Best Movies of 1971
The 50 highest rated movies released in 1971, ranked by viewer ratings on TMDB. Only titles with enough votes to count are included, so one-off five-star ratings can't skew the list.
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1
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
In a near-future Britain, young Alexander DeLarge and his pals get their kicks beating and raping anyone they please. When not destroying the lives of others, Alex swoons to the music of Beethoven. The state, eager to crack down on juvenile…
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2
The Working Class Goes to Heaven (1971)
After losing a finger in a work accident, an Italian worker becomes increasingly involved in political and revolutionary groups.
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3
Gentlemen of Fortune (1971)
Kindergarten teacher Evgeniy Ivanovich Troshkin is reluctantly sent undercover to take the place of an imprisoned thief who stole Alexander the Great's helmet. Evgeniy uses his striking resemblance to the thief to infiltrate his gang and…
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4
Fiddler on the Roof (1971)
In a pre-revolutionary Russia, a poor Jewish milkman struggles with the challenges of a changing world as his daughters fall in love and antisemitism grows.
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5
Duck, You Sucker (1971)
At the beginning of the 1913 Mexican Revolution, greedy bandit Juan Miranda and idealist John H. Mallory, an Irish Republican Army explosives expert on the lam from the British, fall in with a band of revolutionaries plotting to strike a…
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6
The Conformist (1971)
A weak-willed Italian man becomes a fascist flunky who goes abroad to arrange the assassination of his old teacher, now a political dissident.
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7
The Last Picture Show (1971)
High school seniors and best friends, Sonny and Duane, live in a dying Texas town. The handsome Duane is dating a local beauty, while Sonny is having an affair with the coach's wife. As graduation nears and both boys contemplate their…
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8
Harold and Maude (1971)
A deadpan young man obsessed with death meets an eccentric septuagenarian who teaches him to live life to the fullest.
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9
The Devils (1971)
In 1634 France, charismatic Father Urbain Grandier becomes the target of sexually depraved Sister Jeanne's accusations of witchcraft, which corrupt officials of church and state are all too happy to exploit.
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10
Johnny Got His Gun (1971)
A young American soldier, rendered in pseudocoma from an artillery shell from WWI, recalls his life leading up to that point.
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11
The French Connection (1971)
Tough narcotics detective 'Popeye' Doyle is in hot pursuit of a suave French drug dealer who may be the key to a huge heroin-smuggling operation.
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12
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971)
When eccentric candy man Willy Wonka promises a lifetime supply of sweets and a tour of his chocolate factory to five lucky kids, penniless Charlie Bucket seeks the golden ticket that will make him a winner.
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13
Dirty Harry (1971)
When a madman dubbed 'Scorpio' terrorizes San Francisco, hard-nosed cop, Harry Callahan – famous for his take-no-prisoners approach to law enforcement – is tasked with hunting down the psychopath.
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14
Trinity Is Still My Name (1971)
The two brothers Trinity and Bambino are exchanged by two federal agents and take advantage of the situation to steal a huge booty hidden in a monastery by a gang of outlaws.
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15
Duel (1971)
Traveling businessman David Mann angers the driver of a rusty tanker while crossing the California desert. A simple trip turns deadly, as Mann struggles to stay on the road while the tanker plays cat and mouse with his life.
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16
Delusions of Grandeur (1971)
Don Sallust is the minister of the King of Spain. Being disingenuous, hypocritical, greedy and collecting the taxes for himself, he is hated by the people he oppresses. Accused by The Queen, a beautiful princess Bavarian, of having an…
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17
Walkabout (1971)
Under the pretense of having a picnic, a geologist takes his teenage daughter and 6-year-old son into the Australian outback and attempts to shoot them. When he fails, he turns the gun on himself, and the two city-bred children must contend…
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18
Wake in Fright (1971)
A young schoolteacher descends into personal moral degradation after finding himself stranded in a brutal, menacing town in outback Australia.
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19
Death in Venice (1971)
Composer Gustav von Aschenbach travels to Venice for health reasons. There, he becomes obsessed with the stunning beauty of an adolescent Polish boy named Tadzio who is staying with his family at the same Grand Hôtel des Bains on the Lido…
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20
Jo (1971)
A writer accidentally shoots his blackmailer and tries to hide the body.
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21
And Now for Something Completely Different (1971)
A collection of Monty Python's Flying Circus skits from the first two seasons of their British TV series.
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22
McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)
A gambler and a prostitute become thriving business partners in a remote Old West mining town until a large corporation arrives on the scene.
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23
Straw Dogs (1971)
David Sumner, a mild-mannered academic from the United States, marries Amy, an Englishwoman. In order to escape a hectic stateside lifestyle, David and his wife relocate to the small town in rural Cornwall where Amy was raised. There, David…
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24
Vanishing Point (1971)
Kowalski works for a car delivery service, and takes delivery of a 1970 Dodge Challenger to drive from Colorado to San Francisco. Shortly after pickup, he takes a bet to get the car there in less than 15 hours.
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25
Macbeth (1971)
Scotland, 11th century. Driven by the twisted prophecy of three witches and the ruthless ambition of his wife, warlord Macbeth, bold and brave, but also weak and hesitant, betrays his good king and his brothers in arms and sinks into the…
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26
The Big Boss (1971)
Cheng is a young Chinese mainlander who moves in with his expatriate cousins to work at an ice factory in Thailand. He does this with a family promise never to get involved in any fights. However, when members of his family begin…
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27
The Andromeda Strain (1971)
When virtually all of the residents of Piedmont, New Mexico are found dead after the return to Earth of a space satellite, the head of the US Air Force's Project Scoop declares an emergency. A group of eminent scientists led by Dr. Jeremy…
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28
The Beguiled (1971)
Offbeat Civil War drama in which a wounded Yankee soldier, after finding refuge in an isolated girls' school in the South towards the end of the war, becomes the object of the young women's sexual fantasies. The soldier manipulates the…
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29
Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971)
Three children evacuated from London during World War II are forced to stay with an eccentric spinster. The children's initial fears disappear when they find out she is in fact a trainee witch.
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30
Deep End (1971)
London, England. Mike, a fifteen-year-old boy, gets a job in a bathhouse, where he meets Susan, an attractive young woman who works there as an attendant.
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31
Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)
A driver and mechanic drag racing for money cross paths with a female hitchhiker and a drifter who challenges them to a cross-country race.
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32
Get Carter (1971)
Jack Carter is a small-time hood working in London. When word reaches him of his brother's death, he travels to Newcastle to attend the funeral. Refusing to accept the police report of suicide, Carter seeks out his brother’s friends and…
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33
The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971)
After a team of surgeons botches his beloved wife's operation, the distraught Dr. Phibes unleashes a score of Old-Testament atrocities on his enemies.
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34
The Decameron (1971)
A young Sicilian is swindled twice, but ends up rich; a man poses as a deaf-mute in a convent of curious nuns; a woman must hide her lover when her husband comes home early; a scoundrel fools a priest on his deathbed; three brothers take…
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35
The Panic in Needle Park (1971)
A stark portrayal of life among a group of heroin addicts who hang out in Needle Park in New York City. Played against this setting is a low-key love story between Bobby, a young addict and small-time hustler, and Helen, a homeless girl who…
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36
Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971)
An ever evolving alien life-form arrives on a comet from the Dark Gaseous Nebula and proceeds to consume pollution. Spewing mists of sulfuric acid and corrosive sludge, neither humanity nor Godzilla may be able to defeat this toxic menace.
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37
Red Sun (1971)
In 1870, Japanese ambassador Sakaguchi and his entourage travel by train to Washington to deliver a valuable sword to the President of the United States, a gift from the Emperor of Japan. On board the same train are two robbers, Link and…
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38
Big Jake (1971)
An aging Texas cattle man who has outlived his time swings into action when outlaws kidnap his grandson.
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39
Klute (1971)
A high-priced call girl is forced to depend on a reluctant private eye when she is stalked by a psychopath.
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40
Le Mans (1971)
Filmed during the annual 24-hour endurance race at Le Mans, Michael Delaney is a Porsche driver haunted by the memory of an accident at the previous year's race in which a competing driver was killed. Delaney also finds himself increasingly…
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41
The Cat o' Nine Tails (1971)
A newsman works with a blind puzzle-solver to uncover a deadly conspiracy linked to a genetic research facility.
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42
Bananas (1971)
When a bumbling New Yorker is dumped by his activist girlfriend, he travels to a tiny Latin American nation and becomes involved in its latest rebellion.
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43
Play Misty for Me (1971)
A brief fling between a late-night radio disc jockey and an obsessed female fan takes a frightening turn when another woman enters the picture.
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44
A Bay of Blood (1971)
An elderly heiress is killed by her husband who wants control of her fortunes. What ensues is an all-out murder spree as relatives and friends attempt to reduce the inheritance playing field, complicated by some teenagers who decide to camp…
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45
Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1971)
Roberto, a drummer in a rock band, keeps receiving weird phone calls and being followed by a mysterious man. One night he manages to catch up with his persecutor and tries to get him to talk but in the ensuing struggle he accidentally stabs…
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46
THX 1138 (1971)
People in the future live in a totalitarian society. A technician named THX 1138 lives a mundane life between work and taking a controlled consumption of drugs that the government uses to make puppets out of people. As THX is without drugs…
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47
Shaft (1971)
Cool Black private eye John Shaft is hired by a crime lord to find and retrieve his kidnapped daughter.
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48
Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
Diamonds are stolen only to be sold again in the international market. James Bond infiltrates a smuggling mission to find out who's guilty. The mission takes him to Las Vegas where Bond meets his archenemy Blofeld.
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49
Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971)
The world is shocked by the appearance of three talking chimpanzees, who arrived mysteriously in a spacecraft. Intrigued by their intelligence, humans use them for research - until the apes attempt to escape.
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50
The Omega Man (1971)
Due to an experimental vaccine, Dr. Robert Neville is the only human survivor of an apocalyptic war waged with biological weapons. Besides him, only a few hundred deformed, nocturnal people remain; sensitive to light, and homicidally…