BEST FILMS OF THE DECADE: Vol. 6 - 1980s

The 80s...a decade of immense pride in capitalism and conservative values....

Yeah, screw all of that!

After a decade that was as rich and vibrant as the 70s, it doesn't seem as surprising that the 80s were something of a "sophomore slump" or the crash after a strong high.

This isn't to say that the films were bad in that decade but I just feel like that some of the best films of the 80s would more than likely pale to some of the films that came out in the decades prior and even some of the decades following.

Also, I know my lists so far have really leaned more towards foreign films but I can tell you now that my top 10 for the 80s will be evenly split between English language and International offerings.

I think that will be the case for the rest of the remaining decades as well, but for now, here are 15 Honorable Mentions and then the top 10 proper:

15 Honorable Mentions:

Atlantic City (1980)

Ordinary People (1980)

The Shining (1980)

Reds (1981)

Tootsie (1982)

Sophie's Choice (1982)

Amadeus (1984)

The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)

Hannah & Her Sisters (1986)

Babette's Feast (1987)

Full Metal Jacket (1987)

The Princess Bride (1987)

Wings of Desire (1987)

Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988)

Crimes & Misdemeanors (1989)

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#10 - The Elephant Man (1980)

Directed by David Lynch

Oh David Lynch....you crazy madman...

I mentioned his debut feature Eraserhead as a 1970s Honorable Mention but now I get to discuss him in more detail. 

When it comes to the Lynch filmography, The Elephant Man is certainly one of his tamest efforts that doesn't quite get to the surreal levels of most of his other work...but what it lacks in that bizarre Lynchian approach, it makes up for in emotion.

If anything, I would say his work on The Elephant Man more than proves that Lynch is capable of making movies that are more accessible to audiences than a lot of his work typically is.

Based on the true story of Joseph Merrick (though called John in the film), we see how the genteel Dr. Treves (Anthony Hopkins) comes across Merrick (John Hurt) being paraded at a freak show by a sadistic ringmaster. Treves asks to bring Merrick to his hospital for his colleagues to study but upon his return to the freak show, Bytes the Ringmaster beats Merrick so severely that Merrick reaches back out to Treves for medical attention...which leads Treves to take Merrick under his wing.

One of the more interesting tidbits about the making of The Elephant Man was that of Anthony Hopkins' behavior on set. Hopkins has been sober for decades now but at that time, he was newly sober but rather volatile in its infancy. He didn't understand why a novice such as David Lynch, with only one feature film to his credit, was given a chance to direct a film of this caliber.

Years later, both Lynch and Hopkins have recounted the story in which Hopkins rediscovered the film and contacted Lynch in tears apologizing profusely for his behavior and how magnificent he felt the film was. 

In the film, Hopkins does a wonderful job in such a sterling role and then you have someone like John Hurt who is buried under so much makeup (which, for the record, the lack of a Makeup category at the Oscars was considered so horrendous that they created the award the following year after the rapturous praise the makeup received in this film). Hurt is such a stellar actor that he doesn't let the makeup do the work for him. His physicality is superb and you can hear how much pain he is in...and I feel like it must be commended considering how easy it would've been to let that makeup do the work.

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#9 - My Dinner with Andre (1981)

Directed by Louis Malle

Two men sit at a table talking about life and art...some of the topics might be things you've never heard or seen before, and yet you are still watching two people sit there and talk for nearly an hour and a half and whenever you aren't watching that, you are watching Wallace Shawn commuting to and from the restaurant.

Why the hell does this movie simply work so well for me and for a lot of other people?!

Well, Wallace Shawn has always been one of those people that others are drawn to (probably thanks to The Princess Bride if we are referencing a more mainstream project) plus Andre Gregory is a very sterling presence who is fascinating to listen to.

My Dinner with Andre is yet another one of those films I revisited during the quarantine after having not seen it for several years and I am still amazed at how well it flows and never seems to lull despite its mostly singular setting and a free-flowing conversation that bounces from one topic to another just as if this were a real conversation occurring at a restaurant.

A lot has been said about the film being autobiographical in a lot of ways though Shawn, Gregory, and Malle have all stated aside from some brief cursory mentions (like Shawn referring to his partner Debbie which is a real-life reference to his partner of nearly 45 years Deborah Eisenberg), the two of them could have easily switched "roles" as far as they were concerned.

Could a selection like this on my list be viewed as pretentious? Maybe.

This is one of those films that I feel like many would watch and be like "Why do I care?"...but I would gladly watch these two converse for several other films or plays...or if I were ever lucky...in person.

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#8 - Cinema Paradiso (1988)

Directed by Guiseppe Tornatore

A film for film fanatics if there ever was one, Cinema Paradiso was something of a bright spot in Italian cinema as many felt that the output from the country seemed to weaken from the late 70s throughout the 80s...even the work by the esteemed Federico Fellini.

The film tells the story of Italian film director Salvatore Di Vita, who returns home one evening to his girlfriend who tells him that his mother called to inform him that a man named Alfredo had died.

Salvatore has not been back to his village for many years so receiving a call like this seemed rather unusual to his girlfriend, but we learn via flashback that Alfredo was a projectionist for the local movie house and it was he that introduced the young and mischievous Sal to the art of movies.

One of the more interesting quirks that is noticed is that due to a local priest having extremely conservative views, Alfredo must cut every romantic encounter in a film to censor them which often leads to the audience booing as many of the cuts are extremely noticeable.

This ends up leading to one of the best payoffs and endings in movie history all while accompanied with a truly magnificent score composed by the legendary Ennio Morricone. The ending singlehandedly pushed this film onto my top 10. I originally had it at #10 and then the more I thought about the ending, I wanted to push up the film a little more.

When I first saw the film, I actually had no idea of how the plot would go so once the ending came, I actually cried and oddly enough, I don't often cry at movies. Maybe roughly 7-8 movies have made me cry to varying degrees but I think this one hit me at the right time.

"All the feels" as the kids say...

So yes, certain films do tap into the idea of "the love of cinema" and I think you could make a case that Cinema Paradiso is the ultimate example of that.

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#7 - Fanny & Alexander (1983)

Directed by Ingmar Bergman

Some have said that Fanny & Alexander is Bergman at his most uplifting, which I don't think is necessarily true but I also don't entirely disagree. 

For a subject matter, he still deals with something fairly dark and tragic: the death of a parent and abuse by the step-parent that follows, but due to dealing with a topic that is sadly more relatable to many, it sort of makes the film more grounded than efforts that dealt with "a chess game with Death" or a serious crisis in faith.

Fanny & Alexander deals with two siblings who lose their father and their mother soon remarries a very prominent bishop in their town. The bishop doesn't take too kindly to Alexander's imagination and ends up abusing him frequently as a punishment. 

Bergman intended this to be his final theatrical feature intending to only focus on the stage and television for the rest of his life. 

Despite winning a couple of Best Foreign Film awards and being nominated for Best Director only a couple of times, only one of his films (Cries & Whispers, a 70s Honorable Mention) ever received a Best Picture nomination and that is a crime.

Even though some of this miniseries did receive a theatricals release, including his Scenes from a Marriage sequel Sarabond in 2003, this would actually be his last true film to be released in Theatres and I do feel it ranks among his best work...which is saying something since I don't think he has ever made anything less than a good film.

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#6 - Ran (1985)

Directed by Akira Kurosawa

As the last epic of Kurosawa's illustrious career, Ran was an adaptation of Shakespeare's King Lear, which was the second adaptation of Shakespeare he tackled after Throne of Blood, his take on Macbeth.

When it comes to plays by Shakespeare, one of my favorites is easily King Lear so it is no surprise that the influence of that would make me be drawn to his film but there are certainly special additional touches that Kurosawa gave to his material...and it felt like the perfect kind of film to end his career on.

Hidetora Ichimonji is a powerful and elderly warlord who has presented three kingdoms to each of his sons, but as time goes on and land divisions come into play, the sons become antagonists towards their own father and will eventually destroy the lives of everyone around them.

My memories of Ran are perhaps the weakest of any of the films on this list, but I still remember how powerful it was and how striking it was to see Kurosawa be able to do a film in rich technicolor (as I had not seen any of his previous color films like Kagemusha). 

It is the only film on this list I have seen once and it has been at least 14-15 years since I watched it last so perhaps I should give this one a rewatch and see where it stands...but I don't suspect it would leave this list.

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#5 - Au Revoir les Enfants (1987)

Directed by Louis Malle

This is my second mention of Louis Malle on this top 10 (in addition to an Honorable Mention for Atlantic City), but while My Dinner with Andre was more of a film that made you focus on its actors, Au Revoir les Enfants was a film that was a truly personal project for Malle.

Inspired by real events from Malle's youth, the film is set at a French Carmelite boarding school for boys circa 1943-1944. Julien is our main focus and he loves to act like a tough kid but in reality, he is actually homesick and misses his mother terribly.

One day, a new student named Bonnet arrives and everyone takes an instant dislike to the shy and timid kid as he seems to take great interest in playing the piano and learning arithmetic.

However, late one night, Julien discovers that Bonnet is up late one night wearing a kippah and praying in Hebrew. He realizes that Bonnet is actually Jean Kipplestein, a Jewish boy who was granted asylum at the school by the very compassionate priest Pere-Jean. Soon after, Julien and Jean/Bonnet develop a bond and become very close friends.

I have always been drawn to coming-of-age films like this and I still have a vivid memory of when I first discovered this one, which was late at night on TCM when I was in middle school...around the same age as Julian and Jean/Bonnet. 

At the time, I had a rather strong reaction to it not just because of the content of the story but because I took so instantly to these two young characters. I related so much to both of them in a lot of ways and then for the longest time, I felt like I couldn't watch the film without it making me think of a time in my life that was truly the worst for me.

I finally revisited the film, like many on these lists I have been doing, last year during the height of the quarantine. What I was thrilled to discover is that the feelings I had expected to come back from my middle school years didn't really affect me, but instead I was able to fall in love with the film and these characters all over again. 

I actually wish more people knew about this film as it is one of the most underrated films to have been made in the last 40 years.

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#4 - Blue Velvet (1986)

Directed by David Lynch

While I might not have the same fervent obsession as I had in my younger days, I can't deny the impact that David Lynch had on me. Even though it was really Twin Peaks that began it, I feel like it was viewing Blue Velvet that really inspired me.

Now...for anyone who has seen Blue Velvet, this might make you cringe or laugh...or a little bit of both. I was WAY too young to have seen this film: 13. And to top it all off, I watched with MY GRANDMOTHER...who proceeded to leave the room in disgust once Isabella Rossellini told Kyle MacLachlan to get undressed at knifepoint.

So moving past that tidbit of awkward adolescence, it is kind of crazy to think that a movie like Blue Velvet is relatively normal in terms of its approach for a David Lynch film. 

It certainly has more of a narrative that is easier to follow compared to most. Jeffrey (Kyle MacLachlan) comes home from college to visit his father who recent suffered a severe heart attack. While walking home from the hospital, he discovers a severed human ear in a field and takes it to the local police department. 

From here, he becomes obsessed with becoming something of a Hardy Boy sleuth and ends up roping in the daughter of the police chief to join him: Sandy (Laura Dern).

Eventually, this leads to local nightclub singer Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini) who is currently being used as a sexual pawn by Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper) who is holding her husband and young son hostage.

Sounds fun, doesn't it? 

Just don't watch it with your grandmother...or frankly any member of your family. 

You'll thank me for it.

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#3 - Come & See (1985)

Directed by Elem Klimov

In my 1960s post, I talked about a relatively unknown Czech film called The Shop on Main Street which I consider to be one of the more underrated films to deal with the Holocaust as a backdrop.

However, if there was one film that truly made me feel sick to my stomach and uncomfortable at what I was seeing and really felt like I was witnessing something closer to what it might've been like. that was the Belarusian film Come & See.

Most of the film is told from the point-of-view of young teenager Flyora (Aleksei Kravchenko) who decides to join the Belarusian resistance as a partisan (considering it was still under Soviet reign), despite his mother's insistence that he remain quiet. 

I have sat through many gruesome horror films over the years and I do think that none of them truly left me feeling what Come & See made me feel...which is certainly not something I want to revisit by any means but I admire Elem Klimov for going as far as he did with this film.

The young Aleksei Kravchenko is absolutely stunning in this film. The amount of turmoil and anguish we seem go through is nothing short of tragic and despicable and you cannot help but marvel at the kind of performance he was able to give. It is easily the most believable portrayal of a tortured soul that I have ever seen onscreen.

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#2 - Paris, Texas (1984)

Directed by Wim Wenders

"Paris, Texas is a movie with the kind of passion and willingness to experiment that was more common 15 years ago than it is now. It has more links with films like Five Easy Pieces & Easy Rider & Midnight Cowboy, than with the slick arcade games that are the box office winners of the 1980s. It is true, deep, and brilliant" - from Roger Ebert's original review of Paris, Texas

I singled out this quote because I feel like Roger Ebert truly hit the nail on the head with what was happening by that point in the 80s. When you do look at a lot of the big films being made in Hollywood at that point, you see a lot of big popcorn flicks like the Star Wars movies or pretty most of the films that Spielberg was making that weren't The Color Purple or Empire of the Sun.

Paris, Texas truly does feel like a film that was already a bit of a relic even though it seems like a film that would've come out of Hollywood maybe 10 years prior. I don't think its a surprise that the film didn't find as much of an audience when it was first released but we already know where I am going with this...I feel like I have had so many films on these lists that were mostly misunderstood when they came out only to become heavily praised in the years to come.

With a script co-written by Kit Carson and the legendary actor/playwright Sam Shepard and direction by the German genius that is Wim Wenders, we delve into the life of Travis Henderson. Travis, played by the late great character actor Harry Dean Stanton, has been roaming the desert in a fugue state and after stumbling into a bar and losing consciousness, a doctor examines him and finds a phone number in his possession.

This is the phone number of his brother Walt (Dean Stockwell) and he comes to retrieve Travis and let him know that he has been missing for 4 years and everyone assumed he was dead, including his wife Anne (Aurore Clement) who had originally adopted Travis' son Hunter (Hunter Carson) whom was the child Travis had with Jane (Nastassja Kinski), who has also disappeared. 

I feel like one of my favorite scenes in a film is the scene in which Travis finally finds Jane, who is working for a Peep Show and only he can see her through a one-way mirror while she can only hear his voice. She can't quite place it at first and just thinks he is an eccentric new client...but Kinski does a magnificent job as Jane. She conveys so much by saying so little and then you have Stanton, whose little flourishes in the scene also stand out such as covering the mouthpiece so she won't hear him sniffling from crying.

The dynamics between these characters are some of the more fascinating I have ever encountered in a film. It is a very rich tapestry of performances that are also matched by such amazing cinematography and visuals...which show how well the grandeur of Wim Wenders could transfer to a very American landscape.

I feel like those who have seen Paris, Texas often acknowledge its brilliance but frankly, I still wish the praise for it were a lot louder.

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#1 - Do The Right Thing (1989)

Directed by Spike Lee

"I think we've got to see that a riot is the language of the unheard" - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

"Did Mookie really do the right thing?" - a random white woman on YouTube

In 2014, I was working at a store in Manhattan and I was talking to one of my coworkers who was Black and had grown up in New York. He had actually never seen Do The Right Thing but knew enough about the story to sort of have an opinion…not to mention a lot of first hand experience for obvious reasons.

Around the same time, a middle-aged Black woman came into the store and overheard the conversation and she chimed in with this:

"You know what I think? I feel Spike Lee should've called that movie The Right Thing!"

I found the comment rather humorous but...I can't say I disagree with her.

Do The Right Thing almost feels like Spike Lee's answer to the Italian Neorealist films of the 40s and 50s or one of those meandering ensemble piece films that delve into either a family or city life like Amarcord or Yi Yi.

The sad truth is that the film feels too close to reality...and what is even more sad is how much I didn't realize it when I first saw the film over 15 years ago.

I was 13 when I first saw the film and I immediately recognized it as a truly strong and important message, but I didn't really "get" it. I also had the great luck to see the film on the big screen for its 20th Anniversary back in 2009 which certainly raised the film in my esteem but it still didn't quite hit me.

I thought about the film a lot in the last year and a half in light of Breonna Taylor, Elijah McClain, George Floyd, and the many others who lost their lives at the hands of truly ignorant and corrupt police officers and when finally rewatching the film again recently, I felt ashamed that I never truly realized how much this kind of thing never stopped...and for those who have seen the film, you know what scene I am referring to and even if you haven't, you can probably take a guess as to what action would end up causing a riot.

Awards aren't everything but one of the gravest injustices in the history of the Academy Awards is that Do The Right Thing was snubbed for Best Picture and Best Director...and that they ended up giving the Picture award to Driving Miss Daisy, a rather mawkish attempt at a race related film. 

And then 30 years later, they finally gave Spike Lee an Oscar for co-writing his film BlacKKKlansman but then gave Best Picture to another mawkish film about race relations...and driving to boot! This wasn't lost on Spike Lee, who actually tried to leave the theater when Green Book was announced the winner but for some reason, security insisted he stay behind.

In the press room, this was acknowledged and he made a comment how he always losing to white savior films about people driving. Spike Lee had no qualms with letting his dissatisfaction be known to the world.

And yes, much like Mookie, Spike Lee did the right thing in that situation too.

One of the finest films I will ever see.

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IN CONCLUSION:

The 1980s did give us some strong films but the amount certainly didn't measure up to that of previous decades...although I still feel like American cinema managed to keep a solid hold on quality.

The 80s also saw the last of some of the greatest filmmakers we have ever known like Kurosawa and Bergman (despite doing a lot of TV work) and it surprisingly feels sad for me that I won't get to mention a film of theirs again on these lists.

There were also some exciting indie filmmakers who came to life in the 80s such as The Coen Brothers who truly came out of the gate roaring with Blood Simple & Raising Arizona or Steven Soderbergh, whose debut film of his still remains my favorite in his career so far: sex, lies, and videotape.

The 1990s are now upon us next and this when I think we slowly start to see indie cinema take a stronghold and it would only increase as time goes on. 

Let's continue forward!