25 From 82: My Favorite Films Of 1982

 Before there was the Matrix,
there was TRON.
 And before there was TRON,
there was Metropolis.
 But Metropolis is going back too far, and this list is about the year 1982, so let's jump back to TRON. 
 Okay,
so maybe there really isn't all that much as far as compelling storyline goes in this cyber-epic-fantasy. But, boy, those visuals were unlike anything we had seen before. The science of computer graphic effects was fully upon us and in a land not too far away, the force known as CGI was gestating to become the meat that would make the eyes of sci-fan's drool from here to the eternity of this genre's future.
 Maybe I look upon this film with the nostalgic affection that held my young visual senses in a unblinking attention at the time, but it also represented of what was possible when man and modem meet.
  I won't try to convince anyone out there that this is a great film on any level (especially since this was the same year the superior sci-fi world of Blade Runner was also released), but I do feel that it's a step in science fiction that was inevitable.
You are now entering the infinite possibilities of cyber-space. Not to mention the matrix of my own personal guilty pleasures.

 "KHAAAAAANNNNN!!!!!!"
Yeah, that's a meme and a gif that we've seen for many years all over social media, and this is the movie from whence it came. 
  In a year that has more landmark science fiction films that probably any other in the 80's, the second Star Trek is no exception. The other ones that I have on this list are Tron, Blade Runner, The Thing and of course E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and each one those have, in their own particular way, helped to move the genre of sci-fi forward in one aspect or another. I won't get into any details of what exactly they each did because their effects are pretty well evident considering how well they each are still well known among movie fans all these decades later.
  Now Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan's footprint may not be as big or monumental as the other sci-fi epics of 1982, but it is more than that just a popular meme/gif that still makes the rounds on the internet. One of the major contributions that Khan provided was the franchise of Star trek itself. After the cultural sweeping effect of the original Star Wars trilogy, the producers of the Star Trek TV show decided to see if they could ride the wave for the purposes of bring Capt. Kirk and his crew back into the limelight. This time however they wanted to go bigger than the small screen of the television and set their eyes on the big silver screen of the movie theaters. Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1979 was the end result of those aims. However, even though that film debut did okay, it wasn't the huge splash that the producers were hoping for, especially on a critical level. The future of the franchise was now riding on the success of the sequel, and so, producers knew that they would have to go big. Which they managed to do, by enlisting a character that had been featured in the TV series and "fleshing" him out to be the bad guy for the movie. It was a move that worked, and now, with a tighter script, more actiony action sequences, and even more substantial special effects, The Wrath of Khan was the spark that was needed to take the franchise where it had never traveled before.... to box office gold. With a greater output of movies, and with multiple offshoots at the television level, Trek has become the biggest competitor to Star Wars, and now, decades later, has lived long and prospered beyond a Trekkie's wildest dreams. 

An old Star Trek villain, the genetically engineered Khan, is back. And he now has a wrath to bestow upon our galaxy-galloping heroes.
  Not only that, but he also has both a United Federation starship and the Genesis device at his command.
  Will the now Admiral James T. Kirk & Crew be able to stop the chesty madman before it's too late?
  Well, I don't wanna spoil the suspense for any viewers out there who have not yet seen this early 80's sci-fi classic, but since there were a bunch more sequels added to the franchise after this film, I'm sure it's pretty easy to figure out what the outcome was.

Two guys, one bored with life, the other always on the lookout for a get-rich-quick scheme, work the late shift at a morgue.
One night, when the friendly neighboring hooker loses her pimp, they help her out of a jam by providing her and her colleagues with the services of a surrogate sugar daddy. Right there in the morgue.



Henry Wrinkler and Shelly Long, two stars known more for their television work, headline this stiffed-storied film affair, directed by then-newcomer Ron Howard and featuring an exceptionally excellent debut by Mr. Mom himself, Michael Keaton.

Jim Henson decides to take his puppet wizardy outside the concrete borders of Sesame Street and into mystical realm of dark fantasy.
Back in the day, it was rare that you would find a solid quality fantasy flick playing on movie screens. One of the main reason was the logistics of the medium. At a time when computer based special effects were still climbing outta the womb, it cost movie companies a crapload of money to make a fantasy flick. Usually more than it was worth.
Henson, however, was able to "walk" around the problem by making all the characters puppets. And even though the cost of these puppets was still pretty high compared to the dollar tagged to Big Bird and Co., it was still well below what was typically expected to tell a tale of magicks and monsters.
So, even though the every member of the cast here are all muppets,
there's still enough Tolkien style characters, macabre mysticism, not to mention an epic climaxing quest, in The Dark Crystal, to fulfill the needs of even the most discerning fan of the genre.

How does a movie have a female dwarf play the role of a male dwarf and pull it off? Easy. Film it on the year of living dangerously.



Mel Gibson, riding on a fast train to super stardom, teams up once again with fellow Aussie mate, director Peter Weir, along with another rising star, Sigourny Weaver, in the international melodrama depicting the Indonesia Coup of 1965.
And I gotta admit, I'm one of those people who knew absolutely nothing about any Indonesian coup from the sixties until I saw this film.
I guess if I spent more time studying foreign history than I did watching movies, then I'd be more knowledgable about this kind of stuff.
But then again, that would probably mean that I wouldn't be here on this site, enjoying and sharing fave film lists with all of you wonderful people.

What can be more difficult than trying to haul a 30 ton steamship over an Amazonian mountain in the early 1900's? Making a movie about hauling a 30 ton steamship over an Amazonian mountain in the early 1980's.
Burden Of Dreams is a documentary that follows the journey of Werner Herzog and his film crew as they attempt to make the movie Fitzcarraldo, also released in the year 1982 (not to mention that it's also on this list). With the entire production and it's people situated in the South American jungle, Herzog, as a director, finds that filming his latest epic proves to be a dream as burdensome (maybe even more so) than the impossible task that is the film's premise.
And as a movie viewer, it's almost as compelling and entertaining to watch the making of "Fitz" as it is the final product.

Yo, look everybody! It a young hot Phoebe Cates, in a bikini and iconically soaking wet!
Also featuring Sean Penn as one of the first surfers d00ds of the 80's that would lead other slacker-filled films like Bill and Ted's and what not.
Plus, not only was this was Cameron Crowe's first film, but Ridgemont High was also the setting for some of the earliest appearances of budding stars like Nicolas Cage, Forrest Whitaker, Eric Stolz and Jennifer Jason Leigh.
Oh, and did I mention that it features the groundbreaking iconic bikini shot of a wet Phoebe Cates?

Say Amen, Somebody is an excellent documentary that provides a delving look into the world of gospel music. It focuses on the lives of two of the most iconic leaders of the genre, Thomas A. Dorsey and Willie May Ford Smith to show the kind jubilance and spiritual revitalization that can come from celebrating "Get Happy" music.
No matter what your beliefs are in the realm of the spirit, after watching this film, there's a pretty good chance that you will feel a strong urge to say "Amen".

Starting through the mid 70's and continuing to the 80's, Richard Pryor was heralded as the King Of Comedy. And it was this title that not only spurred on his movie career, but heck, even got him to team up with Superman (although, it was a pairing that had proved to be almost as lethal as Kryptonite to the Man Of Steel).
Pryor's silver streak of success continues in this live comedy concert film, featuring a nite of hard-hitting material that shows why a streetwise huckster was able to hold the crown as regally as he did. Bold, honest and as always, sincerely funny, RPLotSS also proved to be one of the most successful of his onstage stand-up flicks.

First, let me get this out of the way....
there is absolutely nothing that I find terribly frightening about a television set. I mean, sure, at the time of this movie's release there was growing concern by many a household that their children were evolving from human beings to a more vegetable-like organism as a result of all the time they spent in front of the boob-tube. But that is a fear that's has since been transferred to the internet.
So, even though I have enough warm memories of piling into a car with four or five of my then high school buddies to go to the theater and watch this Spielberg-scribed supernatural-thriller, the truth is, I don't consider Poltergeist to be that all that high on the hierarchy of horror flix as most film critics do. Nor do I consider it in Steven Spielberg's top ten. And I know that that puts me in a very small minority of movie fans and aficionados. But that's just me.
All that said, I still do enjoy the high quality approach that Polty takes to it's phantasmic premise. And I also appreciate the fact that it's still a worthy pause when flipping through the channels late at night whilst comfortably crouched behind a big ol' bucket of popcorn.

After spending 33 in prison for robbing stagecoaches, Bill Miner enters the 20th century with the old habit of stealing for a living dying harder, despite being an outdated means of income.
With The Grey Fox, the western film genre enters into the modern age of film, as the straightforward white hats vs black hats storylines are completely out of the picture and are replaced by more layered characters who disspell the traditional boundaries of what makes a cowboy a good guy or a bad guy.
Fronted with an enthusiastic portrayal by Richard Farnsworth as a dusty "gentleman thief", this is a movie that finally edges the genre of the Ol' West shoot 'em ups over the line to the modern mode of bronco busting banditry.

Jack Lemmon pairs up his seasoned acting experience with the red-hot thespian skillz of then-young actress Sissy Spacek, who at the time, was at the peak of her popularity (with good reason). The combo earned the pair their fare of accolades and helped to put this "small" movie on the map.



Based on a true story (more so than most "based-on-a-true-story" stories) Missing depicts the search for a U.S. reporter who has disappeared in a South American country during a U.S. backed coup of it's socialist leader. Looking for his whereabouts is his wife and his dad, both of whom, despite their conflicting political views, must band together if they hope to have any chance of discovering the fate of their missing loved one.

In early 1900's Sweden, a well-to-do family suddenly finds it household radically shaken when the father dies of a stroke. Seen through the eyes and minds of the two youngest children Fanny and Alexander (mostly Alexander's though), the clandestine drama unfolds between stark reality and childlike imagination.



Directed by legendary filmmaker Ingar Bergman, this is a movie that is a defining moment in what I interpret to be arthouse filmmaking. The story is set up so that the momentum of the movie is dictated by the twists and turns that naturally spawn from life's turmoils, therefore avoiding the linear unreality that usually results from the formula of more mainstream features. But it doesn't stray too far off the road that the plot loses its stream of purpose. The artistic abstraction comes more in the style that the story is presented, so that the viewer isn't left stranded in the middle of a bunch vague blank spaces that he or she has to fill in him/herself.

If you've never seen any of Meryl Streep's movies and have been wondering what all the hype is about her and her acting,
this is the movie to check out.
I only recently watched it for the first time, and find Mz. Streep's performance everything I had heard about it.
One the best actresses to ever grace the silver screen at her best (and to be honest, judging from her most recent films, like The Devil Wears Prada, Julie & Julia, and Doubt, it's a streak of high level of quality acting that seems to still be going strong).

Taking place in the early 20th century, Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald is a small time businessman with a dream; to build an opera house in Iquitos, a town situated in the middle of a large Peruvian rainforest.
So he instigates a plan in which he will haul an enormous steam ship over a mountain into an unclaimed yet hard to get to crop of land that's teeming with gold producing rubber trees.
And ya gotta admit, even in the wild wilderness of the Amazon, that's not something you see every day. Heck, it's something you almost never on the big screen.
And if that's not enough to arouse your curiosity to see this movie, add on the fact that this is another entry to the unique list of classically visually affecting cinema that results from the team of Werner Herzog and Klaus Klinski, and you'll find that Fitzcarraldo is the type of must-see movie that satisfies the taste of even the most expanded palate of any celluloid consuming connoisseur.

This film is often credited as the one that started the trend for the modern "buddy cop" movie that took over theaters thru-out the 80's and early 90's. And as the one that set the standard for the story of how two completely different cops from different backgrounds must learn to work together to solve a crime.
And even though Eddie Murphy's character isn't a cop in this movie, it's still okay, since this film's director, Walter Hill, isn't really a hill.

  Almost a decade and a half earlier before Blade Runner, Stanley Kubrick directed 2001: A Space Odyssey, in which he was able to make it into one the first films to successfully marry the big budget science fiction blockbuster with that of a psychological thriller so that all the high tech flashiness of sci-fi acted as a contrasting backdrop to a darker side that resided underneath all the complicated buttons and wires of futuristic technology.
 Then, in 1979, came Ridley Scott's Alien, which did the same for the darkside of a sci-fi film, but this time, integrate it more in the method of the straight-up horror genre. Scott then followed that up with another marriage to sci-fi, but this time in the cinematic category of film noir. 



 In this story of replicant-hunter Rick Deckard, Scott depicts what lays beneath all the flashy neon lights that decorately symbolize the endless possibilities of the future. Blade Runner tells a tale of the gritty and grimy layers of lost and forgotten cybo-souls that have accumulated at the bottom of the star scraping structures that make up the world to be and which act as a foundation of those towering spires of technological brilliance that would allow the mortal men living in 'em to perceive themselves as gods. 
  It is a story that takes the black and white premise of the gumshoe detective and expands it inside the brightly colored epic of a dystopian tomorrow. There's still an atmosphere of noir to the whole thing, but now it's speckled with sparkles that adds a modern sense of irony which help to emphasize the theme of one's right to exist within the expanding parameters of the evolution of time. It the kind of weighty stuff that Ridley uses to remind us that this is what the fiction of science was made for. Blade Runner is just as equally a visual stunner as the other famous sci-fi classic that Harrison Ford is known for, but now, instead of a distant galaxy far far away, it's in a distant future that more down to Earth.

The thing in question is an alien life form that doesn't seem to have much in the way of a form other than when it takes on a host. And once it has gotten "possesion of your body" it will then mangle the shape of your physical form beyond anything you could even dream up in your worst nightmares. This is a film that can literally hold true to the idea that the thing most scary about this movie, is that it's a movie about a scary Thing.



I remember, as a kid, going to the theater to watch this movie and my young mind thinking to itself what a weird and yet kick-ass life-form the Thing was in this movie.

I remember, as a kid, going to the theatre to watch this movie and my young mind thinking to itself what a weird and yet kick-ass life-form Sylvester Stallone was in this movie.



Lemme tell you guys sumthin, before the Rambo character become the cartoon like character of violence that he's become famous for, he initially drew First Blood in a small town with a more "realistic" kind of rampage (that is, if you define realism by Hollywood standards). And even though it was toned down compared to what would come later, he was still able to seriously kick some ass. Just not with as much snickering or as many eyerolls from movie viewers that the successors of this series tend to receive. This movie was both over the top and yet down to earth at the same time.
I mean, y'know...
...for a Stallone movie, that is.

Outside of When Harry Met Sally, this movie ranks as one that could easily represent the epitomy of the modern romantic comedy.
A good script, with each of the central actors approaching their roles with quality efforts, despite the lightness of the subject matter. This movie has the heart, laughs, chemistry and even a touch of satiric social commentary that matches the rest of the film's themes in the same way that a nice pair of high heels would match an elegant dress-gown.
Tootsie's end-result is that it satisfies in the manner which was always meant to be of the rom-com when the genre was first conceived.

There once was a boy named Tim Burton, who had an obsession with Vincent Price and a dream about a certain style of stop-motion animation. So when he grew up, he made a short film with a certain type of stop-motion animation and he made it about the story about a boy who had with an obsession with Vincent Price.
And so distinctive and stylistic was the animation, so eerily cool and quaint was the story, that despite being only six minutes long, this short animated flick still ranked up there with the best of all other 1982 cinema.

As good a movie that Diner is (and believe me, its a damn good movie), it's one of those films that is usually remembered for one particular scene. For those of you who have seen this coming of age "dromedy", you know that the scene that I'm referring to is the one involving the popcorn trick.
And for any of you who may be thinking of trying it, lemme just say that I tried that trick with the popcorn once.
Turns out, just like in the movie, it doesn't work.
Especially if the girl who you tried it on, while she may be on a date, it isn't with you.

Probably my favorite court drama of all time. With almost a seasoned ease, Paul Newman portrays a disheveled, aging, never-has-been, malpractice lawyer who finds within himself the humanity which never really had a chance to surface due to the layered weight of his chronic alcoholism.



Newman's performance in the Verdict sets up very well the desolation and loneliness that the main character moves his life thru as he goes up against the legal system that gigantically favors the "big guys" over the "little guys". One can really get the sense that Newman knows that he stands no chance of winning the case, but continues moving on forward because he is, for the first time in his barely negligible career, fueled by the honesty and goodness of what is right. A feeling that is so new to this character, that, combined with the realizaton that a human life is totally dependent him for justice, it becomes emotionally exhilarating enough to keep an almost broken old man to keep fighting on, no matter how high the price.
One of those rare times when the performance comes thru real enough to make us (oh, what am I'm talkin' about this "us" bullsh#t? What I really mean is "me") almost believe that even under the most insurmountable odds, there is always some kind of hope.

  This movie has gotten such a stigma attached to it, that I easily forget how much I enjoy watching it. After several years of this movie collecting dust on my video collection, I watched it with my six-year-old niece a couple of months ago, and I'll be honest with you: I don't know which one of us was left sitting there with more childlike awe and wonder on our faces.
 Her, b'cuz as a child, she thought that E.T., was one amazing tale.
 Or me, b'cuz as an adult, I thought that Elliot's mom was one amazing tail.
Seriously, though, as a kid or as a grown up, I think that this is Steven Spielberg's sci-fi masterpiece. With the exception of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, of course.
  An extra-terrestrial becomes trapped on our planet and befriends an Earthling boy who shares it's love for Reese's Pieces. From there, these two beings "from different worlds" (one of the rare times that this phrase is used in the most literal sense possible), begin to share each other's experiences in a bond that can only result from unconditional acceptance.
A moving picture which teaches that when it comes to a deep longing for love in the form of kindness and friendship, we humans are not alone.
And all we have to do to get it, even on a universally galactic level, is to just simply "be.... good".

The British Empire, humbled via one man & the power of peaceful resistance.
Nuff said.