Nine 70s Flicks to Make You Feel Better About the Recession

I tend to romanticize the 70s as an era. I am charmed by the idea of people “finding themselves” while making dramatic, life-changing decisions in pursuit of authenticity. And in our troubled times, there’s something especially cathartic about watching others caught in the vortex of events they can neither understand nor control, but nonetheless work heroically to resolve. As my wise Buddhist friend once said: “falling off the path is the path” — it’s when we’re faced with challenges that we have the opportunity to grow and to discover the boundlessness of our own mettle.

One great thing about the modern age, though — Netflix and YouTube make watching these old flicks easy and affordable.

Shaft (1971)
This prime example of “Blaxploitation” film tells the tale of John Shaft, a badass African-American private detective (the smokin’ hot Richard Roundtree) on assignment to retrieve the kidnapped daughter of a mobster…