As you may already be aware, here at What Hi-Fi? we’re currently celebrating our 50th birthday.
As part of our celebrations, we've been looking back at some of the iconic films that hit the big screen in the same year that we were founded. As it turns out, a string of classics are also celebrating their 50th anniversary this year, including one of Scorsese’s best, an iconic comedy duo pairing up for the first time, and the start of one of the most enduring franchises in film.
1976 was, undoubtedly, a great time if you fancied heading to your local cinema to catch the latest release. Below, the What Hi-Fi? editorial team has highlighted 10 films from that year that we think are brilliant examples of silver screen magic – and if you haven't watch them yet, we highly recommend them for your next movie night.
Article continues belowTaxi Driver
![TAXI DRIVER [1976] - Official Trailer (HD) - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/T5IligQP7Fo/maxresdefault.jpg)
There are few films as harrowing as Taxi Driver. The movie is one of director Martin Scorsese's finest works, at least in my mind.
It’s a brutally honest piece of cinema history that follows Vietnam veteran turned taxi driver Travis Bickle as he slowly descends into madness.
The expert cinematography exudes the lonely isolation, slow detachment, and eventual resentment that Bickle experiences while navigating New York, ferrying everyone from child prostitutes to elite businesspeople around the city at night.
With Robert De Niro as lead man, backed up by an incredibly young Jodie Foster, it’s hard not to feel for the characters, trying to live in the uncaring world it documents – which is one key reason it remains so relevant 50 years after release.
And, as an added perk, there’s now a pretty decent 4K remaster, with Dolby Vision HDR, available on Blu-ray and most streaming services, including Apple TV and Amazon.
If you’re a fan of dark, emotionally complex films that offer a bleak take on the human condition, I’d strongly recommend giving it a watch, if you haven’t already.
Just make sure you’re in a good place mentally before you click the play button. Even now, half a century on, the film will get under your skin.
Words by Alastair Stevenson
Buy Taxi Driver on Blu-ray at Amazon
Rocky
Sylvester Stallone’s boxing film franchise may have gone on too long, but the original Rocky will always be a classic. I mean, would movie training montages have ever been the same without it? The theme song from those scenes alone is so iconic that it even inspired some of the most memorable 118 118 adverts from the 2000s.
Set in mid-1970s Philadelphia, the film marks the birth of one of the most legendary characters in action film history, Rocky Balboa. It follows the fictional tale of how this small-time boxer/debt collector gets a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to fight the heavyweight champion of the world, Apollo Creed.
Creed is played by Carl Weathers in what many consider his most iconic role, although Predator (1987) and Happy Gilmore (1996) fans may disagree. For the record, I think he’s great in all three films.
He is joined by a quality supporting cast in the form of Burt Young as Paulie Pennino and Talia Shire as Paulie's sister, Adriana, nicknamed “Adrian”. Rocky just wouldn’t be the same without her, and the movie's climax is an emotional demonstration of the couple’s love for one another.
If you’ve got a thirst for some action, sticking this bonafide 1976 classic on your TV or projector will quench it in no time.
Words by James Cook
Buy Rocky on Blu-ray at Amazon
Carrie
It’s an iconic image in horror film history: Carrie, bathed in pig’s blood, the whole screen going red with her rage.
Carrie was the very first of Stephen King’s many, many written works adapted into film, with Brian De Palma directing this now-iconic coming of age film with highly emotional performances with lasting impact, and scenes fraught with tension.
Sissy Spacek is magnificent as Carrie: shy, sheltered, vulnerable, tortured yet full of innocence and hope; her constant bullying at school and the oppression at home from her religiously fanatic mother are viscerally felt.
Everyone around her is perfectly horrid, and Spacek elicits so much sympathy that we’re constantly on edge for her – even in the tense seconds leading up to the inevitable, infamous bucket of blood scene at the prom, you wish you could save Carrie from the pain and embarrassment. But it makes her violent revenge all the more satisfying, even if it is still horrifying.
Blending real-world pains with the supernatural in a way that feels both heightened and natural (this is Stephen King, of course, so there’s some telekinesis involved), the film uses the high-school teen experience to maximum effect, which in turn has created legendary moments and clichés that have been repeated in teen horror TV shows and films since (the mean girls, the gym burning down, the hand reaching out from the grave…).
Throughout it all, it’s Carrie who remains the force driving the film – from her innocence and burgeoning powers to the eventual bloodbath, it’s her enduring story that remains a terrific watch and has us at the edge of our seats, even 50 years later.
Words by Kashfia Kabir
Buy Carrie on Blu-ray at Amazon
Bugsy Malone
When I was a kid, I absolutely loved this film. I thought the title character, played by Scott Baio, was especially cool, and I have fond memories watching groups of young New York gangsters being wiped out by splurge guns, a pie-shooting Tommy Gun spoof.
Set during the Prohibition era, the film is loosely based on the exploits of real-life gangsters such as Al Capone and Bugs Moran. With its ensemble cast consisting entirely of child and teenage actors, including a young Jodie Foster as Tallulah, though, the violence has been massively toned down to make it suitable for younger audiences. The actors converse in a distinctive 1920s way, though, which is a nice touch.
I’m not much of a musical fan, but there are some catchy tunes in Bugsy Malone too, particularly my personal favourite, So You Wanna Be a Boxer (featured in the video above).
It might have been years since I’ve seen it in its entirety, but I can’t think of any other gangster spoof movies that are as iconic. I must admit, though, that as an adult I’m not quite sure it will resonate with me quite so strongly as it did during my formative years.
Still, there’s only one way to find out and that’s by watching it again.
Words by James Cook
Buy Bugsy Malone on Blu-ray at Amazon
Marathon Man
1976 was quite a year for William Goldman. Not only did it see the release of All The President’s Men (for which his screenplay would go on to win an Oscar), but also Marathon Man, another multi-award nominated thriller, again starring Dustin Hoffman. But instead of an adaptation, this one was based on Goldman’s novel of the same name.
Hoffman plays Thomas Babington Levy – aka "Babe" – a history student and marathon runner who crosses paths with a Nazi dentist (played with malevolent brilliance by Laurence Olivier) who’s on a mission to retrieve his ill-gotten diamonds.
The scenes where Dr. Christian Szell (Olivier) tortures Babe in the dentist’s chair are a real highlight, though not to be watched if you already get nervy around your annual checkup at the dentist.
“Is it safe?” Shudder.
As you would expect from the pen of Goldman, it’s a taut thriller that really ratchets up the paranoia.
He has written in his memoirs that the story idea occurred to him during a walk through a predominantly Jewish diamond district and he imagined a Nazi on the run placed in the same location.
Like a lot of classic thrillers, the hero is just a normal person placed in extraordinary circumstances and forced to find out what they are capable of. And it’s executed beautifully, with the kind of pacing that’s more typical of a sprint than a marathon.
Words by Joe Svetlik
Buy Marathon Man on Blu-ray at Amazon
Silver Streak
While Stir Crazy (1980) is my personal favourite Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor pairing – I haven’t actually seen their final film, Another You (1991) – Silver Streak was the first time the two American comedians worked together for a feature-length showing.
Released in early December, the thriller comedy is mostly set on the titular train, which is travelling from Los Angeles to Chicago when a murder takes place. Pryor and Wilder team up during the ensuing chaos and, despite their contrasting comedy styles, the two begin hilariously bouncing off one another.
There is a reason that Pryor and Wilder are regarded as an iconic comedy duo and Silver Streak is the first time you see just how good their chemistry was.
But due to the era in which this film came out, it contains parts that have aged like milk and would not be considered appropriate by modern audiences. So, bear that in mind if you do decide to add this comedy classic to your watch list.
Words by James Cook
Buy Silver Streak on DVD at Amazon
All The President’s Men
If ever there was a film to show you how the world has both changed enormously in half a century and yet in so many ways stayed the same, All The President’s Men is surely it.
The story of two Washington Post reporters, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, uncovering the Watergate Scandal that brought down the sitting president of the United States, it inevitably draws sobering comparison with the political situation in that country today.
It’s a terrific story, and a fascinating insight into how almost unimaginably difficult reporting – proper investigative reporting – was in those days. There was no internet, no Google to run to in the 1970s, of course; these guys had to rely on libraries, shoe leather and personal contacts (most famously, in this instance, the high-profile whistleblower “Deep Throat”).
Screenwriter William Goldman, who also wrote a couple of my other favourite movies, The Princess Bride and Marathon Man (featured above), does a wonderful job of keeping what is remarkably complex political intrigue and information both understandable and enjoyable.
Having said that, this is, admittedly, a movie of its time – necessarily rather slow-moving by the standards of 21st-century filmmaking.
You can’t really go wrong, though, with Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford – Bernstein and Woodward, respectively. They are backed up by a strong supporting cast, including Jason Robards and Jack Warden, and superbly directed by Alan J Pakula.
Being 50 years old is all well and good, and the historical differences between eras are fascinating for those interested in any way about old-school journalism. It is, however, the movie’s clear political relevance to today that has become rather more sobering.
The contrast between the media from half a century ago, skewering “Tricky Dicky” Nixon, and the polarised options available to US citizens today could not really be much starker; and, of course, the controversial presidency of today can only hold an appropriately worrying mirror to the events of more than 50 years ago. Whither the Woodward and Bernstein of 2026?
And I write this, of course, just weeks after the announcement that The Washington Post has laid off as many as one-third of its employees. Perhaps there is still plenty for us to learn about the methods, morals and ethics of a world before the worldwide web.
Words by Jonathan Evans
Buy All The President's Men on 4k Blu-ray at Amazon
Logan’s Run
An apocalyptic world where humanity lives in domed communities, blissfully following the instructions of an AI computer overlord.
Yes, this is a hair’s breadth from describing our reality in 2026, but believe it or not, all the way back in 1976, it was the premise of one of cinema’s finest pieces of dystopian science fiction.
And while, like The Warriors, which came out three years later in 1979, Logan’s Run’s take on what people at the time thought was a worst-case scenario for the human race now looks pretty tame, it’s still a cinematic masterpiece worth watching.
For one, there’s the clever use of, at the time, revolutionary special effects. These included the use of actual holograms, at the time, rare wide-angle lenses and Dolby Stereo on 70 mm prints to help create the effects that outright blew viewers’ minds at the time – and eventually nabbed it a Special Academy Award for its visual effects.
And while they may not be as clever or slick as the schlop AI artists are chucking out every week, the innovation remains worthy of applause.
But its themes and the questions it raises about the human condition have also aged well. The film is set in a future where humanity lives a hedonistic life protected from the ruined outside world, with a computer overlord providing for all their needs until they reach the age of 30, and must enter the Carrousel.
It follows Logan, a former “Sandman” who used to kill any citizen who refused to enter the Carousel voluntarily, as he turns into one of the runners he used to hunt when he turns the big three-O. Given the state of today’s world, where we’re ceding more and more control of our lives to AI and big tech, how could the film not still at least partially resonate with audiences even now?
Which is why, 50 years on, I’d wholeheartedly recommend that any sci-fi fan give it a watch, even if it’s not quite as scary as it once was, and it's yet to get a 4K remaster.
Words by Alastair Stevenson
Buy Logan’s Run on Blu-ray at Amazon
The Omen
Fifty years since its 1976 release, Richard Donner’s The Omen remains a masterclass in atmospheric dread – and a surprisingly rigorous workout for a modern home cinema system.
While many 70s horrors rely on dated jump scares, The Omen sustains its power through a suffocating sense of impending doom, which is only enhanced by a high-quality sound system.
Now remastered in 4K, the film delivers the soft, naturalistic grain of the era but the deep, inky shadows of the film’s Gothic architecture have been brought up to present day standards.
You’ll want to look for shadow detail in the infamous "nanny" scene; a lesser display will crush these blacks, losing the terrifying nuances of the Roman backdrop.
However, the true star is Jerry Goldsmith’s Oscar-winning score. From the visceral, chanting of Ave Satani to the piercingly sharp violins, the soundtrack is a benchmark for dynamic range. Try the cathedral sequence to check your system’s mid-range clarity and overall sense of scale.
Half a century later, The Omen isn’t just a horror classic; it’s a reminder of the timeless power of a thrilling score and expert cinematography.
Words by Joe Cox
Buy The Omen on Blu-ray at Amazon
Assault On Precinct 13
A low-budget exploitation film starring a cast of mostly unknown actors that nonetheless sets a movie-night standard, thanks to John Carpenter's masterful direction, brilliant pounding synth score and peerless pacing.
A soon-to-be defunct police precinct and its few remaining staff, plus a couple of transported convicts that have been waylaid there, are besieged by a patchwork, 'cholo'-styled gang hell-bent on revenge for a police massacre of gang members.
The movie takes obvious influence from westerns (most specifically Rio Bravo) as well as Romero's Night Of The Living Dead, and indeed Carpenter's career-long talent for horror is given an early preview in what was only his second movie. The relentless, kamikaze waves of gang members are essentially zombie hordes (that run and fire weapons), and this plus the beleaguered, claustrophobic setting laid out the blueprint for just about every survival-horror video game, zombie flick or 'urban western' that followed (including Die Hard).
There's a dystopian element too; the deserted South Central LA neighbourhood feels menacing, hostile and alien, while America's contemporary real-life fear of rising gang lawlessness in its cities set a chilling tone.
A highway patrol cop is the movie's hero-type, but more notable is death row-bound convict Napoleon Wilson, whose cynical cool set the anti-hero standard and surely helped sketch Han Solo's character a year later (there's even an "I know" moment).
Assault still, crucially, looks great thanks to Carpenter's filming in his favoured Panavision widescreen format – a real treat, that's all the better on a big-screen home cinema set-up.
Words by Chris Burke
Buy Assault On Precinct 13 on Blu-Ray at Amazon
MORE:
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