Grew up in the 80's

Top 5 Favorites of the 80's

Alright, so I'm borrowing a concept from the 'Top 5' group (which borrowed it from High Fidelity), and suggesting that we each pick our top 5 favorites from the Blessed Era of Bangs and Bad Hair.  Write a sentence or two if you feel the need to.  Oh, and I am not talking cinematic briliance here, necessarily--I'm talking films you watched in the 80's that you remember falling in love with, no matter how cheesey.  In fact, cheesier the better.

Flight of the Navigator- This is another one I vaguely remember seeing in the theatre (I must have seen a lot of films in 1985/6).  I think I've seen it once since then and still found it be a pretty intense film for a young child.  It sort of had some ET-ish plot as I recally, with a kid finding a living spaceship of sorts.

The Neverending Story- Saw this one a few years after it came out (I was two when it came out, so cut me some slack) but instantly fell in love with it.  I was the nerdy kid who sat around reading Asimov hoping that somehow I would get sucked into the book.  When I saw this, it gave me hope.

Transformers: The Movie- One of the first films I remember seeing in the theatre.  I haven't seen it in twenty years, but I remember it being epic and intense with some solid animation.  Just noticed that it was up for two awards in '86... I'll have to track this one down.

Stand By Me- Quintessential 80's coming-of-age film that sparked my love for the genre.  I liked it when I saw it as a young kid, but came to love it after my love affair with television shows like The Wonder Years and authors like Garrison Keillor and Ellen Gilchrist started.

The Princess Bride- Again, an entry into the canon of 80's films.  It's low budget and a bit tacky, but so is the book.  Great cast, some great cameos, clever dialogue, pretty faithful to the book... another one of those boy-gets-sucked-into-the-book-type stories.  Seemed to be a run of those in the 1980's.

What are your top 5?

Re:Top 5 Favorites of the 80's

Oh, this is a good one!

I must say The Princess Bride is probably at the top of my 80s list.  It has everything ( and something for everyone): comedy, drama, suspense, true love, miracles ( to paraphrase a line from the Grandfather).  I can watch it time and again, and I love it for different reasons every time.

Another good one would have to be Nausicaa (  The Valley of the Wind).  A complicated apocalyptic future (although we are getting and closer to that every year- all that's missing is the giant bugs) beautifully drawn in anime. Plus, the princess was completely bad ass- which was ( and still is ) fairly unusual.

St. Elmo's Fire takes the #3 spot.  A great look at post college life ,  in true 80s style,  where you still don't have a clue but you no longer have the excuse of " I'm still a student" to calm your fears about life after school.

For Keeps  holds at #4- unraveling a yarn about the consequences of unprotected teen sex as only the 80s and Molly Ringwald can ( woo hoo!)

Annie brings up the rear at #5- the singing the dancing, the orphans- what's not to love??

So, there you have it: the 80s summed in 5 movies about childhood, teendom, adulthood, fantasy and the future.

Re:Top 5 Favorites of the 80's

Good call on Nausicaa--I always think of Anime as such a recent phenom in the US that I forget half of the films I've seen were actually made in the mid-eighties.  I was pretty skeptical about Nausicaa when I first saw it about a year ago (an animated princess... really?) but absolutely loved it.

filmgal81:

Another good one would have to be Nausicaa (  The Valley of the Wind).  A complicated apocalyptic future (although we are getting and closer to that every year- all that's missing is the giant bugs) beautifully drawn in anime. Plus, the princess was completely bad ass- which was ( and still is ) fairly unusual.

 

Re:Top 5 Favorites of the 80's

Yeah, it seems like everything has gone Anime lately.  Which is fine, i guess, because i actually miss hand drawn cartoons. Pixar is great and all, but I miss the complicated animation that only comes from the film being drawn with ink and pencil one cell at a time. Sure, it might not be as modern, but who ever said that modernization automatcially means better?

It kinda sticking your finger in an electrical outlet: just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

An 80s films that should receive honorable mention is The Night They Saved Christmas

Why would I want to add this?  Well, it captures Christmas in a way that just isn't posible anymore. There was a sincerity to it, a gentleness about it that i have not seen in most recent films. if it does exist in recent  films, there is usually a certain amount of adult pandoring in it.  Sometimes I think we were the last generation to experience the world a certain way, and even when films try to bring back that quality, they can not seem to do it without infusing it with an adult- laced sarcasm and disbelief. This film was a Christmas romance strictly for the children-in same vein as that famous Christmas letter written to a little girl on the verge of disbelief- no facetiousness included.

seely:

Good call on Nausicaa--I always think of Anime as such a recent phenom in the US that I forget half of the films I've seen were actually made in the mid-eighties.  I was pretty skeptical about Nausicaa when I first saw it about a year ago (an animated princess... really?) but absolutely loved it.

filmgal81:

Another good one would have to be Nausicaa (  The Valley of the Wind).  A complicated apocalyptic future (although we are getting and closer to that every year- all that's missing is the giant bugs) beautifully drawn in anime. Plus, the princess was completely bad ass- which was ( and still is ) fairly unusual.

 

Re:Top 5 Favorites of the 80's

I agree with your statement about the 80's lacking that cynical attitude we see in nearly every current film.  The last great Christmas film, in my opinion would have been Prancer, as it still seemed to hold onto that notion of 'Christmas Miracles' that we see time and time again in films from the 1930's all the way up to the endnote of the era in 1989.  I think we first see the new cynicism appear in Christmas Vacation (1989) and Home Alone (1990) which came out the same year as Prancer.  Really, these are the first two

Christmas films I can think of that really shatter that Regan-era optimism with a somewhat dismal portrayal of suburban family life and a negative portrayal of the holidays.  Granted, in the end, both films reconcile and everything winds up happy, but it lacks that 'perfect ending' we used to see in films like 'Miracle on 34th St.' and 'It's a Wonderful Life'--its more like 'things aren't perfect, but its better than when the movie started'... almost and accepting of the less than perfect reality, which albeit more accurate and true-to-life is a little less fuzzy and heartwarming than the picture-perfect endings of years before.

Seperate Christmas film thread, anyone?

filmgal81:

An 80s films that should receive honorable mention is The Night They Saved Christmas

Why would I want to add this?  Well, it captures Christmas in a way that just isn't posible anymore. There was a sincerity to it, a gentleness about it that i have not seen in most recent films. if it does exist in recent  films, there is usually a certain amount of adult pandoring in it.  Sometimes I think we were the last generation to experience the world a certain way, and even when films try to bring back that quality, they can not seem to do it without infusing it with an adult- laced sarcasm and disbelief. This film was a Christmas romance strictly for the children-in same vein as that famous Christmas letter written to a little girl on the verge of disbelief- no facetiousness included.