1980s – Page 8 – PopCult Reviews

My Favorite Films of 1983

The Outsiders
Written by Francis Ford Coppola & S. E. Hinton
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola

It was partly made out of Coppola’s dire need to pay off accumulated debts and an homage to the rebel films of the director’s youth. Based on the first young adult novel, The Outsiders follows teenager Ponyboy (C. Thomas Howell) as he grows up in a small Oklahoma town where the poor kids are constantly being targeted by the wealthy ones. Pony’s best friend Johnny (Ralph Macchio) accidentally kills one of these preppies out of self-defense, which sends the two boys scrambling into hiding. Through this trial, they are forced to confront the fragility of life and the beauty that each new day brings. Coppola created an emotionally moving and volatile film that captures the chaos of being a young adult. There are some stunningly beautiful images here where the director embraces the intentional artificiality of film in order to strengthen the visuals. The film also introduced us to many white boys who would dominate movies over the next decade, including a pre-dental work, Tom Cruise.

Read my full review here.

Movie Review – Eyes of Fire

Eyes of Fire (1983)
Written and directed by Avery Crounse

The American folk horror genre is surprisingly sparse compared to its British counterpart. Starting in the 1970s and continuing through today, British filmmakers continually find new angles to approach the horrors of rural life. With the States being such a vast landmass with plenty of myth & danger sprinkled through its most sparsely populated corners, you would expect more. Robert Eggers’ The Witch is the most prominent American folk horror film, and it becomes hard to name another. Avery Crounse wrote & directed his first feature film by focusing on the expansionist period of American history, following pioneers poorly prepared for what they would find and facing ancient evils tied to the land.

Movie Review – El Norte

El Norte (1983)
Written by Gregory Nava & Anna Thomas
Directed by Gregory Nava

The United States will never seal up their southern border. They will never stop using it as a political football, either. The States rely heavily on cheap, undocumented labor as part of capitalism. Allowing these workers to enter the country (even through illegal means) helps the wealthy squeeze native-born workers out of fair wages in exchange for compromising for lower pay to “be competitive.” This is a problem created by America as they additionally spend taxpayer money through the defense budget to continuously keep Central & South American countries economically & politically destabilized. They get to extract valuable resources from these regions and pay almost nothing, which leads to refugees seeking work elsewhere. The cruelty of this system is not an accident; it’s the catalyst that keeps the engine of capitalism running. It cannot be reformed; it must be abolished. In El Norte, we follow one such pair of economic refugees desperate to find a new life north of their home.

Movie Review – The 4th Man

The 4th Man (1983)
Written by Gerard Soeteman
Directed by Paul Verhoeven

In 1981, the Dutch author Gerard Reve was asked to supply the free book given away during an annual promotion of literacy in The Netherlands. If you bought any Dutch-language book that week, you would get a copy of Reve’s for free. Reve wrote De Vierde Man, a noirish psychological thriller. As a gay man and a Catholic, those themes would often get brought up in his books, this one was a little different as the lead character was bisexual, and the book contained only a brief scene of gay sex. It was apparently too controversial, and the book was dropped in favor of something far more bland & boring. That book has been mostly forgotten, while De Vierde Man was adapted by Paul Verhoeven. The 4th Man would be that director’s final Dutch production until he returned in 2006; in the meantime, he made some of the most memorable 1980s action/farcical films.

Movie Review – Meantime

Meantime (1983)
Written & Directed by Mike Leigh

When I was younger and saw a Mike Leigh movie, I didn’t understand it. I was very much into certain kinds of art-house cinema that were more heightened in the stylistics, and the quirky working-class tone of Leigh’s work was confounding. Now, in my early 40s, I find Leigh to be brilliant. He understands the class divide and how ordinary people are pitted against each other better than almost any other director alive. Unsurprisingly, Leigh holds up Yasujirō Ozu’s slice-of-life domestic films as a chief inspiration. Leigh adds his British flair to the characters’ affectations, but the stories are very grounded, focused on the travails of working people attempting to make their way through an increasingly hostile world.

Movie Review – Local Hero

Local Hero (1983)
Written & Illustrated by Bill Forsyth

I just couldn’t fall in love with this movie in the way I’d heard other people rave about it. There are a good number of people that love Local Hero. I can see why they would. It’s a slightly charming film, not overrun with nasty conflict, told almost like a fairy tale for grown-ups. On paper, these are things that appeal to me. I like films that go in unexpected directions. However, Local Hero never seemed to find its footing from my perspective. It plays around with ideas and characters but doesn’t really come to conclusions about them. Combined with acting that varies wildly in quality from performer to performer, I couldn’t quite latch onto the magic I’d heard about for all these years.

Movie Review – The Big Chill

The Big Chill (1983)
Written & Directed by Lawrence Kasdan

This may be one of the most misunderstood Hollywood films of the late 20th century. I’d never seen The Big Chill before I watched it for this review. However, I had heard about it from time to time. It was often framed as a shallow examination of the Baby Boomer generation. It’s a film concerned with that cohort of Americans, but I don’t think it’s superficial. The characters are certainly living their lives on the surface, but the film tells us many things about them, especially their flawed worldviews. The voice of reason in the film is the youngest character, who pretty much explains the picture’s theme when she says, “I don’t like talking about my past as much as you guys do.”

Movie Review – The Right Stuff

The Right Stuff (1983)
Written & Directed by Phillip Kaufman

It’s pretty silly to say with a straight face that the United States “won the space race.” This win is predicated on a single event, landing a man on the moon. That’s an awe-inspiring feat, but I don’t understand why that was the thing that made America the winner. From a narrow-minded jingoistic sense, I understand why it was the only thing the United States focused the full force of mass media on. Thus, it was made the winning event through the propagandistic media. Let’s review the space-faring accomplishments made during this time.

Movie Review – A Nos Amours

A Nos Amours (1983)
Written & Directed by Maurice Pialat

People often seem to forget that a vast ocean of thought exists within each person’s mind. Society does its best to halt our exploration of these complex inner worlds, but they remain a part of who we are, always waiting to be uncovered and mapped. You likely have noticed the same disturbing trend I have among mostly white conservative men, an aggressive push against women’s agency over their lives and bodies. They want the population to see women as nothing about vessels for men’s pleasure and laborers to provide men with their every need. But this denies that inner world, the complicated web of desires, needs, emotions, beliefs, and more that exists in women just as much as they do in men. A Nos Amours is a brief peek into that world, a film that also shaped the life of its star.

Movie Review – Terms of Endearment

Terms of Endearment (1983)
Written & Directed by James L. Brooks

Television was where creator James L. Brooks started, and that influence can be seen in his second feature film, Terms of Endearment. The production looks like a movie, but the plot points and character types feel similar to characters that would populate one of his many sitcoms. The difference is that Brooks was able to touch on the subject matter no network censor would have allowed on the air. Terms of Endearment is pretty frank about female sexuality (heteronormative, of course), and we even have a central character die of cancer. It is rare to have a beloved character pass away on a sitcom, but in the world of movies, it is easier to get away with those things. In this way, Terms feels like Brooks is translating the story structures and character beats he knows into a new format.