Seven 80s Movies Worth Watching (or Again)

We love that many of our readers will ask, “Hey, why not talk about that 1980s film?”  Or “Where is this ‘80s movie?”  Here now, seven suggestions for great cinema from that “totally tubular” time.

“Coal Miner’s Daughter” (1980): A Compelling Chronicle of Country Music Royalty

“I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you,” says Loretta Lynn (Sissy Spacek, in a stunning Oscar-winning tour de force) to her husband Doolittle (Tommy Lee Jones) deep into the 1980 biopic Coal Miner’s Daughter.

At this point in the story, Lynn is being run ragged on her way to a complete nervous breakdown on stage.  And her hubby is drinking himself into oblivion.  He’s got little else to do, having completed the job as the driving force in pushing his wife to superstardom.  Incidentally, Spacek herself performs all of the Loretta Lynn standards we hear in the film.  And she is consistently right on note.

Coal Miner’s Daughter is a captivating tale of striving to reach your dreams, surpassing even your wildest ones, crashing to the ground, then fighting to redeem what once was. But, above all else, it’s a glorious love story.  The Lynns are a husband and wife who come to realize that all the fame and fortune in the world really doesn’t mean a damn if you lose yourself, and those you love, to get there.

“The Entity” (1982): Shocking Tale, Superbly Acted

The unseen demon horror flick The Entity is truly terrifying.  These are not half-ass “jump scares”; these are bare-knuckle punches to the jaw.  They come immediately.  And they never relent.

Barbara Hershey is astonishing in a role as difficult and demanding as can be imagined.  Very few actresses could have played her character as convincingly, nor with such humanity.  Ron Silver’s performance as a sympathetic psychiatrist is perfection.

To present the plot is pointless; you have simply got to see the film.  As you watch, you’ll constantly be asking, “What in the hell would I do?  What can I do?”  The chilling epilogue presented in the final seconds make these questions even more disturbing.

“The Thing” (1982): Monster Movie Masterpiece

John Carpenter’s 1982 sci-fi horror cult classic The Thing solidified Kurt Russell as a total badass.  Russell’s MacReady is the leader among a bunch of guys encamped at a research outpost in Antarctica battling a diabolical shape-shifting “thing.” Fighting tooth and nail alongside Russell are veteran upper-echelon actors Wilford Brimley, Richard Dysart, David Clennon, and Richard Masur.  With true pro’s pros like these, any horror flick jumps up a couple of ticks on the quality meter.

The cumulative brilliance of the special effects and makeup crews leaves you aghast at the repulsive and terrifying monsters they’ve conjured.  Toss in the unsettling music scored by Ennio Morricone and Carpenter has constructed one of the most near-perfect dread fests of all time.

“A Christmas Story” (1983): Holiday Entertainment for Kids of all Ages

Ralphie Parker (Peter Billingsley) spends most of his time dodging a bully and dreaming of his ideal Christmas gift, a Red Ryder air rifle.  Frequently at odds with his cranky dad (Darren McGavin) but comforted by his doting mother (Melinda Dillon), Ralphie struggles to make it to Christmas Day with his glasses and his hopes intact.

A Christmas Story is a sweet, family-friendly fable, brought to life through winsome1940s nostalgia. Co-screenwriter Jean Shepherd based this tale on his own book and childhood.  He also narrates here.  Still, if you’re thinking everything is candy canes and mistletoe, think again.  Not when we bear witness to beating neighborhood bullies bloody, self-mutilation via a frozen flagpole forged from a “Triple Dog Dare” and the cleverly implied uttering of “The F Word”, Frosty.

“Lost in America” (1985): Cross-Country Comedy

From start to finish, Lost in America is laugh-out-loud funny. Director/Co-Star Albert Brooks plays a guy whose life circumstances have completely overwhelmed him.  Not an especially humorous situation, but in the hands of a true comic genius, it’s hysterical.

Brooks and Julie Hagerty play ’80s L.A. yuppie couple David and Linda Howard.  The prosperous professional pair have amassed enough liquidity to “drop out of life”.  They decide to live each day as it comes, driving across the USA in a fully loaded RV.  It’s David’s idea of paying homage to the rebel bikers featured in his favorite film, Easy Rider.

Things start off fine on a celebratory detour to Vegas to renew their wedding vows.  But then a catastrophic event propels them on a series of misadventures throughout the American southwest.

You’re bound to hit upon more than just a few moments that find your funny bone.

“Manhunter” (1986): The Petrifying Prequel to The Silence of the Lambs

In the 1980s, Michael Mann was the Executive Producer of the hip cop show Miami Vice. The edgy, atmospheric mood he infused into that landmark TV touchstone is splattered all over Manhunter, which he directed and for which he also wrote the screenplay.

William Petersen and the late, great Dennis Farina are both excellent as obsessed FBI agents.  The duo is hot on the trail of a psychopathic serial killer disciple of the notorious madman Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lecter.  While Mann has manufactured a solid suspense thriller, his production is drawn out longer than need be.  And it really loses its way about three-quarters of the way through.

Mann manages to right the ship, however, delivering a satisfying, and obligatorily bloody finale.  And it’s all orchestrated to the strains of Iron Butterfly’s eternally eerie “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida”.

“The Vanishing” (1988) won’t soon fade from Memory

Rex and Saskia are two young lovers on a car trip from Holland to France to do some vacation bicycling together.  They make a pit stop at a busy service station for petrol and drinks for the road.  Saskia disappears.

Three years later, she’s still missing without a trace.

Rex refuses to let his girlfriend’s memory fade, parting with his grip on reality and a new love interest as a result.  He begins receiving taunting postcards which he believes to be from Saskia’s abductor.  Thus begins a twisted cat-and-mouse game between a mentally deranged hunter and an emotionally damaged surviving victim.

We learn who the remorseless self-absorbed sociopath is before Rex does.  Yet unlike Saskia, this sick creature refuses to disappear.

-John Smistad

Photo: Getty Images