We're the 70s really that filthy as shown in so many movies?

[Streifenkarl]

Hey there,

since we have quite a few "more experienced" Cowboys fans here on the boards I'm inclined to ask this question here.

How were the 70s compared to the 60s or 80s or 90s? Many movies from this decade have a really dark tone and paint a pretty rough and grim picture of society back then. I mean there was a lot of friction in the 60s and 80s too for example but those movies are usually pretty colourful and so. Of course there are dark movies from those decades too, but in the 70s it seemed to be the main theme.

I was born in 79 and therefore a kid of the 80s. I remember my childhood being pretty perfect with all those super cool toys, cartoon shows and colourful clothes.

People looked alot more beautiful in the 70s though. Everyone had a perfect body, women had long hair and there was a lot of style. The 80s made us just look stupid. But happy and stupid.

So, what ya think? How did you experience this decade? And I'm not talking politics here, just everyday's life. We're the toys as cool? Or were the neighborhoods dirtier? Houses not painted with pretty colours? Crime everywhere? Or was it just a decade like any other?

Made this thread because I just watched French Connection right after Three days of the Condor. Both great movies but they follow a pattern there.

 

[joseephuss]

The past is quite often depicted as dirtier or backwards no matter what decade. Major cities, such as New York probably were darker in the past and crime rates would likely correlate changes as time has progressed since the 70s.

 

[JohnnyTheFox]

I was born in 64, being a kid in the 70s was awesome. Great music, great Saturday morning TV programming, political correctness wasn't a word yet

 

[StarOfGlory]

There are many factors that defined what you described.

Crime rates in the 70's in many cities, such as New York, were at an all-time high. Drugs and corruption seemed to be everywhere. Movies such as Death Wish and Dirty Harry really resonated with audiences, as you had depictions of people who were not going to put up with the decay of law and order.

The civil rights movement was entering a new phase. People were trying to build upon the legacy of Dr. King, some successfully, some not.

The "white flight" that had taken place in cities like Los Angeles, Newark, Camden, Detroit, etc. after the nationwide riots of 1967 was beginning to take economic effect.

The rise of street gangs like the Crips in L.A. can be in part attributed to the loss of Black leadership for the youth of the cities--it is a fascinating history, tied to hopes, dreams, immigrants forming gangs...way too much to go into here.

The Vietnam War was winding down.

Watergate. Ugh.

Organized crime was still strong. I grew up in South Philly, around the Mob. While Philly would get a Land and Order mayor, Frank Rizzo, he concentrated on street crime outside the Mob. Rizzo was the "anti-woke," lol. At least when the Mob was strong, you could walk the streets of South Philly at any hour and feel fairly safe. They took care of street criminals from outside areas.

The women were awesome!!! Natural beauty.

 

[1942willys]

NYC is every bit as bad now as it was then

 

[nightrain]

My Parents moved us out the Bronx in 1972. NYC was rough back then and well into the 80s.

 

[Runwildboys]

The 70's were awesome. Then again, I was a teenager, with no responsibilities other than school.

Music was amazing, with bands like Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Aerosmith (pre-sobriety, when they were much grittier), Deep Purple, ELO, etc. Music was something people actually sat and listened to, and not just background noise or something to dance to. It had deep meaning...at least the best stuff did. Disco really did suck though, mostly.

Clothes were terrible. Bell bottom jeans, polyester disco shirts, brightly colored corduroy pants, and a lot of stuff I couldn't even put a name to...but you didn't have to wear them, as long as you didn't have a mom who forced you to.

Hairstyles were either really cool or really lame. A lot of men (far too many) got perms, in an effort to look ...dorky, I guess. But long hair was popular for both men and women.

Most people were pretty chill about letting others do their own thing. No such thing as Karens back then. We just called anyone like that crazy, and went about our business.

I think kids were less spoiled back then, in part because corporal punishment was the norm. Even your neighbors could grab you and swat your butt if you were messin' up. Also, I think we were generally in better shape, since there were no video games. "Get out of the house! Don't come back until suppertime!", was a frequent philosophy on child rearing. Hell, by the time I was probably 12 years old, I'd come into the house in the Summer, grab a blanket and say, "Ma! Me, Greg, Pete, and Harry are going camping. See ya tomorrow!" Then we'd hike a few miles into the woods and camp out on "New York Rock", which was near the top of the mountain behind my house, with a view of NYC about 30 miles away.

Anyway, yeah, I feel bad for anyone who didn't grow up in the 70's.

 

[Streifenkarl]

I think kids were less spoiled back then, in part because corporal punishment was the norm. Even your neighbors could grab you and swat your butt if you were messin' up. Also, I think we were generally in better shape, since there were no video games. "Get out of the house! Don't come back until suppertime!", was a frequent philosophy on child rearing.

That sounds alot like my childhood too though. In the 80s it was also "be back when the street lights are coming on" and they had to look for us after that most of the time. Still got an arse whoopin every now and then. Video games did exist and I can remember quite a few overweight kids (who were made fun of relentlessly). I did sports my whole life so that was never a problem. I agree that kids were less spoiled. We didn't get as many presents for christmas and birthdays like my kids today. We ate what was on the table and weren't asked what we would like to eat (even though our parents tried to fix something we like more often than not). Seems like the 80s were alot like the 70s for kids but with more computer stuff going on.

But women (imo) looked uglier in the 80s with their perms and shoulder pads n all that. My parents looked so amazing in pictures from the 70s yet kinda dorky in the 80s.

I can remember neighbours yelling at us so the whole street took care after the kids, that was kinda cool (for the parents at least lol). Anyway, the 80s were a great time for kids to grow up. And when we got into our teens in the 90s we could watch all those great 80s movies for the first time on better TV sets than they had ten years before.

Some great insights folks, thank you very much. I guess for a kid in a middle class neighbourhood any decade was anything from ok to great though.

 

[SlammedZero]

Hey there,

since we have quite a few "more experienced" Cowboys fans here on the boards I'm inclined to ask this question here.

How were the 70s compared to the 60s or 80s or 90s? Many movies from this decade have a really dark tone and paint a pretty rough and grim picture of society back then. I mean there was a lot of friction in the 60s and 80s too for example but those movies are usually pretty colourful and so. Of course there are dark movies from those decades too, but in the 70s it seemed to be the main theme.

I was born in 79 and therefore a kid of the 80s. I remember my childhood being pretty perfect with all those super cool toys, cartoon shows and colourful clothes.

People looked alot more beautiful in the 70s though. Everyone had a perfect body, women had long hair and there was a lot of style. The 80s made us just look stupid. But happy and stupid.

So, what ya think? How did you experience this decade? And I'm not talking politics here, just everyday's life. We're the toys as cool? Or were the neighborhoods dirtier? Houses not painted with pretty colours? Crime everywhere? Or was it just a decade like any other?

Made this thread because I just watched French Connection right after Three days of the Condor. Both great movies but they follow a pattern there.

Hey, I too was born in 79!! I wouldn't change my timing in the universe for anything. I loved it. Growing up in a time where there was just enough technology, but it wasn't overwhelming like today. While it's easy for me to say this from my view in life, I couldn't imagine growing up as a kid in today's climate (and in turn I'm sure kids would probably say the same back to me about growing up "way back then" haha).

 

[csirl]

I was born in the early 70s. Where I grew up, it was lot rougher in the 70s. There were a series of economic shocks including the oil crisis. It was also the decade of industrial unrest with frequent strikes. People were a lot poorer than today and standards of living had dropped since the 60s, when there was a lot of economic growth and general.optimism. The 70s were grim.

But like other children from this era, we knew no better. Life was less complex than today and expectations were lower - people were happy with what they had. Young kids in the 70s had a lot more freedom and generally lived an outdoor life playing with other kids. Dangers and protective parenting weren't a thing back then.

 

[1942willys]

I was born in the early 70s. Where I grew up, it was lot rougher in the 70s. There were a series of economic shocks including the oil crisis. It was also the decade of industrial unrest with frequent strikes. People were a lot poorer than today and standards of living had dropped since the 60s, when there was a lot of economic growth and general.optimism. The 70s were grim.

But like other children from this era, we knew no better. Life was less complex than today and expectations were lower - people were happy with what they had. Young kids in the 70s had a lot more freedom and generally lived an outdoor life playing with other kids. Dangers and protective parenting weren't a thing back then.

I am an old fart and grew up in the sixties and early seventies. I did a lot of things that now would have the helicopter parents stroke out.
I played in the streets till dark. I drank from garden hoses. I would walk a mile from my neighborhood just to see if anything was going on.
I feel sorry for kids today surgically attached to their phone. Never having the pure fun of just running around playing baseball or football on the street where they lived.
Todays children are prisoners of a society all screwed up

 

[Creeper]

There are many factors that defined what you described.

Crime rates in the 70's in many cities, such as New York, were at an all-time high. Drugs and corruption seemed to be everywhere. Movies such as Death Wish and Dirty Harry really resonated with audiences, as you had depictions of people who were not going to put up with the decay of law and order.

The civil rights movement was entering a new phase. People were trying to build upon the legacy of Dr. King, some successfully, some not.

The "white flight" that had taken place in cities like Los Angeles, Newark, Camden, Detroit, etc. after the nationwide riots of 1967 was beginning to take economic effect.

The rise of street gangs like the Crips in L.A. can be in part attributed to the loss of Black leadership for the youth of the cities--it is a fascinating history, tied to hopes, dreams, immigrants forming gangs...way too much to go into here.

The Vietnam War was winding down.

Watergate. Ugh.

Organized crime was still strong. I grew up in South Philly, around the Mob. While Philly would get a Land and Order mayor, Frank Rizzo, he concentrated on street crime outside the Mob. Rizzo was the "anti-woke," lol. At least when the Mob was strong, you could walk the streets of South Philly at any hour and feel fairly safe. They took care of street criminals from outside areas.

The women were awesome!!! Natural beauty.

This is the right answer. I went to school in Hoboken NJ, which is right across the river from NYC. It was the early 1970s and the city was a den of filth. Times Square and that area was all movie theaters showing porn and strip clubs/ peep shows. It was filthy. The entire city was filthy. The murder. The murder rate peaked at the end of the decade when over 3000 murders per year were committed. When I graduated I went to work in the city and I could not describe in words some of the awful, disgusting things I witnessed, including dead bodies laying on the sidewalks in broad daylight as people walked by like the bodies weren't even there.

But I believe things began to change in the late 1960s. Movies and entertainment were once all about good triumphing over evil. Bad guys were vanquished in the end, and everyone lived happily ever after. But in the 1960s, with the war in Vietnam raging, there emerged an idea that God is dead and evil was taking over in his absence. There is no better example of this than Roman Polanski's "Rosemary's Baby". This was one of the first movies where evil was not vanquished, and in fact, Satan came out on top. I thought it was actually an awful movie with horrible characters, some bad acting and silly dialogue, but critics loved it. Shocking.

In any case it seems to me that from then on, things took a turn to the darkest side of humanity, and Hollywood started a trend of trying to outdo the last evil character with one even more evil. Of course this was probably driven by money. Bad guys that did not die in the end could be resurrected in sequels to make even more money!

 

[VaqueroTD]

People have covered the crime, especially big cities, but for rural areas, Nixon pushed forward more environmental legislation than any president since. Cleaned up a lot of things that had gone unchecked and spiraled out of control. That's history, not the dreaded 'p word.' Delete if you want, but it's what happened.

 

[Runwildboys]

People have covered the crime, especially big cities, but for rural areas, Nixon pushed forward more environmental legislation than any president since. Cleaned up a lot of things that had gone unchecked and spiraled out of control. That's history, not the dreaded 'p word.' Delete if you want, but it's what happened.

Yep, aside from the big scandal, he was actually a decent president.

 

[1942willys]

People have covered the crime, especially big cities, but for rural areas, Nixon pushed forward more environmental legislation than any president since. Cleaned up a lot of things that had gone unchecked and spiraled out of control. That's history, not the dreaded 'p word.' Delete if you want, but it's what happened.

Well attempted to clean up. Did a real good job on water for sure; but a lot of other areas only lip service
and too be blunt most people were not affected by the rest.

 

[1942willys]

Yep, aside from the big scandal, he was actually a decent president.

Yeah he was. But so paranoid and touchy that in the end that is what led to his downfall. He hired most of his aides because they were loyal not because they were smart and competent.
Those plumbers were truly keystone kops. The reason they did it was because someone fed them rumors that the Dems had something really bad on Nixon that they were waiting to use just before the election to win it all. The morons then proceeded to do it without clearing it with him. It was shown that he did not know about the idiots doing it until after. ANd like so many others it was the coverup that got him.

 

[VaqueroTD]

Here's the show I think of growing up in the 70's. I was late 70's, early 80's, but I can relate to a lot of it. Good production from Bill Burr.

 

[Montanalo]

The seventies were a mixture of extremes - both good and bad. Regarding the OP's questions - yes, i think cities were generally dirtier than cities today (although, the homeless situation in our big cities today may challenge that assumption).

The environmental movement was just taking off and ideas like recycling, reusing and reducing were not yet engrained.

Here's my Siskel and Ebert assessment of the 70's:

Music - Good
End of Vietnam War - Good
Three Mile Island - Bad
Star Wars - Good
Jaws - Good
Iran Hostages - Bad
Margaret Thatcher - Good
Ted Bundy - Bad
Elvis's death - Bad
Nixon Resigns - Good (debatable)
Kent State Shootings - Bad
Dallas Cowboys Super Bowls - Good

 

[StarOfGlory]

People have covered the crime, especially big cities, but for rural areas, Nixon pushed forward more environmental legislation than any president since. Cleaned up a lot of things that had gone unchecked and spiraled out of control. That's history, not the dreaded 'p word.' Delete if you want, but it's what happened.

Nixon put forth the idea that the Native Americans should be able to run their reservations without government interference. He also signed the Protective Species Act. He is THE president on Geopolitics. All people remember is Watergate though it seems.

 

[Montanalo]

Nixon put forth the idea that the Native Americans should be able to run their reservations without government interference. He also signed the Protective Species Act. He is THE president on Geopolitics. All people remember is Watergate though it seems.

See my prior post. While Watergate was Bad, On balance Nixon did far more good than bad