Year by Year Polls: 1971 (RESULTS)

[gromit82]

ICM Forum's Favorite Films from 1971

There were 50 voters and 233 different films voted for in this poll. The table below shows all films that received at least 25 points.

Rank	Title	AKA	Director	Points Received	Number of Ballots	Number of IMDB Votes	Link
1	A Clockwork Orange		Stanley Kubrick	463.0	31	819,962
2	The Last Picture Show		Peter Bogdanovich	365.5	28	48,323
3	Walkabout		Nicolas Roeg	350.5	30	25,557
4	Harold and Maude		Hal Ashby	329.0	26	77,364
5	McCabe & Mrs. Miller		Robert Altman	253.0	19	25,138
6	The French Connection		William Friedkin	250.0	24	122,380
7	Morte a Venezia	Death in Venice	Luchino Visconti	238.5	21	21,199
8	Wake in Fright		Ted Kotcheff	191.5	17	12,452
9	Duel		Steven Spielberg	172.0	14	70,708
10	Two-Lane Blacktop		Monte Hellman	155.5	16	12,507
11	Utvandrarna	The Emigrants	Jan Troell	149.5	12	6,713
12	Shura	Demons	Toshio Matsumoto	149.0	14	2,299
13	Get Carter		Mike Hodges	145.5	13	33,797
14	The Devils		Ken Russell	139.0	14	16,280
15	Xia nü	A Touch of Zen	King Hu	130.0	12	6,398
16	Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory		Mel Stuart	129.0	14	199,970
16	Straw Dogs		Sam Peckinpah	129.0	10	60,363
18	Out 1, noli me tangere	Out 1	Jacques Rivette	126.5	9	1,378
19	The Andromeda Strain		Robert Wise	126.0	11	37,483
20	Le souffle au coeur	Murmur of the Heart	Louis Malle	125.5	13	9,993
21	Quatre nuits d'un rêveur	Four Nights of a Dreamer	Robert Bresson	118.5	11	2,639
22	Klute		Alan J. Pakula	116.5	14	26,324
23	Dirty Harry		Don Siegel	114.5	14	156,037
24	Johnny Got His Gun		Dalton Trumbo	110.0	9	16,975
25	10 Rillington Place		Richard Fleischer	106.5	10	8,870
26	A New Leaf		Elaine May	102.0	11	6,668
27	Land des Schweigens und der Dunkelheit	Land of Silence and Darkness	Werner Herzog	100.0	11	2,883
28	Szerelem	Love	Károly Makk	99.5	10	1,974
29	Les deux Anglaises et le continent	Two English Girls	François Truffaut	93.0	8	5,466
30	Du côté d'Orouët		Jacques Rozier	91.5	8	403
30	Les lèvres rouges	Daughters of Darkness	Harry Kümel	91.5	8	6,046
30	Mon oncle Antoine		Claude Jutra	91.5	7	2,961
33	Fiddler on the Roof		Norman Jewison	87.0	10	43,550
34	The Panic in Needle Park		Jerry Schatzberg	84.0	8	18,300
35	The Tragedy of Macbeth		Roman Polanski	83.0	7	13,950
36	The Go-Between		Joseph Losey	81.0	9	5,839
37	Taking Off		Milos Forman	80.0	9	4,419
38	Punishment Park		Peter Watkins	74.0	5	7,040
39	Sho o suteyo machi e deyô	Throw Away Your Books, Rally in the Streets	Shûji Terayama	71.0	7	2,000
40	Carnal Knowledge		Mike Nichols	70.5	7	13,018
41	Giù la testa	Duck, You Sucker	Sergio Leone	70.0	6	34,693
42	Vanishing Point		Richard C. Sarafian	64.0	8	28,700
42	THX 1138		George Lucas	64.0	6	51,631
44	Trafic	Traffic	Jacques Tati	63.0	7	6,825
45	Sunday Bloody Sunday		John Schlesinger	62.0	7	6,368
45	W.R. - Misterije organizma	WR: Mysteries of the Organism	Dusan Makavejev	62.0	6	5,010
47	Reality's Invisible		Robert E. Fulton	60.0	4	57
48	The Beguiled		Don Siegel	59.0	6	17,671
49	Szindbád	Sinbad	Zoltán Huszárik	58.0	6	1,547
50	And Now for Something Completely Different		Ian MacNaughton	56.0	6	30,362
50	Family Life	Wednesday's Child	Ken Loach	56.0	4	1,796
52	La région centrale		Michael Snow	54.5	5	506
53	Trzecia czesc nocy	The Third Part of the Night	Andrzej Zulawski	54.0	6	2,247
54	Bananas		Woody Allen	53.0	8	35,872
55	Play Misty for Me		Clint Eastwood	50.5	6	28,570
56	Il Decameron	The Decameron	Pier Paolo Pasolini	49.0	5	11,027
57	Nicholas and Alexandra		Franklin J. Schaffner	45.0	5	5,039
58	Gishiki	The Ceremony	Nagisa Ôshima	43.5	5	1,111
59	Una lucertola con la pelle di donna	A Lizard in a Woman's Skin	Lucio Fulci	43.0	4	5,135
60	Max et les ferrailleurs	Max and the Junkmen	Claude Sautet	41.0	5	2,751
60	La maison des bois		Maurice Pialat	41.0	3	240
62	Fata Morgana		Werner Herzog	40.0	5	3,792
63	Minnie and Moskowitz		John Cassavetes	39.0	7	4,860
63	Bedknobs and Broomsticks		Robert Stevenson	39.0	5	37,574
63	Proverka na dorogakh	Trial on the Road	Aleksey German	39.0	3	2,314
63	Ashad Ka Ek Din	One Day Before the Rainy Season	Mani Kaul	39.0	2	138
67	Gojira tai Hedora	Godzilla vs. Hedorah	Yoshimitsu Banno	35.0	3	5,705
67	In nome del popolo italiano	In the Name of the Italian People	Dino Risi	35.0	3	1,465
67	Mandara		Akio Jissôji	35.0	3	406
70	Summer of '42		Robert Mulligan	34.0	4	8,183
71	Shaft		Gordon Parks	33.0	6	19,200
71	Dolgie provody	The Long Farewell	Kira Muratova	33.0	4	770
73	The Hospital		Arthur Hiller	30.0	4	6,543
73	Lawman		Michael Winner	30.0	3	5,006
73	Lo strano vizio della signora Wardh	The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh	Sergio Martino	30.0	3	4,800
76	Viva la muerte	Long Live Death	Fernando Arrabal	29.0	3	1,386
77	Cuadecuc, vampir	Vampir-Cuadecuc	Pere Portabella	28.0	4	748
78	Emitaï		Ousmane Sembene	27.0	3	387
78	Addio fratello crudele	'Tis Pity She's a Whore	Giuseppe Patroni Griffi	27.0	2	450
80	Como Era Gostoso o Meu Francês	How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman	Nelson Pereira dos Santos	25.5	4	1,077
80	Juste avant la nuit	Just Before Nightfall	Claude Chabrol	25.5	4	2,095
82	Socrate	Socrates	Roberto Rossellini	25.0	3	843
83	Basic Training		Frederick Wiseman	25.0	2	224

Films that received 1st-place votes
(ranked in order of number of first-place votes received, then by total points received)

8 - A Clockwork Orange – blocho, filmbantha, Leopardi, Lonewolf2003, maxwelldeux, murnaunosferatu, Opio, pitn
3 - The Last Picture Show – Gordon_Gekko, matthewscott8, sol
3 - Utvandrarna – hurluberlu, lineuphere, Mysterious Dude
3 - Out 1, noli me tangere – MoTH, OldAle1, Smoover
2 - Harold and Maude – klaus78, ororama
2 - McCabe & Mrs. Miller – cinewest, jeff_v
2 - The French Connection – Rufus-T, Teproc
2 - Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory – gunnar, zzzorf
2 - Ashad Ka Ek Din – airdolll, RogerTheMovieManiac88
1 - Morte a Venezia – Caracortada
1 - Duel – AB537
1 - Shura - Torgo
1 - Two-Lane Blacktop - peeptoad
1 - The Andromeda Strain - Hunziker
1 - Klute – Silga
1 - Les lèvres rouges – beavis
1 - Mon oncle Antoine – Fergenaprido
1 - Fiddler on the Roof – gromit82
1 - The Panic in Needle Park – St. Gloede
1 - Trafic – Minkin
1 - Reality’s Invisible – viktor-vaudevillain
1 - Szindbád – joachimt
1 - La région centrale - Dolwphin
1 - Gishiki – RolandKirkSunglasses
1 - Mandara – Traveller
1 - Dolgie provody – Y U M E
1 - Addio fratello crudele - timshelboy
1 - The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave (Emilio Miraglia) – TraverseTown (1 ballot, 20 points)
1 - Zvahlav aneb Saticky Slameného Huberta (Jan Svankmajer) – Good_Will_Harding (1 ballot, 20 points)

The following voters submitted unranked ballots:

Angel Glez
cayado-coro
insomnius

From the predecessor poll

On the IMDb Classic Film board, a version of this poll for 1971 was conducted in 2011.
The top 30 films that time around were:

01. … 31 ….. 477.5 ... The Last Picture Show … Peter Bogdanovich (this time: 2)
02. … 31 ….. 435.0 ... A Clockwork Orange … Stanley Kubrick (1)
03. … 26 ….. 357.0 ... McCabe & Mrs. Miller … Robert Altman (5)
04. … 21 ….. 318.5 ... Death in Venice (Morte a Venezia) … Luchino Visconti (7)
05. … 24 ….. 285.0 ... Harold and Maude … Hal Ashby (4)
06. … 24 ….. 280.0 ... The French Connection … William Friedkin (6)
07. … 25 ….. 267.5 ... Dirty Harry … Don Siegel (23)
08. … 21 ….. 232.0 ... Walkabout … Nicolas Roeg (3)
09. … 21 ….. 231.0 ... Duel … Steven Spielberg (9)
10. … 19 ….. 219.0 ... Straw Dogs … Sam Peckinpah (16)
11. … 22 ….. 217.5 ... Play Misty for Me … Clint Eastwood (55)
12. … 19 ….. 215.0 ... Klute … Alan J. Pakula (22)
13. … 16 ….. 208.5 ... Bananas … Woody Allen (54)
14. … 20 ….. 207.0 ... Murmur of the Heart (Le souffle au coeur) … Louis Malle (20)
15. … 16 ….. 206.5 ... The Emigrants (Utvandrarna) … Jan Troell (11)
16. … 15 ….. 191.0 ... Fiddler on the Roof … Norman Jewison (33)
17. … 17 ….. 179.0 ... The Beguiled … Don Siegel (48)
18. … 14 ….. 170.0 ... Sunday Bloody Sunday … John Schlesinger (45)
19. … 12 ….. 154.5 ... Two-Lane Blacktop … Monte Hellman (10)
20. … 14 ….. 145.5 ... Carnal Knowledge … Mike Nichols (40)
21. … 12 ….. 142.5 ... Get Carter … Mike Hodges (13)
22. ….15 ….. 142.0 ... Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory … Mel Stuart (16)
23. … 07 ….. 135.0 ... Out 1 (Out 1, noli me tangere) … Jacques Rivette (18)
24. … 10 ….. 127.0 ... The Devils … Ken Russell (14)
25. … 09 ….. 119.5 ... 10 Rillington Place … Richard Fleischer (25)
26. … 11 ….. 115.0 ... The Tragedy of Macbeth … Roman Polanski (35)
27. … 08 ….. 114.5 ... The Decameron (Il Decameron) … Pier Paolo Pasolini (56)
28. … 08 ….. 112.0 ... A New Leaf … Elaine May (26)
29. … 07 ….. 107.0 ... King Lear (Korol Lir) … Grigori Kozintsev (ineligible now; listed as a 1970 film)
30. … 10 ….. 103.0 ... Nicholas and Alexandra … Franklin J. Schaffner (57)
31. … 11 ….. 102.5 ... Trafic … Jacques Tati (44)
32. … 11 ….. 101.5 ... The Andromeda Strain … Robert Wise (19)
33. … 08 ….. 097.5 ... Two English Girls (Les deux Anglaises et le continent) … Francois Truffaut (29)
34. (tie) …. 09 ….. 095.5 ... The Boy Friend … Ken Russell (2 ballots, 23 points)
34. (tie) …. 11 ….. 095.5 ... Punishment Park … Peter Watkins (38)
36. (tie) …. 07 ….. 094.0 ... Land of Silence and Darkness (Land des Schweigens und der Dunkelheit) … Werner Herzog (27)
36. (tie) …. 11 ….. 094.0 ... The Omega Man … Boris Sagal (2 ballots, 13 points)
38. … 08 ….. 091.5 ... The Merchant of Four Seasons (Handler der vier Jahreszeiten) … Rainer Werner Fassbinder (ineligible now; listed as a 1972 film)

And the awards go to …

Oscars
1. A Clockwork Orange
2. The Last Picture Show
6. The French Connection (winner)
33. Fiddler on the Roof
57. Nicholas and Alexandra

11. Utvandrarna / The Emigrants (nominated in 1972)

Cannes
36. The Go-Between (1971 Palme d’Or)
zz. La classe operaia va in paradiso / The Working Class Goes to Heaven (1972 Palme d’Or co-winner) (no ballots)

Berlin
xx. Il giardino dei Finzi Contini / The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (listed as a 1970 film by IMDb; ranked #17 in the Classic Film board’s poll for 1970 held in 2012)

Shorts
No films under 45 minutes long made the main list. The highest-ranked short was Jan Svankmajer's Zvahlav aneb Saticky Slameného Huberta (Jabberwocky), which received a single first-place vote for 20 points, which would have ranked it in 92nd place.

Your mileage may vary
The following titles are well-known (over 10,000 votes) and reasonably well-liked (average rating of 7.0 or higher) by IMDb users, but they didn't make a big impression here:

Anand (over 33,000 votes, 1 ballot, 12 points)
... continuavano a chiamarlo Trinità (over 15,000 votes, no ballots)
The Abominable Dr. Phibes (over 15,000 votes, 4 ballots, 22 points)
Big Jake (over 13,000 votes, no ballots)
Dzhentlmeny udachi (over 11,000 votes, no ballots)

The next poll will be for 2010, followed by 1986 and 1924.

[gromit82]

The results can be found as a list at:
https://www.icheckmovies.com/lists/icm+ ... /gromit82/

A list of all films receiving votes can be found at:
https://www.imdb.com/list/ls561717782/

A vote for the following film was not counted because IMDb lists it as being from a different year:
UFO's (1972)

In addition, four ballots were not counted because they didn't include lists of URLs (not including another post where the person intentionally omitted a list of URLs).

[insomnius]

I hate to be that guy (again), but even though you acknowledge my list as being unranked, looking at the points for Aaeon for example, I suspect you've counted it as ranked.

Thanks for hosting anyhow.

[gromit82]

I hate to be that guy (again), but even though you acknowledge my list as being unranked, looking at the points for Aaeon for example, I suspect you've counted it as ranked.

You're right. I left out the unranked indicator for your ballot when preparing the spreadsheet. I'll recalculate the results and repost them when I get a chance.

[gromit82]

I have since corrected the original post to treat insomnius's ballot as unranked as it should have been. Hopefully everything is correct now.

[St. Gloede]

Thank you so much for hosting, Gromit!

Seeing this list compared with the 1962 poll we just did is quite telling given how few non-english language films are on top. Only 1 in the top 10 vs. 7 "last time". It is often said that the 60s was the Decade of "international cinema" and that the 70s was the decade for American cinema, and at least judging by these results, that is very true.

Overall, I'm quite pleased with the results, especially Walkabout ending up in the top 3, and nice to see Shura and The Devils just outside the top 10. I would have hoped that The Panic in Needle Park would have done better than 34th after more than a decade of promotion, but then again, maybe it would have been 60th otherwise.

I'm more surprised that the apparent forum favourite, Reality's Invisible, which is in the top 100 of DtC and the top 200 of 500<400 only got 4 votes. Parts of that can be blamed on Perception (!) choosing not to have his list counted, but it should have gotten more votes.

Also very fun to see Out 1 edging at a lot of close runner-ups for best French film. That was unexpected.

I had also hoped to find time to rewatch Love, as I it was my first Makk and I may not have been fully ready for it at the time, but sadly I did not get around to it. Hopefully, I will before the 1971 poll rolls around again.

Anyhow, my stats:

73/83

My unseen films:

57. Nicholas and Alexandra
61. La maison des bois
64. Bedknobs and Broomsticks
67. Godzilla vs. Hedorah
68. In the Name of the Italian People
74. Lawman
79. 'Tis Pity She's a Whore
81. Just Before Nightfall
82. Socrate
83. Basic Training

Of these, Chabrol's Just Before Nightfall is the only one I have had ready for viewing and been meaning to see for years. I love Pialot, so I will sit down with La maison des bois at one point as well. The rest I'm not that certain about, including the Rossellini as I'm just not excited about this stage of his career/his late biopic TV films. In the Name of the Italian People may on the other hand be pushed up a little in my watchlist after these results. I do like (though not love) Risi and he has some very good films. Basic Training is another film from a director I mainly just like that could be interesting. As for the top-ranked film, Nicholas and Alexandra, I will get to it eventually. I don't actually know why I have held it off this long as Schaffner is a fairly good director. It is likely just a like rather than love, plus 3-hour runtime issue.

[insomnius]

I hate to be that guy (again), but even though you acknowledge my list as being unranked, looking at the points for Aaeon for example, I suspect you've counted it as ranked.

You're right. I left out the unranked indicator for your ballot when preparing the spreadsheet. I'll recalculate the results and repost them when I get a chance.

Thank you. Glad to help Out 1 gain some positions.

[peeptoad]

Good results... thanks gromit!

[airdolll]

Thank you for hosting! 44/83 for me and missing a lot of biggies, Duel goes to my wall of shame...
Very happy to see my favorite Mani Kaul on the list, thank you Roger!

[Y U M E]

Thanks for hosting gromit

Seen: 72/83
Highest unseen: Reality's Invisible (Fulton) #47
Highest film I voted for: The Last Picture Show (Bogdanovich) #2
Rank of my #1: The Long Farewell (Muratova) #71
Added to my watchlist: In the Name of the Italian People (Risi) - currently showing on Dutch Netflix
Most urgent rewatch: Shura (Matsumoto) - still hoping for a decent blu-ray/transfer

[RogerTheMovieManiac88]

Thank you for hosting! 44/83 for me and missing a lot of biggies, Duel goes to my wall of shame...
Very happy to see my favorite Mani Kaul on the list, thank you Roger!

Nice indeed to see the Kaul do well here. The way he films interiors and creates a mood is just remarkable and compelling. I was very glad to see your high placement of the film as well.

Thanks to gromit for the results!

[RogerTheMovieManiac88]

I'm more surprised that the apparent forum favourite, Reality's Invisible, which is in the top 100 of DtC and the top 200 of 500<400 only got 4 votes. Parts of that can be blamed on Perception (!) choosing not to have his list counted, but it should have gotten more votes.

I was hoping to watch it before submitting my ballot, but yesterday was unexpectedly busy. I'm sorry that I didn't find time to squeeze it in as it's certainly one of my most anticipated titles for 1971!

[Rufus-T]

King Kubrick strikes again, and not even close. I still would have love to see Out 1 to see what the fuss is about.

[timshelboy]

Thanks for hosting

No big surprises at the top but obvs I need to give WAKE IN FRIGHT a go, and I too am curious re OUT1

A bit disappointed in CARNAL KNOWLEDGE not doing better but accept it may be too jaundiced for some

did TIS PITY... get a second vote?

[gromit82]

did TIS PITY... get a second vote?

Yes, it made the main list thanks to a #1 (for 20 points) from you and a #14 (for 7 points) from lineuphere.

[viktor-vaudevillain]

Not the worst top 10 everything considered. But weird it only being English language films. That's not very common for this period in film history (and yes, Death in Venice is mostly an English language film), but it seems none of the big non-English language auteurs of this time didn't have any big films out in '71. We have Rivette's Out 1, but that is very much an acquired taste, and though Quatre nuits d'un rêveur is one of my favorite Bressons it sure isn't for many other people.

Thanks for the results!

[St. Gloede]

So about 3 months later I finally added the write up on iCinema: https://icmforum.com/2022/12/06/top-50-films-of-1971/



Feel free to share.

Not had a lot of time recently sadly, if anyone feels like writing up our poll results (or do any iCinema stories), let me know and I can give you access.