1972 Movies
Take a nostalgic look back at the top movies of 1972, celebrating the films, directors and actors that defined the year and left a lasting legacy in the world of entertainment.
Sbatti il mostro in prima pagina
Directed by: Marco Bellocchio
Starring: Gian Maria Volontè, Fabio Garriba, Carla Tatò, Jacques Herlin
Country: Italy
Outline: A populist right-wing tabloid newspaper tries to derail the official police investigation of a brutal murder of a young girl in order to help the fascist and right-wing candidates it supports in the upcoming elections.
Solaris
Directed by: Steven Soderbergh
Starring: George Clooney, Natascha McElhone, Ulrich Tukur, Viola Davis
Country: United States of America
Outline: A troubled psychologist is sent to investigate the crew of an isolated research station orbiting a bizarre planet.
Revolver
Directed by: Sergio Sollima
Starring: Agostina Belli, Paola Pitagora, Fabio Testi, Oliver Reed, Sal Borgese, Carla Mancini, Jacques Herlin, Steffen Zacharias, Marco Mariani, Calisto Calisti, Michel Bardinet, Daniel Beretta
Country: Italy
Miss Julie
Directed by: Liv Ullmann
Starring: Jessica Chastain, Colin Farrell, Samantha Morton
Country: Norway
The Godfather
Directed by: Francis Ford Coppola
Starring: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Diane Keaton
Country: United States of America
Outline: The aging patriarch of an organized crime dynasty transfers control of his clandestine empire to his reluctant son.
Cabaret
Directed by: Bob Fosse
Starring: Liza Minnelli, Michael York, Helmut Griem, Joel Grey
Country: United States of America
Outline: A female girlie club entertainer in Weimar Republic era Berlin romances two men while the Nazi Party rises to power around them.
What's Up, Doc?
Directed by: Peter Bogdanovich
Starring: Barbra Streisand, Ryan O'Neal, Madeline Kahn, Kenneth Mars
Country: United States of America
Outline: The accidental mix-up of four identical plaid overnight bags leads to a series of increasingly wild and wacky situations.
Deliverance
Directed by: John Boorman
Starring: Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty, Ronny Cox
Country: United States of America
Outline: Intent on seeing the Cahulawassee River before it's turned into one huge lake, outdoor fanatic Lewis Medlock takes his friends on a river-rafting trip they'll never forget into the dangerous American back-country.
Jeremiah Johnson
Directed by: Sydney Pollack
Starring: Robert Redford, Will Geer, Delle Bolton, Josh Albee
Country: United States of America
Outline: A mountain man who wishes to live the life of a hermit becomes the unwilling object of a long vendetta by Indians, and proves to be a match for their warriors in one-on-one combat on the early frontier.
Frenzy
Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Jon Finch, Barry Foster, Barbara Leigh-Hunt, Anna Massey
Country: United States of America
Outline: A serial murderer is strangling women with a necktie. The London police have a suspect, but he is the wrong man.
The Getaway
Directed by: Sam Peckinpah
Starring: Steve McQueen, Ali MacGraw, Ben Johnson, Sally Struthers
Country: United States of America
Outline: A recently released ex-con and his loyal wife go on the run after a heist goes awry.
The Poseidon Adventure
Directed by: Ronald Neame
Starring: Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine, Shelley Winters, Red Buttons
Country: United States of America
Outline: A group of passengers struggle to survive and escape when their ocean liner completely capsizes at sea.
Lady Sings the Blues
Directed by: Sidney J. Furie
Starring: Diana Ross, Billy Dee Williams, Richard Pryor, James T. Callahan
Outline: The story of the troubled life and career of the legendary Jazz singer, Billie Holiday.
Slaughterhouse-Five
Directed by: George Roy Hill
Starring: Michael Sacks, Ron Leibman, Eugene Roche, Sharon Gans
Country: United States of America
Outline: A man named Billy Pilgrim tells the story of how he became unstuck in time and was abducted by aliens.
The Mechanic
Directed by: Michael Winner
Starring: Charles Bronson, Jan-Michael Vincent, Keenan Wynn, Jill Ireland
Country: United States of America
Outline: An aging hitman befriends a young man who wants to be a professional killer. Eventually it becomes clear that someone has betrayed them.
The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean
Directed by: John Huston
Starring: Paul Newman, Ava Gardner, Roy Jenson, Gary Combs
Country: United States of America
Outline: In Vinegaroon, Texas, former outlaw Roy Bean appoints himself the judge for the region and dispenses his brand of justice as he sees fit.
Silent Running
Directed by: Douglas Trumbull
Starring: Bruce Dern, Cliff Potts, Ron Rifkin, Jesse Vint
Country: United States of America
Outline: In a future where all flora is extinct on Earth, an astronaut is given orders to destroy the last of Earth's botany, kept in a greenhouse aboard a spacecraft.
Man of La Mancha
Directed by: Arthur Hiller
Starring: Peter O'Toole, Sophia Loren, James Coco, Harry Andrews
Country: United States of America
Outline: The funny story of mad but kind and chivalrous elderly nobleman Don Quixote who, aided by his squire Sancho Panza, fights windmills that are seen as dragons to save prostitute Dulcinea who is seen as a noblewoman.
Joe Kidd
Directed by: John Sturges
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Robert Duvall, John Saxon, Don Stroud
Country: United States of America
Outline: An ex-bounty hunter reluctantly helps a wealthy landowner and his henchmen track down a Mexican revolutionary leader.
Asylum
Directed by: Roy Ward Baker
Starring: Barbara Parkins, Richard Todd, Sylvia Syms, Peter Cushing
Outline: In order to secure a job at a mental institution, a young psychiatrist must interview four patients inside the asylum.
They Only Kill Their Masters
Directed by: James Goldstone
Starring: James Garner, Katharine Ross, Hal Holbrook, Harry Guardino
Outline: California small town police chief investigates a suspicious death involving the victim's own dog that presumably killed its owner.
The Wrath of God
Directed by: Ralph Nelson
Starring: Robert Mitchum, Frank Langella, Rita Hayworth, John Colicos
Outline: Set in the 1920s, several foreigners held by a South American military group are offered possible freedom if they accept to topple a local crazed military leader.
Boxcar Bertha
Directed by: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Barbara Hershey, David Carradine, Barry Primus, Bernie Casey
Country: United States of America
Outline: During the Great Depression, a union leader and a young woman become criminals to exact revenge on the management of a railroad.
What happened in 1972?
Discover what the world looked like in 1972: