As another poster said, there is an element of mocking to many movies set in the 70s because it is indeed an easy era to mock. Styles in clothing, hair, interior decor and even cars were at about the lowest point they've ever been. But it is indeed, as someone said, an affectionate mocking.
So why do people like to watch the era on screen? Maybe for some of the same reasons people keep making movies about the late 50s and early 60s. They are eras that are near enough to be familiar, but far enough in the past to be distinctly different from our own times. Both seem like eras it would be lots of fun to visit for a time-traveling vacation.
In terms of the 70s, I think people enjoy the idea of the freedom we had back then. (I was 20 in 1977, so I could have been at the big party in the movie.) While it's hard to argue with reduced drunk driving, less smoking or healthier eating, it does seem that a lot of the fun has gone out of having fun. It's not like we didn't know any better, by the way. We knew it was a bad idea to drive when you had been drinking. Everybody knew smoking was bad for you and that you should eat less fat and exercise regularly. We just weren't as ... frightened, I think is the only word to use. It seems people today are so much more risk-averse. It's like everybody thinks they're going to live forever, even if it means living like a Puritan along the way.
And if you did act like a fool, there was a good chance you'd get away with it because we did not live in a surveillance culture, as we do now. (That culture is not only, or even mostly, law enforcement. It includes the youtube vigilante brigade and people who think it's funny to shame others on FB or who get their kicks accusing others of violations of political correctness on Twitter.)
So, yeah, it was fun, and I think lots of people enjoy watching that, just like they enjoy watching the bygone - but not really all that long ago - elegance and style of ca. 1960.
By the way, although this has nothing to do with movies set in that era, a lot of that fun was possible because we young people of 70s were the last generation to grow up, if you were middle class, with a sense of an economically secure future. Although the go-go years of the 60s were over, and the economy was terrible for much of the decade, it hadn't really sunk into our brains yet that the old economic days were over. We still believed that, if you got an education and did your job, it was entirely reasonable to expect to have job security throughout your career, with generous benefits and a good pension at end. All the while working reasonable hours, by the way. Little did we know ...
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