The 10 best films of the 80s

The best 1980s films include a strong mix of teenage coming-of-age stories, crime films, and a true horror and science fiction renaissance. Although often called the decade of excess, there were over-the-top blockbusters with loud soundtracks, bright colors and sky-high budgets, but it was much more than that. A lot of excitement, creativity, and inventive filmmaking occurred in that decade, and there are so many films that remain iconic 40 years later.

The 1980s saw the rise of horror films and the beloved and John Hughes’ iconic high school movies. It has also seen the likes of John Carpenter, Terry Gilliam, Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee and Martin Scorsese really come into their own as some of the best directors in the world. It also marked the rise of names like Tom Cruise, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kurt Russell, Sigourney Weaver, Bruce Willis, Glenn Close and Harrison Ford, and many films from this decade were entered into the National Film Registry.

10

The Breakfast Club (1985)

Directed by John Hughes

In the 1980s, John Hughes rose to prominence and released several coming-of-age films that remain iconic decades later. These include Sixteen candles, weird science, Ferris Bueller’s day off, and Planes, trains and automobiles. However, the film that stands above them all is his masterpiece, The Breakfast Club. The film has everything that teen comedy fans recognize as cliché stereotypes, but that was the point of the film – to break those stereotypes.

The Breakfast Club There’s a jock, a popular girl, an outcast, a nerd, and a loner all sent to Saturday morning detention where they realize they’re not so different and learn that they all have issues they have to deal with as teenagers in the years 80. The film was a monster hit and made stars of the 80s Brat Pack actors. It was also added to the National Film Registry in 2016 for its cultural significance. Every coming-of-age teen movie that followed owes a lot to The Breakfast Club​​​​​.

9

Back to the Future (1989)

Directed by Robert Zemeckis

Robert Zemeckis is a filmmaker who helped bring the latest technology to film at the same time that James Cameron was beginning his experimental stages. However, although Cameron was mainly stuck with his technology for the avatar franchise, Zemeckis kept pushing things in different directions. He was responsible for combining live-action and animation with Who Framed Roger Rabbitmastered the addition of actors in historical situations with Forest Gumpand was in motion capture with The Polar Express.

However, your 80s movie Back to the future remains his most beloved release. Michael J. Fox stars as Marty McFly, a teenager who ends up sent back to the past when his parents met, and he must find a way to fix his disruption in the timeline before disappearing from existence. The film was a monster hit, becoming a box office hit and spawning two sequels. It was also added to the National Film Registry in 2007.

8

Die Hard (1988)

Directed by John McTiernan

Throughout the 1980s, the action film genre was full of larger-than-life heroes, with the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, and Dolph Lundgren leading the way. Gigantic, muscular men, former soldiers with large weapons, and martial arts experts were common. However, in 1988, everything changed and the action genre was never the same. Bruce Willis, best known for his comedic performances on TV shows Moonlightstarred as John McClain in Die Hard.

McClain was the “every man“who wasn’t a giant, muscular hero or a martial arts master. Instead, he was just a regular cop forced to survive against all odds and save his ex-wife during a Christmas party kidnapping. Die Hard It was a huge hit and remains a favorite Christmas film decades after its release. It created a franchise with four sequels and was added to the National Film Registry in 2017 for its cultural significance.

7

Brazil (1985)

Directed by Terry Gilliam

Of all the members of Monty Python, the one who ended up being the best director was Terry Gilliam. He has had several excellent films throughout his career, from Time Bandits to The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, 12 Monkeys and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. However, his masterpiece may be his most bizarre and eccentric cinematic release. Brazil was Gilliam’s 1985 dystopian science fiction black comedy, which was much more than its synopsis might indicate.

Jonathan Pryce stars as Sam Lowry, a bureaucrat who works a boring job and finds his life ruined when his air conditioning stops working and a wanted terrorist shows up to fix it. The film was a box office flop, but quickly became a cult classic when it hit home video and even received a Criterion release. The film is a satire of a government agency turning normal people into cogs in a machine, a perfect dystopian story set during the Reagan era in America. The Coen brothers, Neil Marshall and Rian Johnson consider it an inspiration.

6

The Thing (1982)

Directed by John Carpenter

John Carpenter The thing is an 80s film that was a huge box office flop and later became one of the best-selling home video releases of its time, gaining new life. Kurt Russell stars as RJ MacReady, a pilot stationed at an Antarctic research facility. One day, an alien being invades the facility and can replicate anyone it kills.So soon, no one knows who they can trust and who they can’t, as they begin to die one by one at the hands of this murderous being.

Although the film was a flop when released, it has since been named one of the best horror films of all time and one of the best science fiction horror films ever made. One reason for the film’s failure was that fans loved optimistic science fiction like ETand this was a darker, more nihilistic release. This contributed to its reevaluation, which really began in the 1990s, when it began appearing on best-of lists and spawned video games, comics, and film sequels.

5

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Directed by Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg became a star in the 1970s thanks to Jawsbut he really came into his own in the 1980s when he released both box office hits (ET) and dramas (The color purple). The film that really showed the director at his best was the 1981 action-adventure film Raiders of the Lost Ark. Harrison Ford stars as an adventurous treasure hunter and Nazi fighter in Spielberg’s love letter to classic adventure films of the past. It was a monstrous success.

The first film saw Indiana Jones fighting the Nazis to stop them from recovering the Ark of the Covenant and using its powers to win World War II. The film grossed $389 million on a $20 million budget (via Mojo Box Office) and won five Oscars with four other nominations (including Best Picture and Best Director). It spawned a spin-off TV sequel and prequel and is often listed as one of the best adventure films in cinema history. It was added to the National Film Registry in 1999.

4

Blade Runner (1982)

Directed by Ridley Scott

Ridley Scott has made some true masterpieces throughout his career, including the first Foreigner film in the 1970s and Gladiator in 2000. However, The only film that science fiction fans consider his greatest work was the 1982 release, Blade runner. The dystopian sci-fi film stars Harrison Ford as Rick Deckard, a police officer tasked with hunting down advanced “Replicants,” which were human-created androids intended for manual labor but who escaped and tried to live real lives.

Based on Philip K. Dick Do androids dream of electric sheep? The film was not a huge success upon its release, but has since become known as one of the seminal and most important science fiction films of all time. The story asks what it means to be alive and “human,” and the best part is that it doesn’t give a straight answer. Several science fiction filmmakers refer to it as one of their biggest influences to date, and it was selected for the National Film Registry in 1993.

3

Do the Right Thing (1989)

Directed by Spike Lee

Although the 1990s were best known for the rise of independent cinema, it actually began in the late 1980s with two seminal independent films that kicked off the movement. Both were released in 1989 with Steven Soderbergh Sex, lies and videotape and Spike Lee Do the right thing. Both revolutionized independent cinema and helped later names like Kevin Smith, Robert Rodriguez and Richard Linklater become prominent directors on the independent scene.

However, of the two films, it is Do the right thing This remains the most important and essential of the two films. The story follows the residents of a Brooklyn neighborhood and sees racial tensions boil between the African-American residents and the Italian-American homeowners. from the local pizzeria. The film received two Oscar nominations (Best Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor) and was selected by the Library of Congress for the National Film Registry in 1999.

2

The Last Emperor (1987)

Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci

One of the best films of the 1980s was Bernardo Bertolucci’s biographical epic about Puyi, the last emperor of China. It was the first Western film that the Chinese government allowed to be filmed in the Forbidden City in Beijing. The film follows Pu Yi’s life from his childhood, when he was named Emperor of China, to his arrest and political rehabilitation. by the Chinese Communist Party. It was a critical and commercial success and remains a highly respected film.

The Last Emperor it won every Oscar it was nominated for, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. It also won three BAFTA awards, four Golden Globes and even a Grammy for its soundtrack. Critics consider the film Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with an 86% rating, while audiences rate it even higher at 88%. Roger Ebert wrote the film “never makes the mistake of having just one thing to say about the life of a man who embodied all the contradictions and paradoxes of 20th-century China.”

1

Raging Bull (1980)

Directed by Martin Scorsese

A film that many consider the best film not to win the Oscar for Best Picture, Raging bull I saw Martin Scorsese tell the story of a volatile boxing champion named Jake LaMotta. The film charts her rise and fall in the boxing world and her personal life, and Robert De Niro gave a career-defining performance as LaMatta. Shot in black and white and showing Jake at the height of his prowess and the depths of his post-boxing career, Scorsese told a profound story about a man who had everything and threw it all away.

Raging bull It received eight Oscar nominations but won only two. Robert De Niro won the award for Best Actor and the film for Best Editing. However, he lost to Ordinary people and its director, Robert Redford, for the first two awards. Despite that, Raging bull has stood the test of time, ranked as one of the greatest films ever made and added to the National Film Registry in 1990, one of the titles selected in the first year the Library of Congress began preserving films