Here are the best films of the 1980s according to yours truly:

     1.  Raiders of the Lost Ark is Steven Spielberg's masterpiece, an adventure film to end all adventure films and it ranks as the best film made ever.  (Spoiler warning) The spirits that entice and then destroy the Nazis and the column of fire and lightning bolts ("power of God") that emit out of the Ark of the Covenant are stylized special effects.  Two supporting performances deserved Oscar nominations:  John Rhys-Davies as a gentle friend of Indiana Jones and Ronald Lacey as the vile Nazi torturer Toht.  The climax is voluptuous and riveting.  The music by John Williams will stand the test of time as it is absolutely poetic and effective.  The Oscar-nominated cinematography and Oscar-winning art direction, editing, sound, and visual effects are bewitching.

     2.  After Hours is my favorite Scorsese.  This odyssey through New York City follows a word processor (Griffin Dunne) who goes through one bizarre event after another on his way home.  First his twenty dollar bill flies out of the taxicab so he can't pay the fare, a lady (Linda Fiorentino) with kinky interests lets him stay in her apartment -- dropping her keys from the balcony, Cheech & Chong appear here and there, and a mob of vigilantes pursue him through the streets.  This is a masterpiece that ends where it starts, with the word processor falling out of Cheech & Chong's van (stuck inside a plaster sculpture) right in front of his workplace where the film began with an elaborate steadicam shot.

     3.  Raging Bull is above all the story of two brothers who drift apart for years and then meet again in a heartrending scene.  One is a boxer and the other suppresses his emotions.

     4.  Shy People, by Andrei Konchalovsky who also directed the poetic Runaway Train, is about some Louisiana bayou folk who are visited by a photojournalist (Jill Clayburgh) from New York City looking for a distant relative (Barbara Hershey, who won an award at Cannes for this evocative performance).  She brings along her rebellious daughter (Martha Plimpton) and they learn much about themselves.  The film is first and foremost a beautiful film and a tone poem.  The ending, just like Runaway Train, uses a quotation.  The camera zooms slowly out an airplane window, where the mother is embracing her sleeping daughter, to ominous and serene nighttime clouds.  The quotation is then superimposed on the grand image.  In Runaway Train, Konchalovsky superimposed a Shakespeare quote over the loose train car with a mad prison escapee (Jon Voight, Oscar-nominated) ontop disappearing into the cold, wintry snow landscape.  Barbara Hershey has a poignant scene in Shy People where she tells her grown children how much she loves them.

     5.  Who Framed Roger Rabbit? is a rich film blending live actors with animated characters.  The green dip that destroys 'toons is to be feared as much as the loathsome Judge Doom.  Jessica Rabbit and the club she performs at has an interesting, smoky milieu.  Roger Rabbit is framed for the murder of Marvin Acme and hilarious hijinks ensue in Robert Zemeckis's brilliant Oscar-winning delight.

     6.  El Norte is a work of poetry and social critique from Gregory Nava about two siblings who escape headhunters in Guatemala and make their way to the states through a tunnel infested with rats.  The sister washes clothes and cleans houses for rich people and the brother pursues employment and dodges INS.  The classical piece Adaggio for Strings is employed in order to bring poignancy to their story of survival.  The resonance of the final images is indelible.

     7.  Return of the Jedi is the culmination of all the elements in the Star Wars saga and dispatches the characters to their final destinies.  The fine scene where Darth Vader taunts Luke Skywalker and the eternal battle between good and evil is fought with lightsabers is operatic in nature and employs a rousing musical score from John Williams.  The Emperor is such a pathetic character he doesn't even push the button to destroy things he just says "Fire at will commander."  All of Ian McDiarmid's lines as the Emperor are quotable and the force lightning that emits from his fingertips is splendid to look at.  My newly former social worker from MHMR always quotes the Emperor:  "good...," "Now witness the fire power of this fully armed and operational battle station," "Young fool, only now at the end do you understand," "If you will not be turned, you will be destroyed," "You will pay the price for your lack of vision," and "Your feeble skills are no match for the power of the dark side."

     "The Empire Strikes Back" is an allegory on the meaning of friendship.  It is also a voluptuously beautiful film.  Poetic revelations occur and the character Yoda, with his predicate-before-the-verb speech, is introduced.

     8.  Platoon, Oliver Stone's masterpiece, is another film that utilizes Adaggio for Strings to great effect.  The Christ-like figure played by Willem Dafoe is a symbolic character portrait.  This is the Vietnam film that shows what wars do psychologically to those who fight them.  The picture won the Oscar for best film, director, and editing in 1986, picked up a slew of acting nods, and (spoiler warning) fades to white at the end with a strong buzz of emotion.

     9.  Ran is one of Akira Kurosawa's best works:  an adaptation of King Lear set in medieval Japan.  It was a long-gestating opus with precisely calibrated compositions and superb costume design.  The elements of the story include a court jester, an evil and conniving woman, some brothers who are heirs to the ownership of land from their father, and the King Lear figure -- a fatigued leader who wants the best for his quarrelling sons.

     10.  Scarface is over-the-top and wonderfully intense as it concerns a Cuban immigrant who climbs to the top of the Miami drug trade.  "The world is yours," he sees on a blimp one evening.  The final act is a tour-de-force of filmmaking from Brian De Palma and has the famous line "Say hello to my little friend."  Clouded by cocaine and issues of jealousy, Tony Montana's demise is one of the great landmarks of cinema.  The film is dedicated to Ben Hecht and Howard Hawks.

     11.  House of Games is David Mamet's directorial debut, a movie with hypnotic and brilliant dialogue.  The film noir is filled to the brim with wit and keen observation as it follows an author of a book on compulsive behavior who is the victim of a confidence artist (as he likes to be called).  "You're a bad pony and I'm not going to bet on you," the con artist says when the author demands her money back.  This is Mamet at top form and is a virtuoso display of the playwright's immense talents.

     Honorable Mention:  Do the Right Thing, The Killing Fields, Amadeus, Drugstore Cowboy, Diva, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, The Last Temptation of Christ, Paris, Texas, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Sophie's Choice, E. T. : The Extra-Terrestrial, Mississippi Burning, Say Anything, Born on the Fourth of July, Say Anything, Runaway Train, The Right Stuff, My Left Foot, Fitzcarraldo

Tags: Film Decade '80s

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