Yeah, I kid. Everyone knows that the 1970s were a high water mark for studio films. Actors who nowadays seem like a tired joke (Dustin Hoffman, for example) had unimpeachable runs of startlingly original films with real acting in them (Little Big Man! Straw Dogs! Papillon! Lenny! All the President’s Men! Marathon Man! Holy crap!!).
But let us not forget how much cultural hand-wringing accompanied the films of the 1970s. They were often publicly denounced as “filth” full of, you guessed it, car chases, explosions and gratuitous sex scenes. And, in those days, an R rating meant “you gonna buy a ticket or what?” if you were a city kid.
