Cinema: THE BEST OF THE SEVENTIES

AMERICAN Five Easy Pieces (1970). A man searches for continuity between his serene, middle-class past and his chaotic present in Bob Rafelson's cool, eccentric comedy.

M*A*S*H (1970). A lacerating black comedy about Army surgeons in the Korean War by Robert Altman.

Godfather I and II (1972, 1974). Francis Ford Coppola's phenomenal one-two punch. Crime melodrama first as family saga, then as historical epic.

American Graffiti (1973). A band of young stars led by Director George Lucas creates a moving and funny portrait of high school life in the early '60s.

Badlands (1974). Terrence Malick's lean, poetic...