1972: The Godfather

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If you haven’t seen this movie, you definitely should. There’s a reason The Godfather has become a classic film. It’s the be-all, end-all of gangster flicks. In it, the patriarch of a crime dynasty transfers his control over to his reluctant son. It doesn’t go well. The film stars Marlon Brando and, of course, Al Pacino.
1973: The Exorcist

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This is probably one of the most famous horror films of all time. It’s about a girl who’s possessed by evil spirits. Her mother asks two priests to help save her. It goes about as well as you can imagine.
The film stars Max von Sydow, Linda Blair, and Ellen Burstyn. The budget might have been $12 million…but you can still see the wires used to hold Regan during the levitation scenes. Even so, it shocked audiences around the world, affecting them so much in some places that paramedics were called for people who went into hysterics or fainted during the screenings.
1974: Blazing Saddles

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Blazing Saddles is a comedy western about a corrupt politician who hires a black sheriff in an attempt to ruin an entire town. It doesn’t work out, and said sheriff becomes his most formidable adversary. The film stars Gene Wilder and Cleavon Little. It did well in the box office, grossing over $119 million in the USA alone, despite only having a budget of $2 million to start with.