Films of the 1980s

PhantomScreenwriter

PhantomScreenwriter

Here is an interesting article about movies released in 1984 specifically:

http://moviehole.net/201371418drew1984

Let's talk about this decade (my personal favorite decade in film) and the movies that helped shape and define the industry.

These are my favorite films of the 1980s:

Aliens, Batman, Back to the Future, Beverly Hills Cop, Batteries Not Included, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, Bloodsport, Big Trouble in Little China, Conan the Barbarian, Christine, Commando, Die Hard, E.T, First Blood, Full Metal Jacket, Ghostbusters, Gremlins, The Goonies, Highlander, Indiana Jones Trilogy, The Lost Boys, Last Starfighter, Near Dark, Nightmare on Elm St, Predator, Rambo: First Blood Part II, Rocky III, Rocky IV, Robocop, The Shining, Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan, Star Wars Episode V: Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, The Terminator, Twins, Tron...

There's probably more I've forgotten but these are what came out from the top of my head.

Why do I like this decade so much? I guess because I feel more of a connection to these films than I do of ones out today. I do enjoy a lot of movies from various decades but being born early in the 80s I feel that these films form part of my film DNA from watching them growing up. They have had such an impact on me. Even though I would be classified technically as a child of the 90s because you could consider my awareness of movies to be fully formed by the time I was a bit older. However, these films were part of my viewing, the main part actually, even during the early to late 90s.
 
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The 80's was a great decade for film!

You forgot Road Warrior. And Friday the 13th. And Raising Arizona. I'm sure we could continue this list much more, but there's three quintessential classics you need to see, if you haven't already.

By the way, I can tell you're a kid of the 90's, because those of use who grew up in the 80's just call them "Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi". This "Episode ___" nonsense didn't become a thing until "Phantom Menace". :P
 
Cracker Funk said:
By the way, I can tell you're a kid of the 90's, because those of use who grew up in the 80's just call them "Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi". This "Episode ___" nonsense didn't become a thing until "Phantom Menace". :P
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Truth. And they were usually just Empire and Jedi. The first one was Star Wars (no one called it A New Hope). I'm also man enough to admit that I loved the made for TV Ewoks movies :D

I hesitate to say any era is "the best" because there's awesome stuff being made all the time. But there are definitely tons of 80s movies that I love and grew up on.
 
It's okay I was just being a smart ass ;) in all seriousness I may really be a 90s kid but in many ways I feel like I'm an 80s kid because films of that decade where more in my consciousness for a long time before I saw movies made in the 90s :)
 
My college years were in the 80's and I was in movie heaven! Remember AMC's Midnight Movie Express? I loved going to midnight movies and seeing FLESH GORDON, A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, DAWN OF THE DEAD, etc.

Some of my fave films, include most of the ones in PhantomScreenwriter's list, plus THE THING, CREEPSHOW, EVIL DEAD 2, BAD TASTE, PREDATOR, Monty Python's THE MEANING OF LIFE, UNTOUCHABLES, etc.



tokenwhiteboy said:
1986 is the best year for films ever.
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I still have a pin that I got from the theater, showing a particular Halloween double feature, that year.

AliensFlypin.jpg
 
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^I have forgotten so many in my list hahahaha.

I really like The Fly. I also should add:

Time Bandits, Brazil and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and Poltergeist.
 
Yar.

Wow. Great mentions already. Great article.

And we might mention the importance of John Hughes's coming of age films, as well as his others.

Other teen movies. Seems like they were a lot bigger back then. Including the Hughes films and others like Last American Virgin, the Porky's films, Valley Girl, etc.

Vietnamers, as Oliver Stone has called them. The American war on Vietnam was still very much on Hollywood's and America's minds.

And yeah, it was a great decade for one of the greatest, Steven Spielberg.

And Wargames. Talk about an important "teen movie." That's one of the things about the eighties. Their passing marked the Fall of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union. Suddenly, there was hope that our lives and our world might not end in a nuclear nightmare.

But yeah, looking at and remembering all the films made that decade...it was pretty good for film. We had a lot of fun at the movies anyway, didn't we? =)
 
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Do the Right Thing
Blade Runner
Brazil
The Thing
Rain Man
Raging Bull
Once Upon a Time in America
Hannah and Her Sisters
Full Metal Jacket
The Shining
When Harry Met Sally
This is Spinal Tap
Stand by Me
Dead Poet's Society
The Thing
Nightmare on Elm Street
 
The Running Man:

One of the movies I watched over and over as a kid. I enjoyed this film. I read the novel which was written by Stephen King under the psuedonym Richard Bachman. I would have to read it again but on first reading I didn't like it as much - but it would be interesting to see the original version made into a movie.

Plenty of great quotes from Arnie:

"Need a lift?"
"I've seen too much? All I've seen is a bunch of low foreheads who think they can change the world with dreams and talk."
"I haven't been in this business as long as you have Killian but I'm a quick learner, and now I'm going to give the people what I think they want."
"He had to split"

To name a few off the top of my head.

The Neverending Story
Krull
John Carpenter's They Live
John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness
Police Academy
 
Carpenter really killed it in the 80s. Prince of Darkness, The Thing, Big Trouble in Little China...the only thing he did better (in my opinion) was In The Mouth of Madness in the 90s, which I think is as good as he got. Gilliam rocked (though I think Parnassus topped even Brazil), Cronenburg rocked (Dead Ringers vs. Crash...man, tough call, but Videodrome seals it for the 80s). Lynch was awesome, though I think he's only gotten better (Inland Empire was great). Above all else, I'm a fantasy fan, and the 80s were a solid time. Dragonslayer, Willow, Neverending Story, Dark Crystal, Labryinth, and, of course, Legend.

And now you've got me wanting to re-watch Krull. Maybe followed by Clash of Titans!
 
JoshL said:
Carpenter really killed it in the 80s. ...
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"The Thing" is just untouched ever since
"The Blob" is a well made movie too.

But yeah ALIENS,
James Cameron must have been on Drugs throughout the entire 80's, no other explaination... OR he was and is simply born to direct :)

Edit: Actually I have to add one more thing to "The Thing (by John Carpenter)". It is far beyond me why Universal did decide against John Carpenter earlier when he asked to direct the sequel... now "The Thing 2012" wasn't good imo (way too predictable). What a joke the whole scenario was. I was so dying for a sequel ever since I watched The Thing... oh well...
R.i.P. Bill Lancaster and hail to http://www.outpost31.com
 
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Geez, how could I forget? I should probably add AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON, THE HOWLING and FRIGHT NIGHT.

Kind of funny to see Robert Picardo as a HOWLING werewolf and then as VOYAGER's doctor, later on.

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Robertpicardo.jpg
 
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