David Fincher’s three favourite movies of the 1970s: “Still the best”
Nobody makes movies quite like David Fincher.
The auteur has a meticulous eye for detail that, while not always so popular with his actors, is greatly appreciated by his legions of fans. He has proven himself to be the master of the modern thriller, turning out tense masterpieces like Se7en, Zodiac, and Gone Girl, as well as other great movies that don’t leave audiences digging their nails into their cinema seats.
Fincher took a rather unconventional route to feature filmmaking. After founding a production company in 1986, he went on to direct some of the biggest music videos of the age. He worked alongside artists like Madonna, George Michael, Michael Jackson, and The Rolling Stones, making videos that you have definitely seen and have no idea were made by the same guy who did The Social Network. It wasn’t until he was brought in to replace Vincent Ward on Alien 3 that he entered Hollywood proper.
This was clearly always the end goal. Fincher took to feature films like a duck to water – Alien 3 isn’t as bad as you remember – and obviously relishes the more intense challenges associated with the art form. Born in 1964, he would have had his cinematic coming-of-age in the 1970s. He made this extremely clear when he was asked by The Academy to name five films that had a profound impact on his life, and all five of them were from the 1970s.
Let’s go through this in chronological order. Fincher’s first pick was the 1971 police drama The French Connection. “The ultimate power of this film might be its grinding and relentless ability to equate waiting with character,” the director stated. William Friedkin’s high-octane tale of heroin smuggling in New York City bagged Gene Hackman his first Oscar and helped continue the rise of the ‘New Hollywood’ movie that is so present in Fincher’s work.
Next up was Paper Moon, the Peter Bogdanovich comedy-drama from 1973. Starring real-life father-daughter duo Ryan and Tatum O’Neal, the story follows the pair as they travel Depression-era America, attempting to make money by pulling various cons. It won Tatum an Oscar at the age of ten. Fincher called it Bogdanovich’s best film, “And that is saying something”.
Of course, you can’t talk about the 1970s without mentioning the rise of Steven Spielberg, and Fincher obliged by mentioning his classic UFO epic, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. “I never looked at the night sky the same way again,” he revealed.
While he’s never made an out-and-out horror film, Fincher has incorporated elements of the genre into some of his efforts. Unsurprisingly, he picked a classic slasher as part of his ’70s all-star lineup: John Carpenter’s Halloween. “A murky sense of culpability imbues every thrilling steadicam POV with heretofore unknown dread,” Fincher waxed on the subject of the 1978 flick, calling it, “Still the best”.
Finally, he rounded off his selections with something unexpected, a musical. He picked All That Jazz, Bob Fosse’s 1979 semi-autobiographical saga of life in the theatre. “He shows us everything through dance,” he said. “And we cannot look away.”
The 1970s not only produced some amazing films, but they also inspired the next generation of great filmmakers to follow in their footsteps. Fincher is living proof of this.
David Fincher’s favourite 1970s movies:
- Paper Moon (Peter Bogdanovich, 1973)
- Steven Spielberg (Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 1977)
- John Carpenter (Halloween, 1978)
- All That Jazz (Bob Fosse, 1979)
