10 great British action films of the 1970s

With the emergence of New Hollywood, relaxed censorship and the growing popularity of Asian martial-arts movies, the 1970s was the decade in which the action movie truly established itself as a genre of its own. The signs were already there for the British film industry in the 60s, having seen critical and commercial success with action-heavy, American co-productions such as The Guns of Navarone (1961), Where Eagles Dare (1968) and the all-conquering Bond movies. These various market elements led to a spate of homegrown action-oriented releases, which sought to sate audiences’ tastes for more intense on-screen violence.

Source: 10 great British action films of the 1970s | BFI