My Top 50 Films of the 80s

Following my 00’s and 90’s lists I thought I’d complete the set with this decade. Some notes before I start: The only listing films I’ve seen rule makes for some pretty big omissions with this decade (and if I ever get back on LoveFilm I will attempt to rectify that) and this is probably the list that differs most from accepted views. I think this is largely because of the age I was when seeing most of these movies for the first time when they made their biggest impression on me. I should also add that I regard Das Boot as a TV series not a film, otherwise it might have made the top ten if I could have forgiven its length.

50. The Thin Blue Line

I like to think that film is important, that it speaks to people and it influences the world. It’s not always true but it’s undeniably the case with The Thin Blue Line. In the documentary, director Errol Morris calmly and clearly dissects the flaws in the case that convicted Randall Adams of murder in Texas. Using techniques that were to become standard he recreates the crime over and over again, highlighting the differences in testimony and the vital clues they lead to. Adams would be released from jail a year later after serving 12 years for a murder he did not commit. Morris shows the raw power of cinema in this excellently constructed and utterly compelling film.

49. The Breakfast Club

The 80’s is often regarded as the greatest decade of teen films. While I certainly understand that notion, they tend not to speak to me as I am from the wrong generation to really get Eighties teenagers. However The Breakfast Club is the best of that sequence of movies and deserves a place on this list. The stereotypes shown feel a little hokey now, but the interaction between cliquish teens now forced to spend a day in each other’s company speaks to everyone. Contains several of the definitive film moments of the decade, whilst capturing the styles and spirit of the age.

48. Akira

The imagery and concepts at work in Akira are so intense as to make this more an experience than a film at times. Shifts from achingly cool to mind meltingly odd and pulls the audience in all kind of unusual directions. The most famous Anime of all time, and is certainly an outstanding fusion of Japanese sci fi, and dazzling animation however it’s just too odd for me to place higher up the list. Nevertheless it remains required viewing for all fans of cinema.

47. Planes, Trains and Automobiles

In many ways Planes is a somewhat archetypal 80’s comedy, featuring Steve Martin and John Candy playing to type with the kind of easy rapport that actors dream of. There’s nothing in film quite like Steve Martin being unnecessarily angry, or John Candy being accidentally obnoxious, and it’s good to revel in two high quality comedic actors doing what they do best. Like most 80’s comedy there is a heart and a message that may seem corny to our more irreverent times but was the basis for some of the most successful comedies of all time.

46. Blood Simple

Early Coen Brothers and much more appreciated after the fact than at the time. It’s a low budget, down and dirty crime thriller, where the plot rolls on built entirely on lies, mistrust and violence. The characters become believably weighed down under the weight of their own deceptions, twisting and pulling each other further into a darkness of their own making. While the hints of greatness to come are obvious, it’s not just an early film showing promise, there is real quality here and Blood Simple deserves recognition on its own terms.

45. Witness

Rock solid film making. It’s often studied as a perfect example of structure, pacing, and scripting and that shouldn’t be a criticism, in fact there is decent depth here as Harrison Ford’s weathered cop comes to understand and appreciate the Amish community he tries to help.

44. Good Morning, Vietnam

A much more important film than is perhaps recognised. The cinematic fall out from Vietnam was a major part of 80’s film making but Good Morning... is the first film to consider the Vietnamese as people, or indeed as anything more than noises in the trees. It is a valiant attempt to humanise the other victims of a horrific conflict and has much more depth than clips of Williams’ hyperactivity portray.

43. Day of the Dead

It probably doesn’t quite hit the heights of the Dawn of the Dead, this is still a classic horror film. Like all of Romero’s zombie films, the marauding dead are a device to put his human characters under relentless pressure and the drama comes as their humanity cracks and fractures. In this entry in the series Romero portrays a military scientific complex that has lost all connection to the people it is meant to protect. Romero builds to the inevitable chaotic breakdown like no other director, and has the guts to make the zombie feasting genuinely horrific. It also benefits from being filmed when special effects could manage the right tone of realism where it’s enough to be horrific without being disgusting.

42. Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid

Dead Men... is a quite unusual little comedy that combines new footage starring Steve Martin with scenes from classic film noir movies to tell a tale which is part homage, part parody. The result is unique, a lot of fun and fairly indescribable. Well worth seeking out if you can.

41. House of Games

Representing my continuing love for David Mamet’s work this is a highly assured directorial debut. As usual the Mamet dialogue sparkles and it’s a beguiling, twisting plot that I won’t spoil here. In fact I won’t say anything except that you should watch it.

40. The Terminator

It takes a special film to create the kind of legacy that The Terminator has managed. However the first film is a relatively simple chase film with one of the greatest screen villains ever created and introduced with sublime, simple threat.

“Listen, and understand. That terminator is out there. It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead.”

39. Blade Runner

“Like tears in rain.” Frankly, it’s the greatest death soliloquy ever written for film however the movie is perhaps more important than it is great. I’m not much of a fan of its pacing but, as the first film to really portray cyberpunk aesthetics and ideas in the mainstream, it’s the forefather of a vast body of work. Visually the film is essentially perfect, conjuring an entire future world with both city wide vistas and small visual cues. A plot so well constructed that its still debated decades after its release and one of the great movie scores elevate it too.

38. Silverado

During the 80’s Westerns were largely dead but this is an interesting attempt to revive the genre. Now largely forgotten by history after Unforgiven showed how to truly make a modern Western, it’s a surprising, dramatic, action filled movie that demonstrates the very best of the genre. Its greatest strength is also its weakness, in that it plays as a series of highlights from great Westerns of the past. You have to be a fan of the genre to enjoy it, but, as you can tell from the relatively high placing, I am one.

37. Airplane!

It’s difficult to imagine that air disaster movies were once a major part of Hollywood output, a large part of their downfall was Airplane!’s perfect mockery. However Airplane! is much more than a pastiche of a now dead genre, its unrelenting stupidity is infectiously funny and it may be one of the most quoted movies of all time. It was regarded as a comedy classic but I’ve always seen it as Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker finding their feet. It’s also hard to overestimate the daring risk needed to make a film unlike any other at its release.

36. Beverly Hills Cop

There was a time when Eddie Murphy was a dazzlingly charismatic film actor, capable of carrying an entire series of films on his back. The Beverly Hills Cop films (of which the first is the best by a distance) are quintessential star vehicles; the plot is little more than an excuse to put Murphy in a series of situations he can quip at and providing him with a succession of strait laced characters to mock. It can only work with a star at the peak of their powers like Murphy is here. Not the smartest, most involving or most impassioned film but certainly one of the most enjoyable.

35. Dressed to Kill

In many ways this is a relatively standard thriller where a call girl is threatened by an insane killer. However, sequences at the beginning and end of the film give context to the characters, allowing them to exist beyond the parameters of the genre. Overall it is a film heavier on style than plot but it is a beguiling and different movie, wrangling plenty of entertainment from its twists and turns.

34. Mississippi Burning

A solid exploration of institutional and societal racism in America’s Deep South through the prism of the murder of three civil rights activists where the Ku Klux Klan are suspected. Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe are superb as the FBI agents pushed to extreme measures to make arrests and crack a conspiracy of silence. The FBI are slightly too well presented, given the actual facts of the case, but it manages to combine drama with the actual story of a horrendous episode in America’s history with race.

33. The Color of Money

This is a curious film where Paul Newman reprises his role of Eddie Felson 25 years after the original movie The Hustler. It’s a classic performance from one of the greatest actors to have ever live, believably picking up the character from the path he stepped onto at the end of the original. Cruise is, for once, well cast as a spectacularly irritating prodigy with no respect for Felson’s advice or rules. The pool itself is rather beautifully shot and the film works superbly as a tale of an old man getting his confidence back. Really worth watching as part of a double feature.

32. Raising Arizona

Nicolas Cage and the Coen Brothers seem a natural fit and this odd film delivers on that promise. It is as relentlessly weird as a film can be whilst retaining a contemporary setting and a fully formed plot. The extreme verbosity is not to everyone’s taste but I really love it. In the end it has been overshadowed by subsequent Coen Brothers movies, but that happens when you have such a ludicrously high standard of films in your back catalogue.  

31. sex, lies and videotape

A surprisingly important film that launched the career of Steven Soderbergh, made Miramax and transformed both the Sundance festival and the American independent scene in general. It’s the kind of sexually frank film that could only be made outside the mainstream but it shouldn’t be ignored as just a film about sex and, in fact, has a lot of truth to say about relationships. Its a subtle plot combined with an emerging genius of a director who displays some tricks but allows the characters to shine. Sex, lies... remains one of the few genuinely significant films in American cinema history that is also a seriously good watch.

30. Ghandi

One of the things Hollywood tends to do rather well is the epic historical biography. Ghandi is simply a film that should be seen by all. It does, unfortunately, follow almost exactly the formula you could predict from its title but its sheer quality outweighs those concerns.

29. The Verdict

Paul Newman is my favourite actor of all time and this film is just one of many reasons why. It’s a courtroom drama unlike any other as a barely functioning lawyer drags a case to court against everyone’s wishes to try and rebuild his career. Its cynical stuff as the system believably conspires against him and attempts to force him into an out of court settlement.

The real genius of the film is to break away from courtroom drama clichés. Newman’s Frank Galvin is not a heroic defender of justice but a desperate alcoholic who sees this case as a way of making his name. He pursues victory in the courts not to rectify a great wrong but to re-establish his name after years of failure. The case is almost before he realises the importance of it for the victim and realises victory is not just for him. His ultimate triumph comes in the face of the law as his key evidence is ruled inadmissible by a judge willing to punish him for pursuing a trial, rendering his entire case unproven. His final appeal to the jury is a man trying to subvert the law he is meant to support and results in a demonstratively incorrect result.

I am a huge fan of courtroom dramas generally, it’s a perfect set up for dramatic revelations, speeches and tension but The Verdict takes these moments and subverts them. Its greatest line sums this up as one lawyer is advised “You never ask a question you don't know the answer to.” It cuts away all the interrogational pretensions of the trial and reveals its scripted nature. A move that no other trial film would date make.

28. Clue

Either the stupidest funny film or the funniest stupid film but Clue is an underrated classic. Its religious devotion to replicating its source material, coupled with the willingness of a cast to sell each and every joke as if their lives depended on it makes it stand out. About the most fun you can have watching a film.

27. Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure

“This is Dave Beeth Oven, Maxine of Arc, Herman the Kid, Bob “Genghis” Khan. So Crates Johnson, Dennis Frood. And, uh… Abraham Lincoln.”

26. Little Shop of Horrors

This is a pretty good film and then Steve Martin turns up. As film entrances go, it’s up there with Harry Lime. Outside of that Little Shop has cracking songs, fascinatingly odd characters and a bunch of fun cameos. For some reason it feels like it’s fallen through the cracks of cinema history a bit but it is genuinely one of the best comedy musicals you could ever see.

25. Rain Man

Question: How do you make a good film with Tom Cruise in it?

Answer: Cast him as a jerk. (See Money, Color of).

 It’s a formula that works well for a reason and in this case its Hoffman’s classic portrayal of an autistic savant from who Cruise learns valuable life lessons. In all seriousness, this is a fine film that many regard as a classic. Dustin Hoffman is as good as he’s ever been and carries the film.

24. Ghostbusters

More than just a theme tune, this is a perfectly assembled comedy cast delivering really good material. Perhaps the definitive 80’s comedy, it’s a story of dismissed geniuses having their day. Bill Murray is at his very best and Dan Ackroyd is Dan Ackroyd.

23. Evil Dead 2

The film that made Sam Raimi’s career remains one of the oddest and most unusual films you could ever hope to see. Part horror, part comedy but entirely unsettling. It prides itself on keeping the audience off kilter and unsure what to expect. For me it works superbly and was all the better that I had no expectations when I first saw it. Even now, it still stands alone and unlike any other film you could hope to watch. I should also mention the sheer tempo that Raimi keeps up over the film is staggering, one of the most visually kinetic films you could ever hope to see.

22. The Princess Bride

Admittedly it suffers a little in comparison to the book but that shouldn’t diminish one of the most fun films you could hope to see. There are so many classic moments and scenes that it’s difficult to know what to pick out. Perhaps going down the line against a Sicilian? Maybe the sword fight? Maybe every line said by Andre the Giant? Just watch it, then read the book.

21. Little Mermaid

About as classic Disney as it’s possible to get. Doesn’t have the humour or overall quality of Lion King or Aladdin, but I think does have the best songs of any Disney film. Poor Unforunate Souls is an underrated gem.

20. Star Wars Episode 6: Return of the Jedi

It’s best to view the original trilogy outside of the context of the nauseatingly bad later three. In fact, it’s just best to completely ignore the latest trilogy completely. Return… has some of the series’ best moments, and is widely regarded as a classic. From the opening rescue from the Sarlacc the film just keeps on ramping up the personal battles and sweeping space combat. Certainly the best third film in a trilogy ever made.

19. Blues Brothers

They’re on a mission from God. Dan Ackroyd and John Belushi have a ball as they barrel through a jukebox of classic soul and blues. The film is a labour of love for the pair and its chaotic plotting, loose connection with reality and respect for the music make it a unique and highly entertaining experience.

18. Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

This is deliriously silly entertainment that really hits a comedy sweet spot with its version of a world where cartoon characters are real and live in a section of Hollywood. It’s also one of the very few films to cross live action and animation well. Bob Hoskins probably had one of the most difficult acting jobs you can imagine, having to portray a developing friendship with an animated character, however he is superb and gives the film its real heart. Elsewhere Christopher Lloyd does what everyone knows he can do and does it rather well.

17. Raging Bull

“You never got me down Ray, you never got me down.” De Niro is at his brutal, brilliant best as he portrays Jake LaMotta in this classic. His animalistic anger and will to fight makes him formidable in the ring but destroys his family life. Amongst Scorsese’s best works, this is a powerful tale of an emotionally broken individual who finds a semblance of meaning in boxing but cannot hold the rest of his life together. I don’t rate this film quite as highly as its reputation would suggest because its subject matter just doesn’t speak to me like the higher rated film but it’s still excellent.

16. Platoon

One of a few Vietnam movies from the 80s but one I would rate highest. It’s the best combination of a realistic portrayal of the war and an examination of what went so wrong for America. Charlie Sheen has rarely been better than as the volunteer quickly losing his innocence about both war and the exulted US army. It’s an intense and polemical film but it’s the war film that Vietnam deserved.

15. The Fly

Jeff Goldblum delivers a career best performance in this science fiction horror classic. It is Cronenburg at his most commercial but he manages to marry this to his normal obsession with doing odd things to the human body. Goldblum’s mind cracks as his body breaks down in a believable portrayal of unimaginable suffering. The film’s greatest trick is to use the body horror and graphic, sickening violence to tell a human story of a man travelling from confidence to arrogance to megalomania and complete breakdown but always allowing this transition to breathe. The horror is used to punctuate the story, instead of a classic horror film where the story is mere decoration on a series of set pieces. Fine, unique film making.

14. Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark

A film that shows what can be achieved when talented film makers apply themselves to making a fun film. Raiders barrels along at a high pace with great villains, set pieces and a memorable hero. It’s a genuine homage to old adventure serials and you can feel the love invested in every frame.

13. Do the Right Thing

For my money, this is, by a distance, Spike Lee’s best film. It portrays a long, hot, loud day in Brooklyn where tensions escalate to boiling point. While it is ultimately matters of race that cause the final eruption, Lee’s film is careful to make a few points along the way. Firstly, heat, tiredness, and the fundamental pressures of city life are key parts in the escalating hate, alongside racist language. Secondly, Lee is careful that nearly everyone in the film uses racist language or expresses racist thoughts through the film. No group is left innocent, and none escape abuse. The film ends with contradictory quotes on the use of violence from Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, and if violence can be justified remains a central question that it resolutely refuses to answer. Ultimately this is a mature, interesting film about race in America that raises questions as relevant then as they are today. The absurd reaction to its initial release from reviewers showed how unable America was to even confront those questions then, but the continued and growing appreciation of this landmark film shows that maybe America is finally learning to deal with its relationship with race.

12 The Long Good Friday

Bob Hoskins used to act. When he did, he was rather good. There is something pared down and heavy hitting about this tale of gangsters in 80’s London and it barrels along towards its conclusion. Hoskins is an angry, snarling pitbull of a lead character and it’s the energy and believable threat of his performance that drives the story. He is the head of London’s criminal underworld, seeking to expand his empire, who instead watches his power crumble, and his associates die, over the course of a brutal weekend.

Long Good Friday stands alone to me as a realistic portrayal of a London gang, Hoskins leads by charm and by threat, and by maintaining a tenuous peace. When this peace is shattered, old wounds are opened and everyone because a suspect due to the inherent lack of trust amongst the thieves. One of the reasons I love this is that it could only be a British film and could only be made in the 80’s, such is the authenticity of the characters. It’s also notable that, like nearly all my favourite films, it has a supreme ending. A moment of incredible cinematic simplicity, as huge in its impact as it is subtle in its execution, it is utterly peerless.

11. Back to the Future Part 2

10. Back to the Future

Part one is an exceptional film, part two is very nearly as good. Whilst they are both light in tone it’s almost impossible to believe that two films of such consummate skill, pacing and tone were made. Both are close to the very pinnacle of family film making in a decade where such films were commonplace and often very good. The series made Michael J Fox into the huge star he deserved to be and created the idea of time travel comedy that exists to this day.

Part one takes the concept, explains it and has a lot of fun with Fox in the wrong era and some 50’s culture clash comedy but part two just takes the concept of time travel and stretches it to brilliant effect. But above all the skill, there is a huge amount of heart here. If you don’t cheer when George McFly knocks out Biff Tannen then you simply don’t have a heart.

9. The Untouchables

This bombastic and thrilling version of the pursuit of Al Capone from Brian De Palma pays scant attention to the true history of Capone’s fall but delivers unrivalled action scenes. Sean Connery deliver one of his best late career performances as he thunders around the film, harassing and cajoling the make shift set of treasury agents into a unit tough enough to take on the corrupt system and all powerful criminal overlord. It is a film lavished in expense with big names throughout the credits, script by Mamet, score by Morricone, even down to costumes by Armani. The expense works though and there are few better straight action films.

8. E.T. The Extra Terrestrial

Amongst the greatest children’s films ever made. The simple, heartfelt relationship between Elliot and E.T. speaks to everyone and drives the film. It has become the quintessential children’s live action film and the fact that it is still regularly shown and enjoyed 30 years after its release speaks to its enduring quality. However, what’s really remarkable is that it offers so much to grown up viewers as well as children and it genuinely rewards multiple viewings.

7. The Naked Gun

Airplane might have basically created the spoof genre but The Naked Gun perfected it. A relentless stream of gags delivered in scattergun style that reveals previously unseen jokes with almost every viewing, Naked Gun is an experience as much as a film. In many ways, it would perhaps have been better for cinema had it failed as its critical and commercial success has led to innumerable poor attempts at capturing the same spoof magic. The Naked Gun and, to a lesser extent, its sequels made spoofs look like the easiest films to make, but with every failed copy the original grows in stature.

6. Die Hard

In a similar way to The Naked Gun, Die Hard is so good it created its own genre. Since Bruce Willis battled supposed terrorists in Nakatomi Plaza we’ve had Die Hard on a boat (Under Siege), Die Hard on a plane (Passenger 57), Die Hard at an Ice Hockey game (Sudden Death) and Die Hard with some god awful plot about cyber terrorists (Die Hard 4.0). Again like Naked Gun, all these imitators have one thing in common: a complete failure to replicate the magic of the original.

It could have all been so different, Frank Sinatra and Arnold Schwarzenegger turned the role of John McClane down and Bruce Willis was chosen despite strong objections from some elements of the studio. In the end, Willis makes the film as his portrayal of a tough everyman is tinged with weakness. He ends the film limping, covered in his own blood and aching from every limb. Whilst Die Hard obviously pushes the bounds of credulity it is still constrained by them, fights hurt, bullets kill, and broken glass cuts. The genius of the film is to ally this more realistic violence with a touch of comic absurdity in the actions of the police and FBI outside the building which helps alleviate some of the tension.

However, no discussion of the merits of Die Hard can forget the beating heart of the film around which all the other strands are woven; Alan Rickman as Hans Gruber. He is funny, calm, ruthless and evil. Rickman’s rich voice lends a touch of crisp intelligence to what could have been a standard villain, and the film is careful to make him seem almost always in control even as his plan slowly unravels. He is funny and clever enough to enjoy whilst still being dangerous enough to root against.

Action films are, by their nature, limited movies but none has ever been, or will ever be, better than Die Hard.

5. Amadeus

Genius is a hard thing to comprehend. It sees the world in a fundamentally different way to the rest of us and makes a mockery of our collective understanding of it. It is this quality that is examined in Amadeus by reflecting on the rise of Mozart through the medium of a merely talented composer.

It has often been pointed out that the film pays little attention to reality, but this is a film about the concept of genius rather than Mozart himself. In the film, Mozart is a world altering talent but with little concerns for the morals of the times. F. Murray Abraham as Salieri, one of the great screen performances of all time, cannot comprehend this fundamental mismatch. Mozart’s brilliance makes him question not only his talent but his system of beliefs as well. He views the young composer as a morally dubious individual who has somehow been rewarded with supreme ability by God. Salieri’s feelings of bitter jealousy and attempts to belittle or destroy Mozart replicate the common reaction of people to genius and it makes the viewer realise why so many are more appreciated after their deaths when their contemporaries dismissed them.

Amadeus is a magnificent film, taking a completely unexpected angle on Mozart’s life and being so much more than a historical biography. Perhaps its finest achievement is to capture the scope and scale of his music, and makes even viewers with no education in classical music understand his talent.

4. This is Spinal Tap

There’s a point during this film where it almost stops being a movie and turns into a list of famous lines but that’s reflective of the impact it’s had on popular culture. An endlessly quotable, incredibly funny, and cleverly styled film it is undoubtedly one of the best comedies ever made.

Stylistically, Spinal Tap is also important as the first film to really perfect the mockumentary format and its huge influence on comedians can be seen in the style’s increasing use throughout comedy in the subsequent decades. Similarly, the use of pretentious idiots has become more commonplace in part in reaction to their superb use here.

3. Once Upon a Time in America

Sergio Leone’s last film is one of the finest crime films ever made. This finely crafted 3 hour plus (depending on your version) epic might tell the story of a set of gangsters across four decades but it also tells a story of America. It tells of a country of opportunity which suffered from dominant criminal empires for many of its formative years and which made a desperate post war lunge for respectability.

It’s not for the faint hearted with its gargantuan length and frequent violence, some of it sexual, however it is worth sticking with as it delivers a satisfying cinematic experience that you will be hard pressed to find anywhere else. It is a five course meal of a film, telling a story of friendships from children to old men and with a depth of character that makes the investment of time well worth it.

Leone remains amongst my favourite directors, with three of my favourites amongst his small oeuvre of only seven films. This is his masterpiece and a masterpiece of cinema.

2. Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

The best Star Wars movie. If you need anymore:

Hoth

AT-ATs

Yoda

Boba Fett

Cloud City

Lando

“I know”

Carbonite

Severed hand

“I am your father”

Iconic shot, rising music. Fin.

1. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Sean Connery makes almost everything better. I have always preferred this final film in the Indiana Jones series (yes, I said final), because of the father son relationship which adds an extra dimension to Indy himself. By the end of the film he is no longer just a wise cracking hero but a person with relationships and a fake name. I would also say this is the funniest of the Indy films, from the whole wonderful opening sequence with young Indy to breaking the floor of the library in time with the librarian’s stamp right up to the trilogy’s final revelation.

Of course, Sean Connery is the highlight. He adds something to every scene he’s in and his relationship with Indy is perfectly pitched as an awkward mutual respect hidden beneath layers of parental disapproval and childhood shame. He also takes down a fighter plane armed only with an umbrella. If you know me I may have mentioned this before, but it’s one of my favourite sequences in film.

The eighties generally were an era of relatively innocent, fun films when film makers largely abandoned the paranoia and cynicism of the previous decade. It’s also a decade when Spielberg, Lucas and Ford where dominant figures, especially at the box office. The Last Crusade could only really have been made in that decade, so it’s not only a great film but specifically a great 80’s film.