kingrat
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Posts posted by kingrat
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I probably will not have 10 films for most of the 90s. The first two films on this list strike me as being really exceptional:
1. THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER - Stands with THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD and THE GUNS OF NAVARONE as my favorite action films. All three have splendid screenplays, fine cinematography, strong casts, and good direction. All three have memorable action scenes, but they are all more about character than about action. With THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING, this is my favorite Sean Connery film.
2. MILLER'S CROSSING - Last year I got to see this on the big screen at the Palm Springs Film Noir Festival, with Jon Polito in attendance. This movie holds up wonderfully, in all its twisted glory. So the inciting incident is a love triangle involving three gay gangsters? That has to be a first. Did you know that Albert Finney, in addition to playing a gangster, also plays the maid in the ladies' room scene? The film opens with Jon Polito having a long speech about ethics. He said it was easy to memorize because it was so well written.
3. TRULY, MADLY, DEEPLY - "I cannot believe all these dead people are in my living room watching videos." Now I liked GHOST, a more conventional film from this year on a similar theme, but TRULY, MADLY, DEEPLY is so different, so intense, that parts of it stick in the memory. I love Alan Rickman in a romantic role for a change.
4. THE GRIFTERS - Actually needed to be a period film, because the con games on the train don't make sense for 1990. By 1990 the trains have gotten rid of most of their passengers to carry the freight that brings them more money--but I digress. However, this is a well-made film, with fine performances by Anjelica Huston, Annette Bening, and the underrated John Cusack.
5. AVALON - "You cut the toikey without me." An unforgivable crime. This might be Barry Levinson's most personal film. He won the awards for RAIN MAN, certainly a good film, but I like AVALON and DINER better. Aidan Quinn is excellent in the leading role, and Joan Plowright, no surprise, is also fine.
AWAKENINGS, GOODFELLAS, and GHOST are all good films, though I'm not sure they could be called favorites. LONGTIME COMPANION is one of the first films to deal with the AIDS crisis; Bruce Davison and Mary-Louise Parker are particularly good. PRESUMED INNOCENT is an intelligent legal thriller, and it makes no eyeball-rolling mistakes the way that THE VERDICT and MICHAEL CLAYTON do. However, it's noticeable that the two main female characters, both intelligent and ambitious women, are portrayed very negatively. This is taken directly from Scott Turow's novel.
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Paradox: I have many more 1980s favorites than 1970s favorites, but the top 10 for the 1970s is more impressive. Weirdly, two of the ten began on British television. These are in alphabetical order, but the one at the top of the list is the one at the top of the list.
Top 10 for 1980s:
28 Up
The Big Chill
Choose Me
A Christmas Story
Diner
The Empire Strikes Back
Experience Preferred . . . But Not Essential
My Beautiful Laundrette
This Is Spinal Tap
The World According to Garp
Alternates: The Competition; Dangerous Liaisons; Jean de Florette; Missing
Genres: documentary; group of friends movies; offbeat, quirky, personal projects
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I get your meaning on Spike Lee. Some of his movies are rather eyeroll worthy. But I felt DO THE RIGHT THING was a unique and vibrant look at one of America's thorniest issues. I think I have one more Spike movie on my lists.
sex, lies and videotapes is one I should rewatch. It seemed like a lot of pretentious navel-gazing when I saw it after its home video release, although is had tons of critical praise at the time. I think I may have been victim to overhype.
I have a couple more Takeshi films on my upcoming lists.
I haven't seen much of Spike Lee's work. I did like SHE'S GOTTA HAVE IT, though it has some "I've been to film school!" shots, a flaw forgivable in a novice director. A friend who had seen more of his work felt that Lee still hadn't grown out of the "I've been to film school!" shots.
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1989 is a weird year for me. I saw DRIVING MISS DAISY not long after my mother died, so I feel unable to evaluate it as a film. I suspect it's pretty good. 1989 had the ultimate contrast in top performances: Daniel Day Lewis' very big, showy performance in MY LEFT FOOT and Morgan Freeman in DRIVING MISS DAISY, mostly internal and reaction shots. Both are working at a very high level. I don't think Dustin Hoffman would have won an Oscar for RAIN MAN had it come out the year after MY LEFT FOOT; Day Lewis simply blows him away. Against most competition Freeman would have won the Oscar.
DEAD POETS SOCIETY is one of those interesting situations where the film that won for Best Original Screenplay had, in my opinion, a somewhat iffy screenplay but superb direction, as with MOONSTRUCK and THELMA AND LOUISE.
The three films I remember the most fondly are:
HENRY V - Amazing that Branagh is able to turn in a performance and direction to equal those of Olivier in his own excellent HENRY V. And yes, I thought Branagh was going to be a force to reckon with both as actor and director in the years to come. There have been good performances here and there, but has his career mostly been on the stage?
MY LEFT FOOT - Solid film, with Daniel Day Lewis' bravura performance and strong support by Brenda Blethyn as his mother.
CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS - One of Woody Allen's best. This was a good decade for Woody.
Others I liked include FIELD OF DREAMS; FLETCH LIVES ("Is there anyone here named Jim Bob?"); THE FABULOUS BAKER BOYS (though Jeff Bridges needed to work on the charm to make me care more about his character); SHIRLEY VALENTINE; STEEL MAGNOLIAS; WHEN HARRY MET SALLY; and sex, lies, and videotape. I also liked Swithin's pick, ENEMIES: A LOVE STORY, although I thought Ron Silver was miscast in the pivotal role. Although I don't think VALMONT is as good as DANGEROUS LIAISONS, it's interesting to compare the two.
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Lawrence, your top two films would make a great double feature: THE NAKED GUN and DIE HARD.
Top 10 for 1988:
1. DANGEROUS LIAISONS - Great novel, great screenplay, satisfying film.
2. UNE AFFAIRE DES FEMMES (THE STORY OF WOMEN) - A better translation would be "Women's Business," which would also catch the subject matter and tone of the film more accurately. I can imagine a Susan Hayward version of this story (wronged innocent) and a Susan Sarandon version (battling feminist), but I love the Isabelle Huppert version, where our non-heroine is a cold-hearted woman who doesn't love her husband and is just trying to survive the Nazi occupation of Paris, making a little money the best way she can. Not really characteristic of Chabrol, but very fine.
3. BULL DURHAM - Has one of my favorite lines ever: "Men will do anything if they think it's foreplay."
4. TORCH SONG TRILOGY - Not the most cinematic film on the list, and Anne Bancroft's performance settles for the coarse and obvious too much of the time (Estelle Getty from the original cast would have been much better), but nonetheless this is a most satisfying movie. Harvey Feirstein wrote a great part for himself. The excellence of Brian Kerwin's performance has sometimes been overlooked.
5. A CRY IN THE DARK - Not exactly a film one enjoys. Very well directed by Fred Schepisi, with one of Meryl Streep's greatest performances, as an unsympathetic woman who is convicted of murder for exactly that reason. She dominates her husband, Sam Neill, who is brilliant in the scene where the prosecuting attorney badgers him and breaks him down on the witness stand. Good-looking, masculine stars usually don't want to play weaklings. He won the Australian equivalent of the Oscar, much deserved, as did Meryl.
6. DOMINICK AND EUGENE - A revisionist slant on this year, led by Danny Peary of ALTERNATE OSCARS, has it that DOMINICK AND EUGENE, also a film about two brothers, one of whom is mentally challenged, is better than RAIN MAN, and that Tom Hulce gives a better performance than Dustin Hoffman. I'm with the revisionists on this one. Ray Liotta is also excellent.
7. MARRIED TO THE MOB - Really a lot of fun, with Matthew Modine, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Dean Stockwell. Remember the scene at the Jack-in-the-Box? "Some clown tried to kill me."
8. THE PRESIDIO - A fun thriller, with Sean Connery (unlikely as a career American officer, but whatever), Meg Ryan, and Mark Harmon.
9. THE NAKED GUN - Son of AIRPLANE! is funny, too. Leslie Nielsen gets a totally unexpected late career revival.
Honorable mention (one is #10): A FISH CALLED WANDA, GORILLAS IN THE MIST, HAIRSPRAY, MYSTIC PIZZA, RUNNING ON EMPTY
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Somehow I left MOONSTRUCK off the 1987 films. A shout-out to Julie Bovasso, who plays one of Cher's relatives. Cher, Nicolas Cage, and Olympia Dukakis are all very good, but Julie Bovasso steals every scene she is in. She and the actor who plays her husband are not young, slender, or good-looking, but I totally believed that they were the luckiest couple of all.
I have not seen HOPE AND GLORY or THE LAST EMPEROR, so there's hope for 1987 yet.
About people who take the 1001 Movies seriously: Can you imagine some guy on his deathbed saying, "Please, Lord, not yet, I haven't seen FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF."
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Favorites for 1987:
1. BROADCAST NEWS - For the first time in cinematic history, the most intelligent person in the room has a thick Southern accent. In cultural terms, cf. Presidents Carter and Clinton. Great performance by Holly Hunter, good work by William Hurt and Albert Brooks.
2. BABETTE'S FEAST - The Isak Dinesen story is great. I would not have thought it could be expanded into a fine movie. I'm a fan of Stephane Audran, too.
3. BLACK WIDOW - Not to be confused with the 1950s Ginger Rogers/Van Heflin film with the same title. I'm happy that Bob Rafelson, who, after FIVE EASY PIECES, seemed like one of the hopes of American cinema, had a career comeback with this fine thriller. Debra Winger, Theresa Russell, and Sami Frey are all excellent.
4. THE PRINCESS BRIDE - It's easy to see why this movie developed a cult following. I can even tolerate Peter Falk, an actor I usually don't like.
5. RAISING ARIZONA - Holly Hunter and Nicolas Cage were made for a quirky, offbeat story like this Coen Brothers film.
6. RADIO DAYS - Not one of Woody's deepest, but enjoyable.
7. PRICK UP YOUR EARS - Grim story of the gifted playwright Joe Orton, who was murdered by his boyfriend.
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Bogey and filmlover at least gave me one. I don't think I saw a lot of films that year. Seems like there's a consensus that this was a below-par year for movies. At least I have five:
JEAN DE FLORETTE & MANON OF THE SPRING - Solid, wonderful two-part film. Daniel Auteuil is one of my favorite actors of any era.
THE NAME OF THE ROSE - This is apparently my favorite English-language film of the year.
HANNAH AND HER SISTERS - One of Woody's better films, and who doesn't love the use of the e.e.cummings line, "Nobody, not even the rain has such small hands"?
SOMETHING WILD - This uncomfortable-making film has very fine performances by Jeff Daniels, Melanie Griffith, and Ray Liotta.
I would like to see THE DECLINE OF THE AMERICAN EMPIRE.
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BEVERLY HILLS COP one of the 1001 movies that needs to be seen? I wouldn't be surprised if someone mentioned liking it, but essential?
By the way, I am not finding films for 1986. Hope you guys will mention some that I liked or need to see.
Top 10 for 1985:
1. 28 UP - I'm a little surprised no one has mentioned this. For me, the film of the decade. Michael Apted's series of documentaries, interviewing the same people every seven years, is quite an accomplishment. 28 UP is the jewel in the crown. Afterward, some of the participants dropped out, not always pleased with the reactions of others. 56 UP, the most recent (I think) brought some of them back, but the emphasis of the films has changed from class differences to the effects that appearing on the documentaries has made in their lives. The most heartbreaking aspect of 28 UP is that one of the most appealing children at age seven is now suffering from severe mental problems.
2. MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE - Best. Screen. Kiss. Ever.
3. ST. ELMO'S FIRE - Lots of things wrong with this movie, but a great movie to talk about with your friends. Much better than its reputation.
4. PRIZZI'S HONOR - You have to love that at his age John Huston could make a new movie as great as this. Huston's last phase, from THE KREMLIN LETTER (1970) to THE DEAD, is a career revival like no other that comes to mind.
5. WITNESS - The top Australian directors came to Hollywood, which was not good for their national film industry. This is a solid movie, old-fashioned in some ways, and none the worse for that.
6. ALMOST YOU - This movie got 4.9 on imdb, so it must be awful. Nope. A solid comedy, with good work by Griffin Dunne as the husband who's inclined to stray from his wife (Brooke Adams) to her nurse (Karen Young). If you've ever interviewed applicants for a job, you'll enjoy the scene where Griffin Dunne does just that.
7. OUT OF AFRICA - I'll agree with filmlover that this is too long, but memorable for Meryl Streep's work and for the production values.
8. LADYHAWKE - I don't really like Matthew Broderick, but I do like this film, which has its poetic and romantic moments. Rutger Hauer and Michelle Pfeiffer are so beautiful they don't have to act, but they do, and well. A few years ago I saw a DVD that really had an awful print.
9. AFTER HOURS - One of the few Scorsese movies I actually like as well as admire. If you use "edgy" in its original meaning--"nervous"--this is an edgy comedy. This was Griffin Dunne's year (again, singular). I'm a little surprised to find this on some many of our top ten lists.
10. TROUBLE IN MIND - Not so successful as CHOOSE ME, but it has enough moments that stick in the mind. Divine is cast against type as a male gangster. This doesn't really work. Genevieve Bujold is probably the last actress I would think of to play a diner owner named Wanda. She's superb.
Honorable mention: A ROOM WITH A VIEW, KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN, LOST IN AMERICA, THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO, A CHORUS LINE
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Bogie, I liked Under the Volcano, and agree that Finney was terrific. I also think The Hit is great, but I think I have it listed on my 1985 movie roster. I haven't seen The Times of Harvey Milk, Champions, or The Home and The World.
Swithin, I haven't seen A Private Function or Another Country.
TopBilled, I haven't seen Mass Appeal or Mike's Murder. Paris, Texas I have, waiting to be watched.
kingrat, I haven't seen Choose Me, The Little Drummer Girl, or Heartbreakers.
I absolutely love Blood Simple. But it only played a few festivals in '84, and was released Jan of '85, so I have it listed with that year.
I'll gladly move BLOOD SIMPLE to 1985. MIKE'S MURDER involves Debra Winger looking for clues to her boyfriend's murder. Among other things, she learns he was having an affair with Paul Winfield. MASS APPEAL also stars Zeljko Ivanek as the young priest who can't do anything to old-line priest (Jack Lemmon) wants.
You haven't seen CHOOSE ME? Wait. Stop everything you're doing. Find a copy of CHOOSE ME. You may not like it, but you'll understand why some others do.
THE LITTLE DRUMMER GIRL is a John Le Carre novel which works rather better on screen. Israeli agents are able to turn a leftist actress to work for them against a PLO assassin. I can imagine better choices for the English left-wing actress than Diane Keaton, but she's acceptable.
HEARTBREAKERS could be seen with some regularity on TV (or was it HBO) back in the mid to late 80s. Nick Mancuso is a successful lawyer, and his friend Peter Coyote is a not yet successful painter.
THE TIMES OF HARVEY MILK is a good documentary. Some people really like PARIS, TEXAS. I like some of the elements better than the movie as a whole.
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I remember really, really wanting to like Under the Volcano, but I just couldn't sustain interest in a character who was drunk most (all?) of the time. It was just a bit OTT.
That was my feeling, too, Swithin. Visually very attractive, but tragedy is watching a man fall from 1 to 100, not from 99 to 100. I certainly respect Huston's effort, but don't especially want to see it again.
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No complaints about 1001's 1983 list. Lawrence has reminded me of another good 1984 movie, STARMAN, and mentioned what I consider the representative comedy of the Reagan Era, GHOSTBUSTERS. Why? Because the human villain, played by William Atherton, works for the EPA. As Bill Murray so graciously says, "Hey, ****less! This man has no ****!" So much for those who are concerned about the environment.
A persistent theme of the post-studio world is how difficult it is for an actor or director to sustain a career. Suppose you're fortunate enough to get one big hit. What's next is, well, anyone's guess. Spielberg and Scorsese, whether one is a fan of their movies or not, deserve huge credit for managing to maintain a career across several decades.
Top 10 for 1984:
1. CHOOSE ME - Alan Rudolph could not sustain a career, but this film wonderfully showcases his talent for the quirky and offbeat but thoroughly satisfying. Genevieve Bujold is great, and anyone as lovely as Rae Dawn Chong should have been in more movies.
2. THIS IS SPINAL TAP - How anyone could keep a straight face asking a rock star about ANYTHING after this film came out?
3. A PASSAGE TO INDIA - I'm so glad David Lean put together this fine film after more than a decade of silence. Judy Davis is extraordinary.
4. THE NEVERENDING STORY
5. REPO MAN - "The life of a repo man is always intense."
6. BROADWAY DANNY ROSE - One of Woody's most likable films.
7. ROMANCING THE STONE - Kathleen Turner is so good in this part.
8. STARMAN - There were more charming films than usual this year. Jeff Bridges has to work at charm, but he gets there.
9. BLOOD SIMPLE - Not quite so charming, but the Coen Brothers can enter the quirky sweepstakes with Alan Rudolph.
10. DUNE - The visuals establish Frank Herbert's world quite nicely. There is also quite a variety of good-looking men.
Honorable mention: AMADEUS, BIRDY (Matthew Modine etc. etc.), MOSCOW ON THE HUDSON (more charm), THE NATURAL, THE LITTLE DRUMMER GIRL, HEARTBREAKERS (Peter Coyote and Nick Mancuso in a complicated friendship)
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Lawrence, thanks for the info that TOP GUN was deliberately created as an Air Force recruiting tool after the success of AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN. Fascinating.
Of the 1001 choices for 1982 that I've seen, those are a pretty good group. FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH has been an influential film.
Top 10 for 1983:
1. A CHRISTMAS STORY - It seems logical to put the movie from this year that I've watched the most in the top spot. Who knows why this wasn't an immediate critical and popular hit? Why, it deserved a Major Award.
2. THE BIG CHILL - And to put the movie from this year I've watched the second most in the second spot. Who knows how many hours I've spent with friends talking about this film? I'm usually fond of films about groups of friends. I could do without the classic rock score (minority opinion), though it helped make the movie a big popular success.
3. EDUCATING RITA - A fine comedy that turns out to be not so comic, as Rita's education separates her from her present life. Julie Walters is terrific.
4. PAULINE AT THE BEACH - I haven't seen enough of Eric Rohmer's films, but I'm definitely fond of this one.
5. TENDER MERCIES - People who aren't from the South sometimes think that the Tess Harper character is mentally deficient. No, she isn't. This is one of the better films set in the South.
6. LOCAL HERO - I didn't like this quite so much the second time through, but I sure did the first time. Bill Forsyth didn't go on to have the big directing career this film promised.
7. ZELIG - Lots of fun. Might pair nicely with FORREST GUMP.
8. YENTL - Love Mandy Patinkin in this film. And what was that gal's name who starred in it?
9. THE RIGHT STUFF - I don't quite get why the Chuck Yeager sections are in this film, but it's very smartly directed by Philip Kaufman, who didn't . . . (I know, I know, broken record).
10. THE OUTSIDERS - All those good-looking young men, without much interference from parent types and only one girlfriend floating around. Operates as a gay fantasy film, which is surely not the intention of the teenage girl who wrote the novel or Francis Ford Coppola, who directed it. Coppola was in enough career trouble that he didn't get the final cut. That's probably why I think this is the best-paced film he ever directed.
Others: CROSS CREEK, ENTRE NOUS, RUNNING BRAVE (nice shower scene, for those who care about such)
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RETURN OF THE SECAUCUS SEVEN should have been on my 1979 list.
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1982 had some interesting films, but the one that really shocked me was AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN. Only a few years earlier, THE DEER HUNTER (1978), COMING HOME (1978), and APOCALYPSE NOW (1979) continued the staunchly anti-military attitudes of what we sometimes call "the Sixties" or "the counterculture." Only movies like THE GREEN BERETS were pro-military, and they starred people like John Wayne. Practically no one liked both EASY RIDER and THE GREEN BERETS. It was either/or.
AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN, however, starred a cool young star, Richard Gere, and his rising co-star, David Keith, had just appeared in the Bette Midler film THE ROSE. Here were the cursing and the nudity that were common elements of counterculture films. But the theme was redemption through military service? Are you kidding me? No one in "the Sixties" wanted to be either an officer or a gentleman. Furthermore, no critics seemed to be commenting on this. I remember watching Siskel and Ebert take the film, which is well-made and well-acted, at face value. What this showed was a major shift in our culture. Here was the film that represented the new Reagan Era, and no one seemed to be noticing. The Sixties were officially dead.
A good friend, a lawyer, said her boyfriend took her to see THE VERDICT, thinking she would be sure to like it. Instead, she got so upset by the distortions of actual legal practice that the date did not go at all well. This raises the question of how different a film looks when you know the subject at hand. I look at films about the South differently from those who grew up somewhere else. In THE VERDICT Paul Newman commits a serious breach of legal ethics by not reporting a settlement offer to his clients. A different lawyer friend hooted at the roomful of attorneys and paralegals convened by James Mason. He routinely defended million-dollar personal injury cases with a team of two lawyers, one paralegal, and one secretary. The Charlotte Rampling subplot is preposterous. Essentially, THE VERDICT is heroin for plaintiffs' attorneys. Some quote from it in final summation to juries. My original admiration for THE VERDICT was chilled the more I learned about the legal profession. In many ways, this is one of Sidney Lumet's best films, with good performances by Paul Newman, Charlotte Rampling, Lindsay Crouse, and especially Julie Bovasso.
There are enough good films in 1982 I have decided to exclude both of the above, despite their virtues.
Top 10 for 1982:
1. EXPERIENCE PREFERRED . . . BUT NOT ESSENTIAL - This British TV movie was released for theatrical presentation in the U.S. I saw it twice in the first week of its run, at which point it disappeared into obscurity. I've only met one other person who has seen this film, which has no familiar stars. EXPERIENCE was hilarious the first time through, surprisingly sad the second time. Annie, a college student, works in a seaside resort during her summer break. This is only one summer out of her life, but this is the only life the others are likely to know.
2. DINER - Baltimore, where I once lived? GE College Bowl? I wanted so much to be on it (a friend of mine actually was). That helped make DINER irresistible. Barry Levinson's best film. And I don't even like Mickey Rourke and am not a big Ellen Barkin fan. Kevin Bacon, Daniel Stern, Timothy Daly, and Steve Guttenberg, yes. "You put the R&B with the R&B."
3. THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP - An improvement on the John Irving novel. George Roy Hill gets the pacing for this episodic film just right. Robin Williams and Mary Beth Hurt are good, Glenn Close and John Lithgow even better.
4. MISSING - The son is an idealistic lefty, the dad a curmudgeonly conservative, yet both share the same bedrock political view: "I'm an American, so nothing bad can ever happen to me." Sissy Spacek as the daughter-in-love understands how wrong they both are. MISSING shows us that the new regime is bad, shows us nothing at all about the previous regime, and zeroes in on the unwarranted American complacency.
5. TOOTSIE - A very funny comedy. For some reason, my favorite moment is during Dustin Hoffman's on-the-air revelation when we see the reaction of Teri Garr.
6. BLADE RUNNER - A film which has increased in reputation since its lukewarm debut.
7. SOPHIE'S CHOICE - Best known, rightly, for Meryl Streep's performance.
8 & 9. FITZCARRALDO and FRANCES - I haven't seen either of these since their debut and wonder what my opinion would be now.
10. EATING RAOUL - Proceed with caution. I think this dark comedy is funny, but I have made the mistake of recommending it to those who did not.
Honorable mention: GANDHI, MY FAVORITE YEAR, SHOOT THE MOON (a well-made film, although by the end I despise both the husband and the wife; not sure if this is the film's intent. The one really great moment is the shock on Diane Keaton's face when her blue-collar boyfriend beats up her ex-husband.)
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Here are the 1001 Movies to See Before You Die entries for 1981:
An American Werewolf in London
Body Heat
Chariots of Fire
Das Boot
Diva
Gallipoli
Man of Iron**
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Reds
Three Brothers**
**denotes films I have not seen
I thought AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON wasn't supposed to be very good. Great title, though. My top four films all made the list? The world is coming to an end.
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CaveGirl, to find good-looking actors you have to watch the soaps.
I have a good friend who cannot tell Leonardo, Brad, and Matt Damon apart. Needless to say, he found THE DEPARTED a difficult film to make sense of. And Mark Wahlberg sort of looks like Matt Damon, too.
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One of the funnier examples: Esquire Magazine did a cover story on TWO-LANE BLACKTOP before it opened, proclaiming it the film of the year. At the end of the year they gave themselves a Dubious Achievement Award for doing so.
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CHARIOTS OF FIRE is a film I've grown to appreciate more as the years go on and I've rewatched it a handful of times. I didn't really care for it when I saw it in the theater, but I now appreciate the characterizations and the period detail much more. I do agree with Swithin as to its sloppiness; it doesn't really flow as it should. But maybe that's why Hudson didn't win best director?
I think Hudson wasn't well-known enough to win. That probably tipped the scale to Beatty. REDS wasn't doing that well at the box office, which I think is why it didn't win best picture. Had Hudson been well known, he would probably have won. People thought of ON GOLDEN POND as essentially a filmed play (correct) and felt that the acting awards were enough. ATLANTIC CITY was more of a critics' darling than a popular movie, and RAIDERS didn't get the critical respect then than it would now.
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1981 is perhaps most famous as the year people carp about the Oscar fave, REDS, losing to CHARIOTS OF FIRE. Whereas if REDS had won, everyone would complain that CHARIOTS should have won. Warren Beatty's directorial style is most influenced by the posterior-numbing style of the later George Stevens films, and apart from a great performance by Maureen Stapleton, an actress I usually do not like, and the wonderful interviews, I don't like REDS at all, although it was good to learn that the Russian Revolution happened so that Beatty and Diane Keaton could get back together again. Too bad this movie wasn't made in the 30s with Bette Davis and Paul Muni, or even better, in the 40s with Ida Lupino and John Garfield, with one of the lefties like Jules Dassin directing.
1981 is not so rich a year as 1980, and I have trouble ranking a number of enjoyable, though far from great, films.
Top 10 for 1981:
1. DAS BOOT
2. BODY HEAT - Imitation noir isn't usually very good. This is the exception.
3. CHARIOTS OF FIRE - Cue the Vangelis music. Actually quite good and lovely to look at. I thought Ben Cross would have a bigger career.
4. RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK - Saw a bit of this recently and was struck by how much Spielberg learned from David Lean.
5. TAXI ZUM KLO - Which means "Taxi to the toilet." The big gay movie of 1981 was MAKING LOVE, which wasn't really very good, despite good intentions and two handsome stars, Harry Hamlin and Michael Ontkean. TAXI ZUM KLO was grungier and more honest.
6. EYE OF THE NEEDLE - Good thriller with limited cast. Hard to believe Donald Sutherland was never nominated for an Oscar.
7-16 (alphabetical order) - All these are worthy of mention:
ABSENCE OF MALICE
THE AMATEUR - good story, as brainy guy seeks to avenge his girlfriend's death at the hands of a terrorist group, but finds the situation is more complex than he imagines. John Savage shows that he isn't really a star, though a good actor. Christopher Plummer is strong in support.
BACK ROADS - Don't remember this well, except that it's a good, honest movie set in the South, which was a rarity. Sally Field and Tommy Lee Jones are both good as the leads.
CLASH OF THE TITANS - This was Harry Hamlin's year (singular), wasn't it? Entertaining, and with Ray Harryhausen special effects.
DIVA - Not really a good movie, but with a few good moments and a great aria.
EXCALIBUR - Good work from John Boorman
THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN - Not sure if I'd like it now, but I did then.
MY DINNER WITH ANDRE - Ditto.
PRINCE OF THE CITY - The studio hoped this would be the next SERPICO and Treat Williams would be the next Pacino. Didn't happen. But it's still a good, if long and rather depressing, movie. None of the characters are really sympathetic, but like TAXI ZUM KLO, it's rather grungy and honest.
RAGTIME - An improvement on the Doctorow novel. For instance, in the novel the Younger Brother is politically correct in the most painful way. In the film we get Brad Dourif. Yay!
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Here are the 1001 Movies to See Before You Die entries for 1980:
Airplane!
Atlantic City
The Big Red One
The Elephant Man
The Empire Strikes Back
The Last Metro
Loulou
Ordinary People
Raging Bull
The Shining
That's really not bad at all. I've never heard of LOULOU.
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One of the themes of the 1980s would be how many gifted directors and actors were undone or sidetracked by drugs, ego, or both. I recommend EASY RIDERS, RAGING BULLS for an evocation of the era in which the movies of the 1970s came about. (Perhaps we should add "success" as a complicating factor, as in the case of George Lucas, who seemed to be spooked by the enormous success of STAR WARS.) The Reagan Era begins, and in 1982 I saw a movie which absolutely shocked me, and I will explain why when we get there.
Meanwhile, thanks to everyone who's already posted, I'm reminded what a good year 1980 was. My hasty scan of Wikipedia had missed several good ones, and now I have 15 movies to shoehorn down to a Top 10.
Top 10 for 1980:
1. THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK - Many have considered this the best of the STAR WARS movies. I thought Irvin Kershner would go on to have a major career. I've been wrong about a lot of things.
2. THE COMPETITION - A friend and I agreed that this movie connects deeply with our failure fantasies, just as Hardy's novel JUDE THE OBSCURE does. Richard Dreyfuss is very good as the pianist who's come close to a big success, but not quite.
3. THE ELEPHANT MAN - Gorgeous cinematography by Freddie Francis, first-rate direction by David Lynch. Strong cast, too.
4. COAL MINER'S DAUGHTER - Odd that a British director, Michael Apted, directed one of the best films ever made about the South. (Of course Kazan, of all people, made one of the others.) Perfectly catches the atmosphere of the coal-mining region of southeastern Kentucky. Sissy Spacek is great, and this marks the arrival of Tommy Lee Jones on the scene. I had admired his work on ONE LIFE TO LIVE back when he was known as Tom Lee Jones.
5. AIRPLANE! - "Oh, stewardess, I speak jive." They may have picked a bad day to stop drinking, but we could hardly stop laughing.
6. SERIAL - Speaking of funny movies in questionable taste, those who've seen it remember the pair-bonding ceremony: "You-ness, me-ness, us-ness, we-ness." Martin Mull (aside): "Sickness!" Yes, it's a satire on life in Marin County. Poor Tuesday Weld, who's telling her hairdresser all about her affair, when the hairdresser says, "He didn't tell me he was bisexual!" Tuesday does not get the best haircut of her life. Oh, and Christopher Lee plays a gay biker.
7. THE HORSE OF PRIDE - A different kind of anthropological study. Chabrol directs a look at life in Brittany not so long ago. Those who were too poor to own a horse had to ride "the horse of pride" instead.
8. THE STUNT MAN - Shown at the TCM festival a few years ago, where it was a big hit. I'd only seen this on television. Much had been cropped from the TV print, like all the **** people. The film made a lot more sense, too. Peter O'Toole plays the director who is supposedly based on David Lean. Steve Railsback is the young man who may have killed someone and gets drawn into the movie that's being made.
9. MON ONCLE D'AMERIQUE - The few Alain Resnais films I'd seen have fallen into the "admire without loving" category. This one's different. It follows three people from very different backgrounds and we see how they turn out and how their lives intertwine.
10. CARNY - Not sure that this film really belongs in the top ten, but it's a well-made little film that should not be forgotten. Gary Busey, Jodie Foster, and Robbie Robertson star.
Also deserving top ten status: ATLANTIC CITY, BREAKER MORANT, THE GODS MUST BE CRAZY, ORDINARY PEOPLE, and a movie I happen to know is a favorite of filmlover: THOSE LIPS, THOSE EYES.
As for RAGING BULL, I admire the craft, but I feel like one of Jane Goodall's research assistants observing primate behavior. Is anthropology the hidden key to this year's films?
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kingrat, I've managed to not see your top two picks. Hopefully I can rectify that this year. NORTH DALLAS FORTY was a big surprise to me. I didn't see it when it was new because I have little interest in sports and even less in football. I had always dismissed the film as another comedic romp, like the more humorous aspects of THE LONGEST YARD, since they marketed the film as a comedy. I just decided this past year to watch it for Nick Nolte. I was very surprised by how good it was, and the brutal truths it explored about the business of the game. Shows why you shouldn't always judge by your first impressions of a movie.
NORTH DALLAS FORTY is by an obscure director, Ted Kotcheff, so auteurists weren't interested. You pointed out how it was mismarketed, so people like you and me didn't go see it when it was first released. I think I saw it on TV during the time when I was doing a lot of traveling for work, and was stunned by what a good film it was. That's why TCM or the equivalent--except that there really aren't any--is so valuable. There is no substitute for seeing the film yourself, with as few preconceptions as possible, and being honest about your own reactions.
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I'm just back from THE BIG SHORT, which we both loved. Superb screenplay, which manages to explain the financial instruments in question. Some fine acting, especially by Steve Carell, who seemed absolutely real as the short-tempered Mark Baum, one of the guys who bet against Wall Street but could do nothing toward reforming it. Christian Bale has the showier role, the guy with tics and crotchets.
I don't see many contemporary films, but it's clear there is a new hero: the nerdy guy whose lack of social skills put him on or near the autism spectrum, but he's the genius who sees what everyone else doesn't. This could be seen as tying in to various superhero movies as well. This is the guy Christian Bale plays in THE BIG SHORT.
THE BIG SHORT unashamedly centers the movie on white guys, both as villains and as heroes, and has no problem with women or minority characters in secondary villain roles. Dianne Wiest, for instance, has a nice bit as a Standard & Poor's villain. It's interesting to see Brad Pitt made up in a kind of Robert Redford role. Perhaps this is the direction his career will take as he ages.
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Top Ten Films of...
in Your Favorites
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Mine, too, guys. I'm just now back in. Should definitely have added REVERSAL OF FORTUNE and AN ANGEL AT MY TABLE to my 1990 list. Both are highly recommended.