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.

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.

Cinema · 1979 Ranked

Best Films of 1979, Ranked by IQ Score

Q: 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.

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).

7 titles · ranked by IQ Score