I often dis the '80s because I hated the music, the TV shows, and the films that came out at the time. I'm actually starting to like some music from the '80s now that I have some critical distance from those times, but the TV shows still suck ass and I find them unwatchable. ALL of those sitcoms were wretchedly bad!
The films are a mixed bag. There was Amadeus, and a bunch of really shitty testosterone-induced flicks like the Rambo series, or the not-quite-funny John Hughes stuff, or the woefully predictable Spielburg/Lucas fare (much of it targeted at 13-year old boys). Brian dePalma and Martin Scorcese made some interesting films, Kubrick made one, and Ghandi was ok. But who can watch Ordinary People or The Big Chill without vomiting? Didn't these films win Best Picture? (I'm too lazy to check). Platoon? Pretentious, artless, preachy. Driving Miss Daisy? Awful. There were many more good films made in the '90s and the '70s than during the '80s.
That said, I did get
and wow, Linda Hunt really did do a great job, and the film is actually rather good. So I was wrong a couple months back when I said to K'wali that the 80s produced no truly memorable film performances (outside of My Left Foot and Raging Bull and Amadeus). I admit it.
I also watched
late Thursday night, and liked it. The film works for me best as a series of moods and impressions--the narrative at times is awkward and the viewer is left having to puzzle out stuff that could be clarified in exposition (this however would negatively impact a certain mysterious effect)--often I found myself completely absorbed in the beauty of this alternate world, and then jarred out of my reverie by an insipid or silly moment reminiscent of such awful Japanimated dreck as "Speed Racer": not to mention the fact that Jada Pinkett Smith and Billy Bob Thornton's and Billy Crudup's voices simply don't work here (tho Gillian Anderson's is really excellent, vascillating from a wrathful severity to the intonations of one trapped in a sort of dreamy trance). Still, well worth seeing, and I may in fact buy it because I liked enough of it so much to watch it again and again I'm sure.
10 comments:
First some small things to get out of the way:
Watch Mononoke Hime with subtitles (by Neil Gaiman by the by) for a more rewarding experience. The dub on that is too annoying for me. I do like the dubs on his other films but still, many times subtitles have more/different information.
As you are finding out 80s music is amazing. For further exploration I would recommend a boxset called left of the dial (coming out tomorrow!?!):
http://idealcopy.american-data.net/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=MU-VARIO-LEFTO-01&Category_Code=MUVA
Also early hip-hop and Prince is fertile ground for me anyway...
Now, I beg to differ...
The Thing
My Neighbor Totoro
Brazil
Blue Velvet
Yeelen
Coal Miner's Daughter
Mystery Train
The Right Stuff
Black Rain
Evil Dead II
Red Sorghum
The Dark Crystal
Police Story
And that's only counting one film per director--it excludes a bunch of Lynch, Carpenter, Imamura, Jarmusch, Chan, Raimi, and Gilliam films just for starters!
Also, it doesn't even include films by directors I don't know well: Wajda, Ray, Wenders, Altman, Herzog, Kieslowski, Tarkovsky, Godard, Bertolucci, etc. What about films I'm not sure about like Das Boot or Do the Right Thing?
Dammit! Don't generalize an era!!!!
What about Uma's memorable nightgown-ripping-off performance as Cecile de Volange? That was 1988!
:)
Em
I know, I know, I admitted I was wrong. I was a teen that decade but I didn't belong there. I get a headache when people tell me how great "Revenge of the Nerds," "Goonies," "Pretty in Pink," "War Games," or "Ferris Bueller" are. I simply can't sit through those films; they make me physically ill. I couldn't sit through them at the time either.
The '80s were good for horror; outside that genre there are several films from the '80s I admire a great deal (some FL listed for us--there are others), and many I'm sure I've yet to see. But I still think the '70s and '90s were more interesting cinematically.
SOME '80s music is rather good (I haven't heard anything that was "incredible"--because pop for me rarely achieves that level). Prince--I like some Prince, but much of it is too overproduced for my taste (note the "for my taste"--arguing about music is senseless, given that it's so so subjective, and that individual tastes can change unaccountably). Beastie Boys and Public Enemy and Grand Master Flash do offset nicely Phil Collins and Lionel Ritchie, but they don't cancel out Spandau Ballet and The Outfield (Slayer does!). I don't think the '80s were any better than the '50s,'60s, or '70s (many of my generation think the '80s trumps everything before, that's largely what I'm responding to here)--tho they certainly were better than the '90s! and the stuff that's out now? Well, we'll see in 20 years how I feel about it.
Oh, and Uma? It wasn't ripped off, it was pulled oh so swiftly up and over the head, and the image is still burned in my brain, as is the gasp of every woman in the theater at the time.
But then you had Keanu in the same film, making lots of foolish faces and emitting strange gutteral sounds in lieu of acting.
Well, let us not forget...
CRIMES & MISDEMEANORS (which you introduced me to)
SPINAL TAP
THE SHINING
A CHRISTMAS STORY
FULL METAL JACKET
All excellent works that stand up to a million viewings. I'd also throw in EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, but I'm having Star Wars backlash feelings lately.
You mention De Palma, which is good, since he made the
best slasher movie of the 80s: DRESSED TO KILL.
I feel you on the TV shows. Even shows I have some nostalgia for, like "Dallas" and "Dynasty" and "Three's Company", actually collapse into themselves when watched now.
I look at the 80s as a wasteland of "Family Ties," Pac Man, and horrid British pop.
I'm with you on the Kubricks (didn't I mention him originally), but not the Star Wars (which I loved originally but find trite and painfully bad now). Was The Shining '80s? Man, I thought that was late '70s (he looks it up on Google)--released in 1980. How about that. Well, it was SHOT and CONCEIVED in the '70s.
Woody Allen also made "Hannah and her Sisters" in the '80s--I still like it, despite Michael Caine. Was "Purple Rose of Cairo" '80s--that's a keeper as well.
De Palma--"Body Double" and "Scarface" were interesting, though I wouldn't call them wholly achieved works of art (I like Body Double better than Dressed to Kill). BTW--have you seen his recent stuff? It gets really maligned in the press and public eye, but I love Mission to Mars for its cornball audacity: having an astronaut's wristband flash "Point of No Return"? Fabulous. Nobody else is so aware of the potency of cinematic cliche. I even enjoyed Femme Fatale with Romjin-Stamos.
I agree about the Brit Pop. In fact, this whole train of thought started with us going to a Brit Pop celebration night at the Ottobar with two other couples. Out of the six people there, I was the only one who didn't think the '80s were particularly great. I DON'T want my MTV. Oh--the worst thing about '80s music-the 60s/70s dinosaur bands who had miserably bad albums that became hits: Pink Floyd, The Moody Blues, Dire Straights, Yes--and worst of all, the "supergroup" made up of former members of Yes/King Crimson/Bad Company/Emerson Lake and Palmer--ASIA! Kill me!
Oh, and worst movie of the '80s? E.T. Ugh! It made like all the money in the world, too.
1980: The Shining, Raging Bull, The Elephant Man, Kagemusha (The Shadow Warrior)
1982: Blade Runner (music VERY 80s - great anyway!!)
1983: Fanny and Alexander
1984: Dune (!) One of the greatest 'bad' movies ever made - fouled by DeLaurentis' pressure on David Lynch.
1984: Blood Simple
1986: Blue Velvet
1987: Full Metal Jacket
1990: Goodfellas (if the 1980 films are really late 70s, this film is late 80s - besides, 1990 was the last year of the 80s decade)
"Revenge of the Nerds," "Goonies," "Pretty in Pink," "War Games," or "Ferris Bueller"--all watched many times in my youth I admit. But not now--we watched Goonies with the kid and it was OK but obviously not a masterpiece. I mean, I would argue for Wrath of Khan but Octopussy? Idunno, it's one of my favorite movies but I wouldn't expect anyone else to agree with that. I was just trying to point out that to me every decade has a little bit of everything in it. Why break it up into ten year chunks anyway?
Did dePalma do The Untouchables?
Even as a kid I preferred Indiana Jones to Luke Skywalker, no contest.
Whoever mentioned Dune--that's not even a "bad" movie as far as I'm concerned--it's a masterpiece!!
Pop music brings me more pleasure than any other type of music--and you know I've a pretty eclectic collection. When done good it sends me more than any other kind. Many artists are British, but not sure what is meant by Brit-pop. And I love the 90s stuff too--heck there's a ton going on right now!
I will pass on "A Touch of Grey" though...
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