Top 10 of the Decade: The 1980's

[Lancemc]

Well, much of what you were saying was pretty evident in terms of art vs. entertainment; I get all that and understand the danger of passing broad generalizations on any type of film.

You did say that Woo's best work was as worthy of discussion as certain past and modern masters, and as someone who saw The Killer in the theatre when it came out (and subsequently spent a lot of time in college hunting down all of his work), I just don't see it. I don't even know if I'd accord him the same attention as his other hero Peckinpah.

FWIW, I think Bullet in the Head stands pretty tall over everything else, though it's not going to made it to my 10 of the 90's. And I think Woo-maniac Tarantino has far surpassed him.

Well, fair enough I suppose. I just thought your distinction between genre-filmmaking and "serious film" or however you phrased it was maybe more dismissive than you meant. Though I guess we do agree that at their finest, the two can be one and the same, ala John Ford and we're merely as an impasse of tastes when it comes to be particular examples. Woo, like Tsui Hark also on my list, paints masterly broad emotional and ideological strokes with a certain kineticism and elegance, in bravura style... I think he offers some of the most vital and alive pure cinema the medium offers. Bullet in the Head is a great one that I think showcases his heightened emotional filmmaking at its most extreme. Likewise Hard Boiled features his most evocative action filmmaking (the teahouse shoot-out might be the most beautiful and purely cinematic bit of action I've ever seen films). The Killer I think is almost an impossibly perfect balance of all his sensibilities, and his most aesthetically interesting on top of it. Probably the most flat-out fun as well, plus that exceptional dramatic ending. We obviously disagree here too, but I'll take the three Woo films I mentioned here along with A Better Tomorrow over every film Tarantino's made.

 

[Lancemc]

Two of the films in a tie for your favorite film are...ranked #4 and #5 on your 80's list?

Spoiler

sorry to get all BVS on you.

Clown's probably one of those types to draw an arbitrary distinction between "great" and "favorite" films.

 

[LiliBe]

1 On Approval, Ungero 82
2 Brideshead Revisited , Sturridge 81
3 Stand & Deliver, Menendez 88
4 The Shining, Kubrick 80
5 Indiana Jones & The Temple Of Doom, Spielberg 84
6 Moonstruck, Jewison 87
7 A Christmas Story, Clark 83
8 Pee-wee's Big Adventure, Burton 85
9 Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Hughes 86
10 Hairspray , Waters 88

 

[LMP]

Two of the films in a tie for your favorite film are...ranked #4 and #5 on your 80's list?

Spoiler

sorry to get all BVS on you.

Clown's probably one of those types to draw an arbitrary distinction between "great" and "favorite" films.

I feel that it was important to factor in favorites and rewatchability, but at the same time, have an awareness of what I would consider objectively more impressive filmmaking and storytelling. The way that I would assemble a straight-up favorites list and a Top Films list are two different processes for me, so that's how you find the Empire/Raiders twofer in the midsection of the '80s list. I'm not of the mindset that "high art" trumps genre-filmmaking by any stretch, I try to take whatever I watch on its own terms and critique it appropriately.

 

[lazarus]

I can roll with that. Empire would certainly be among my "favorite" 80's films but didn't crack my list, while something I included like Tarkovsky's Nostalghia is something I am more awed by than feeling a compulsion to view it repeatedly.

With Allen's Stardust Memories, I think it's Allen's greatest visual achievement, but at the same time it's funny enough that I can view it frequently for pleasure. Reds and the Leone are both very long films but from scene-to-scene are so entertaining that neither is a slog. Same with The Right Stuff.

 

[No spoken words]

I can't make it clear enough how much I love The Right Stuff. From start to finish, just love it.

 

[lazarus]

Sam Shepard as Chuck Yeager is just one of the greatest cinema badasses ever.

BUBBLE GUM.

 

[LMP]

Awesome. Manhattan is the only Woody film I prefer visually over Stardust Memories, though not by much.

With the '80s especially, I feel like I'm scratching at the surface of the great cinema after having a fairly stronghold on American popular entertainment, which is another reason why a Top 10 would be fairly wonky. Hell, it's a throughline for all of these lists that my foreign viewing needs to be bolstered. Seeing it in list form only makes it more apparent.

 

[No spoken words]

What was the brand, Beemans or something?

And, yes, badass all-around.

 

[lazarus]

Awesome. Manhattan is the only Woody film I prefer visually over Stardust Memories, though not by much.

Manhattan is exquisitely photographed by Willis as well, but what puts SM over the top for me is the opening 8 1/2 parody and that fantastic jump-cut scene with Charlotte Rampling in the mental institution. You don't often see Woody outside of his comfort zone like that.

What was the brand, Beemans or something?

Damn straight.

 

[LMP]

Manhattan is exquisitely photographed by Willis as well, but what puts SM over the top for me is the opening 8 1/2 parody and that fantastic jump-cut scene with Charlotte Rampling in the mental institution. You don't often see Woody outside of his comfort zone like that.

The only other example I can think in that regard of is Husbands and Wives. That shit is raw.

 

[GirlsAloudFan]

1. The Empire Strikes Back - Kershner - 80
2. Raiders of the Lost Ark - Spielberg - 81
3. The Little Mermaid - Clements/Musker - 89
4. The Shining - THE BRICK! - 80
5. Caddyshack - Ramis - 81
6. For Your Eyes Only - Glen - 81
7. Raging Bull - Scorsese - 80
8. Aliens - Cameron - 86
9. My Dinner With Andre - Malle - 81
10. Die Hard - McTiernan - 88

As always with my lists, they burn with nostalgia. I have Aliens and Die Hard (two movies that I can't watch anymore, because I've seen them too many times) on here purely because of how much I loved them when I was younger.

Empire is probably the coolest movie ever. Raiders is still as fun as any movie I've ever seen.

Mermaid is the shit, wonderful songs, hot babe lead character, and I can't wait to have Beauty and the Beast #1 on my 90s list.

I can't believe I've still never seen Blade Runner.

 

[If you shout...]

Blade Runner is fucking hilarious, fucking beautiful, and fucking fascinating. What a riot, that movie.

 

[bono_212]

Of all the cuts out there, which one is the most essential?

 

[No spoken words]

Blade Runner is fucking hilarious, fucking beautiful, and fucking fascinating. What a riot, that movie.

I enjoy your insights into films very much so would you mind elaborating on that a bit, please?

 

[If you shout...]

It's beauty is, I think, self-evident. But, oh, man. It's just so ornately Freudian and xenophobic, you know? The howling, crumbling id-palace at the end of the film is too perfect and stupid (upon close inspection, I mean) for words. I also mean this in a good way, even though the film is indeed frustratingly offensive in addition to being captivatingly or just comically so.

"He say you under ARESS, Meesta Deckahd. He say YOU BRADE-RUNNA!"

I'm taking this from an e-mail conversation I recently had about the film, where my friends and I summed it up thusly/perfectly (this came from a lengthy, months-long dissection of American "action movies" from the late '70s and into the early '90s; I saved the whole thing, because it has many such precise and brilliant moments):

Any time a non-Caucasian opens his/her mouth, pure gold tumbles out. This film has slimy, snake-dealing, fez-capped Egyptians, buck-toothed Fu Manchu-mustachioed Gooks, bands of thieving Dutch midgets, a literal parade of Hare Krishnas (a fucking parade of Hare Krishnas!!!), and everything in between. Its a circus funhouse of racial stereotypes, and another argument for feeling closer to machinery than to people of other cultures.

I own two copies of this film.

 

[No spoken words]

Honestly, and this speaks poorly for me, I never really thought about that. Your last paragraph, that is.

I was looking for your issues with it, thanks.......whatever you'd praise I'm sure I already hold dear......

 

[Dalton]

I can't believe I left Vision Quest and Pump Up the Volume off my list.

 

[No spoken words]

Neither can I.

 

[If you shout...]

I once saw the OG cut of Blade Runner in a theatre. The projectionist missed every single changeover in the entire film. Every one of them. It was amazing. Almost a kind of perverse performance art.

 

[No spoken words]

I didn't know that there was an Original Gangsta cut, sweet.






I'm sorry.

 

[If you shout...]

Ha. Nah, you know it. With the shitty voice-over and the sappy-as-fuck-omg-this-movie-is-now-even-more-ridiculous ending? Used to be widely available via legit channels, in the VHS days. SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO bad. Hard to imagine, but it's even worse when it takes an extra 45 minutes to finish, because the projectionist is (not kidding, here) a former crack addict. God, I hated that woman. But that was an afternoon/evening, eventually, to remember.

 

[bono_212]

So, like, if one wanted to view one of these other cuts. What would be the preferable one to watch.


...

 

[LMP]

So, like, if one wanted to view one of these other cuts. What would be the preferable one to watch.


...

The Final and Workprint cuts are my picks. The only issue with the former is the blue/green color correction that Scott put over it, not a fan of that aesthetic. IMDb's breakdown of the differences between each cut is fairly comprehensive.

You may be able to find a fan-edit than incorporates elements from every cut into a cool package. I don't know. Blade Runner's a strange beast in that regard.

Then again, I've never seen the OG cut.

 

[No spoken words]

SHOUTER, bono_212 needs your help.

 

[If you shout...]

Aren't there like five different versions of the film, at this point? The most recent merely clipping or adding a few frames, here and there? As long as you don't watch the OG theatrical release the first time around (even more heavy-handed than the various revisions, somehow, but less effective/more hilarious), you're fine.

 

[LMP]

There's the Theatrical Cut, '92 Director's Cut, International Cut, Workprint and '07 Final Cut.

Ford's VO in the theatrical cut rivals his performance in Jedi as the biggest phone-in job of his career.

 

[No spoken words]

I prefer the Final Cut of the 3 versions I've seen.

I also enjoy the source material:

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[lazarus]

As a big PKD fan and someone who also admires the novella, I find this film a tad overrated. And to be honest, even before I started reading him I never thought it was OMG BEST FILM EVAR. From a visual perspective it's impressive for sure, but what little heart there is in the film just ain't enough compared to how emotional and empathic most of Dick's stuff (including Androids) is.

A Scanner Darkly is in my opinion the only adaptation that's really done justice to the man's work.

 

[Lancemc]

I'll take something as aesthetically perfect as Blade Runner over any of a more outwardly emotional or faithful literary adaptation. And the film is really crazy, as Shouter seems to find so much comedy in it though its his style to amplify his own opinions by several orders of magnitude, but he's not too far off. It's really a one of a kind beast.