1987 in film.

Top ten box-office films of 1987:

1. Three Men and a Baby
2. Fatal Attraction
3. Beverly Hills Cop II
4. Good Morning, Vietnam
5. Moonstruck
6. The Untouchables
7. The Secret of My Success
8. Stakeout
9. Lethal Weapon
10. The Witches of Eastwick

What are your top three films for 1987? We will keep a running tally and eventually have some sort of bracket. For me it would be:

1. Robocop
2. Raising Arizona
3. Wings of Desire

What are some of the forgotten gems from the year? What is overrated? What did you discover at a young age and what did you discover later?

YEARS IN FILM • forum.chorus.fm

 

The first half of Full Metal Jacket would have been on my list if we did such things. Au Revoir les Enfants sticks out as a major movie I need to see.

 

1. The Lost Boys
2. Robocop
3. Raising Arizona

Other good ones:
Evil Dead 2
Psychos in Love
Near Dark
Three O'Clock High
The Monster Squad
Summer School
Street Trash

 

SPACEBALLS

 

Planes trains and automobiles

 

I hear a lot of people say this and I'll never understand why. Do you hinge it on Ermey and D'Onofrio? It's honestly my favorite movie behind Spaceballs. I think it does an even better job of portraying Vietnam then Apocalypse Now. Still make me cry every time I watch the climax. The juxtaposition of the killing and song at the end of such a perfect note to finish on.

 

It is the defining movie portrait of boot camp, with the darker turn at the end showing what happens to those who are unable to be assimilated into the system. Ermey's performance is so iconic because it is only slightly exaggerated to what he actually did as a drill sergeant; any time you can capture reality through fiction, it is going to be iconic.

The Vietnam stuff just feels aimless. It lacks that feeling of descending into Hell as in Apocalypse Now, and it isn't as emotionally powerful as Platoon. Even something like Casualties of War, which is often forgotten compared to the others, feels more visceral and heart-wrenching.

Some of it comes down to timing. Kubrick had more years to reflect on the war and its consequences than Coppola or Stone did, but it feels more vague and as if it could apply to any war. It also has to be compared to Paths of Glory, which is such a strong anti-war statement that challenged a war that less people had moral issues with.

The second half of the film isn't bad, but the boot camp stuff would be one of the greatest short films of all time, so it ends up feeling like an afterthought when it keeps going.

 

1. Withnail and I
2. Where is the Friend's Home?
3. Blind Chance

Withnail and I is possibly my favourite comedy of all time, a pitch black, endlessly quotable farce about two out of work alcoholic actors. I must have seen it a dozen of times, and it's one of those films that's endlessly referenced between me and my mates. Not sure how popular it is outside of the UK, but this film basically feels like a national treasure.

Where is the Friend's Home is Kiarostami's beautiful film about a young boy trying to travel to another village to return his classmate's school book. An incredibly minor film from a plot perspective, it's a really touching story about friendship and about children being ignored by adults. The final shot, when the boy gets his school book back and there's a flower pressed in the pages may well be my favourite last shot in cinema. Really wonderful.

Third is a bit behind the first two, but Blind Chance is a playful Krzysztof Kieślowski film showing the different possibilities and lives that could happen depending if a young man catches a train or not, and blending the political and the personal with these choices and the routes we take in life that are determined by blind chance. Remade as Sliding Doors as a Hollywood rom-com a decade later.

Agreed about Full Metal Jacket - the boot camp section is incredible, the rest less so.

Some other great stuff from this year for me include two "On Fire" films from HK and Ringo Lam, Prison on Fire and City on Fire. Angry, and violent action films, taking aim at institutions and societal woes. The latter was a big inspiration on Reservoir Dogs, if that helps convince anyone.

Also from HK, we have Magnificent Warriors, which is Michelle Yeoh doing Indiana Jones, and absolutely killing it. There's also A Chinese Ghost Story, which would blend the supernatural with period romance and a whole lot of other stuff from this year.

Nearby, we have the debut of the great Zhang Yimou & Gong Li, with Red Sorghum. Both would go on to do better films in the late 80s & early 90s, but this is a good watch.

From Taiwan, I really like Hou Hsiao-hsien's melancholy Daughter of the Nile, another Taiwanese film about disaffected and aimless youth in the big city.

For a last honourable mention, there's Wender's Wings of Desire, a magical realist romantic drama about angels living in Berlin.

While I only watched it last night, I thought Hellraiser was 50% incredible horror imagery and imagination, and 50% deeply incompetent film-making and drama.

 

For a short from this year, I really like John Smith's docu-drama The Black Tower, about a man convinced a black tower is following him around London. Builds a big sense of dread, even with it's abstract concept, and is quite an effective little horror film of sorts.

Available on Youtube and 25 minutes long for anyone interested.

 

1. King Lear
2. Where Is My Friend's House?
3. Ishtar

Another big year. I think King Lear is Godard's best post-Nouvelle Vague era film, maybe even my favourite from him overall.

Been quite a few years since I've seen Where Is My Friend's House?, but it left such a profound impact on me. Nobody mined more poetry out of such simplicity than Kiarostami.

Ishtar: might actually be the funniest film I've ever seen?

Zhang Yimou's Red Sorghum would be the next closest behind this top 3. The beginning of his incredible early career run of films - which I would say extends up to Shanghai Triad, but maybe even up to Keep Cool. An immaculate display of craft and storytelling.

A pair of great films from Rohmer this year in Four Adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle and Boyfriends and Girlfriends.

Argento's Opera is another major film, to date it's the only other of his I like nearly as much as Suspiria. I wrote a paper on its use of point-of-view perspective last summer that really opened the film up for me.

Anne Wheeler's Loyalties is one of the hidden masterpieces of Canadian cinema, an intense social critique of gender, class, and Canadian colonialism. One of the few great Alberta films.

Gil Cardinal's Foster Child is another essential Candian work from this year. Cardinal, of Metis descent, was raised by a non-Indigenous foster family and this autobiographical documentary traces his attempt to find his birth mother and to understand why the were seprated. This one can be watched for free here: Foster Child

 

1. Raising Arizona
2. The Untouchables
3. Spaceballs

 

1. Babette's Feast
2. Planes, Trains and Automobiles
3. The Princess Bride

 

1. The Running Man
2. Predator
3. Robocop

Good year for action

 

1. Withnail & I (agreed with all of @George 's comments)
2. Raising Arizona
3. Robocop

 

wow the untouchables came out way earlier than i thought for some reason

 

Also, you were cowards for not voting Airplane, and you're cowards for not voting Spaceballs.

1. Spaceballs
2. The Princess Bride
3. Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

 

1. Broadcast News
2. Robocop
3. Raising Arizona

am I the only person with Broadcast News on a top 3?

 

Not quite as stacked as the previous two years although there is more from this year that I generally like even if there isn't as much to love which ultimately made picking these three easy -

1. RoboCop
2. Lethal Weapon
3. Evil Dead II

The rest of the year is a great mix of genres with those in bold being ones I feel are particularly underrated; The Princess Bride, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, The Untouchables, Withnail & I, The Hidden, Predator, The Monster Squad, Opera, The Running Man, Raising Arizona, Harry and the Hendersons, Full Metal Jacket, Hellraiser, Near Dark, No Way Out, Angel Heart, and The Living Daylights.

 

I considered Broadcast News. It would be number 4.

 

1. Robocop
2. Hellraiser
3. Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors

 

fuck off. i did.

 

1. Raising Arizona
2. Robocop
3. Predator

I rewatched predator recently to see if it holds up and I’m not sure if it does but it’s so cool I don’t care.

 

As long as Broadcast News only has one vote, no one has a right to complain about Spaceballs and Airplane, two films I love