Top 10 Badass Antiheroes from ’70s Films
Top 10 Badass Antiheroes from 70s Films
This week on Sundance Channel, weâre showcasing some truly memorable films from the 1970s, featuring some of the very best badass antiheroes. No one ever said movie heroes were perfect. In fact, the most imperfect onesâthe deeply flawed, the morally suspectâare often the most fascinating. Donât miss these â70s classics, and stay tuned for next weekâs films when we focus on the â80s!
Sundance Channelâs Decades â a month of your favorite films from the 70s, 80s, 90s and 00s.10. Tony, SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER (1977)
Itâs easy to forget just how dark this movie is. Blame it on the Bee Gees and their upbeat harmonies. But when Tony (John Travolta) isnât holding court as king of the disco dance floor, heâs dealing with a crappy job, a dead-end group of friends and a dysfunctional familyâand playing his own part in the misogyny, violence and tense race relations of late-â70s Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.
Don't miss SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER, Monday 8/5 at 8pm. Sundance Channelâs Decades â a month of your favorite films from the 70s, 80s, 90s and 00s.
Photo Credit: Paramount Pictures9. Swan, THE WARRIORS (1979)
One of the great cult classics of the â70s, THE WARRIORS is also one of the campiest. Set in a New York overrun by fancifully uniformed gangs, itâs an urban mythological tale of antiheroism, where the âgood guysââled by Swan (Michael Beck)âare as violent and lawless and anarchic as the rest. But that doesnât stop us from rooting them on.
Don't miss THE WARRIORS, Friday 8/9 at 8pm. Sundance Channelâs Decades â a month of your favorite films from the 70s, 80s, 90s and 00s.8. Babe, MARATHON MAN (1976)
A victim of circumstances, Babe (Dustin Hoffman) starts off as an innocent caught up in his brotherâs line of work (monitoring a former Nazi war criminal). But as he gets deeper and deeper into said Naziâs (Laurence Olivier) stolen-diamond drama, Babe discovers his own capacity for tolerating torture (of the dental kindâowww) and dishing out retribution.
Don't miss MARATHON MAN, Thursday 8/8 at 10pm. Sundance Channelâs Decades â a month of your favorite films from the 70s, 80s, 90s and 00s.7. Kowalski, VANISHING POINT (1971)
A Vietnam vet and former cop, Kowalski (Barry Newman) is a car-delivery driver (the profession alone dates the film) who sets a breakneck pace with the fuzz and a bevy of fans following his every move. Amphetamine-guzzling, fast-driving, smooth-talking Kowalski is a perfectly flawed action antihero.
Don't miss VANISHING POINT, Thursday 8/8 at 8pm. Sundance Channelâs Decades â a month of your favorite films from the 70s, 80s, 90s and 00s.
Photo Credit: Twentieth Century Fox6. Deep Throat, ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN (1976)
Deep Throat (Hal Holbrook)âwhose true identity was ultimately revealed to be FBI bigwig W. Mark Feltâwas critical in cracking the Watergate scandal. Was the information he fed Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) meant to bring down a crooked president, or was that an unintended consequence of a disgruntled employee? His motives were (and remain) murky.
Don't miss ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN, Tuesday 8/6 at 10:30pm. Sundance Channelâs Decades â a month of your favorite films from the 70s, 80s, 90s and 00s.5. Norma, NORMA RAE (1979)
It should perhaps come as no surprise that women are seriously underrepresented on this list, given the era and cultural expectations. Norma (Oscar winner Sally Field) is one big exception. Driven to âact outâ by organizing a union in her North Carolina sweatshop, she is vilified for putting her family life second and has to fight on two fronts, to keep her job and to keep her role as wife and mother.
Don't miss NORMA RAE, Wednesday 8/7 at 10:15pm. Sundance Channelâs Decades â a month of your favorite films from the 70s, 80s, 90s and 00s.
Photo Credit: Twentieth Century Fox4. McMurphy, ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST (1975)
In MiloĹĄ Formanâs seminal 1975 film about a mental hospital populated by craziesâpatients and staff alikeâMac (Jack Nicholson), who is supposedly sane and gaming the system, may in fact be the craziest of all. He rallies his fellow inmates and restores to them a taste of freedom and independence, but his excesses and instability ultimately lead to his own (and othersâ) destruction.
Don't miss ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST, Tuesday 8/6 at 8pm. Sundance Channelâs Decades â a month of your favorite films from the 70s, 80s, 90s and 00s.
Photo Credit: Warner Brothers3. Travis, TAXI DRIVER (1976)
Isolation and insomnia send vigilante cabbie Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) into a cycle of violence that is as riveting to watch as it is inexplicable. He is so compelling and contradictory that itâs hard to define him: child-prostitute savior? Would-be assassin? Yesâmaking him one of the great antiheroes in one of filmâs greatest period pieces.
Don't miss TAXI DRIVER. Sundance Channelâs Decades â a month of your favorite films from the 70s, 80s, 90s and 00s.2. Alex, A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971)
Though his ultraviolence is repugnant, itâs really quite difficult not to be charmed by the charismatic Alex (Malcolm McDowell) as he leads his pack of droogs through the dystopian society Stanley Kubrick so richly depicts. Given his grotesque ârehabilitation,â we canât help but wonder which is to blame: the criminal or the society that birthed him.
Don't miss A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, Friday 8/9 at 9:45pm. Sundance Channelâs Decades â a month of your favorite films from the 70s, 80s, 90s and 00s.1. Sonny, DOG DAY AFTERNOON (1975)
Sonny (Al Pacino, in an Oscar-nominated portrayal) is the ultimate antihero: The hapless bank robber whose heist goes amazingly wrong was doing the job to pay for his pre-op wifeâs gender-reassignment surgery (never mind that heâs still married to a different woman). Heâs unfailingly sympatheticâdespite, you know, holding up a bank and taking hostages and failing miserably. A badass antihero for the ages.
Don't miss DOG DAY AFTERNOON, Wednesday 8/7 at 8pm. Sundance Channelâs Decades â a month of your favorite films from the 70s, 80s, 90s and 00s.
Photo Credit: Warner Brothers
