The greatest crime films and TV shows that take place in the 1970s

We’ll start with a ‘70s crime movie that is perhaps the definitive such movie made in that decade. Which is notable, given that it came out in 1971. That helped “The French Connection” codify the ‘70s crime movie, and also the New York crime movie. It won Best Picture and the late Gene Hackman won his first Oscar. Hackman is great as one of the first antihero cops on film in Popeye Doyle, and “The French Connection” contains an all-time chase scene as well.

We’ll get back to movies in a second, but we wanted to shout out our pick for the definitive ‘70s crime TV show, which is “The Rockford Files.” It’s oh-so-very ‘70s, dedicating so much of its runtime to a dude driving around in a sports car. That’s not to say Jim Rockford is some slick crime solver—quite the opposite. Part of the appeal of “The Rockford Files” is that Rockford is just kind of a guy trying to get by. He drives a nice car and lives by the beach, but he resides in a mobile home that is always parked in a lot. Working as a private eye, Rockford solves most of the cases that come his way, but he’s barely getting by financially. He only wins, maybe, two-thirds of the fights he’s in. “The Rockford Files” in turn influenced the director that crime procedurals would go from there.

“Goodfellas” covers a span of time. It begins in 1955, when Henry Hill is a teenager. We spent a fair amount of time in the 1960s as well. When Henry gets busted? That is in the 1980s. However, from the moment Billy Batts strolls into the film until Tommy is offed for killing Batts, it’s the 1970s. “Goodfellas” is one of the best crime movies ever made, one of the best movies full stop, so it still warrants being mentioned as a top ‘70s crime flick.

In 1972, there was a real bank robbery that turned into a hostage situation. That inspired Sidney Lumet’s “Dog Day Afternoon.” Al Pacino plays Sonny, the leader of the robbery, even though he has never done such an act before. Things spiral as the event becomes a cultural phenomenon in New York City. “Dog Day Afternoon” was nominated for six Oscars, and it won for Best Original Screenplay.

This is perhaps the most “1970s” of the ‘70s crime movies. Walter Matthau is the hero, and he’s a put-upon transit cop. The villains take a subway train hostage, but the city isn’t sure it has the money to pay the ransom. “The Taking of Pelham One Two Three” is mostly just people yelling at one another. It’s really good.

Alright, let’s get some period pieces in the mix here. Brian De Palma’s “Carlito’s Way” is, of course, mostly based on the book “After Hours,” but it takes some of the plot, and the title, from that book’s 1975 predecessor “Carlito’s Way.” Pacino is back in the lead role. He plays career criminal Carlito Brigante who is released after serving five years of a 30-year sentence on a legal technicality. Carlito returns to the wider world in 1975 New York and wants to avoid a life of crime. Unfortunately, avoiding his old life proves difficult, especially since even his lawyer is now entangled in criminal activity.

Apparently Pacino is a big fan of ‘70s crime films, which is perhaps fitting given that he was a guy who lived in 1970s New York. Based on a true story, Johnny Depp plays a cop that goes undercover to infiltrate the New York mob scene. He meets, and befriends, Lefty Ruggiero, a mob enforcer entering middle age and losing some of his power in the crime world. Ruggiero is played by Pacino, and his performance gives the character the kind of depth that makes it understandable when Depp’s “Donnie Brasco” has reservations of dropping the hammer on him.

“American Gangster” is similar to “Goodfellas” in that it covers a larger span of time and is about a perverted vision of the “American Dream.” Denzel Washington stars as Frank Lucas, who goes from cog in the crime landscape of New York in the late 1960s to perhaps the city’s most formidable drug kingpin by using the Vietnam War as a cover to smuggle heroin into the United States. Eventually things fell apart, giving “American Gangster” an old-school rise-and-fall arc, but Ridley Scott’s crime drama is a solid entrant into that world.

More Depp, more drugs. A book with the subtitle “How a Small Town Boy Made $100 Million with the Medellin Cocaine Cartel and Lost It All” is kind of destined to be adapted to the big screen, right? Depp plays George Jung, who goes from small-time marijuana pusher to big-time marijuana pusher to, as that subtitle indicates, a massive drug trafficker of the cocaine variety for Pablo Escobar’s cartel. “Blow” is also notable for being a rare dramatic turn from Paul Reubens.

“The Long Goodbye” is a great movie and also offers something akin to the inverse of the period pieces set in the 1970s. While Robert Altman’s movie is set in 1970s Los Angeles, what he did was to take Philip Marlowe, the famed private eye character, whole cloth from the 1940s and drop him into that world. He’s a chain smoker in a black suit surrounded by yoga gurus and health nuts. Marlowe’s moral compass also remains clear, though. Elliott Gould gives an all-timer of a performance in “The Long Goodbye” as Marlowe as well.

Yes, “Starsky and Hutch” is a comedic riff on the old ‘70s cop show. It got to the whole parodying old TV shows thing a little late, years after, say “The Brady Bunch Movie.” That being said, it’s pretty funny. Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson are seemingly having fun, and they have excellent rapport on screen. It’s not a full-on comedy classic, but “Starsky and Hutch” is better than you might think.

The Zodiac Killer was murdering people in the late 1960s and early 1970s, but David Fincher’s “Zodiac” goes well beyond that time and into the 1970s. His movie is not some general, tossed-off serial killer film. It’s about the human toll. It’s about obsession. It’s about the men who went so deep down the rabbit hole trying to figure out his identity they never really reemerged. Many consider “Zodiac” one of the best movies of the 2000s, and some consider it Fincher’s best film.

Eventually, “Columbo” would be rebooted in and air from 1989 until 2003. Yes, the last original “Columbo” episode came out in 2003. The show’s strong run, though, other than the special “Prescription: Murder” that introduced Peter Falk in the role, aired in the 1970s. Falk gave an iconic performance as the homicide detective who went all around Los Angeles (and sometimes outside Los Angeles) unraveling mysteries involving arrogant, usually rich killers. “Columbo” is a quintessential ’70 procedural, and also pretty timeless.

The different seasons of “Fargo” take place in different time periods. It’s the second season that is set in the 1970s. Also, it’s the only good season of “Fargo.” The first and third are okay, but the fourth and fifth are trash. Fortunately, you can just watch the second season and you aren’t really missing out on anything. It’s an anthology show, after all.

You may have heard that they made a spinoff show set in the world of “John Wick” about the hotel for killers and criminals, The Continental. However, if you haven’t seen it, you may not have realized it is a period piece. The third episode of the limited series tells the tale of how Winston, Ian McShane’s character, came to run The Continental, taking us back to the 1970s. So no, McShane doesn’t play Winston in the show. Also, did you know Mel Gibson is in this?

Speaking of the second season of “Fargo,” Zahn McClarnon was in that season, one of the reasons why it was so good. McClarnon got a chance to lead a show with AMC’s period crime thriller “Dark Winds.” He plays Joe Leaphorn, a police officer in Navajo Country dealing with strange, sordid crimes on the land. “Dark Winds” has now aired three seasons, with a fourth to come.

“Fight Night” could have stood to limit its limited-series run a bit more, as eight episodes required a bit of padding. However, it’s an interesting story and the cast is impressive. Kevin Hart in the main cast of a drama may be surprising, but Samuel L. Jackson, Don Cheadle, and Taraji P. Henson are also there. The series is based on a real armed robbery staged in Atlanta to take advantage of the attention being paid to Muhammad Ali’s comeback fight in 1970.

John le Carre mostly told Cold War stories, but not always. It wasn’t all George Smiley and the KGB. “The Little Drummer Girl” is a story that definitely wouldn’t cause anybody to flip out, what with being about a woman being recruited by the Mossad to infiltrate a Palestinian terrorist organization. Of course, le Carre’s stories tend to be cynical and see the worst in all parties involved, and “The Little Drummer Girl” is no different. The story, which was dramatized in a limited series in 2018 starring Michael Shannon and Florence Pugh, is set in 1979.

Nothing about “Love & Death” screams “1970s,” and a lot of people who tuned in to watch it may not have realized it was a period piece when they did. They just wanted to watch the crime story starring Elizabeth Olsen and Jesse Plemons. Like so many of these stories, “Love & Death” is based on a true story. This time, though, from a small town in Texas, where an affair exploded into a murder that shook the town.

We end with “The Mod Squad” because it was an attempt to create a hip, of-the-moment crime procedural. It did start in 1968, but it ran until 1973, and it does feel very “’70s” in many ways. In essence, the conceit was “What if young, countercultural people were pressed into undercover duty to avoid jail time?” Well, they become the Mod Squad, and they become the coolest, hippest cops on TV for half a decade.