1975 was a uniquely important year for American cinema, with many of the best films to ever come out of the Hollywood system launching in that calendar year. This was a watershed moment in the evolution of the film industry, coming amid changing preferences for storytelling and an increasing rise in the Movie Brats generation. Spurned on by the early successes of Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola, and Brian De Palma, Hollywood was increasingly shaped by their sardonic, cynical, and romantic perspectives.
Amid the success of hairdresser comedies like Shampoo (1975), goofball comedies like The Return of the Pink Panther (1975), and romantic dramas like The Other Side of the Mountain (1975), some of the year's biggest films reinvented the cinematic landscape in important ways that still remain important to this day.
Now, fifty years later, these 10 films remain some of the most influential films to come out of the Hollywood system, cementing 1975 as one of cinema’s most important years. Here’swhere you can find those movies on Tubi, Netflix, and Hulu.
Jaws (1975)
One of the most important blockbuster movies of all time, Steven Spielberg’s Jaws was a game-changer when it hit theaters in 1975. Based on the best-selling book of the same name, Jaws was a monster movie that was just as indebted to Alfred Hitchcock thrillers like Rear Window (1954) as it was to Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954). The film was an early showcase of Spielberg’s eye for charming characters in extreme situations, an element he would refine in later films like Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and Jurassic Park (1993). Changing the theatrical landscape by becoming a cultural phenomenon, Jaws laid the groundwork for Star Wars (1977) to reshape how movies are released in a way that’s still felt to this day.
Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
Unmistakable of its time but surprisingly timeless, Dog Day Afternoon is a painfully human story that finds plenty of romance, comedy, and heartbreak amid a flawed bank robbery. Al Pacino delivers a raw nerve of performance as Sonny Wortzik, a first-time crook whose attempt to rob a bank to pay for his lover’s sex change operation goes awry and quickly becomes a national spectacle. Following up on the massive success of The Godfather (1972) and Pacino’s meditative work therein, Dog Day Afternoon is a different type of American tragedy. Infused with the same kind of desperation and surprising charm that make movies like Uncut Gems (2019) so compelling, Dog Day Afternoon is tragic without ever being maudlin and highlights the conflicting complexities that humanity is capable of.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
One of the only films to win the “Big Five” at the Academy Awards, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a bittersweet and defiant film about thwarted rebellion and the human spirit. Jack Nicholson leads a perfectly cast story about a man who finds himself helping the inmates at a mental hospital against their tyrannical head nurse. The kind of subversive character drama that would later be embodied by movies like The Deer Hunter (1978) and Rain Man (1988), One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest proved that harsh human stories could do well at the Oscars—and subverted expectations about female antagonists by turning Nurse Ratchet into one of cinema’s best villains. Impossible to imagine being made today, even as its influence is still felt across several other films, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a pitch-perfect movie.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
Hilarious on just about every level, Monty Python and the Holy Grail was a watershed moment for theatrical comedies. Building off the success of their run on TV with Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969) and the subsequent movie rendition And Now For Something Completely Different (1971), the British comedy troupe delivered a spoof of fantasy epics by playing with pretty much every type of comedy. Fourth wall breaks, wacky wordplay, black comedy, sex jokes, and childish beats, all of it has room in Holy Grail so long as it's silly. Coming out ahead of an increasingly silly era of filmmaking that embraced the absurd, thanks to movies like Airplane! (1980) and Monty Python’s later films like Monty Python’s The Life of Brian (1979), Holy Grail remains a highlight of 1975 and one of the best movie comedies ever made.
Nashville (1975)
A spiritual successor to films like Easy Rider (1969) and The Last Picture Show (1971), speaking to a disenfranchised America that nevertheless retains a sense of desperate optimism for tomorrow, Nashville is a quietly powerful ode to a nation it can’t help but be critical of. Focusing on a crossroads of humanity, all converging in the titular city ahead of a major political event for an outsider Presidential candidate. Ambitious and character-driven in much of the same way later films like Magnolia (1999) would trade in, along with a musical touch that will feel familiar to anyone who loves Inside Llewyn Davis (2013), Nashville is bold and humanist, with a novelistic touch that feels familiar to modern films like Inherent Vice (2014) or One Battle After Another (2025).
Three Days of the Condor (1975)
One of the best spy thrillers of the era, Three Days of the Condor is an espionage movie that feels more in line with All the President's Men (1976) than Dr. No (1962). The film stars Robert Redford as Joe Turner, a mild-mannered CIA analyst who is drawn into a tense race for survival when his entire branch is wiped out and he finds out that assassins are looking to kill him to finish the job. Inspiring generations of spy films—including Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) and The Amateur (2025)—Three Days of the Condor is a paranoid thriller that spoke to the tense post-Watergate era of American politics. Tense without ever losing its sense of humanity, Three Days of the Condor is a great showcase of what a quiet spy film can be like once all the guns, disguises, and schemes are removed.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
A movie truly unlike any other, The Rocky Horror Picture Show is the quintessential cult classic. A transgressive musical that pushes the boundaries of sexuality in an era where anything outside the cultural norm was treated with hostility, The Rocky Horror Picture Show’s catchy music, distinct visuals, and self-awarely bizarre tone baffled critics but struck a nerve with the movie-going public. In the years since, plenty of filmmakers have tried to match that unique energy and infuse it with their own touch. Without movies like The Rocky Horror Picture Show to test the limits of what a wide-release could get away with, shows like Hazbin Hotel (2024) and films like Hedwig and the Angry Itch (2001) that blend strong music, unique perspectives, and raw emotion might have never seen the light of day.
Night Moves (1975)
Night Moves might not be the most famous noir of the 1970s, but it remains one of the important of its era. Following a private investigator who stumbles into a mystery searching for the daughter of an actress in Los Angeles, Night Moves is a grim story that doesn't pull any punches in its depiction of the genre. A fitting peer for Chinatown (1974) and The French Connection (1971), Night Moves is one of the films that helped cement Gene Hackman as the king of the neo-noir and remains one of the best films to ever utilize the actor's talents. Night Moves is the kind of grim piece of Americana that would go on to be seen in modern films like Drive (2011) and The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), something that feels painfully modern and very much of its time, much like the best films of the era.
Barry Lyndon (1975)
One of Stanley Kubrick’s most ambitious films—which is saying something—Barry Lyndon is a slow, beautiful, and perfectly tragic period piece following the rise and fall of an ambitious gambler who seeks to join high society. Gorgeously filmed with naturalistic lighting and pristine costumes, Barry Lyndon tells a very personal story in a way that speaks of the greater times even as it remains firmly focused on the follies and failings of its lead character. A unique parallel to movies like There Will Be Blood (2007), Barry Lyndon is one of Kubrick’s biggest cinematic swings that may be obscure compared to his more well-known movies like The Shining (1980) or 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), but it remains as gorgeously rendered as any other film in his filmography.
Grey Gardens (1975)
One of the best documentaries ever produced, Grey Gardens is fascinating, tragic, and magnetic in its depiction of a mother and daughter. The film focuses on Edith (Big Edie) and her daughter Edith (Little Edie), members of the upper-class who, by the 1970s were living in a derelict mansion in a strange state of denial and acceptance. Debuting at the New York Film Festival before hitting broader audiences in 1976, the documentary is a pitch-perfect exploration of their lives and a straightforward depiction of their unique perspectives that never feels pitiful, even though it never celebrates them either. Strangely mesmerizing, Grey Gardens has evolved into one of the most prolific documentaries ever made, and is a perfectly tragic film to sum up how 1970s American culture peeled back the layers of self-importance to reveal the vulnerable humanity underneath. Grey Gardens is the kind of documentary that rarely gets made but never gets forgotten.
