So this past week I've watched some excellent older films that I'm reasonably assured most users here probably haven't seen but might enjoy, especially if you're sick of recent media. Anyway here you go.
Watership Down (1974 version)
Based on the excellent Richard Adams book (which I also highly recommend) about a small band of rabbits fleeing the destruction of their warren and setting out to find a new homeland. The animation is rather poor but its buoyed by strong voice acting and a compelling story. Pay close attention and you'll see some interesting stuff on the power of myth, folklore, leadership, Nature, and the will to power. Way more than just a cartoon about cute bunnies. Not for young children, by the way.
Zardoz
This might be the most ridiculously based movie I've ever seen. Unfortunately more people seem to know Zardoz from the infamous promotional picture of Sean Connery in a tight red speedo and riding boots with bandoliers than from actually watching the film. From the same director that made Excalibur and Deliverance, it stars Connery as the leader of a post-apocalyptic band of horse-riding barbarians who are manipulated by a powerful, hidden but debauched elite into keeping the hordes of unwashed peasants at a manageable level. The unusual aesthetics and sometimes iffy special effects might turn people away, but if you look past that you'll experience one of the most virile, masculine, Nietzschean, anti-feminist, anti-modern movies ever made.
The Naked Prey
Firmly in the category of "Things That Would Never Be Made Today", Naked Prey is about a white hunter in colonial-era Southern Africa who is captured, stripped naked, and forced to flee as he is hunted by spear-toting tribesmen. Read what you will into that plot in Current Year lol. If you like "man is the greatest prey" type stories, you'll love this. There is almost no dialogue, just a savage, kill-or-be-killed race for survival.
It's worth while getting into Westerns made prior to 1964. The genre was at its strongest during the Hollywood Code era, as later movies tend to rely too heavily on slow-mo blood splatters, and sex, in order to keep your attention. Code era Westerns are when the genre thrived, and included such greats as The Searchers, the original 3:10 to Yuma, Bend of the River, The Big Country, and the Ranown Cycle films that included Seven Men from Now and Ride Lonesome. Even the lesser known shittier quality westerns are still entertaining in this era. These movies depict men as real men, women as women, and racial tensions as they were. You can't go wrong with pre-64 Westerns.
Great comment. Strong agreement with the Ranown cycle as an excellent bunch of films. I also recommend Audie Murphy westerns of this era such as No Name on the Bullet, Ride Clear of Diablo, Ride a Crooked Trail and Night Passage.
Audie Murphy was criminally underrated.
never was much of a western fan, but the original True Grit and its sequel (I think it was Rooster Cogburn after the main character in both films) are solid entries, even though I think they came after your cutoff date.
The humor in those films is what really sells them for me.