.jpg?q=50&fit=contain&w=1140&h=&dpr=1.5)
In the early-1980s, the vector of the sequel began to loom, but hadn't quite taken underway just yet. There was still an incredible output of original films even as the end of George Lucas’ mammoth Star Wars trilogy ended. Leading the box office that year, by far and large, Return of the Jedi grossed $247 million, $100 million more than the next.
With budding horror filmmakers like John Carpenter and David Cronenberg — who did two films this year — and classic auteurs like Francis Ford Coppola making films, Hollywood was in a healthy place even as the prevailing conceits of Ronald Reagan’s presidency shaped the country’s psyche. David Bowie had two films, Coppola had two youthful films, Bob Fosse's final film was released, and an American epic challenged the presidency. For a brief moment in time, the space epic The Right Stuff dominated the conversation as John Glenn made a bid for President and his life story ran in theaters. It was a strange year for cinema, but a year with plenty of memorable moments.
12 Valley Girl
Before Nicolas Cage became an entity of himself, merging all walks of acting into one pure fit of performance art, he played it straight. Staying in tune with the genuinely romantic excursion on the West Coast where the surface level of High School cliques determined one's romantic life, Valley Girl pits the titular girl (Deborah Foreman) against the punk life of Cage and does so without complicating or displaying any disdain for the sexual curiosity of its characters. Thanks to Martha Coolidge’s sensitive and thoughtful direction, Valley Girl holds up as a genuine high school romance that sets itself apart from the trends John Hughes was setting at the time.
11 Risky Business
Before he became a bonafide global superstar, pushing his limits to the maximum with death-defying stunts, Tom Cruise was still making his way in Hollywood carrying smaller movies with his fun, goofy charisma. Risky Business shot Cruise to fame with the one iconic moment, but the film's fun, half-naked dance is only a small piece of what holds up as a neo-noir comedy, pitting Cruise and his ambitions against petty criminals. Channeling the late-stage capitalist ethos of Reagan's first term, the dangers of expansion and unbridled ego push Cruise’s character to his near-grim endpoint, but also finds the humor in the ridiculous prospects of crazy high-schoolers. All scored by the 80s icon Tangerine Dream.
10 Star 80
The last film Bob Fosse made, and one that acts as an excellent precursor to the true-crime sleaze that is currently dominating the streaming cultural conversation, Star 80 was ahead of its time and also apiece with the old Hollywood adages of ambitions exceeding a person’s grasp. Based on the tragic murder of a star and Playboy rising, Mariel Hemingway plays Dorothy Stratten, beautifully radiant but also naive in her vulnerability, letting the narcissistic Paul Snider (an electric Eric Roberts) into her life. Fosse takes us on a dangerously violent ride into the abyss. In a montage-filled romp through the origins of Hugh Hefner (Cliff Robertson) starting Playboy magazine, Fosse caps his career with a jarring biopic that relishes the exploitative nature of filmmaking.
9 Scarface
An indelible piece of American pop culture and also an epic depiction of the American dream gone awry, swallowing up anyone who thinks they can get out of the drug game alive, Scarface is epic. De Palma directed the Oliver Stone script, laced with a bevy of quotable lines and the iconic portrayal of Cuban immigrant Tony Montana from Al Pacino. Scarface is a violent odyssey in the vein of American excess and prestige. Tony’s rise from immigrant to drug king is a story that will live forever, as will the memorable line “Say hello to my little friend!”
8 Christine
A film that wholly rejects the stereotypes and archetypes that began invading high school movies at the time, John Carpenter’s Christine is the horror movie antithesis to John Hughes as it splatters conceptions to create a horrifying and fun adventure into Stephen King’s pulp invention. Christine stars nerd Keith Gordon as he battles greasers and befriends a car possessed by a demonic spirit. He ends up falling in love with this killer machine that has a mind of its own, and goes after anyone who puts Gordon in harm's way. The film has an incredulous premise that works because of Carpenters' dedication to the craft of making the sleazy B-movie reputable.
7 The Outsiders
When Coppola set out to make The Outsiders, he had one mission: discover the next crop of young American talent. Well, he passed with flying colors. The Outsiders introduced the world to Tom Cruise, Emilio Estevez, Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe, Diane Lane, C. Thomas Howell, and Ralph Macchio before they became stars. Following the youth gang culture of the acclaimed Young Adult novel from S.E. Hinton of the same name, Coppola directs the young ensemble as they navigate the poverty of the lower class and violence from the rich kids all in a glowing throwback 1950s artifice. All of this while never losing the heart of the source material.
6 Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi
Even with one of the great director what if’s, Return of the Jedi was a goofy, adventurous, and fitting end to one of the great movie trilogies of all time. Starting with the great rescue of Han Solo from the space pirate Jabba The Hut as Luke elevates his Jedi status to Master, holding the green lightsaber, Return of the Jedi takes its time to give us a resolution to one of the great father-son duels of all time. With all the other strange Lucas creations in Ewoks, as the rebels lead their battle on Endor, the third installment holds up with its epic battles and large-scale duels.
5 Videodrome
Sex and violence are always intrinsically linked in the works of David Cronenberg. So, using his panache for body horror to literalize and warn against the terror of screens seemed like a natural world for the director to inhabit. Casting the fiery James Woods as the desperate TV producer to take the audience down the rabbit hole of taboos, secret television shows, and conspiracy broadcasts was a perfect choice. With some unforgettable analog effects, like the remote control arm, Cronenberg used horror to Trojan horse his political ideology most effectually delivering another disgusting tale in Videodrome.
4 The Hunger
Tony Scott’s quest for visual domination in the action genre started with a far more moody, atmospheric horror film about the loneliness and existential nightmare vampires face in the eyes of immortality. In part a medical thriller and erotic venture into the sexiness of blood-sucking life, The Hunger is an early-80s gem featuring a terrifically muted and poignant performance from David Bowie as he and his main counterpart — the lovely Catherine Deneuve — navigate the human concept of time. While a young Susan Sarandon plays a doctor who unwittingly gets caught in an affair with Deneuve, Scott’s vision is one that's terrifyingly beautiful, striking, and erotic.
3 Trading Places
One of the two great collaborations between John Landis and Eddie Murphy (the other being Coming To America), Trading Places is one of the great comedies of the 1980s, especially with how topical it is about race, gender, and labor. Teaming the newly rising superstar in Murphy with SNL alum Dan Aykroyd, Landis struck comedy gold. Undermining the greed of the wealthy elite, who posit themselves as better than the laborers while also letting the two underdogs get rich. But, even in their climb to wealth, they manage to stick it to the man and the system as a whole. Trading Places is loaded with dynamite quips from Murphy, laughing his way all the way to the top.
2 A Christmas Story
An artifact as American as Apple Pie, A Christmas Story is a cable stalwart, playing in households for days on end during the holidays. Bob Clark’s classic — the antithesis to Black Christmas — the film is full of now iconic moments from the frozen tongue, to the BB Gun, to the side scene and the famous leg lamp. A Christmas Story is hilarious from front to back even though its underlying point is that the Parker family, including young Ralph (Peter Billingsley), sucks.
1 The Big Chill
An assemblage of some of the biggest stars of the early- to mid-1980s, The Big Chill joins the forces of Glenn Close, William Hurt, Kevin Kline, Jeff Goldblum, Tom Berenger, and Meg Tilly as college friends reuniting years down the line after a friend of theirs takes his life (an uncredited Kevin Costner). Lawrence Kasdan wrote and directed the film with the notion of leading with an incredible soundtrack backed by Motown. The film is a comedic hangout where a myriad of characters is at a crossroads in their life. Joined together by tragedy, the successes and romances start to bubble up under the surface as characters confront long-winding conflicts. The Big Chill is a gem of a film and a relic of the early 1980s. In only her second role, Close received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.