytelling and philosophical themes. These movies expanded the boundaries of the genre with suspense, visual style, and existential narrative.

Yes, 'The Muppet Movie' offers a delightful family-friendly adventure filled with music and comedy. It represents the lighter, entertaining side of 1979’s cinematic landscape, appealing to audiences of all ages.

Comedy films like 'Being There' and 'Life of Brian' in 1979 often employed satirical and absurd humor to explore social and political themes. Visually, they varied from straightforward storytelling to more stylized approaches, balancing humor with thoughtful commentary.
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