1980s in film

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[edit] Overview

The 1980s produced many significant films both in Hollywood and worldwide. The decade saw the continued rise of the blockbuster, an increased amount of nudity in film and the increasing emphasis in the American industry on film franchises, especially in the science fiction, horror, and action genres. The teen comedy sub-genre saw popularity during this decade. Much of the reliance on these effect-driven blockbusters is due in part to the Star Wars films at the advent of this decade and the new cinematic effects it helped to pioneer alongside it.

[edit] The decade

Poster for The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

The decade started continuing the blockbuster boom of the mid-'70s. The Empire Strikes Back kicked off the decade. The sequel to 77's Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back opened in May of 1980 becoming the highest-grossing film of the year. The film is considered among the best of films of the decade (it being the highest rated '80s film on IMDb). It was followed by Return of the Jedi (1983) finishing the saga. It perfectly set the euphoric fanastical tone of many of the similar films to come. Superman II was released in Europe and Australia in late 1980 but not distributed in the United States until June 1981. It was directed by two directors creating a long controversy over the film that caused a second version to be released in 2006. Though now seen as campier over the original 1978 Superman, Superman II was received with a positive reaction. From the success of The Empire Strikes Back, creator George Lucas teamed up with director Steven Spielberg to create one of the most iconic characters in the 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark starring Harrison Ford who also co-starred in The Empire Strikes Back. The story about an archaeologist and adventurer, Indiana Jones (Ford), hired by the U.S. government to go on a quest for the mystical lost Ark of the Covenant created waves of interest in old 1930s style cliffhanger serials. It became the highest grossing film of '81 leading to more sequels. Continuing the eighties' science-fiction boom was Australian post-apocalyptic science fiction Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior with a leather-clad outlaw fighting road barbarians in the futuristic desert wasteland. Another futuristic adventure released the same year, Escape from New York, also saw an anti-hero set in a dystopian future. In 1982 yet another film set in a dystopian feature, the Tech-noirish Blade Runner starred Harrison Ford as a detective searching for renegade androids. Spielberg then directed his fairy-tale science-fiction film E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial.

Fantasy film saw a resurgence particularly in sword and sorcery film. 1981's Dragonslayer, Excalibur, Raiders of the Lost Ark started it off but it was 82's Conan the Barbarian which caused the fantasy explosion. The epic starred Arnold Schwarzenegger in his acting breakthrough as he began his ascent to stardom. Loosely based on the original tales by Robert E. Howard, the film was written by the unlikely pairing of Oliver Stone and John Milius. Its sequel followed in 1984 with the light-weight Conan the Destroyer. Schwarzenneger returned again to a similar sword-wielding role in 1985's Red Sonja. The same year similar films followed such as The Sword and the Sorcerer, The Beastmaster and the Ator films. Fairy-tale fantasy was also popular such as The Neverending Story (1984), Legend (1985), and The Princess Bride (1987).

Creativity from '70s horror films extended toward the early part of the '80s except having more gore, with many successful '80s horror films having numerous sequels. Stanley Kubrick directed his horror film The Shining (1980). The creative and gory The Evil Dead (1981) with its secluded atmosphere is seen by many as one of the best in its genre leading to its inevitable sequel Evil Dead II in 1987. Halloween director John Carpenter's The Thing (1982) shocked audiences in its effects. Sequels to Halloween (1978), Friday the 13th (1980), and A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) were the popular face of horror films in the 1980s, a trend reviled by most critics. David Cronenberg's graphic and gory Scanners (1982) and the remake of The Fly, was released in 1986, about a few weeks from the James Cameron film Aliens. Stuart Gordon's Re-Animator (1985), Dan O'Bannon's The Return of the Living Dead, and Lloyd Kaufman's The Toxic Avenger (all 1985), soon followed.

The disaster films of the previous decade were spoofed in the gag comedy Airplane!, paving the way for more of the same including its 1982 sequel Airplane II: The Sequel, Top Secret! (1984) and the Naked Gun films. Popular comedy stars in the '80s included Leslie Nielsen, John Candy, Steve Martin, Eddie Murphy, Bill Murray, Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd. Many had come to prominence on the American TV series Saturday Night Live, including Bill Murray, Steve Martin and Chevy Chase. Eddie Murphy made a success of comedy-action films including 48 Hrs. (1982) and the Beverly Hills Cop series (1984-1993).

DVD cover art for Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)

Influenced largely by 1978's Animal House, the decade also saw the continued rise of teen comedies like Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Porky's and Revenge of the Nerds. Also popular were the films of John Hughes such as Ferris Bueller's Day Off. He would later create the Home Alone series of the early 1990s. The latter film helped a revival in comedies aimed at a family audience, along with Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and its sequels. Other notable comedies of the decade include the gender-swap film Tootsie (1982), Broadcast News (1987), and a brief spate of age-reversal films including Big, 18 Again, Vice Versa and Like Father, Like Son. Also notable were the Police Academy series of broad comedies, produced between 1984 and 1993. In the late 1970s and early 1980s a trend emerged toward the release of sequels based on previously successful productions. Among the sequels were Trail of the Pink Panther, The Great Muppet Caper, and Porky's II: The Next Day.

Poster for Die Hard (1988)

In the seventies, action films usually focused on maverick police officers, however, the action film did not become a dominant form in Hollywood until the '80s when it was popularized by actors such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, and Bruce Willis. Stalllone continued the Rocky series and starred in 82's First Blood about a returning Vietnam war veteran fighting a small town sheriff and its sequel Rambo II. Vietnam war films grew in popularity in the '80s as a film subject which was still seen as a taboo in the '70s. Movies like Platoon and Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket made the war a subject. Chuck Norris starred in the Missing in Action trilogy (1984, 1985, 1988) about a Vietnam veteran going back to rescue POWs. Schwarzenneger starred in The Terminator (1984), Commando (1986), and Predator (1987), The 1988 film Die Hard was particularly influential on the development of the genre in the following decade. In the movie, Bruce Willis plays a New York police detective who inadvertently becomes embroiled in a terrorist take-over of a Los Angeles office block.

The James Bond film series entered its third decade in 1981 with Roger Moore starring in the more realistic For Your Eyes Only after the outlandish excess of Moonraker in 1979. The decade saw the beginning of a new era for Bond since the previous decade's directors originally directed a 1960s Bond, the new director brought to the series, John Glen, criticized for a less stylistic and more "workman" style of direction, directed all the EON Bond films from 1981 to 1989. As opposed to a more campy '70s decade, the '80s Bonds were generally more gritty. Also, Moonraker was the last for regular Bernard Lee who portrayed Bond's boss M. For the eighties Bonds, a collection of numerous MI6 superiors would brief Bond on his missions. 1983 was a significant year for the series as a non-EON Bond was released, Never Say Never Again, directed by The Empire Strikes Back director Irvin Kershner with Sean Connery returning to the role for the last time since 1971's Diamonds are Forever; it was competing with the next EON film Octopussy at the box-office with media dubbing the situation 'The Battle of the Bonds'. Even lesser known in the same year was one-time Bond George Lazenby appearing in the TV-reunion movie The Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E. as a Bond-like character "JB". A View to a Kill (1985) was the last for Roger Moore before Timothy Dalton was chosen as the new Bond in 1987's The Living Daylights and lastly in 1989's License to Kill.