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Cinema · 1972 Ranked

Best Films of 1972, Ranked by IQ Score

The year New Hollywood debuted with The Godfather. The films of 1972, ranked by IQ Score.

1972 is the year New Hollywood debuted commercially with The Godfather, Coppola's adaptation that reset American cinema. Simultaneously released: Cabaret (Bob Fosse's Best Director Oscar), Aguirre, the Wrath of God (Herzog's canonical Kinski collaboration), Solaris (Tarkovsky's Soviet sci-fi philosophical inquiry), Cries and Whispers (Bergman's canonical chamber drama).

The structural argument for 1972-as-canonical-year: the New Hollywood directors' commercial breakthrough (Godfather) converged with the international art-cinema canon's late-career peak (Tarkovsky, Bergman, Herzog, Buñuel). The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. Deliverance reset the survival-thriller genre.

7 titles · ranked by IQ Score

  1. 1
    Solaris poster, IQ Score 187/200, Masterclass tier

    Solaris

    Masterclass sci-fi, drama

    A psychologist arrives at a space station above an ocean planet that materializes human memories. Tarkovsky's response to Kubrick's 2001 refuses spectacle for interior states. Educational about consciousness, identity, g…

    187/200
  2. 2
    The Godfather poster, IQ Score 180/200, Masterclass tier

    The Godfather

    Masterclass crime, drama

    Vito and Michael Corleone run a crime family that is organized, bureaucratic, and ruthless. The film's cognitive achievement is depicting organized crime as a rational business with moral costs. Educational about how cri…

    180/200
  3. 3
    Cabaret poster, IQ Score 173/200, Masterclass tier

    Cabaret

    Masterclass musical, drama, historical

    1972 Best Picture nominee. Bob Fosse's musical set in Weimar Berlin as Nazism rises. The Kit Kat Club performances mirror and comment on the political horror outside. High cognitive demands from the parallel structure. E…

    173/200
  4. 4
    Aguirre, the Wrath of God poster, IQ Score 168/200, Masterclass tier

    Aguirre, the Wrath of God

    Masterclass drama, historical, adventure

    Werner Herzog's 1972 Spanish-conquistador film anchored by Klaus Kinski's Aguirre, the canonical Herzog-Kinski collaboration. The structural commitment to filming on actual Amazonian rivers with available light and the d…

    168/200
  5. 5
    Cries and Whispers poster, IQ Score 166/200, Masterclass tier

    Cries and Whispers

    Masterclass drama, psychological

    Ingmar Bergman's 1972 chamber drama about three sisters at the country house where one is dying of cancer. The structural commitment to letting the visual register (deep reds in interior cinematography, the close-ups Sve…

    166/200
  6. 6
    Deliverance poster, IQ Score 161/200, Masterclass tier

    Deliverance

    Masterclass thriller, drama, adventure

    John Boorman's 1972 Georgia-river canoe trip film anchored by Burt Reynolds, Jon Voight, Ned Beatty, and Ronny Cox. The structural commitment to letting the four-suburban-businessmen-vs-Appalachian-violence premise be re…

    161/200
  7. 7
    The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie poster, IQ Score 146/200, Stimulating tier

    The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie

    Stimulating comedy, drama

    Six bourgeois friends attempt to have dinner but are repeatedly interrupted. Luis Buñuel's surrealist satire is formally exceptional. Educational about the class rituals of the European bourgeoisie. The dream-within-drea…

    146/200
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Questions about this ranking

What is the best film of 1972?

By IQ Score on TV Intelligentsia, The Godfather (180), Solaris (187), Cabaret (173), and Aguirre Wrath of God (168) anchor the year, all canonical Masterclass-tier entries. Cries and Whispers and Deliverance round out the canonical list.

Why was 1972 such an important year?

1972 was the year New Hollywood debuted commercially with The Godfather. Simultaneously released: Cabaret (Bob Fosse's Best Director Oscar), Aguirre Wrath of God (Herzog's canonical Kinski collaboration), Solaris (Tarkovsky's canonical Soviet sci-fi), Cries and Whispers (Bergman's canonical chamber drama), The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (Buñuel's Best Foreign Film Oscar). The New Hollywood-international-art-cinema convergence year.

Is The Godfather really the best film of 1972?

By IQ Score on TVI, Solaris (187) actually edges out The Godfather (180), Tarkovsky's canonical Soviet sci-fi is the rubric's highest-rated 1972 entry. The Godfather is the year's most-canonical popular-culture entry; Solaris is the year's most-philosophically-ambitious entry. Both are Masterclass tier.

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