1980s - The Film Experience

FAVORITE FILMS BY YEAR

1980s are when I began to see movies in great numbers so the lists are a strange and arguably unholy alliance between childhood/adolescent favorites and adult tastes when looking backwards. I should probably revisit before rankings.

1980

alphabetically
9 to 5 (Colin Higgins)
Airplane (Abrahams/Zucker/Abrahams)
The Empire Strikes Back (Irving Keschner)

Fame (Alan Parker)
Ordinary People (Robert Redford)
Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese)

The Shining (Stanley Kubrick)

Stardust Memories (Woody Allen)

Superman II (Richard Lester)
Tess (Roman Polanski)

1981

alphabetically
Absence of Malice (Sydney Pollack)
Atlantic City (Louis Malle)
Body Heat (Lawrence Kasdan)
Dragonslayer (Matthew Robbins

Excalibur (John Boorman)
The French Lieutenant's Woman (Karel Reisz)
On Golden Pond (Mark Rydell)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (Steven Spielberg)

Reds (Warren Beatty)
Time Bandits (Terry Gilliam)

1982

alphabetically
Bladerunner (Ridley Scott)

The Dark Crystal (Jim Henson & Frank Oz)
Diva (Jean-Jacques Beineix)
E.T. The Extra Terrestrial (Steven Spielberg)
Gandhi (Richard Attenborough)
An Officer and a Gentleman (Taylor Hackford)
One From the Heart (Francis Coppola)
Tootsie (Sydney Pollack)

The Verdict (Sidney Lumet)
Victor/Victoria (Blake Edwards)

1983

alphabetically
The Big Chill (Lawrence Kasdan)
The King of Comedy (Martin Scorsese)
Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (Terry Jones)
Pauline at the Beach (Eric Rohmer)
The Return of the Jedi (Richard Marquand)
The Right Stuff (Phillip Kauffman)
Silkwood (Mike Nichols)

Terms of Endearment (James L Brooks)
The Year of Living Dangerously (Peter Weir)
Yentl (Barbra Streisand)

1984

alphabetically
Amadeus(Milos Forman)

Birdy (Alan Parker)
Blood Simple (The Coen Bros)
Choose Me (Alan Rudolph)
The Karate Kid (John G Avildsen)
Places in the Heart (Robert Benton)
Romancing the Stone (Robert Zemeckis)
The Terminator (James Cameron)

This is Spinal Tap (Rob Reiner)

Splash (Ron Howard)
The Terminator (James Cameron)

1985

alphabetically
The Breakfast Club (John Hughes)
Insignificance (Nicholas Roeg)
Kiss of the Spiderwoman (Hector Babenco)
Ladyhawke (Richard Donner)
Out of Africa (Sydney Pollack)
Pee Wee's Big Adventure (Tim Burton)
Prizzi's Honor (John Huston)
The Purple Rose of Cairo (Woody Allen)

Ran (Akira Kurosawa)
Witness (Peter Weir)

1986

alphabetically
Aliens (James Cameron)
Betty Blue (Jean-Jacques Beineix)
Children of a Lesser God (Randa Haines)
The Fly (David Cronenberg)
Hannah and Her Sisters (Woody Allen)

Little Shop of Horrors (Frank Oz)
The Mosquito Coast (Peter Weir)
My Beautiful Laundrette (Stephen Frears)
Peggy Sue Got Married (Francis Coppola)
A Room With a View (James Ivory)

1987

alphabetically
Broadcast News (James L Brooks)
The Dead (John Huston)
Jean de Florette/Manon des Sources (Claude Berri)

Law of Desire (Pedro Almodóvar)
Housekeeping (Bill Forsyth)
Moonstruck (Norman Jewison)
Near Dark (Kathryn Bigelow)
The Princess Bride (Rob Reiner)
Raising Arizona (Coen Bros)

Roxanne (Fred Schepisi)

1988

alphabetically
The Accidental Tourist (Lawrence Kasdan)
Beetlejuice (Tim Burton)
Bull Durham (Ron Shelton)
Dangerous Liaisons (Stephen Frears)

Dead Ringers (David Cronenberg)
Grave of the Fireflies (Isao Takahata)

Running on Empty (Sidney Lumet)

Salaam Bombay (Mira Nair)
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Robert Zemeckis)
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Pedro Almodóvar)

1989

alphabetically
Batman (Tim Burton)
Crimes and Misdemeanors (Woody Allen)
The Fabulous Baker Boys (Steve Kloves)
Do The Right Thing (Spike Lee)
Heathers (Michael Lehmann)
Henry V (Kenneth Branagh)
Jesus of Montreal (Denys Arcand)
The Little Mermaid (Ron Clements & John Musker)
sex, lies, and videotape (Steven Sodebergh)

The War of the Roses (Danny DeVito)

Honorable Mention: Drugstore Cowboy (Gus Van Sant)