Best Movies: 1980, 1981, 1982

Last updated: fall, 1998

Here are some of my favorite movies from specific years:

1980
• Ordinary People   
  Robert Redford's first film, staring a high-school acquaintance of mine: Tim Hutton. All about how depression can tear a family apart. I thought it was an emotionally honest film at the time.
• Kramer vs. Kramer   
  No controversy here. Kramer vs. Kramer was one of the most popular movies released that year. Has it aged well? Certainly the idea of a man taking care of his child is no longer a very remarkable situation. I think this movie played a role in making this more accepted by society.
• Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
  The pivotal movie in the trilogy. The perfect action-adventure film. More mature than Star Wars, not a weighed down by baggage as the Return of the Jedi.

  1981

• Chariots of Fire
  Quite a popular film in its day. I think it captured something of the purity of sport for no other purpose than to exalt in what you can do. To run fast, not for money, not for acclaim, just because it is fun to run, and to run fast. Decent sound-track by Vangelis.
• Ragtime
  A very, very good film that has aged well. Almost too allegorical for its own good but saved by wonderful performances by all actors. The imagery was spectacular and the scenes (like the siege of the library, the Jewish immigrant who creates a toy on the street) have real lasting power. Oddly enough the heart of the story is completely without foundation in historical reality. I well remember my Grandparents becoming quite angry at my plot summary. "But that didn't happen!" they protested. I saw it in Seattle on a trip up north. I thought Elizabeth McGovern was quite attractive in the film.
• Breaker Morrant
  Part of the Australian High Tide this film presented a unknown story of Australian involvement in the Boer War. It quite clearly has an anti-British agenda as it shows a morally corrupt British government, willing to sacrifice the lives of some Australian soldiers in order to achieve a peace treaty with the Boer commandos. The political thrust of this film is mirrored in the slightly earlier (?) film Gallipoli.
• Excalibur
  I remember the excitement in the air when this film was being created because the SCA (which started in my home town of Berkeley) was involved in realistic battles. Excalibur did have accurate medieval battles, but 15 years later, Braveheart was even more accurate (and bloody, and yes, better). Basically the story of Arthur is too long for a two hour film and although the director (Boorman) had good intentions, ultimately it was not a success. The first battle (siege of the castle) still sticks in my memory while all else has faded.
• My Dinner with Andre
  I like this film a great deal. I own the screen play for the film and it reads very well. The point to this film is that Andre Gregory is a fascinating character and it shows in the film. He is at once both accepting and honest and yet he retains his distance from the events of his life. As a work of modern philosophy I rank it very highly. One of the most unusual films in history.
• Raiders of the Lost Ark
  This movie is a very obvious choice as Raiders was rated by just about everyone as one of the best action-adventure films of all time. I remember seeing the preview in the Davis movie theater. It was a jaw dropping experience. I couldn't believe they (Spielburg & Lucas) would do such a movie. The preview was so over the top at first I thought it was a joke. In retrospect this is the ultimate action-adventure film. No subsequent film has toped this film in its delicate balance of humor, violence, and dizzy pacing. I personally don't think Spielburg has directed a more enjoyable film in his incredible career.
• Conan
  I have been a Conan fan since I first discovered him in 1973. The idea of Arnold, the strongest (or best muscled) man on Earth playing Conan was simply perfect. Arnold was, and always will be, the best Conan. To be sure this is not a great film. Arnold was not a good actor, his English was very poor, and the plot was not really a classic Conan plot. Still, there was a blood and thunder quality to the film that did strongly resemble the heart of the Conan stories, at least as I understood them.

  1982

• Ghandi
  Now this film is a classic. Fully deserving of all the accolades that were heaped upon it. I regard this as a flawless movie about one of history's most amazing characters. Ben Kingsly is one of the great actors of our time and his performance in the title role was super. The Indian music of the film, composed by Ravi Shankar, was also flawless. The scene where Ghandi tours India by train is both visually and sonically unforgettable. Other great scenes: the massacre at Amritsar, the non-violent salt protest, Ghandi's fast to end violence, and his funeral are all great moments in film. To be sure, Ghandi was a complex character, far more complicated and less pure than the film suggested. However, this Ghandi of myth was the Ghandi that inspired Martin Luther King, and will hopefully continue to inspire people with a vision of non-violent revolution.
• Tootsie
  One of the great comic films of all time. Hoffman played a character that was very close to the real Dustin Hoffman: picky, mercurial, talented as hell, and in need of a role that forced him to be under strict control. His co-stars: Jessica Lang (who never looked so beautiful), Bill Murray, Teri Gar, and the director (who played Dustin's agent) were all super. This is a film that is a real pleasure to watch many times.
• Diva
  My favorite French film. Diva has largely been forgotten since its release but the whole film remains burned into my mind. Yet another example of the way music and visual images can work together to create an experience of unmatched power. I am not a fan of Opera, but the aria which is sung in the film is so beautiful, it nearly makes a believer out of me (believer in the value of Opera as an art form today). There is hardly a weak moment in the whole film. Very French, very artistic, very good.
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
  Still widely regarded as the best of the eight Star Trek films (I rate it ahead of Star Trek IV and Star Trek: First Contact (8)). Featuring some of the best special effects in space ship combat ever filmed. It also had a great villain, and a wonderful, heroic act of self-sacrifice at the end of the film (bringing back Spock from the dead does somewhat cheapen this).

  The story I heard about the special effects was that Lucas Arts did not want to do this film, so they submitted a very high bid for the film special effects, thinking they would not be chosen. When they were chosen, they fell in love with the project and made it look even better than Star Wars. I believe the fantastic job Lucas Arts did on this film, resulted in them becoming the number 1 special effects company in the world.

• Mephisto
  One of the best German films, it was overly long and the story wasn't that interesting. It is really only saved from obscurity by the power of Klaus Maria Brandaur's performance.
  Page by Colin Glassey <cglassey@teleologic.com>