Resolution #3 for 2011: Watch one 1980s movie per month.
I like watching movies. I wouldn't consider myself a movie junkie or geek, but I do make good use of my Netflix subscription. I'm not a reservoir of Hollywood trivia knowledge. I do like hearing the details about the who, what, why and how behind the genesis and production of particular films. I know very little about the techniques and methods behind cinematography. I'm not sure where I fall on the spectrum of movie consumption but I'm probably not that far from the average. But what I do know is there is a gaping hole in my film experience: the 1980s.
I didn't actually realize how pathetic my '80s movie background was until I married Julie. One of Julie's virtues is her willingness to point out any of my inadequacies. (God bless her.) It's a pretty regular occurrence for her to raise her eyebrows, drop her jaw and gasp, "You've
never seen [insert '80s movie]?! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!?!" (For the record, nothing's wrong with me. She's actually the weirdo. She's just a weirdo that apparently has seen every movie made since 1979.) She
really freaked out, though, when she discovered that I had never seen Footloose. This was the tipping point. It was as if I had duped her into marrying me and after five years and four kids she had suddenly found out my deep, dark secret. Her foundation had been rocked. Thanks to some personal reflection, counseling and Netflix streaming I was able to rectify the situation and save our marriage.
But she's right. Movies are a form of art and you have to see certain movies to truly appreciate other certain movies. It's like any other creative medium - your appreciation of one particular piece is actually enhanced by your experiences with other, sometimes seemingly unrelated, pieces. Just like literature, art, architecture, video games, dance and music, it's fluid. Any given movie reaches back and steps forward all at once. I mean, how can you truly appreciate Andy Samberg's breakdown in Hot Rod if you've never fully seen Kevin Bacon's iconic dance in Footloose? (You can't.) (By the way, the remake of "Footloose" releases this year.)
Skipping '80s cinema was not a deliberate choice. I think there are three reasons why I've only seen a few movies from that entire decade.
- I was three years old when the decade started and thirteen when it ended. It's not like I was hitting the theater that often for the first half of the decade.
- My parents never had cable (and still don't). I didn't get to play quick catch up as all these flicks went from the big screen to the small screen.
- At that time, my parents weren't readily letting me watch PG-13 and R rated movies. I blame my older cousins Doug and Curt for not hooking me up with more nefarious fare. (Though their house was an oasis of HBO and Showtime.)
So, most of the things I saw in the 1980s were family friendly options I saw when they were released or teenage boy favorites I caught up with in high school and college. Everything else is a blank.
But now the time has come to make amends. At long last, the holy trinity of art, science and my wife's badgering have serendipitously converged to give me the means to excise this monkey from my back.
With some quick research I've generated a preliminary list of 1980s movies that I need to see. (If you're looking for an '80s film fansite,
this can't be beat.) It's a long list and it's one of those situations where I don't know what I don't know. I'm sure there are many more movies I'm leaving off the list. Following my resolution to watch one '80s movie per month will hardly put a dent in this list, though. I'll need to shoot for at least two 1980s movies per month this year if I hope to make any significant progress.
It's a long list, but not all of my movie deficiencies are the same. There are basically three categories of films in my missed '80s list:
- Movies I feel like I've seen, but haven't really. These are movies that are on TV all the time. I've maybe viewed 70% of the movie, though not in the proper sequence or in one sitting. Often they're full of iconic scenes or quotes that everyone else always mentions to the point where I'm fooled into thinking I've seen it, too. I've usually avoided picking up these movies because when you know all the actors, the key scenes and the memorable quotes, what's the point? Die Hard used to be in this category.
- Movies with which I'm familiar but just haven't gotten around to watching. These movies can be pop culture staples and, like movies in the first category, I may be very familiar with some of the scenes or quotes. They're sometimes iconic movies and they're referenced so frequently that I've come to understand their significance without ever seeing much, or even any, of the film. I always intend to watch these movies but never get around to it. Footloose was in this category.
- Movies I don't even know I need to see. I've maybe heard the title of these movies, even repeatedly, but that's about it. I know little about who acted in or directed these films. I may not even have known they were from the '80s. Or, I wasn't even aware of these movies at all. These movies are only on the list because Julie or the internet said they should be. On Golden Pond is one of these movies.
Julie says I'm not allowed to call myself a movie lover until I face these demons. Obviously I can't see every film I've missed - I mean, I am a stay at home dad with four kids, precious little free time and plenty of other things to do besides watching movies. I'm going to need your help on two parts of this challenge. First, what movies do I need to add to my list? I tried to be thorough, but I could be missing important films. And second, if I only get to watch a couple dozen of these movies this year, which ones should they be?
I need your feedback, but let me first give you the list of '80s movies I've managed to view already. (Of course some of these are only here because Julie forced me to watch them.) You'll notice that these are all mainstream movies and most of them were geared towards younger audiences.
Note: On all of the lists, I didn't (knowingly) include any series of films that began in the
'70s. For example, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi are excluded because Star Wars, the first film in the trilogy, was released in 1977. (Which makes this post's title ironic!)
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| A Christmas Story | Parenthood |
| A Fish Called Wanda | Police Academy |
| Airplane | Predator |
| Back to the Future | Raging Bull |
| Batman | Raiders of the Lost Ark |
| Beetlejuice | Raising Arizona |
| Big | Rutheless People |
| Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure | Short Circuit |
| Caddyshack | Spaceballs |
| Clue | Splash |
| Commando | Terminator |
| Crocodile Dundee | The Breakfast Club |
| Dead Poet's Society | The Dark Crystal |
| Die Hard | The Goonies |
| ET: The Extra-Terrestrial | The Great Outdoors |
| Fast Times at Ridgemont High | The Karate Kid |
| Ferris Bueller's Day Off | The Neverending Story |
| Field of Dreams | The Princess Bride |
| Flight of the Navigator | The Three Amigos |
| Ghostbusters | Throw Mama from the Train |
| Good Morning, Vietnam | Top Gun |
| Gremlins | Transformers: The Movie |
| Hoosiers | Tron |
| Innerspace | Twins |
| Little Shop of Horrors | Uncle Buck |
| Mask | Who Framed Roger Rabbit |
| Naked Gun | Witness |
This next list is made up of movies I technically haven't sat down and watched straight through, but I've seen so much of them that I probably won't waste a viewing on them this year.
| '80s MOVIES I'VE PRACTICALLY SEEN | |
| Aliens | |
| Better Off Dead | |
| Beverly Hills Cop | |
| Blade Runner | |
| Children of the Corn | |
| Dirty Dancing | |
| Fletch | |
| Full Metal Jacket | |
| Howard the Duck | |
| Lethal Weapon | |
| Pee-Wees Big Adventure | |
| Planes, Tranes and Automobiles | |
| Rain Man | |
| Revenge of the Nerds | |
| Sixteen Candles | |
| Steel Magnolias | |
| Stripes | |
| Supergirl | |
| The Blues Brothers | |
| The Running Man | |
| Vacation | |
| Weird Science |
| |
These last two lists are where I want to make my movie selections for the year. There are well over a hundred films on this list and I'll need to narrow it down to a couple dozen.
| '80s MOVIES I NEED TO SEE | '80s MOVIES I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT |
| 48 Hours | A Chorus Line |
| 9 1/2 Weeks | Absence of Malice |
| 9 to 5 | Blood Simple |
| Amadeus | Blue Velvet |
| Arthur | Casualties of War |
| Back to School | Cinema Paradiso |
| Biloxi Blues | Colors |
| Bull Durham | Crimes and Misdemeanors |
| Cannonball Run | Das Boot |
| Can't Buy Me Love | Diner |
| Chariots of Fire | Eddie and the Cruisers |
| Child's Play | Eight Men Out |
| Christine | Escape from New York |
| Cocoon | Fatal Attraction |
| Conan: The Barbarian | Gallipoli |
| Dangerous Liaisons | Gandhi |
| Delta Force | Gung-Ho |
| Desperately Seeking Susan | Hannah and Her Sisters |
| Do the Right Thing | Heathers |
| Dragnet | Heaven Help Us |
| Driving Miss Daisy | Henry V |
| Earth Girls Are Easy | Labyrinth |
| Fame | My Left Foot |
| First Blood (Rambo) | My Life as a Dog |
| Friday the 13th | On Golden Pond |
| Glory | Once Upon a Time in America |
| Iron Eagle | Pale Rider |
| Johnny Dangerously | Private Benjamin |
| Lean on Me | Re-Animator |
| Moonstruck | Red Dawn |
| Nightmare on Elm Street | Roger and Me |
| Platoon | Running Scared |
| Poltergeist | Some Kind of Wonderful |
| Porky's | Starman |
| Pretty in Pink | Summer Rental |
| Purple Rain | Terms of Endearment |
| Red Heat | The Beastmaster |
| Risky Business | The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas |
| Roadhouse | The Big Easy |
| Robocop | The Elephant Man |
| Romancing the Stone | The Evil Dead |
| Roxanne | The Killing Fields |
| Scarface | The Last Emperor |
| Spies Like Us | The Last Starfighter |
| Stand by Me | The Last Temptation of Christ |
| Teen Wolf | The Lost Boys |
| The Abyss | The Man with One Red Shoe |
| The Bachelor Party | The Mission |
| The Big Chill | The Name of the Rose |
| The Burbs | The Thin Blue Line |
| The Color Purple | The Thing |
| The Fly | The Unbearable Lightness of Being |
| The Outsiders | The Untouchables |
| The Right Stuff | The World According to Garp |
| The Shining | Tough Guys |
| This Is Spinal Tap | Trading Places |
| Tootsie | Wargames |
| UHF | Young Sherlock Holmes |
| When Harry Met Sally | |
| Willow | |
| Young Guns | |
So there you have it - the cinematic skeleton in my closet. Now which movies do I need to see this year? Want to join in on the '80s film watching fun?
