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Cinema · 1979 Ranked

Best Films of 1979, Ranked by IQ Score

The single year New Hollywood reached its dark-narrative peak. The films of 1979, ranked by IQ Score.

1979 is the year New Hollywood reached its dark-narrative peak. Apocalypse Now (Coppola), Manhattan (Woody Allen), Kramer vs. Kramer (Robert Benton), Alien (Ridley Scott), Stalker (Tarkovsky), Being There (Hal Ashby), all released within twelve months.

The structural argument for 1979-as-canonical-year: the New Hollywood era's late-decade peak (Coppola's Vietnam epic was the year's most-formally-ambitious work), the international art-cinema canon's high point (Tarkovsky's Stalker, often cited as the single most-canonical Soviet film), and the genre-redefining commercial entries (Alien reset sci-fi-horror; All That Jazz reset the musical biopic).

9 titles · ranked by IQ Score

  1. 1
    Stalker poster, IQ Score 189/200, Masterclass tier

    Stalker

    Masterclass sci-fi, drama

    A guide leads two men through a forbidden Zone where a room supposedly grants wishes. Tarkovsky's most demanding film makes philosophical abstraction physically inhabitable. The Zone, never explained, functions simultane…

    189/200
  2. 2
    Manhattan poster, IQ Score 171/200, Masterclass tier

    Manhattan

    Masterclass comedy, drama, romance

    Woody Allen's love letter to New York City shot in gorgeous black and white by Gordon Willis; Gershwin-scored neurotic romance that defined an era of American cinema

    171/200
  3. 3
    Apocalypse Now poster, IQ Score 166/200, Masterclass tier

    Apocalypse Now

    Masterclass war, drama

    A special forces officer travels upriver into Cambodia to find a rogue colonel. Educational about Vietnam and military psychology. Cognitive engagement from the surrealist descent into madness. Entertainment from the vis…

    166/200
  4. 4
    All That Jazz poster, IQ Score 165/200, Masterclass tier

    All That Jazz

    Masterclass musical, drama, biography

    1979 Best Picture nominee. Bob Fosse's semi-autobiographical fever dream about a director choreographer working himself to death. Exceptionally high cognitive demands, the film's structure dissolves the boundary between…

    165/200
  5. 5
    Nosferatu the Vampyre poster, IQ Score 161/200, Masterclass tier

    Nosferatu the Vampyre

    Masterclass horror, drama, gothic

    Werner Herzog's 1979 remake of F.W. Murnau's 1922 Nosferatu, anchored by Klaus Kinski. The structural commitment to using period-1920s German Expressionist visual language at register the modern-cinema budget allowed, an…

    161/200
  6. 6
    Alien poster, IQ Score 155/200, Stimulating tier

    Alien

    Stimulating sci-fi, horror

    A space crew encounters a perfect parasitic organism. Educational about xenobiology and survival. Cognitive engagement from the suspense. Entertainment from the sci-fi horror.

    155/200
  7. 7
    Being There poster, IQ Score 148/200, Stimulating tier

    Being There

    Stimulating comedy, drama

    Hal Ashby builds a sustained allegory on projection: Sellers plays a man of no interior whom everyone reads as a sage. The comedy is structural, every gardening platitude mistaken for policy wisdom. The final walk on wat…

    148/200
  8. 8
    Kramer vs. Kramer poster, IQ Score 134/200, Stimulating tier

    Kramer vs. Kramer

    Stimulating drama

    Robert Benton stages a custody battle as a study in learned parenthood, using the French-toast scenes as before-and-after markers of Hoffman's competence. The register is emotional rather than structural. Streep's courtr…

    134/200
  9. 9
    Breaking Away poster, IQ Score 130/200, Stimulating tier

    Breaking Away

    Stimulating comedy, drama, sports

    1979 Best Picture nominee. Working-class Indiana teens find identity through competitive cycling and Italian cultural obsession. Moderate cognitive demands from the class commentary. Educational value from the town-vs-go…

    130/200
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Questions about this ranking

What is the best film of 1979?

By IQ Score on TV Intelligentsia, Stalker (189), Apocalypse Now, and Alien anchor the year. Manhattan, Kramer vs. Kramer, and Being There round out the canonical entries.

Why is 1979 considered such a strong year?

1979 was the year New Hollywood reached its dark-narrative peak (Coppola's Vietnam epic was the year's most-formally-ambitious work), alongside Tarkovsky's Stalker (often cited as the single most-canonical Soviet film), Alien (reset sci-fi-horror), and Manhattan (Woody Allen's most-formally-disciplined work). Both auteur peak and genre-redefining commercial entries in the same year.

Is Stalker really the best 1979 film?

By IQ Score on TVI, Stalker (189) edges out Apocalypse Now and Alien for the year. Tarkovsky's Soviet sci-fi-philosophical inquiry is one of the database's highest-scoring films of any year. Among the most-canonical entries in the medium's history.

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