by Nathaniel R
RETURN OF THE JEDI
As noted last week we’ve been feeling some 1980s nostalgia of late. So we’re indulging in the "Totally Awesome 80s" this month. Most cinephiles I know keep their own top ten lists (those that don’t – weirdos! I kid I kid. To each their own.) Sometimes these lists aren’t beholden to the Oscars or release dates but to copyright dates or first screenings somewhere even if they weren't "premieres" (i.e. following letterboxd, imdb listings). We stick to calendar year of US releases when we can just because it’s more fun for us to compare to the Oscars. In the event that the release was spread over years and confusing or maybe never got a US release we pick a year (usually the premiere year).
Herewith a 'top ten list' from 1983 which was made in the early Aughts based on childhood memories and some adult screenings. It’s occasionally been updated or altered by rewatches or first time viewings since. So let’s keep that 80s party going and talk 1983...
NATHANIEL'S 1983 FAVOURITES
alphabetically... and when he first or law saw them
• The Fourth Man (Paul Verhoeven)
One of those movies that straddles release years. It premiered in a lot of places in 1983 and was submitted for the 1983 Oscars (but only in International Feature). When it was actually released in the US (in 1984) it made some top ten lists but was not submitted for Oscar consideration even though it would have technically been eligible in other categories if it had. I didn’t become a fan of Verhoeven until Showgirls (1995) and started looking back at the filmography. I wonder if this holds up or if I only loved it for the titillation factor since aggressively homosexual screen moments were super rare until the 2000s. Or later actually; they're still rare.
• The King of Comedy (Martin Scorsese)
Most people consider this 1982 but that’s ONLY because they didn’t live through the 1980s and that's how websites list it. IMDb and Wikipedia suggest that this movie had one 1982 screening (in Iceland!) though I can’t find any references to that actually happening. All first-run reviews are from 1983 and it competed at Cannes in May of 1983 and was eligible in 1983 for all the big film awards (only BAFTA embraced it giving it 5 nominations and a screenplay win). It’s widely accepted that The King of Comedy was misunderstood in its time but it holds up well today. I don't remember when I first saw it but it remains one of my top five Scorseses. And bless the National Society of Film Critics, the only group wise enough to honor Sandra Bernhardt’s incredibly in-your-face performance.
NEVER CRY WOLF
• Never Cry Wolf (Carroll Ballard)
The only PG rated family film with full frontal male nudity! My parents took me and my brothers when it was released and we all loved it. Rewatched in college and still enjoyed. The beautiful cinematography won some critics awards at the time but somehow the film only scored with the Oscars in Best Sound. Carroll Ballard had a fairly unique career in that he was a serious quality director that almost exclusively worked in movies aimed at the whole family. See also: The Black Stallion, Nutcracker, Fly Away Home.
• The Return of the Jedi (Richard Marquand)
One entire wall in my childhood bedroom was devoted to this sequel. It was the last year of totally pure Star Wars obsession (for me at least). As an adult the movie has a lot of obvious problems but the first act with Jabba the Hut and Princess Leia in the metal bikini still slays. Since The Empire Strikes Back was my earliest actually vivid moviegoing memory, Return of the Jedi became, quite naturally and sequentially, my earliest memory of the agonizing wait of knowing a movie is coming years before it arrives and then counting down to its release. Something that thankfully still happens to this day as love for the cinema has never waned.
• The Right Stuff (Phillip Kauffman)
I was too young for this in 1983 but when I finally got around to it in college --well, it's impressive. Great cast. Why did Philip Kaufman's career peter out so quickly at the turn of the century? He had rangey good run from Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) through Quills (2000). People don’t talk about this astronaut drama today but it won half of its eight (!) Oscar nominations which is quite something.
SILKWOOD.
• Silkwood (Mike Nichols)
The best movie of 1983. Upsetting that this didn’t manage a Best Picture nomination along with its other five nominations in its day. Why were Academy members resistant? If anyone who was paying attention back then could enlighten us, that'd be lovely. I have seen it a few times but not in quite a long while (rewatch is due). It’s Meryl Streep’s best performance and Mike Nichols best film. Bold claims twice over, I know. Fight me.
• Star 80 (Bob Fosse)
Utterly shocking when I first rented it but I was probably too young (at least the first time). But this thing lingers and Eric Roberts is amazing in it. He wasn’t Oscar nominated though he did score two honors: a Globe nomination and a Best Actor win from the Boston Society of Film Critics. Bob Fosse was such an incredible director and a couple images from this remain embedded in the memory though I’ve only seen this twice and the last time was in the mid 1990s. Time for a rewatch!
• Terms of Endearment (James L Brooks)
I have almost no memory of this one – which was the second biggest blockbuster of the year (after Return of the Jedi) back when non-genre stuff could still fascinate the moviegoing public in droves and droves. I loved it when I first saw it a couple years after its release. Just that once! People seem to have a low opinion of it now. Is it not good or is the fall from critical grace purely based on the fact that it’s so female focused?
How incredible is this poster?
• The Year of Living Dangerously (Peter Weir)
Another film like The King of Comedy that is considered 1982 online but no one actually saw it then beyond (in this case) select lucky Australians who hit the movie theater in late December. It spread to the rest of the world including Cannes competition and US movie theaters in 1983. I have only two memories having only seen it once in (I think, the early 90s?): One, being mesmerized by but undecided about how much I actually liked Linda Hunt’s Oscar winning performance; Two, the scorching onscreen chemistry between Mel Gibson and Sigourney Weaver who were each just a short step away from superstardom when this film arrived.
• Yentl (Barbra Streisand)
This is the last of three movies on this top ten list that I actually first saw in movie theaters (the others being ROTJ & Never Cry Wolf). My family were never movie people per se but being Mormons they did like musicals. It was a treat to revisit Yentl for an episode of “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” two years ago. It holds up well! It's 100% Streisand’s best self-directed effort even if critics are weirdly most deferential to Prince of Tides (I've never understood that - explain it to me if you can, seriously). I was surprised to discover in 2022 that it felt less like a soaring romantic epic (how I'd remembered it!) and more like an intimate quiet drama of self-realization.
Finis.
All that said, I’m admittedly weak on the early 80s. A lot of “gold” to still discover, surely, including a few key Oscar titles. I'd love to hear your favourites from 1983 in the comments. Have at it.