With such classics as “Chinatown,” “Network,” “Jaws,” “Manhattan,” both “Godfather” films and “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” the 1970s is often regarded as a miniature Golden Age at the movies.

With that in mind, your local critic took a look back at 1971 to see what was happening onscreen exactly 50 years ago.

Quite a lot, as it turns out.

While “Fiddler on the Roof” and “Summer of ’42” were among the top box-office hits, 1971 also marked the directorial debut of three figures who would go on to colossal cinematic careers:

First came “THX 1138” from George Lucas, who would shortly thereafter found the “Star Wars” empire with “A New Hope” in 1977. The earlier film’s alpha-numeric title is referenced in several “Star Wars” movies and also shows up as a license plate in Lucas’ subsequent film — 1973’s nostalgia hit “American Graffiti.”

Next, Clint Eastwood — already a bankable star in front of the camera — directed himself and Jessica Walter in the creepy thriller “Play Misty for Me,” notching strong reviews and a solid box-office take. (Walter, best known for her later work in TV’s “Arrested Development,” passed away at 80 in March.)

On the whole, it was quite a year for Eastwood, whose smash-hit “Dirty Harry” opened in December, kicking off a five-film franchise. That actioner was directed by Don Siegel, who earlier in ’71 oversaw Eastwood in another fine chiller called “The Beguiled” — about an injured Union soldier in the Civil War who is being sheltered at an all-girl school in Mississippi.

Also popular at the time was ABC’s Tuesday night “Movie of the Week,” which offered made-for-TV features in a 90-minute time slot. In 1971, this venue produced “Brian’s Song” (starring James Caan and Billy Dee Williams as real-life Chicago Bears Brian Piccolo and Gale Sayers), plus the animated gem “The Point!,” with music by Harry Nilsson.

Best of all, in November of that year, “MOTW” gave us the directorial debut of one Steven Spielberg: his nail-biting “Duel” starred Dennis Weaver as a mild-mannered motorist being harassed by a murderous trucker on a lonesome desert highway.

1971 likewise cemented the reputation of American directors Stanley Kubrick, Peter Bogdanovich, Robert Altman and William Friedkin, who that year gave us, respectively, “A Clockwork Orange,” “The Last Picture Show,” “McCabe and Mrs. Miller” and “The French Connection” — the latter taking Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor. And ’71 also marked the first feature-length Monty Python film, a collection of uproarious TV sketches appropriately titled “And Now for Something Completely Different.”

Other classics from the same year include “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” “Klute,” “Carnal Knowledge,” Woody Allen’s “Bananas” and the ever-relevant virus thriller “Andromeda Strain.”

And finally, three lesser-known notables from ’71: “The Omega Man,” an adaptation of Richard Matheson’s “I Am Legend” featuring a ground-breaking interracial love scene between Charlton Heston and Rosalind Cash; Monte Hellman’s existential “Two-Lane Blacktop,” a cult-fave car-chase caper starring Warren Oates, the Beach Boys’ Dennis Wilson and singer-songwriter James Taylor; and the unjustly neglected “Fools’ Parade,” a late-career triumph for James Stewart as a Depression-era ex-con. (Long unavailable, “Parade” is currently free on YouTube.)

In conclusion, it’s worth noting that 1971’s debut directors are still going strong: “Star Wars” continues to generate successful spin-offs, while Eastwood is finishing the neo-Western “Cry Macho” and Spielberg has just wrapped a remake of “West Side Story.”