"The Whole Entire World. There Is No Law. There Is No Right And Wrong.
There Is No Friendship. Every Fucking Thing.
Every Godforsasken thing."                            —Teach, American Buffalo 

American Buffalo has many defining characteristics: its seedy characters with ambiguous morals, the run-down locale, its rough language and irreverent humor, and the con that defines the action of both the characters and the play itself. These elements crop up all over the canon of ’70s films, in a collection of works that, upon closer inspection, seem to form a genre of their own. Many of these films share directors (Lumet, Scorsese, Coppola) and actors (Pacino, Cazale, De Niro, Duvall), several of whom later worked with Mamet after he broke into the film business (Duvall even starred in American Buffalo when it opened on Broadway in 1977). Taken together, these works begin to articulate a larger sense of unease, distrust, and disillusionment that also permeates American Buffalo. What follows is a collection of ’70s films that participate in this conversation in different ways—that howl at, laugh at, or sink into the malaise of the moment, and provide a frame through which to consider American Buffalo as a product of the time.

 

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Taxi Driver
Summary: Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro), a lonely war veteran and insomniac, becomes a taxi driver and travels the streets of Manhattan by night. He meets and falls for Betsy (Cybill Shepherd), a volunteer for Senator Charles Palantine, but things turn sour on their first date, pushing Bickle to indulge in violent thoughts. He gets in shape and starts carrying a gun, planning to strike back against street crime. After killing a robber, he befriends a 12-year-old prostitute, Iris (Jodie Foster), and tries to convince her to leave the streets. Bickle then attends a Palantine rally, intending to assassinate him, but runs off when the cops notice him. The film culminates in a bloody shoot-out between Bickle and Iris’ pimp. Directed by Martin Scorsese.
Summary: Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro), a lonely war veteran and insomniac, becomes a taxi driver and travels the streets of Manhattan by night. He meets and falls for Betsy (Cybill Shepherd), a volunteer for Senator Charles Palantine, but things turn sour on their first date, pushing Bickle to indulge in violent thoughts. He gets in shape and starts carrying a gun, planning to strike back against street crime. After killing a robber, he befriends a 12-year-old prostitute, Iris (Jodie Foster), and tries to convince her to leave the streets. Bickle then attends a Palantine rally, intending to assassinate him, but runs off when the cops notice him. The film culminates in a bloody shoot-out between Bickle and Iris’ pimp. Directed by Martin Scorsese.
Dog Day Afternoon
Summary: A ripped-from-the-headlines story about Sonny Wortzick (Al Pacino), a man who attempts to rob a bank to pay for his lover’s sex-change operation. When things go awry, Wortzick holds the bank workers hostage and tries to negotiate for his freedom. Directed by Sidney Lumet. Also starring John Cazale and Charles Durning.
Summary: A ripped-from-the-headlines story about Sonny Wortzick (Al Pacino), a man who attempts to rob a bank to pay for his lover’s sex-change operation. When things go awry, Wortzick holds the bank workers hostage and tries to negotiate for his freedom. Directed by Sidney Lumet. Also starring John Cazale and Charles Durning.
Network
Summary: The story of a changing TV network and the final days of aging news anchor Howard Beale. When he gets fired, Beale goes on the air with a promise to kill himself, live, on his final show. This stunt turns Beale into a media sensation and frees him to voice the frustrations of a disaffected public. An ambitious producer and the network owner (Faye Dunaway and Robert Duvall) try to capitalize on Beale’s fame—until his rantings cross the line and his ratings drop, at which point they have him killed on the air. Directed by Sidney Lumet. Also starring William Holden.
Summary: The story of a changing TV network and the final days of aging news anchor Howard Beale. When he gets fired, Beale goes on the air with a promise to kill himself, live, on his final show. This stunt turns Beale into a media sensation and frees him to voice the frustrations of a disaffected public. An ambitious producer and the network owner (Faye Dunaway and Robert Duvall) try to capitalize on Beale’s fame—until his rantings cross the line and his ratings drop, at which point they have him killed on the air. Directed by Sidney Lumet. Also starring William Holden.
The China Syndrome
Summary: Kimberly Wells (Jane Fonda) is a TV reporter struggling to be taken seriously. While she’s shooting a feature on energy at a power plant, the plant experiences a potentially serious system malfunction. Though her station won’t air the story, Wells and her cameraman (Michael Douglas) continue to investigate. With the help of the control room supervisor Jack Godell (Jack Lemmon), they discover dangerous problems with the construction of the plant that could lead to disaster if not acknowledged and fixed. Godell takes over the plant by force and has Wells interview him live, but is shot by a SWAT team before he can properly warn the public. Directed by James Bridges.
Summary: Kimberly Wells (Jane Fonda) is a TV reporter struggling to be taken seriously. While she’s shooting a feature on energy at a power plant, the plant experiences a potentially serious system malfunction. Though her station won’t air the story, Wells and her cameraman (Michael Douglas) continue to investigate. With the help of the control room supervisor Jack Godell (Jack Lemmon), they discover dangerous problems with the construction of the plant that could lead to disaster if not acknowledged and fixed. Godell takes over the plant by force and has Wells interview him live, but is shot by a SWAT team before he can properly warn the public. Directed by James Bridges.
The Conversation
Summary: Filmed in a hyper-realistic style, portraying everyday moments and extended shots of inaction, The Conversation follows Harry Caul (Gene Hackman), a renowned surveillance expert. A socially awkward loner, Caule hates crowds and shares little. Hired to monitor the conversation of a young couple, Caul begins to fear for their safety and refuses to hand over the surveillance tapes to the client. He later discovers that the situation is nothing like what he imagined, and his actions cause more harm than they prevent. Ultimately, a paranoid Caul decides that his own home is bugged and destroys it trying to find the listening device. Directed and written by Francis Ford Coppola. Also starring John Cazale and Allen Garfield.
Summary: Filmed in a hyper-realistic style, portraying everyday moments and extended shots of inaction, The Conversation follows Harry Caul (Gene Hackman), a renowned surveillance expert. A socially awkward loner, Caule hates crowds and shares little. Hired to monitor the conversation of a young couple, Caul begins to fear for their safety and refuses to hand over the surveillance tapes to the client. He later discovers that the situation is nothing like what he imagined, and his actions cause more harm than they prevent. Ultimately, a paranoid Caul decides that his own home is bugged and destroys it trying to find the listening device. Directed and written by Francis Ford Coppola. Also starring John Cazale and Allen Garfield.
Three Days of the Condor
Summary: Joe Turner (Robert Redford), a reader for the CIA, returns from lunch one day to find all of his co-workers dead. Turner turns first to his superiors at the CIA, only to have them try to kill him as well. Not knowing whom to trust, Turner kidnaps a woman (Faye Dunaway) and forces her to hide him in her apartment while he attempts to uncover the root of the conspiracy. Directed by Sydney Pollack.
Summary: Joe Turner (Robert Redford), a reader for the CIA, returns from lunch one day to find all of his co-workers dead. Turner turns first to his superiors at the CIA, only to have them try to kill him as well. Not knowing whom to trust, Turner kidnaps a woman (Faye Dunaway) and forces her to hide him in her apartment while he attempts to uncover the root of the conspiracy. Directed by Sydney Pollack.

 

Other Major 1970s Movies

Oscar Winners
Patton (1970)
The French Connection (1971)
The Godfather (1972)
The Sting (1973)
The Godfather Part II (1974)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
Rocky (1976)
Annie Hall (1977)
The Deer Hunter (1978)
Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)

10 highest-grossing films of the decade
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
Jaws
Grease
The Exorcist
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Superman
The Godfather
Saturday Night Fever
Rocky
Jaws 2