1980's in film.

The 1980's marked a dramatic shift in the film industry. Jaws and Star Wars showed the economic value of tentpole films while the New Hollywood directors showed the financial uncertainty of auteur-driven films with Coppola's One From the Heart, Scorsese's New York, New York, and perhaps most infamously, Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate. Of the ten winners so far, which is your favorite and why?

We will extend this to one week to get a range of responses.

 

A lot of great films here, but Raging Bull towers above all. DeNiro gives one of the best acting performances ever seen.

 

Do the Right Thing
Raging Bull
Blue Velvet
Robocop
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Die Hard
Blade Runner

Haven’t seen Come and See, Videodrome, or Once Upon a Time in America. Glaring omissions.

It was really tough to pick between 1 and 2, they’re both masterpieces, and even my next 3 were tough to put in an order. But Do the Right Thing is such an incisive and radically intelligent film that I can’t help but appreciate it on a different level than most other films I’ve seen, let alone 80s films.

 

Come and See
Blade Runner
Blue Velvet
Do the Right Thing
Die Hard
Videodrome
Once Upon a Time in America
Raging Bull
Robocop
Raiders of the Lost Ark

All great films. Come and See is one of my top 10 of all time though, very few films affect me that strongly.

 

There's a few I still need to see but unless my list looks like SpyKi's, I doubt Raging Bull will get beat

 

I love Raging Bull but I do think I need to see it again. I've only watched it once and that was years ago.

 

1. Raging Bull
2. Blue Velvet
3. Blade Runner
4. Come and See
5. Do the Right Thing
6. Robocop
7. Once Upon a Time in America
8. Videodrome
9. Raiders of the Lost Ark
10. Doing my taxes
11. Die Hard

 

I’m surprised myself but I went with Blue Velvet over Raging Bull.

 

Less I've seen here than on the 60s and 70s winners. I haven't seen Once Upon a Time in America or Come and See, they're both on my list to get around to, but have been put off by the four hour run time and the traumatic reputation they have respectively.

I have seen Die Hard and Robocop, but not in probably 15 years or more, and I couldn't tell you anything about them, other than the most vague plot points. I'm not in a particular hurry to re-watch either.

Of the rest, Raging Bull might well be my favourite film of the 80s, so it was a fairly easy choice.

As a rough ranking of those that are left, I think I'd do...

1. Raging Bull
2. Do The Right Thing
3. Raiders of the Lost Ark
4. Blue Velvet
5. Videodrome
6. Blade Runner

Hard to really compare though, especially between films like Raiders of the Lost Ark and Blue Velvet that are operating on completely different planes.

 

1. Raging Bull
2. Do the Right Thing
3. Blade Runner
4. Blue Velvet
5. Robocop
6. Raiders of the Lost Ark
7. Videodrome
8. Die Hard
9. Once Upon a Time in America

Haven't seen Come and See - sounds like I need to fix that asap.

 

1. Blade Runner
2. Do the Right Thing
3. Raging Bull
4. Raiders of the Lost Ark
5. Die Hard
6. Robocop
7. Blue Velvet
8. Once Upon a Time in America

haven't seen videodrome or come and see yet

 

what a wild list lol

 

is it

 

Out of the ones I have seen, this how I rank the winners of this decade -

1. Die Hard
2. Raiders of the Lost Ark
3. Once Upon a Time in America
4. Robocop
5. Blade Runner
6. Do the Right Thing
7. Blue Velvet
8. Videodrome

 

now that’s what i call a wild list

 

1. Come and See
2. Raging Bull
3. Blue Velvet
4. Do the Right Thing
5. Robocop
6. Die Hard
7. Videodrome
8. Blade Runner
9. Raiders

Haven't seen Once Upon a Time

 

cool let’s fight

 

For an alternate list of great stuff to check out from the 80s, here's my top 10 martial arts movies from Hong Kong in the 80s.

1. Wheels on Meals
2. Encounters of the Spooky Kind
3. Police Story
4. Project A
5. Dragons Forever
6. Mr Vampire
7. Righting Wrongs (Alternate Title: Above The Law)
8. Magnificent Warriors
9. Winners & Sinners
10. Holy Flame of the Martial World

A great time for high adrenaline carnage meeting phenomenally impressive stunt work and individual physical performers. Almost all of these blend the action with comedy, so they're a really fun watch, unlike some of the Shaws' Studio stuff the decade before, which could be a bit po-faced and serious, while watching something patently ludicrous.

It's a (relatively) tiny little film scene, so the same faces pop up again and again, and really tight choreography and stunt crews formed, which wouldn't happen in a bigger environment or industry.

I highly recommend anything on this list - these sort of films have been a relatively recent discovery for me, wouldn't have seen any of them until about five years ago, but they're so joyful and a delight to watch.

 

Objectively this is probably Come and See but I went with Blade Runner. My personal pick is probably Ran

 

Blue Velvet (I think this is the only one from my lists)
Videodrome
Do The Right Thing
Raging Bull
Blade Runner
Robocop




Raiders of the Lost Ark
Die Hard

Haven’t seen Once Upon a Time In America and Come and See (for pretty much the same reasons George listed, they’ve long been on my watchlist). I’m sure they would both be in the upper half of the list though. It’s really cool that Cronenberg broke through on one of these, would be surprised if that happens again.

 

If objectively it’s Come and See and your favorite is Ran how did you end up going with Blade Runner? Not trying to be sarcastic or anything Im genuinely curious.

 

Because Ran wasn’t an option on the poll!

 

Ah right of course

 

With 32 percent of the vote, Martin Scorsese's masterpiece about the animalistic nature of Jake LaMotta is the Chorus.fm Film of the 1980's.