These Movies are Fifty Years Old This Year |

These Movies are Fifty Years Old This Year

With the recent news that Jaws just turned fifty, I thought I’d write about other movies that also came out in 1975.

It is an interesting list and doesn’t really compare to the recent list I posted about movies that were turning forty this year. There were more dramas and serious themes in the 1970s; the decade that followed clearly featured more action, adventure, and sequels.

Here are the films. Once again, I’m focusing on my own genres: Thriller, Suspense, Science Fiction, Mystery, Horror, and a few Comedy choices as well. My thoughts are further down:

3 Days of the Condor
A Boy and his Dog
Dog Day Afternoon
Dolemite
Jaws
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Night Moves
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Rollerball
Return of the Pink Panther
Rooster Cogburn
Shivers
The Eiger Sanction
The French Connection II
The Great Waldo Pepper
The Hindenburg
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
The Stepford Wives
The Ultimate Warrior

Some observations, fun facts, and trivia about the list:

I watched The Great Waldo Pepper in my Grade 8 class. If I recall correctly, it was about former WW1 pilots who ended up performing at state and county fairs, “barnstorming” in their biplanes. The students didn’t really understand the enormity of the themes within the film, but Redford was iconic and one scene in particular has stuck with me all these years: Waldo Pepper clubbing a pilot to death while flames engulfed him. It was a mercy killing because the pilot was trapped in the burning wreckage.
Dolemite was never on my radar until the recent Eddie Murphy Netflix movie, My Name Is Dolemite. It was a fascinating story.
The Ultimate Warrior was my kind of movie in the 1970s. The fear of nuclear holocaust permeated everything during the Cold War, and this was one of the many films at the time featuring post-apocalyptic societies, the crumbling of humanity and civilization, and the struggle to survive in the aftermath. It starred Yul Brynner and Max Von Sydow and a group of people trying to survive after a global pandemic wiped out much of the world’s population. I distinctly remember the scene of Brynner cutting off his own hand to prevent a fall into a deep chasm. That traumatized me, but I enjoyed the movie immensely.
Jaws. I could devote an entire series of posts to this film. It changed filmmaking and stands alone on this list. The other movies don’t even compare and it started an entire new era of filmmaking: the Hollywood summer blockbuster. I have written about Spielberg before, most recently here. Stay tuned for a post about Jaws here at Life After Gateway within the next two weeks.

The Pink Panther films — and Inspector Clouseau — were famous in the 1960s and 70s. The Return of the Pink Panther was the fourth film in the series and starred Peter Sellers as the bumbling inspector. I saw the 1978 movie, Revenge of the Pink Panther, in London, England.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail. This one surprised me, because I distinctly remember so many people watching it in the 1980s. I didn’t realize it was a film from 1975. The Monty Python comedy troupe grew in popularity in the 70s and 80s and this film features some of the most famous comedy bits in history. I believe I’ve seen it a few times, but have watched The Meaning of Life more often.
Rollerball was always on TV in the 1970s. It was on Detroit Channel 7 in Ontario, and I absolutely loved the story about corporate entities using violent sport as a means to keep people entertained and prevent rebellion in society. It’s similar in theme to The Hunger Games and is likely a progenitor of that series. The final rollerball match is pure carnage, James Caan is iconic, it’s directed by Canadian Norman Jewison, and it is also one of the best Science Fiction films of the decade.
The Hindenberg features a fictional story about what might have happened to cause the disaster, but it is speculative and involves espionage and spycraft. I remember the film switched to documentary footage of the explosion. I feel that this could be updated for current audiences, because the real story involves the spread of fascism and the use of newer technology (Zeppelins) to contribute to Nazi proliferation/propaganda. It is a fascinating real-life disaster tale, and is similar in many ways to Titanic.
The Eiger Sanction is a Clint Eastwood espionage thriller. I don’t think I need to say much more. He was iconic in the decade, and was the alpha male of the time. His Dirty Harry movies were also airing during this period and into the 1980s.

Shivers is classic David Cronenberg, the famous Canadian director of horror and psychological thrillers. It was criticized at the time because it was partially funded by Canadian taxpayers. A reviewer wrote that it was “crammed with blood, violence and depraved sex” and “the most repulsive movie I’ve ever seen.” As a result, Cronenberg had difficulty securing funding for a period following the film, and also claims to have been evicted from his apartment due to a morality clause in the rental contract. Cronenberg went on to direct one of my favourite films, and one that is more commercially viable for mainstream audiences, though still containing elements of blood and gore: The Fly (1986) with Jeff Goldblum.
There are only two sequels in the list. The trend to create new stories in the same universe for the same characters, to capitalize on box office success and make a few more dollars from audience familiarity with a film property, really took off in the following decade.

What do you think of my list? Did I miss any important films? Did I fail to mention something about one that you find compelling?

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A Blanket of Steel by Timothy S. Johnston and from Fitzhenry & Whiteside, LTD. is the recipient of the 2024 GLOBAL Thriller Award GRAND PRIZE and the 2024 CYGNUS Award First in Category.

— Timothy S. Johnston, 23 July 2025

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Praise for Timothy S. Johnston’s A Blanket of Steel

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A BLANKET OF STEEL is out now!

WATCH THE GRIPPING BOOK TRAILER HERE.

FOR PURCHASE OPTIONS CLICK HERE

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A Blanket of Steel from Timothy S. Johnston and Fitzhenry & Whiteside, Ltd.

Book Cover & Jacket Copy:

AN UNSTOPPABLE THREAT!

A mysterious assassin has murdered Cliff Sim, Chief Security Officer of the underwater colony, Trieste. Cliff was a mountain of a man, highly trained, and impossible to defeat in combat. And yet …

Someone brutally beat him and left his broken body in a secret Chinese facility at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.

And included a calling card for Truman McClusky, Mayor of Trieste.

Taunting him.

Mac has led the underwater colonies in their fight against the world’s superpowers. Climate change has devastated the surface; nations suffer famine, drought, rebellion, rising waters, and apocalyptic coastal flooding. But now, as Mac leads the underwater colonies to freedom and independence, he’s faced with the gravest threat of his life: a Russian assassin, hellbent on killing Mac and everyone he cares for. Now Mac must uncover the identity of the killer, face him in combat, and at the same time lead people in battle against the largest underwater force ever assembled. It’s Mac’s final test, and to win the war, he must use every tool at his disposal, including the most surprising and devastating underwater weapons ever invented.

If Mac fails, all hope is lost for the future of human colonization on the ocean floors.

But the assassin could be anyone …

Watch your back, Mac.

A Blanket of Steel is the most gripping thriller yet in The Rise of Oceania.

FOR PURCHASE OPTIONS CLICK HERE

The other books in The Rise of Oceania series by Timothy S Johnston:

The War Beneath 9781771484718
The Savage Deeps 9781771485067
Fatal Depth 9781554555574
An Island of Light 9781554555819
The Shadow of War 9781554556007