best movies 1978

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1. The Deer Hunter (1978)

R | 183 min | Drama, War

90 Metascore

An in-depth examination of the ways in which the Vietnam War impacts and disrupts the lives of several friends in a small steel mill town in Pennsylvania.

Director: Michael Cimino | Stars: Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, John Cazale, John Savage

Votes: 362,408 | Gross: $48.98M

2. Halloween (1978)

R | 91 min | Horror, Thriller

90 Metascore

Fifteen years after murdering his sister on Halloween night 1963, Michael Myers escapes from a mental hospital and returns to the small town of Haddonfield, Illinois to kill again.

Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tony Moran, Nancy Kyes

Votes: 306,946 | Gross: $47.00M

3. Days of Heaven (1978)

PG | 94 min | Drama, Romance

94 Metascore

A hot-tempered farm laborer convinces the woman he loves to marry their rich but dying boss so that they can have a claim to his fortune.

Director: Terrence Malick | Stars: Richard Gere, Brooke Adams, Sam Shepard, Linda Manz

Votes: 62,792

4. The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978)

R | 116 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

A man studies kung fu at the Shaolin Temple to fight back against the oppressive Manchu government.

Director: Chia-Liang Liu | Stars: Chia-Hui Liu, Lieh Lo, Yue Wong, Chia-Yung Liu

Votes: 18,375

5. Midnight Express (1978)

R | 121 min | Biography, Crime, Drama

59 Metascore

Billy Hayes, an American college student, is caught smuggling drugs out of Turkey and thrown into prison.

Director: Alan Parker | Stars: Brad Davis, Irene Miracle, Bo Hopkins, Paolo Bonacelli

Votes: 88,279 | Gross: $35.00M

6. Blue Collar (1978)

R | 114 min | Crime, Drama

77 Metascore

When three automotive factory workers who're struggling financially try to steal from their own labor union, they discover corruption, and reluctantly decide to use this information for blackmail.

Director: Paul Schrader | Stars: Richard Pryor, Harvey Keitel, Yaphet Kotto, Ed Begley Jr.

Votes: 10,652

7. Superman (1978)

PG | 143 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

82 Metascore

An alien orphan is sent from his dying planet to Earth, where he grows up to become his adoptive home's first and greatest superhero.

Director: Richard Donner | Stars: Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, Gene Hackman, Marlon Brando

Votes: 187,606 | Gross: $134.22M

8. National Lampoon's Animal House (1978)

R | 109 min | Comedy

79 Metascore

At a 1962 college, Dean Vernon Wormer is determined to expel the entire Delta Tau Chi Fraternity, but those troublemakers have other plans for him.

Director: John Landis | Stars: John Belushi, Karen Allen, Tom Hulce, Stephen Furst

Votes: 129,389

9. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)

PG | 115 min | Horror, Sci-Fi

75 Metascore

When strange seeds drift to earth from space, mysterious pods begin to grow and invade San Francisco, replicating the city's residents one body at a time.

Director: Philip Kaufman | Stars: Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Jeff Goldblum, Veronica Cartwright

Votes: 69,907 | Gross: $24.95M

10. Drunken Master (1978)

PG-13 | 111 min | Action, Comedy

68 Metascore

Wong Fei-Hung is a mischievous yet righteous young man, but after a series of incidents his frustrated father has him disciplined by a master of drunken martial arts.

Director: Woo-Ping Yuen | Stars: Jackie Chan, Siu-Tin Yuen, Jeong-lee Hwang, Dean Shek

Votes: 43,884

11. Interiors (1978)

PG | 92 min | Drama

67 Metascore

Three sisters find their lives spinning out of control in the wake of their parents' sudden, unexpected divorce.

Director: Woody Allen | Stars: Diane Keaton, Geraldine Page, Kristin Griffith, Mary Beth Hurt

Votes: 20,940

12. Coming Home (1978)

R | 127 min | Drama, Romance, War

61 Metascore

In 1968 California, a woman whose husband is a Marine officer fighting in Vietnam falls in love with a former high school classmate who suffered a paralyzing combat injury in the war.

Director: Hal Ashby | Stars: Jane Fonda, Jon Voight, Bruce Dern, Penelope Milford

Votes: 14,815 | Gross: $32.65M

13. Grease (1978)

PG | 110 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance

70 Metascore

Good girl Sandy Olsson and greaser Danny Zuko fell in love over the summer. When they unexpectedly discover they're now in the same high school, will they be able to rekindle their romance?

Director: Randal Kleiser | Stars: John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, Stockard Channing, Jeff Conaway

Votes: 300,750 | Gross: $188.76M

14. Death on the Nile (1978)

PG | 140 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery

59 Metascore

As Hercule Poirot enjoys a luxurious cruise down the Nile, a newlywed heiress is found murdered on board. Can Poirot identify the killer before the ship reaches the end of its journey?

Director: John Guillermin | Stars: Peter Ustinov, Mia Farrow, Simon MacCorkindale, Jane Birkin

Votes: 39,860

15. The Buddy Holly Story (1978)

PG | 114 min | Biography, Drama, Music

78 Metascore

The story of the life and career of the early rock and roll singer, from his meteoric rise to stardom, to his marriage and untimely death.

Director: Steve Rash | Stars: Gary Busey, Don Stroud, Charles Martin Smith, Conrad Janis

Votes: 9,992 | Gross: $14.36M

16. An Unmarried Woman (1978)

R | 124 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

79 Metascore

A wealthy woman from Manhattan's Upper East Side struggles to deal with her new identity and her sexuality after her husband of 16 years leaves her for a younger woman.

Director: Paul Mazursky | Stars: Jill Clayburgh, Alan Bates, Michael Murphy, Cliff Gorman

Votes: 6,052 | Gross: $24.00M

17. The Driver (1978)

R | 91 min | Action, Crime, Thriller

56 Metascore

A getaway driver becomes the latest assignment for a tenacious detective.

Director: Walter Hill | Stars: Ryan O'Neal, Bruce Dern, Isabelle Adjani, Ronee Blakley

Votes: 19,440 | Gross: $4.91M

18. The Boys from Brazil (1978)

R | 125 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi

40 Metascore

A Nazi hunter in Paraguay discovers a sinister and bizarre plot to rekindle the Third Reich.

Director: Franklin J. Schaffner | Stars: Gregory Peck, Laurence Olivier, James Mason, Lilli Palmer

Votes: 30,586 | Gross: $19.00M

19. Get Out Your Handkerchiefs (1978)

R | 108 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

A worried husband finds a lover for his depressed wife, but she falls in love with a bullied thirteen-year-old math prodigy and wants to have the boy's baby.

Director: Bertrand Blier | Stars: Gérard Depardieu, Carole Laure, Patrick Dewaere, Michel Serrault

Votes: 4,289

20. Up in Smoke (1978)

R | 86 min | Comedy, Music

57 Metascore

Two stoners unknowingly smuggle a van - made entirely of marijuana - from Mexico to L.A., with incompetent Sgt. Stedenko on their trail.

Directors: Lou Adler, Tommy Chong | Stars: Cheech Marin, Tommy Chong, Strother Martin, Edie Adams

Votes: 40,932 | Gross: $44.36M

21. Heaven Can Wait (1978)

PG | 101 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Romance

72 Metascore

A Los Angeles Rams quarterback, accidentally taken away from his body by an overanxious angel before he was meant to die, returns to life in the body of a recently murdered millionaire.

Directors: Warren Beatty, Buck Henry | Stars: Warren Beatty, James Mason, Julie Christie, Jack Warden

Votes: 23,531 | Gross: $81.64M

22. Coma (1978)

PG | 113 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller

60 Metascore

When a young female doctor notices an unnatural amount of comas occurring in her hospital she uncovers a horrible conspiracy.

Director: Michael Crichton | Stars: Michael Douglas, Rip Torn, Geneviève Bujold, Elizabeth Ashley

Votes: 21,161

23. The Great Train Robbery (1978)

PG | 110 min | Adventure, Crime, Drama

68 Metascore

England, 1850s. A master criminal aims to rob a train of a large sum of gold. Security is incredibly tight and the task seems an impossible one. However, he has a plan and just the right people to carry it out.

Director: Michael Crichton | Stars: Sean Connery, Donald Sutherland, Lesley-Anne Down, Alan Webb

Votes: 19,564 | Gross: $13.03M

24. The Wild Geese (1978)

R | 134 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

A British banker hires a group of British mercenaries to rescue a deposed African President from the hands of a corrupt African dictator.

Director: Andrew V. McLaglen | Stars: Richard Burton, Roger Moore, Richard Harris, Hardy Krüger

Votes: 14,185

25. Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978)

PG | 99 min | Comedy, Crime, Mystery

65 Metascore

To prove that he still is strong and powerful, Philippe Douvier decides to kill Clouseau. Once news of his "death" has been announced, Clouseau tries to take advantage of it and goes undercover with Cato to find out who tried to kill him.

Director: Blake Edwards | Stars: Peter Sellers, Herbert Lom, Burt Kwouk, Dyan Cannon

Votes: 23,263

26. Pretty Baby (1978)

R | 110 min | Drama

66 Metascore

A preteen girl lives as a prostitute in New Orleans in 1917.

Director: Louis Malle | Stars: Brooke Shields, Keith Carradine, Susan Sarandon, Frances Faye

Votes: 12,841 | Gross: $5.79M

27. Force 10 from Navarone (1978)

PG | 118 min | Action, Drama, War

42 Metascore

During World War II, several oddly assorted military experts are teamed in a mission to raid and destroy a bridge vital to enemy strategy.

Director: Guy Hamilton | Stars: Harrison Ford, Robert Shaw, Edward Fox, Franco Nero

Votes: 19,765

28. Every Which Way But Loose (1978)

PG | 114 min | Action, Comedy

41 Metascore

The San Fernando Valley adventures of trucker turned prize-fighter Philo Beddoe and his pet orangutan Clyde.

Director: James Fargo | Stars: Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, Geoffrey Lewis, Beverly D'Angelo

Votes: 30,061 | Gross: $106.00M

29. Convoy (1978)

PG | 110 min | Action, Drama

47 Metascore

Truckers form a mile-long "convoy" in support of a trucker's vendetta with an abusive sheriff - Based on the country song of the same title by C.W. McCall.

Director: Sam Peckinpah | Stars: Kris Kristofferson, Ali MacGraw, Ernest Borgnine, Burt Young

Votes: 18,615 | Gross: $45.00M

30. The Fury (1978)

R | 118 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller

64 Metascore

A former CIA agent uses the talents of a young psychic to help retrieve his telekinetic son from a shadowy secret government agency.

Director: Brian De Palma | Stars: Kirk Douglas, John Cassavetes, Carrie Snodgress, Charles Durning

Votes: 17,334

31. The Lord of the Rings (1978)

PG | 132 min | Animation, Adventure, Fantasy

The Fellowship of the Ring embark on a journey to destroy the One Ring and end Sauron's reign over Middle-earth.

Director: Ralph Bakshi | Stars: Christopher Guard, William Squire, Michael Scholes, John Hurt

Votes: 35,890 | Gross: $0.92M

32. Goin' South (1978)

PG | 108 min | Comedy, Romance, Western

52 Metascore

Due to the lack of men after the Civil War, a western town allows a young bachelorette who lives alone to save a thief from hanging by marrying him. They must deal with his old gang, the Sheriff, the railroad, a gold mine, and each other.

Director: Jack Nicholson | Stars: Jack Nicholson, Mary Steenburgen, Christopher Lloyd, John Belushi

Votes: 8,018



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