Top Ten 1980s
Tuesday, March 12, 2013 at 9:32PM for discussion fun
Tootsie, one of the inarguably great American comedies
"The Tuesday Top Ten will get more article-like soon," he said (again). "It really will." But it was so much fun to discuss the 1930s and the 1970s, which are arguably the two most respected decades (critically speaking) of American cinema. So how about a decade that gets no respect? The 1980s. The '80s are tough for me to feel discerning about because I lived through them and was a) young and b) just falling in love with the movies and c) just falling hard for the movies so how could the cinema possibly have been hitting its nadir? I still have inordinate fondness for movies that might more safely be called guilty pleasures like Yentl, Superman II, Splash, Return of the Jedi, Clue, and about half of the filmography of John Hughes... and so on. I even like revisiting really bad movies from that decade.
Off the top of my head my ten favorites of the decades.
A Sean Young polaroid from the set of Blade Runner
- The Purple Rose of Cairo (Woody Allen)
- Blade Runner (Ridley Scott)
- A Room With a View (James Ivory)
- Tootsie (Sydney Pollack)
- Dangerous Liaisons (Stephen Frears)
- Amadeus (Milos Forman)
- Hannah and Her Sisters (Woody Allen)
- Aliens (James Cameron)
- Law of Desire (Pedro Almodovar)
- Raiders of the Lost Ark (Steven Spielberg)
With apologies too... Silkwood, Reds, Diva, The Empire Strikes Back, The Little Mermaid, The complete works of Michelle Pfeiffer, Moonstruck, Raging Bull, Jean de Florette, Manon of the Spring, The King of Comedy, Heathers, sex lies and videotape, The complete works of Kathleen Turner, The Shining, Victor/Victoria, The Right Stuff, Bull Durham, Little Shop of Horrors, The Terminator, Witness, Broadcast News, Running on Empty, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and Raising Arizona. I could go on and on and on but I'd better stop before I start singing Xanadu again.
I'd love to hear your lists, both guilty pleasures and critically lauded efforts you think deserve their reputations.
Reader Comments (101)
Beaches.
The end.
Beaches. awwww.definitely a pleasure, guilty or otherwise.
My picks:
1) E.T. - Extra Terrestrial
2) Back to the Future
3) Aliens
4) Good Morning, Vietnam
5) Once Upon a Time in America
6) Raiders of the Lost Ark
7) the Goonies
8) the Shining
9) Dead Poets Society
10) Tootsie
Other than Beaches my other favorites:
ET
Back To The Future
Moonstruck
Fatal Attraction
Tootsie
Steel Magnolias
Batman
Beetlejuice
Working Girl
The Abyss
Terminator
1.- Law of desire
2.- Dangerous Liaisons
3.- Aliens
4.- Blade Runner
5.- Fanny & Alexander
6.- Hannah and her sisters
7.- The color purple
8.- Stand by me
9.- Silkwood
10.- Pennies from heaven
Without over-thinking it, I'd say these are my ten favorites. But like you, it's awful hard to sort the great from the guilty pleasures...
Do the Right Thing
Moonstruck
Ordinary People
Raiders of the Lost Arc
Tootsie
When Harry Met Sally...
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Witness
Working Girl
9 to 5
PS: I'm stunned how many of these films (plus Blade Runner and Star Wars) star Harrison Ford! The iconic "Actor of the 1980s"?
My 10:
1. Brazil
2. Local Hero
3. Fitzcarraldo
4. Evil Dead II
5. Blue Velvet
6. Once Upon a Time in America
7. Raging Bull
8. Heimat
9. Withnail & I
10. Stand by Me
And to understand how tough this kind of is, here's my 11-20:
11. Blade Runner
12. Blow Out
13. This is Spinal Tap
14. Betty Blue
15. Raising Arizona
16. The Princess Bride
17. The Shining
18. Die Hard
19. The King of Comedy
20. Aliens
What I love about the 80s is that it was a great decade for throwaway films - actioners, comedies, teen movies - and the prestige stuff is pretty evenly divided between genuinely great, hugely divisive, and so topical as to lose much of its impact when viewed later on. I was born in 84, so I missed out on seeing these in theaters, but they all have deep places in my heart:
Au revoir, les enfants
Brazil
The Breakfast Club
Dead Poets Society
The Empire Strikes Back
Moonstruck
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Tootsie
When Harry Met Sally...
Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (one of my all-time favorites)
Honor roll: A Fish Called Wanda, A Room With A View, The Abyss, Alice, All of Me, Amadeus, Back to the Future, Beetlejuice, Beverly Hills Cop, Blade Runner, Clue, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Ghostbusters, The Great Muppet Caper, Lucas, On Golden Pond, Say Anything..., The Terminator, This is Spinal Tap, Victor Victoria, Yentl
1. Victor/Victoria (1982)
2. Dangerous Liaisons (1988)
3. The Color Purple (1985)
4. Terms of Endearment (1983)
5. Hannah and her Sisters (1986)
6. Amadeus (1984)
7. Fanny and Alexander (1982)
8. Tootsie
9. Law of Desire
10. Broadway Danny Rose
Best male performance of the 80's
1. John Malkovich - Dangerous Liaisons
2. Robert Preston - Victor/Victoria
3. F. Murray Abraham - Amadeus
4. Dustin Hoffman - Tootsie
5. Woody Allen - Broadway Danny Rose
Best female performance of the 80's
1. Glenn Close - Dangerous Liaisons
2. Michelle Pfeiffer - The Fabulous Baker Boys
3. Whoopi Goldberg - The Color Purple
4. Shirley MacLaine & Debra Winger - Terms of Endearment (tie)
5. Mia Farrow - Broadway Danny Rose
Top 3 in order, but otherwise...
1 ORDINARY PEOPLE
2 TERMS OF ENDEARMENT
3 REDS
Amadeus
Fame
Crimes And Misdemeanour's
Raiders Of The Lost Ark
Broadcast News
E.T. The Extra Terrestrial
A Room With A View
Nathaniel, you've already mentioned so many of my personal favorites both within and outside of your top ten list ("Dangerous Liaisons," "Amadeus," "Aliens," "Raiders of the Lost Ark," "The Empire Strikes Back," "The Little Mermaid," "Little Shop of Horrors," "The Terminator").
Some more films that are close to my heart for one reason or another (which haven't already been mentioned):
"Fatal Attraction"
"Big Trouble in Little China"
"Fright Night"
"A Nightmare on Elm Street"
"Ghostbusters 2"
Since people are listing best perfs, here's my top fives for the four categories:
Best Lead Actors of the 80s:
1. Richard E. Grant, Withnail & I
2. Bruce Campbell, Evil Dead II
3. Robert De Niro, Once Upon a Time in America
4. Paul Newman, The Verdict
5. Pete Postlethwaite, Distant Voices, Still Lives
Best Lead Actresses of the 80s:
1. Glenn Close, Fatal Attraction
2. Winona Ryder, Heathers
3. Susan Sarandon, Bull Durham
4. Sigourney Weaver, Aliens
5. Marita Breuer, Heimat
Best Supporting Actors of the 80s:
1. Burt Lancaster, Local Hero
2. Robert Englund, A Nightmare on Elm Street
3. Dennis Hopper, Blue Velvet
4. Alan Rickman, Die Hard
5. John Lithgow, Blow Out
Best Supporting Actresses of the 80s:
1. Nastassja Kinski, Paris, Texas
2. Sandra Barnhard, The King of Comedy
3. Katherine Helmond, Brazil
4. Joan Chen, The Last Emperor
5. Catherine O'Hara, Beetlejuice
(very close runner-up: Penelope Milford, Heathers (yes, the hippie teacher))
Many of my favourites have already been mentioned. I think I'd add Labryinth and High Tide to my list also. Claudia Karvan gives one if my favourite child performances ever and Judy Davis, always great to watch.
1. Dangerous Liaisons
2. Raiders of the Lost Ark
3. Raging Bull
4. Blade Runner
5. The Empire Strikes Back
6. Blue Velvet
7. Full Metal Jacket
8. The Princess Bride
9. Dead Ringers
10. Witness
The Shining
Hannah and Her Sisters/ Crimes and Misdemeanors
Fanny and Alexander
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
A Fish Called Wanda
Do the Right Thing
Blue Velvet
Mommie Dearest
After Hours
ET
Completely forgot to include Dennis Hopper's astonishing Out of the Blue. Recently saw it and was very affected by it.
Many apologies to the following, which I adore:
Amadeus
Dune
A Fish Called Wanda
A Room with a View
Empire of the Sun
Time Bandits
Ghostbusters
Absence of Malice
The Dresser
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
The Goonies
Heathers
Dead Poets Society
Ran
The Secret of Nimh
Moonstruck
Born on the Fourth of July
and as Nat pointed out, the John Hughes Canon
I was born in '81. And while I have mixed feelings about the decade as a whole, I actually love the movies of that era - there's a great mix of super high brow and super low brow - like Critters, Police Academy, stuff like that. Probably every decade has that and I only feel this way because I was a little kid growing up, but 80s lowbrow crap just has a different, more appealing quality to it than what the 90s and 00s cranked out. Anyway, I've only recently realized how many great - or at least widely admired - movies from the decade I still haven't seen, so I'll be digging back into the decade soon enough.
1. L'Argent
2. Full Metal Jacket
3. The Purple Rose of Cairo
4. Do the Right Thing
5. E.T The Extra Terrestrial
6. The Last Temptation of Christ
7. Blood Simple
8. Grave of the Fireflies
9. The Elephant Man
10. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
With apologies to Videodrome, Blue Velvet, Robocop, My Neighbor Totoro, Back to the Future, Amadeus, Out of Africa, Gallipolli, The Sacrifice, Crimes and Misdemeanors, The Shining, After Hours, Victor/Victoria, Star 80, Barfly, and many others.
How could I forget Barfly and Faye Dunaway eating corn!?!?!
Not sure if I'm offering anything new to the discussion, but here are my favorites:
1. The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
2. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
3. The Untouchables (1987)
4. Platoon (1986)
5. RoboCop (1987)
6. Tootsie (1982)
7. The Thing (1982)
8. Zelig (1983)
9. Back to the Future (1985)
10. The Elephant Man (1980)
11. Full Metal Jacket (1987)
12. The Killing Fields (1984)
13. The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)
14. Atlantic City (1981)
15. Die Hard (1988)
16. Field of Dreams (1989)
17. Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)
18. Missing (1982)
19. Return of the Jedi (1983)
20. The World According to Garp (1982)
1987 is the best year of the decade for films and I must say that I always preferred '80s Woody Allen to any of his other decades, but he is one of the greatest directors ever.
Concerning actressing, there were some terrific examples of this in the 80s. My personal favorites: Jessica Lange in Frances, Marsha Mason in Only When I Laugh, Diane Keaton in Baby Boom, Cher in Moonstruck, Julie Andrews in Victor/Victoria, Christine Lahti in Running On Empty, Mary Tyler Moore in Ordinary People, Anne Bancroft in Garbo Talks, Kathleen Turner in The War of the Roses, Genevieve Bujold in Choose Me, Mia Farrow in Hannah and Her Sisters, Ellen Burstyn in Resurrection, Goldie Hawn in Private Benjamin, Michelle Pfeiffer in The Fabulous Baker Boys, Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger in Terms of Endearment.
Since two of my Top Ten haven't made anyone's list (I don't think), I'll put them on top. I think all the rest have been mentioned before:
Hope And Glory
My Life As A Dog
The Right Stuff
Witness
Cinema Paradiso
My Beautiful Laundrette
Crimes & Misdemeanors
Unbearable Lightness Of Being
After Hours
Radio Days
And I loved for various reasons Fanny & Alexander, Women on the Verge, Au Revoir Les Enfants, Terms of Endearment, My Left Foot, Gallipoli, etc.
Dave in Alamitos Beach: Thank you so much for mentioning "Hope and Glory." I remember watching that as a preteen with my grandmother and laughing hysterically. How could I have forgotten that one?
Raging Bull
Dressed to Kill
Atlantic City
Sophie's Choice
A Passage to India
Parting Glances
Dangerous Liaisons
Do the Right Thing
sex, lies and videotape
Drugstore Cowboy
In the English language. Another list for Foreign Language films is coming up.
Great lists, everyone but how come nobody's mentioned My Favorite Year (apologies if you have and I overlooked it)? Definitely in my top three for the 80s and my favorite Peter O'Toole performance of all time. Such a wonderful, funny, nostalgic movie.
In no particular order:
Dangerous Liaisons
Empire Strikes Back
My Favorite Year
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Cutter's Way
Crimes and Misdemeanors
Bull Durham
Do the Right Thing
Wings of Desire
Purple Rose of Cairo
Omigod, how did I leave out Princess Bride, Tootsie, Heathers, Jean de Florette, the Stunt Man, and Lonesome Dove (I know it's a made for television miniseries but I just saw it and boy oh boy is it terrific!)?
The 1980s are great because it's like a Golden Age of Ghibli!
#10: Kaze no Tani no Nausicaa (Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind) (1984)
#9: The Little Mermaid (1989)
#8: Rain Man (1988)
#7: Ran (1985)
#6: Tootsie (1982)
#5: Platoon (1986)
#4: Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
#3: Hotaru no Haka (Grave of the Fireflies) (1988)
#2: Tenkuu no Shiro Laputa (Castle in the Sky) (1986)
#1: Tonari no Totoro (My Neighbor Totoro) (1988)
If short films count I'll definitely add Anna & Bella (1984), Luxo Jr (1986) and The Big Snit (1985)
These are my top 3-
Empire Strikes Back
The Breakfast Club
Gallipoli
These are equal-
Blade Runner
Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior
Raiders of the lost Ark
Never Ending Story
Starstruck
A Passage to India
Couldn't choose between these two to make 10-
ET
Year of Living Dangerously
Best Acting 1980's
Actor
Daniel Day-Lewis, My Left Foot
Robert DeNiro, Raging Bull
Paul Newman, The Verdict
Actress
Meryl Streep, Sophie;s Choice
Geraldine Page, The Trip to Bountiful
Glenn Close, Dangerousl Liaisons
Supporting Actor
Timothy Hutton, Ordinary People
Kevin Kline, A Fish Called Wanda
River Phoenix, My Own Private Idaho
Supporting Actress
Angie Dickinson, Dressed to Kill
Dame Peggy Ashcroft, A Passage to India
Glenn Close, The World According to Garp
Thank you to the person who listed ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA. I'd sacrifice two of the titles on my top ten list to include it. Three more honorable mentions that I haven't seen listed yet, but that I rank near the top:
Yol (Yilmaz Guney)
Babette's Feast (Gabriel Axel)
Nostalghia (Andrei Tarkovsky)
Best actor of the '80s: Albert Finney for "Shoot the Moon", "The Dresser" and "Under the Volcano".
Best actress of the '80s: Meryl Streep for "Ironweed", "Sophie's Choice" and "Silkwood".
Best supporting actor of the '80s: Jack Nicholson for "Terms of Endearment", "Reds" and "A Few Good Men" (basically a supporting performance).
Best supporting actress of the '80s: Dianne Wiest for "Radio Days", "Hannah and Her Sisters" and "Parenthood".
And the single best performance of the '80s: Diane Keaton in "Shoot the Moon".
Another awesome guilty pleasure movie I forgot until last night is High Spirits. This movie is so much fun. It's like an underappreciated Clue. Need to watch it again soon.
The Decalogue by Krzysztof Kieslowski
Elephant Man by David Lynch
Once Upon a Time in America by Sergio Leone
A room with a view by Ivory
Paris Texas by Wim Wenders
Wings of Desire by Wim Wenders
Chariots of fire by Hugh Hudson
Time of the Gypsies by Emir Kusturica
Sex lies and Videotape by Steven Soderbergh
Shining by Stanley Kubrick
But also I think about so many films: , Fanny and Alexander, the Purple of Cairo,ET, the Unbearable Lightness of Being, My Neighbor Totoro, Blade runner, Hanna and her Sisters Excalibur, Valmont, Brazil, Raging Bull, The Empire Strikes Back, Tootsie, Amadeus,Frances the Terminator, Hannah and her sisters, l'été meurtrier, le père noêl est une ordure, the mission...
Trippy, so true about Mr. Finney! What a roster of great performances! He should have been nommed for Shoot the Moon. And he did Annie (and KILLED it!) the same year. F'cking awesome. I know this is considered heresy, but I think he should have tied Abraham for Under the Volcano.
And Diane is pretty near perfect in Shoot the Moon. Sigh.
Bull Durham has to be the most positive portrayal of female sexuality in a movie ever. How often do you see a very sexual woman who is a pillar of her community rather than a pariah, and who gets a choice of how her life will go by the movie's end?
Reds
Blade Runner
Raging Bull
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Brazil
The Right Stuff
Back to the Future
Come and See
Drugstore Cowboy
Wings of Desire
It's one of the most fascinating decades to really dig into. The Woody Allen renaissance, the rise of the action flicks, sci-fi etc.
1. Reds
2. Star Wars Episode V: Empire Strikes Back
3. Hannah and her Sisters
4. E.T. The Extra Terrestrial
5. Silkwood
6. Broadcast News
7. The Fabulous Baker Boys
8. The Little Mermaid
9. The Natural
10. Airplane!
Runners Up: Witness, Amadeus, Victor/Victoria, Raging Bull, Broadway Danny Rose, Blade Runner
Sorry on River Phoenix...the correct film is "Running on Empty."
1.Blade Runner 2.Raiders of the Lost Ark 3.The Empire Strikes Back 4.Heathers 5.The King of Comedy 6.This is Spinal Tap 7.Blue Velvet 8.Die Hard 9.Aliens 10.The Terminator
1. Raging Bull
2. Blue Velvet
3. Empire Strikes Back
4. Caddyshack
5. Hannah and her Sisters
6. Back to the Future
7. E.T
8. Ordinary People
9. Breakfast Club
10. The Shining
Patryk, I love River Phoenix in Running on Empty. I think Christine Lahti is pretty great in it, too.
When I was in college, I found an old VHS copy of it literally buried in a dark corner of the library. I checked it out and watched it at home. When I was watching it, my roommate came in. After it was done, she wanted to see the beginning so we started it again. Then our other roommate came home and she wanted to watch it. Then my boyfriend came over and then my sister and by the time I took the movie back to the library, I had watched it 5 times because everyone had to see it. I remember one roommate (who had watched it probably 3 times) saying, "Why have I never heard of this movie before?" Why indeed.
Cash, love this film. Christine won the LA Critics award for Best Actress. That scene with Steven Hill, playing her dad, kills me everytime. That's some of the best acting I've ever seen in a movie.
On another topic, TCM is playing Tootsie tomorrow night as part of its Dustin Hoffman film festival. Also playing: Little Big Man, Kramer vs. Kramer, the rarely seen John and Mary with Mia Farrow, and of course The Graduate with La Bancroft.
Top 10 movies of the 1980s:
1.Rain man
2.Platoon
3.Blue Velvet
4.Chariots of Fire
5.Hannah and Her Sisters
6.Raging bull
7.Gandhi
8.Amadeus
9.Out of Africa
10.The Last Emperor
And other possible movies for this list:
1. E.T:
2. The Empire Strikes Back
3. Raiders of the Lost Ark
4. Wall street
5. Blade runner
6. The Elephant Man
7. Killing fields
8. Flashdance
9.Nine Half weeks
10. Angelheart
Finally my fav. movies from the 80s:
1. Blade runner
2. Rumble fish
3. Angelheart.
4. Kiss of the spiderwoman
5. Out of Africa
6. Midnight run
7. Flashdance
8. Blue velvet
9. Platoon
10. Nine half weeks
+ A geat movie= Aliens
I thought you didn't like Glenn, Nathaniel.
Top 10 movies of the 80s
1.Raging Bull
2.Die Hard
3.Raiders of the Lost Ark
4.Scarface
5.A Fish Called Wanda
6.Shining
7.The Verdict
8.Rain Man
9.My Left Foot
10.Full Metal Jacket
If raging bull isnt on your list, you have bad taste in movies.
10. Dangerous Liaisons
9. Victor/Victoria
8. Moonstruck
7. Ordinary People
6. Coal Miner's Daughter
5. Fame
4. A Soldier's Story
3. Aliens
2. Tootsie
1. Do The Right Thing
Honorable Mentions: Beaches, Big, Christine, The Color Purple, E.T., Fatal Attraction, Mommie Dearest, Private Benjamin, She's Gotta Have It, Trading Places, The War of the Roses, Working Girl
¿Where is YENTL?
selene -- i mentioned Yentl
anthony -- did i not mention Raging Bull. oops. bad taste alert. haha. but seriously I prefer King of Comedy.
Marlene -- i totally love Glenn Close. hmmm. i think this misunderstanding comes in like the misunderstanding about my Streep fandom in that I love them both but that doesn't mean I'm committed to loving each performance or thinking they deserve awards every time they open their mouths. :) But yeah, you can't truly appreciate Hollywood 80s cinema without understanding how awesome Streep & Close can be when they're at the top of their game.
Body Heat is by far my number 1 for the 80's! Kasdan really hit it out of the park with this one. Blade Runner would be a very close second, Kiss of the spider woman is sooo underrated it really needs to be more widely seen and talked about,Raging bull has what is probably the definitive male performance of the 80's,Big Chill is great,do the right thing remains a classic,Amadeus is always a good one to watch,Terms of endearment has to be on this list i always bawl my eyes out over that one,Gandhi and chariots of fire would be up there for me too.
Eli... did i not mention Body Heat? UGH. BAD ME. Love that movie.