# Top 18 Crime Films of the 1970s

> The decade that reinvented the genre rolls out in full force — mob epics, paranoid thrillers, gritty cop sagas and lone-wolf vigilantes. From towering classics to cult favorites, where do you stand?

*By YPB Team · Published June 8, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/top-18-crime-films-of-the-1970s*

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## Current results (3 votes)

1. **Taxi Driver** — 33.33% (1 votes · score 1000/1000)
   Martin Scorsese's 1976 portrait of an unhinged cabbie spiraling toward violence in a decaying New York.
2. **The Godfather Part II** — 33.33% (1 votes · score 1000/1000)
   Coppola's 1974 sequel weaving Michael Corleone's ruthless reign with Vito's rise as a young immigrant.
3. **Serpico** — 33.33% (1 votes · score 929/1000)
   Lumet's 1973 true story of an honest cop battling rampant corruption in the NYPD.
4. **The Godfather** — 0% (0 votes · score 750/1000)
   Francis Ford Coppola's 1972 epic of the Corleone crime family that redefined the gangster genre.
5. **Death Wish** — 0% (0 votes · score 643/1000)
   Michael Winner's 1974 film about an architect turned vigilante after his family is attacked.
6. **Chinatown** — 0% (0 votes · score 643/1000)
   Roman Polanski's 1974 neo-noir following a private eye into a web of water, corruption, and dark secrets in L.A.
7. **Get Carter** — 0% (0 votes · score 500/1000)
   Mike Hodges's 1971 British noir with Michael Caine as a gangster avenging his brother's death.
8. **The Long Goodbye** — 0% (0 votes · score 500/1000)
   Robert Altman's 1973 revisionist take on detective Philip Marlowe adrift in 1970s Los Angeles.
9. **Dog Day Afternoon** — 0% (0 votes · score 500/1000)
   Sidney Lumet's 1975 film about a botched Brooklyn bank robbery that turns into a media circus.
10. **The Getaway** — 0% (0 votes · score 500/1000)
   Peckinpah's 1972 heist thriller following a just-released convict and his wife on the run.
11. **Badlands** — 0% (0 votes · score 500/1000)
   Terrence Malick's 1973 debut about a young couple on a haunting killing spree across the Midwest.
12. **The Conversation** — 0% (0 votes · score 500/1000)
   Coppola's 1974 thriller about a surveillance expert consumed by paranoia over a recording.
13. **Klute** — 0% (0 votes · score 300/1000)
   Alan J. Pakula's 1971 thriller pairing a detective with a call girl stalked by a killer.
14. **The French Connection** — 0% (0 votes · score 1/1000)
   William Friedkin's 1971 Best Picture winner famed for its gritty narcotics chase across New York.
15. **A Clockwork Orange** — 0% (0 votes · score 1/1000)
   Stanley Kubrick's 1971 dystopian crime saga of ultraviolence and a controversial reform experiment.
16. **Mean Streets** — 0% (0 votes · score 1/1000)
   Scorsese's 1973 breakthrough about small-time hoods and loyalty in New York's Little Italy.
17. **The Sting** — 0% (0 votes · score 1/1000)
   The 1973 Best Picture winner pairing two grifters in an elaborate Depression-era con.
18. **Straw Dogs** — 0% (0 votes · score 1/1000)
   Sam Peckinpah's 1971 siege thriller about a mild mathematician driven to brutal violence.

Tags: movies, 70s, thriller, classics, crime