“Raging Bull,” hands down. (Or fists up. Or, yeah, thumbs down.)
And that “E.T.” dude was no slouch, either.
The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover
Lethal Weapon!
How could i forget Commando, and my stallone double feature Rambo and Cobra(which was originally suppose to be beverly hills cop) Beverly Hills Cop!(i once heard a rumor tarantino was going to direct a fourth cop, heard it almost a year ago and he’s filming bastards so it looks like it was just a pipedream)(LOL)
Veronika Voss, it’s the pinnacle of the BRD Trilogy and provides a great portrait of post-WWII Germany. And Videodrome, of course!
Oh gosh! Listmaking, you dirty whore, you’ve bested me again.
Here are, in no particular order, ten from the 1980s that I especially adore.
10. Secret Honor
9. The Ninth Configuration
8. John Carpenter’s The Thing
7. Tootsie
6. Do The Right Thing
5. Barfly
4. Near Dark
3. Raging Bull
2. Pennies From Heaven
1. Mona Lisa
The Land Before Time, man.
Do The Right Thing,with close runners up being Raging Bull and E.T.
BLUE VELVET: the sheer originality, beauty, and unforgettable portrayal of schizoid America.
Woody Allen’s Crimes and Misdemeanors or Chris Marker’s Sans soleil.
Add to the Woody Allen list:
Stardust Memories
Purple Rose of Cairo
Hannah and her Sisters
Wow, so many. I don’t think I could choose one definitively, so here’s a few that spring to mind…
Errol Morris’ Gates of Heaven (1981)
Emir Kusturica’s Time of the Gypsies (1988)
Hal Ashby’s Being There (1980)
Wim Wenders’ Paris Texas (1984)
Jim Jarmusch’s Stranger Than Paradise (1984) and Down By Law (1986)
John Cassavetes Love Streams (1983)
I will keep it English language films and say……Purple Rose of Cairo? Yeah that sounds good
Raging Bull, no contest.
Oh goodness…I forgot to include Do The Right Thing and Raging Bull. How could I!
1. Fanny & Alexander (Bergman)
2. Brazil (Gilliam)
3. Blade Runner (Scott)
4. Do the Right Thing (Lee)
5. The Sacrifice (Tarkovksy)
6. The Last Temptation of Christ (Scorcese)
7. Amadeus (Forman)
8. Blue Velvet (Lynch)
9. Stranger than Paradise (Jarmusch)
10. Dead RIngers (Cronenberg)
Brazil, Blue Velvet, Paris Texas, Once Upon A Time in America, and Raging Bull… all examples of cinematic goodness.
Also, crimes of passion should be added to the list. Sadly forgotten, it deserves reappraisal/
Plenty here that I agree with – Crimes & Misdemeanors, Do The Right Thing, Pennies From Heaven, Raging Bull, Brazil are all favorites of mine.
I would add:
Kagemusha
Return Of The Secaucus Seven
Matewan
Mystery Train
Black Rain (the Imamura one)
edit – dbl post
Just One of the Guys
Somewhere in Time w/Christopher Reeves
Pretty in Pink
One Crazy Summer
Weird Science
Heathers
The Breakfast Club
All, worthy competetors. I would add Ran and Full Metal Jacket to the discussion.
Kagemusha, The Shining, Fanny and Alexander
Cinema Paradiso
Fanny and Alexander
Crimes and Misdemeanors
Blue Velvet
for the whole decade? geez.
the elephant man
blade runner
dead ringers
drugstore cowboy
last temptation of christ
(and i don’t care what you say) repo man
Madonna and Child (Terence Davies), Passion (Jean-Luc Godard), À nos amours (Maurice Pialat), Offret (Andrei Tarkovski), L’enfant sécret (Philippe Garrel), Down By Law (Jim Jarmusch), Dead Ringers (David Cronenberg), Shoah (Claude Lanzmann), Where’s My Friend Home? (Abbas Kiarostami), De bruit et de fureur (Jean-Claude Brisseau), The Dead (John Huston), The Green Ray (Eric Rohmer), Boy Meets Girl (Leos Carax), El sur (Víctor Erice), L’argent (Robert Bresson), Heaven’s Gate (Michael Cimino), Blue Velvet (David Lynch), Palombella rossa (Nanni Moretti), Recordaçoes da casa amarela (Joao César Monteiro), Chocolat (Claire Denis), Désordre (Olivier Assayas), After Hours (Martin Scorsese), Body Double (Brian de Palma), Outsiders (Francis Ford Coppola), The Thing (John Carpenter), La pirate (Jacques Doillon), ¿Qué he hecho yo para merecer esto! (Pedro Almodóvar), L’amour par terre (Jacques Rivette), City of Sadness (Hou Hsiao-hsien), Love Streams (John Cassavetes), A Room In Town (Jacques Demy), Karin’s Face (Ingmar Bergman), Paris, Texas (Wim Wenders), Shadows In Paradise (Aki Kaurismaki), Pale Rider (Clint Eastwood), Landscape In The Mist (Theo Angelopoulos), Une affaire de femmes (Claude Chabrol), The Big Red One (Sam Fuller).
I would say Raging Bull, if not for the broad-reaching effects its had since (its use of sound effects, narrative structure, mixture of black&white with color film, and as always the music in Scorsese films), but also for the trends that it sat in direct opposition to: namely, the feel-good happy ending, the straight-forward chronological narrative, the sports movie being directly about the sport, the biopic being strictly a story about the person chosen. More specifically, Raging Bull is the anti-Rocky and for good reason.
Scorsese has been quoted as saying that his approach to Raging Bull was that of kamikaze filmmaking, in that he threw all he had into that film with the uncertainty if he would ever make a film again. Let’s be thankful it was not his last film (several greats were to come), but also appreciate the boundaries of cinema that Marty stretched and the cliches he obliterated (even if they continue to be overused today, they are painfully obvious after seeing Raging Bull; one needs look only as far as Cinderella Man).
And for these reasons, it is my pick for best film of the 80s.
DC dreams, great reply. I totally agree Raging Bull is a tie in with the best film of the 80’s. I’m still amazed at that film’s complete deviation of formula, Thelma Schoonmaker’s editing brought something to film that is still in practice, and continues to be imitaded.
Alanedit
The 80’s leaves a legacy in film most of us may love or hate, either way lots of really impressive films where made during that period until formula took over.
What is the best film of the 80’s in your opinion? I gather Blue Velvet was perhaps the best of the decade, coupled with Blade Runner it’s a toss up. What are your thoughts? thanks for sharing friends.