Among all the filmmakers who made their debuts in the 1970s, there are some who are still making great movies. The movies of the 1970s helped reshape Hollywood with the growing movement of auteur filmmakers who were establishing their own voices with bold projects that made for one of the best decades in cinema.

While that era pᴀssed, many of the great filmmakers who came out of that time continued to make great movies. The death of David Lynch earlier this year highlights that this generation of filmmakers will not be around together. Some of the filmmakers of this time also failed to maintain their brilliance after so long.

However, with some of the new directors of the ’70s being counted among the greatest filmmakers of all time, we are privileged enough to still be enjoying their new movies today.

8

Paul Schrader

Debut Movie: Badlands (1978)

Paul Schrader had already established a screenwriting career in Hollywood, including writing Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver, before he made his debut as a director in 1978’s Blue Collar. The crime drama became an underrated cult classic of the 1970s and helped to get Schrader’s filmmaking career moving.

While he never received as much acclaim or commercial success as some of his other ’70s counterparts, Schrader is perhaps the one filmmaker of that era who has best kept his style alive. Over the years, he has continued to make gritty and character-driven dramas that also showcase his strong writing.

In 2017, Schrader received some of the highest praise of his career, as well as an Oscar nomination for his screenplay for First Reformed. Since then, he has delivered several more intense dramas, including The Card Counter starring Oscar Isaac and Oh, Canada starring Jacob Elordi.

7

Terrence Malick

Debut Movie: Badlands (1973)

Few filmmakers made such a stunning directorial debut in the 1970s as Terrence Malick did with Badlands. The gripping crime drama stars Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek as a young couple on a violent crime spree across the Midwest in the 1950s. It announced the filmmaker as a unique voice and visually stunning artist.

Though his second movie, Days of Heaven, was another triumph, it took 20 years before he returned for his third movie. However, the World War II movie The Thin Red Line only made Malick a more revered filmmaker, establishing the natural approach to his filming and his poetic stories.

The 21st century found Malick being more prolific as a filmmaker, while also working with some of the biggest stars in Hollywood, including Brad Pitt, Ryan Gosling, and Christian Bale. He also earned huge acclaim for his movies, The Tree of Life and A Hidden Life. Malick is currently working on a new movie about the life of Jesus Christ.

6

Hayao Miyazaki

Debut Movie: The Castle Of Cagliostro (1979)

It is rare for any filmmaker to span more than five decades and still deliver great movies, but it is almost unheard of for a director of animated movies to do so. However, Hayao Miyazaki is in a class of his own, creating some of the most acclaimed, beautiful, and original animated movies ever made.

After working for years as an animator, Miyazaki made his feature directorial debut with the animated action-adventure The Castle of Cagliostro. While that established his own voice in the animation field, it wasn’t until the 1980s, when he co-founded Studio Ghibli, that he showed he was a once-in-a-lifetime creative genius.

Studio Ghibli’s movies long competed with Disney and Pixar, producing just as many classic animation stories, many of which Miyazaki himself directed. From My Neighbor Totoro to Spirited Away to Howl’s Moving Castle. Though it had been a decade since Miyazaki’s last movie, 2023’s The Boy and the Heron was another win.

5

Ron Howard

Debut Movie: Grand Theft Auto (1977)

Ron Howard initially established himself as an actor, appearing in The Shootist and Happy Days. However, the 1970s saw Howard’s love of filmmaking begin to grow, leading to his directorial debut in an action comedy in which he also starred, Grand Theft Auto. It wasn’t long before Howard left acting and became a full-time director.

The 1980s found Howard establishing his acting career, with comedies like Night Shift and Splash. However, he began to move into more serious fare in the 1990s, including the firefighter action movie Backdraft and the astronaut thriller Apollo 13. Howard continued to show versatility as a filmmaker, taking on just about any genre.

Howard eventually won an Oscar for directing the true-story drama A Beautiful Mind. Howard continues to show an incredible range of projects within this career, making big blockbusters like The DaVinci Code and Solo: A Star Wars Story, as well as smaller thrillers like Thirteen Lives and his new movie, Eden.

4

George Miller

Debut Movie: Mad Max (1979)

Sometimes, there is a filmmaker who makes a debut in their native country, only for it to unexpectedly reach a worldwide audience and launch their career. Such was the case with George Miller, who managed to make the excellent indie action movie Mad Max on a small budget, which launched a franchise of its own.

Miller has done plenty outside of the Mad Max franchise, including hit movies like The Witches of Eastwick, as well as writing the family movies Babe and Happy Feet. However, he made a stunning return to action movies with the wild Mad Max: Fury Road in 2015.

As surprising as it was that Miller managed to live up to the hype with the fourth Mad Max movie, he returned nearly a decade later with the hugely entertaining Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, proving that he is still not slowing down.

3

Clint Eastwood

Debut Movie: Play Misty For Me (1971)

Clint Eastwood was one of the biggest movie stars of the 1970s, thanks to his role in the Dollars trilogy and his hit crime movie Dirty Harry, among other notable тιтles. However, this is also when his equally successful directing career began with 1971’s Play Misty for Me. This led to him directing a number of his own movies.

Eventually, Eastwood stepped behind the camera to comment on the Western genre that made him famous with the definitive Western drama Unforgiven. The movie won Eastwood an Oscar as a director, but that wouldn’t be his only brush with award success as a filmmaker.

Eastwood won again for directing Million Dollar Baby and received nominations for the likes of Mystic River and American Sniper. He continued to be prolific, directing several real-life thrillers, like Sully, Richard Jewell, and The 15:17 to Paris. While Juror #2 was suggested to be Eastwood’s final movie, the filmmaker has already suggested he’s not quite done.

2

Ridley Scott

Debut Movie: The Duelist (1977)

Ridley Scott’s career started quickly after his debut movie, 1977’s The Duelist, and it has never really slowed down ever since. After the modest success of his first movie, a historical drama, Scott drastically shifted gears and kick-started one of the greatest sci-fi franchises of all time with Alien.

As if making one sci-fi classic wasn’t enough, Scott followed Alien with Blade Runner, solidifying himself as one of the most visually accomplished filmmakers of his generation. He continued to find success in a variety of movies, from Thelma & Louise to Gladiator to Black Hawk Down to American Gangster.

Scott is as hard-working as ever, having already made four movies thus far in the 2020s, including his return to one of his most popular movies, Gladiator II.

1

Steven Spielberg

Debut Movie: Sugardland Express (1974)

Steven Spielberg had already established himself as a filmmaker who would change Hollywood forever before the 1970s were over. The Sugarland Express was a decent debut movie for Spielberg, but it was his next movie that made him a director to revere. Jaws became the highest-grossing movie of all time and the first summer blockbuster.

Spielberg came back with another classic, the UFO drama Close Encounters of the Third Kind. From there, there was one classic blockbuster hit after another, from E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial to Raiders of the Lost Ark to Jurᴀssic Park. This was combined with Spielberg’s award-winning movies, like Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan.

While Spielberg hasn’t delivered quite as sizable a blockbuster as he is known for in several years, movies like West Side Story and The Fabelmans stand as modern classics in his filmography. There is also the excitement of Spielberg returning to the sci-fi genre next summer.