Nostalgic Period Films of the Seventies

A slew of nostalgic period films set during the first half of the 20th century (mostly between the two World Wars) were produced by Hollywood's major studios in the wake of The Godfather's enormous success. These films were usually star-studded and had generous budgets which allowed them to elaborately recreate the period settings. It is worth noting that some stars such as Robert Redford and Jack Nicholson crop up in this list more than others. Independent avantgarde films such as Inserts were also made, but were the exception rather than the rule. Since the seventies were a time of great ambiguity and distrust for American society due to the Vietnam War and the Watergate Scandal, these movies had the appeal of harkening back to a seemingly simpler and more secure period of the country's history. Ironically, many of them were set during the Great Depression and were infused with typical for the seventies cynicism, thus grounding them in the period of their production as much as in that of their setting.