Category: 1980s

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Aliens (1986)

I believe there are some who feel that Aliens is superior to Alien. For me, the two don’t compare. They illustrate the stark contrast between films of the 1970s and what was made in the mid-1980s. Where Alien was more shadowy and dark in portraying the same location, Aliens is all bombastic, large, and in your face. Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley, dragged along on a mission to supposedly annihilate the xenomorphs for good, is completely shoehorned into a mother role, though it does create a nice parallel for the big ending. Bill Paxton and Jenette Goldstein are both massively over the top as part of the Marine crew. Paul Reiser is spectacularly oleaginous portraying the ultimate in capitalistic greed. Again the moral of the story is you should really listen to Ripley.  Scifi  Horror

Oscar Wins: Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing; Best Effects, Visual Effects

Oscar Nominations: Best Actress in a Leading Role; Best Art Direction-Set Decoration; Best Sound; Best Film Editing; Best Music, Original Score

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The Stunt Man (1980)

I enjoy watching films within films movies as much as anyone, but there’s so much about this story of an accused murderer on the run from the police who gets hired as a stunt man that makes not a lick of sense. I’m not an expert, but none of the actual filming seems to follow how anything would ever be done to maintain any type of safety or continuity in a film. The performances are all over the top, none more than Peter O’Toole as the deranged director. Steve Railsback looks so much like Charles Manson in this (not surprising that he was cast in that role for Helter Skelter). Within the plot of the film, him showing up wouldn’t have been all that odd.

Oscar Nominations: Best Actor in a Leading Role; Best Director; Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium

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Rocky III (1982)

I am incredulous that Eye of the Tiger didn’t win the Oscar for Best Song. The song is so evocative of the entire Rocky series that I’m betting there are people who think it came from the original rather than a second sequel. The movie itself could be used as a stand-in for any individual Rocky story: hero loses the first battle only to use that humiliation to come back stronger and more ready for the final battle, insert montages throughout. Mr. T’s Clubber Lang might be one of the best villains of the series. III firmly moves the series from the gritty realism of the original’s 1970s setting to the upcoming brash Cold War propaganda of Rocky IV.  Sports

Oscar Nomination: Best Music, Original Song

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Promised Land (1987)

I suppose the premise of this film is to explore the different experiences that three classmates have at Christmastime a short time after graduating high school. I say suppose because Jason Gedrick and Tracy Pollan are in one film, one about a former teenaged couple who had completely different college experiences but realize they are still in love with each other. With the other story, we have Kiefer Sutherland and Meg Ryan who seem to have been told to improvise their own bat crazy story but make sure it somehow crosses paths with that other story. It turns out about as bad as you’d expect.  Holiday

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Radio Days (1987)

I admit that I’ve added all the Woody Allen Oscar nominations to The List so that I can’t be surprised by any additional films of his that I’d be forced by my own convictions to watch. Aside from his narration, his acting is largely absent from this one. A series of 1940s vignettes, the coming-of-age tale centers on the childhood memories of the narrator, very similar to A Christmas Story. While not as cohesive of a story as that other film, this one is held up by a great cast, including many old-time Allen regulars like Dianne Wiest, Diane Keaton, and Julie Kavner.

Oscar Nominations: Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen; Best Art Direction-Set Decoration

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Come and See (1985)

If I’m going to subject myself to a war film, I prefer it to be the grim, realistic type versus the flag-waving, patriotic version. I have never seen another as dark as this one. More than once, I thought to myself that it would have been better for a character to have died than to have continued with the narrative set out for them. Filled with facial close-ups, every actor conveys the feelings of the soul-emptying desperation and despair of existing in a place under siege, none better than Aleksei Kravchenko as Flyora, a young Belarussian teen conscripted into the partisan forces. Is it no surprise that one of the best Russian films ever is so incredibly bleak?   War

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The Package (1989)

There is nothing like portrayals of the 1980s obsession with the Cold War. This is a fun romp of a conspiracy thriller involving a plot, that includes members of both sides, to disrupt a disarmament agreement by assassinating the leader of the USSR. Gene Hackman is solid as the service member tasked with figuring out and bringing down the conspiracy. He’s assisted by the likes of Joanna Cassidy, Dennis Franz, and Pam Grier; the film could have benefited by giving Grier specifically more screen time. Tommy Lee Jones and John Heard add to the stellar cast as members of the conspiracy.

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Las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo (1985)

Mothers experiencing one of the worst things imaginable and using that grief to push for the truth is inspirational. Sadly, the quality of this film is not quite able to do the subject justice. It has the feel of a nightly news exposé rather than a meaningful documentary. I appreciate that this film exists to give light to the atrocities that had been committed in Argentina and the fight of these women.

Oscar Nomination: Best Documentary, Features

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Bagdad Cafe (1987)

Bagdad Cafe is a quirky bit of indie storytelling set at a remote café/hotel in the desolate American Southwest. A German woman, abandoned by her husband, soon becomes the catalyst toward changing the lives and attitudes of the various colorful characters who live and work at the café. CCH Pounder and Marianne Sägebrecht develop a sweet chemistry between them as the cantankerous owner of the establishment and the German visitor respectively.

Oscar Nomination: Best Music, Original Song

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Parting Glances (1986)

A bit of a rough indie from the mid-80s, Parting Glances is a relatively light-hearted glimpse into NYC’s gay community early into the AIDS crisis. Following a married couple as they spend their last day together before one leaves on an African work assignment, it touches on themes of love, friendship, and career, all while not shying away from the relatively-new disease rampaging through the community, particularly through one HIV-positive character (an early role for Steve Buscemi). Sadly, this is the director’s only major film as he succumbed to AIDS a few years later; it’s a special film that doesn’t get too pulled down by the sadness and horrors of the disease while not completely ignoring them either.

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