1980s
by hugoesposti | created - 04 Sep 2016 | updated - 10 months ago | PublicMy top 50 of the films from the 1980s.
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1. Drowning by Numbers (1988)
R | 118 min | Comedy, Drama
Three generations of women share the same problem--marriage woes--and want to put an end to it.
Director: Peter Greenaway | Stars: Bernard Hill, Joan Plowright, Juliet Stevenson, Joely Richardson
Votes: 10,966 | Gross: $0.42M
2. Come and See (1985)
Not Rated | 142 min | Drama, Thriller, War
After finding an old rifle, a young boy joins the Soviet resistance movement against ruthless German forces and experiences the horrors of World War II.
Director: Elem Klimov | Stars: Aleksey Kravchenko, Olga Mironova, Liubomiras Laucevicius, Vladas Bagdonas
Votes: 97,063
3. Fanny and Alexander (1982)
R | 188 min | Drama
Two young Swedish children in the 1900s experience the many comedies and tragedies of their lively and affectionate theatrical family, the Ekdahls.
Director: Ingmar Bergman | Stars: Bertil Guve, Pernilla Allwin, Kristina Adolphson, Börje Ahlstedt
Votes: 67,466 | Gross: $4.97M
4. Comrades (1986)
183 min | Drama, History
The story of "The Tolpuddle Martyrs". A group of nineteenth century English farm laborers who formed one of the first trade unions and started a campaign to receive fair wages.
Director: Bill Douglas | Stars: Robin Soans, William Gaminara, Stephen Bateman, Phil Davis
Votes: 933
5. Wings of Desire (1987)
PG-13 | 128 min | Drama, Fantasy, Romance
An angel tires of his purely ethereal life of merely overseeing the human activity of Berlin's residents, and longs for the tangible joys of physical existence when he falls in love with a mortal.
Director: Wim Wenders | Stars: Bruno Ganz, Solveig Dommartin, Otto Sander, Curt Bois
Votes: 76,924 | Gross: $3.33M
6. Amadeus (1984)
R | 160 min | Biography, Drama, Music
The life, success and troubles of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, as told by Antonio Salieri, the contemporaneous composer who was deeply jealous of Mozart's talent and claimed to have murdered him.
Director: Milos Forman | Stars: F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce, Elizabeth Berridge, Roy Dotrice
Votes: 427,718 | Gross: $51.97M
7. The Draughtsman's Contract (1982)
R | 108 min | Comedy, Drama, Mystery
A young artist is commissioned by the wife of a wealthy landowner to make a series of drawings of the estate while her husband is away.
Director: Peter Greenaway | Stars: Anthony Higgins, Janet Suzman, Anne-Louise Lambert, Hugh Fraser
Votes: 11,076
8. Vagabond (1985)
Not Rated | 105 min | Drama
A young woman's body is found frozen in a ditch. Through flashbacks and interviews, we see the events that led to her inevitable death.
Director: Agnès Varda | Stars: Sandrine Bonnaire, Macha Méril, Stéphane Freiss, Setti Ramdane
Votes: 13,637
9. A Room with a View (1985)
Not Rated | 117 min | Drama, Romance
Lucy Honeychurch (Helena Bonham Carter) shares a brief romance with George Emerson in Florence. Yet as she tries to move on with her life and look for marriage elsewhere, can she truly forget the events of that summer?
Director: James Ivory | Stars: Maggie Smith, Helena Bonham Carter, Denholm Elliott, Julian Sands
Votes: 47,829 | Gross: $20.97M
10. Full Metal Jacket (1987)
R | 116 min | Drama, War
A pragmatic U.S. Marine observes the dehumanizing effects the Vietnam War has on his fellow recruits from their brutal boot camp training to the bloody street fighting in Hue.
Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Matthew Modine, R. Lee Ermey, Vincent D'Onofrio, Adam Baldwin
Votes: 789,955 | Gross: $46.36M
11. A Zed & Two Noughts (1985)
Not Rated | 115 min | Comedy, Drama
Twin zoologists lose their wives in a car accident and become obsessed with decomposing animals.
Director: Peter Greenaway | Stars: Brian Deacon, Eric Deacon, Andréa Ferréol, Frances Barber
Votes: 7,562
12. Diva (1981)
R | 117 min | Crime, Music, Thriller
Two tapes, two Parisian mob killers, one corrupt policeman, an opera fan, a teenage thief, and the coolest philosopher ever filmed all twist their way through an intricate and stylish French-language thriller.
Director: Jean-Jacques Beineix | Stars: Wilhelmenia Fernandez, Frédéric Andréi, Roland Bertin, Richard Bohringer
Votes: 14,307 | Gross: $0.11M
13. Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
PG | 124 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy
After the Rebel Alliance are overpowered by the Empire, Luke Skywalker begins his Jedi training with Yoda, while his friends are pursued across the galaxy by Darth Vader and bounty hunter Boba Fett.
Director: Irvin Kershner | Stars: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams
Votes: 1,378,847 | Gross: $290.48M
14. When Harry Met Sally... (1989)
R | 95 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Harry and Sally have known each other for years, and are very good friends, but they fear sex would ruin the friendship.
Director: Rob Reiner | Stars: Billy Crystal, Meg Ryan, Carrie Fisher, Bruno Kirby
Votes: 242,549 | Gross: $92.82M
15. Stop Making Sense (1984)
PG | 88 min | Documentary, Music
Considered by critics as the greatest concert film of all time, the live performance was shot over the course of three nights at Hollywood's Pantages Theater in December of 1983 and features Talking Heads' most memorable songs.
Director: Jonathan Demme | Stars: David Byrne, Bernie Worrell, Alex Weir, Steven Scales
Votes: 19,963 | Gross: $5.02M
16. Do the Right Thing (1989)
R | 120 min | Comedy, Drama
On the hottest day of the year on a street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, everyone's hate and bigotry smolders and builds until it explodes into violence.
Director: Spike Lee | Stars: Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Richard Edson
Votes: 112,339 | Gross: $27.55M
17. Paris, Texas (1984)
R | 145 min | Drama
Travis Henderson, an aimless drifter who has been missing for four years, wanders out of the desert and must reconnect with society, himself, his life, and his family.
Director: Wim Wenders | Stars: Harry Dean Stanton, Nastassja Kinski, Dean Stockwell, Sam Berry
Votes: 118,741 | Gross: $2.18M
18. Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988)
PG-13 | 84 min | Drama, Music
The lives of an English working-class family are told out of order in a free-associative manner. The first part, "Distant Voices", focuses on the father's role in the family. The second part, "Still Lives", focuses on his children.
Director: Terence Davies | Stars: Pete Postlethwaite, Freda Dowie, Angela Walsh, Dean Williams
Votes: 5,155 | Gross: $0.69M
19. Maurice (1987)
R | 140 min | Drama, Romance
Two English school chums find themselves falling in love at Cambridge. To regain his place in society, Clive gives up Maurice and marries. While staying with Clive and his wife, Maurice discovers romance in the arms of the gamekeeper Alec.
Director: James Ivory | Stars: James Wilby, Rupert Graves, Hugh Grant, Denholm Elliott
Votes: 23,551 | Gross: $3.13M
20. Boyfriends and Girlfriends (1987)
PG | 103 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
In Paris outskirts Blanche, a young clerk, befriends Lea, a girl livelier than she is. Lea is going steady with Fabien who is a friend to Alexandre who is going steady with Adrienne but is ... See full summary »
Director: Éric Rohmer | Stars: Emmanuelle Chaulet, Sophie Renoir, Anne-Laure Meury, Eric Viellard
Votes: 5,674 | Gross: $0.82M
21. Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985)
R | 120 min | Biography, Drama
A fictionalized account in four chapters of the life of celebrated Japanese writer Yukio Mishima.
Director: Paul Schrader | Stars: Ken Ogata, Masayuki Shionoya, Hiroshi Mikami, Junya Fukuda
Votes: 13,747 | Gross: $0.44M
22. My American Uncle (1980)
PG | 125 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
The intersecting stories of three people who face difficult choices in life-changing situations are used to illustrate the theories espoused by Henri Laborit about human behavior and the relationship between the self and society.
Director: Alain Resnais | Stars: Gérard Depardieu, Nicole Garcia, Roger Pierre, Nelly Borgeaud
Votes: 6,846
23. Mur murs (1981)
80 min | Documentary
Agnes Varda's documentary on murals in Los Angeles.
Director: Agnès Varda | Stars: Juliet Berto, Agnès Varda, Judy Baca, Terry Schoonhoven
Votes: 1,138
24. Burden of Dreams (1982)
Not Rated | 95 min | Documentary
A documentary following German auteur Werner Herzog as he deals with difficult actors, bad weather and getting a boat over a mountain, all in an effort to make his film Fitzcarraldo (1982).
Director: Les Blank | Stars: Werner Herzog, Klaus Kinski, Claudia Cardinale, Jason Robards
Votes: 8,125
25. Back to the Future (1985)
PG | 116 min | Adventure, Comedy, Sci-Fi
Marty McFly, a 17-year-old high school student, is accidentally sent 30 years into the past in a time-traveling DeLorean invented by his close friend, the maverick scientist Doc Brown.
Director: Robert Zemeckis | Stars: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover
Votes: 1,305,809 | Gross: $210.61M
26. The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989)
NC-17 | 124 min | Crime, Drama
At Le Hollandais gourmet restaurant, every night is filled with opulence, decadence and gluttony. But when the cook, a thief, his wife and her lover all come together, they unleash a shocking torrent of sex, food, murder and revenge.
Director: Peter Greenaway | Stars: Richard Bohringer, Michael Gambon, Helen Mirren, Alan Howard
Votes: 41,710 | Gross: $7.72M
27. Fitzcarraldo (1982)
PG | 158 min | Adventure, Drama
The story of Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald, an extremely determined man who intends to build an opera house in the middle of a jungle.
Director: Werner Herzog | Stars: Klaus Kinski, Claudia Cardinale, José Lewgoy, Miguel Ángel Fuentes
Votes: 38,551
28. Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988)
R | 88 min | Comedy, Drama
A television actress encounters a variety of eccentric characters after embarking on a journey to discover why her lover abruptly left her.
Director: Pedro Almodóvar | Stars: Carmen Maura, Antonio Banderas, Julieta Serrano, Rossy de Palma
Votes: 46,419 | Gross: $7.18M
29. Ran (1985)
R | 160 min | Action, Drama, War
In Medieval Japan, an elderly warlord retires, handing over his empire to his three sons. However, he vastly underestimates how the new-found power will corrupt them and cause them to turn on each other...and him.
Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Tatsuya Nakadai, Akira Terao, Jinpachi Nezu, Daisuke Ryû
Votes: 136,080 | Gross: $4.14M
30. The Shining (1980)
R | 146 min | Drama, Horror
A family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where a sinister presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from both past and future.
Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers
Votes: 1,105,583 | Gross: $44.02M
31. Meantime (1983 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 102 min | Comedy, Drama
When one brother gets a job from their wealthy aunt, the other becomes increasingly jealous.
Director: Mike Leigh | Stars: Marion Bailey, Tim Roth, Phil Daniels, Pam Ferris
Votes: 4,784
32. Down by Law (1986)
R | 107 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
Two men are framed and sent to jail, where they meet a murderer who helps them escape and leave the state.
Director: Jim Jarmusch | Stars: Tom Waits, John Lurie, Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi
Votes: 55,266 | Gross: $1.44M
33. The Falls (1980)
Not Rated | 195 min | Comedy, Sci-Fi
92 BBC documentary-style shorts that record the lives of 92 victims of the VUE (Violent Unexplained Event), each with last names beginning with "Fall."
Director: Peter Greenaway | Stars: Peter Westley, Aad Wirtz, Michael Murray, Lorna Poulter
Votes: 1,680
34. She's Gotta Have It (1986)
R | 84 min | Comedy, Romance
Story of a woman and her three lovers.
Director: Spike Lee | Stars: Tracy Camilla Johns, Tommy Redmond Hicks, John Canada Terrell, Spike Lee
Votes: 16,294 | Gross: $7.14M
35. Pauline at the Beach (1983)
R | 95 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Marion is about to divorce from her husband and takes her 15-year-old niece Pauline on a vacation to Granville. She meets an old love...
Director: Éric Rohmer | Stars: Amanda Langlet, Arielle Dombasle, Pascal Greggory, Féodor Atkine
Votes: 10,522
36. Withnail & I (1987)
R | 107 min | Comedy, Drama
In 1969, two substance-abusing, unemployed actors retreat to the countryside for a holiday that proves disastrous.
Director: Bruce Robinson | Stars: Richard E. Grant, Paul McGann, Richard Griffiths, Ralph Brown
Votes: 47,872 | Gross: $1.54M
37. Bad Timing: A Sensual Obsession (1980)
R | 123 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A psychiatrist, living in Vienna, enters a torrid relationship with a married woman. When she ends up in the hospital from an overdose, an inspector becomes set on discovering the demise of their affair.
Director: Nicolas Roeg | Stars: Art Garfunkel, Theresa Russell, Harvey Keitel, Denholm Elliott
Votes: 9,612
38. The King of Comedy (1982)
PG | 109 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
A passionate yet unsuccessful comedian stalks and kidnaps his idol to take the spotlight for himself.
Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Robert De Niro, Jerry Lewis, Diahnne Abbott, Sandra Bernhard
Votes: 119,046 | Gross: $2.50M
39. Burning an Illusion (1982)
106 min | Drama
A young black woman in England becomes increasingly frustrated with her life with her lazy, demanding boyfriend, and with the help of friends seeks something better.
Director: Menelik Shabazz | Stars: Cassie McFarlane, Victor Romero Evans, Beverley Martin, Angela Wynter
Votes: 197
40. Kung-Fu Master! (1988)
R | 80 min | Drama, Romance
Mary-Jane, a lonely mother in her forties, gets absorbed in a sentimental affair with a 14-year-old boy.
Director: Agnès Varda | Stars: Jane Birkin, Mathieu Demy, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Lou Doillon
Votes: 2,202
41. Bad Blood (1986)
Unrated | 105 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
As a deadly virus which infects people who have loveless sex sweeps Paris, a lonely pariah attempts to steal a potent antidote, only to fall for the mistress of his partner-in-crime. Is the infectious young love the cure to the bad blood?
Director: Leos Carax | Stars: Michel Piccoli, Juliette Binoche, Denis Lavant, Hans Meyer
Votes: 9,317 | Gross: $0.02M
42. The Green Ray (1986)
R | 99 min | Drama, Romance
It's July, and Delphine has nowhere to go for the summer. She feels very bored and "empty", but this won't last; one day she accidently meets someone who seems to be totally made for her...
Director: Éric Rohmer | Stars: Marie Rivière, María Luisa García, Vincent Gauthier, Amira Chemakhi
Votes: 10,478 | Gross: $0.04M
43. First Name: Carmen (1983)
R | 85 min | Crime, Drama, Music
A woman involved with a terrorist group becomes dangerously close to the police officer guarding the bank they plan to rob.
Director: Jean-Luc Godard | Stars: Maruschka Detmers, Jacques Bonnaffé, Myriem Roussel, Christophe Odent
Votes: 4,506
44. From the Life of the Marionettes (1980 TV Movie)
R | 104 min | Drama
An account of the events before and after a murder committed by a disturbed businessman in a strained marriage, and what led him to perform such a shocking act.
Director: Ingmar Bergman | Stars: Robert Atzorn, Christine Buchegger, Martin Benrath, Rita Russek
Votes: 4,750
45. Stranger Than Paradise (1984)
R | 89 min | Comedy, Drama
A New Yorker's life is thrown into a tailspin when his younger cousin surprise-visits him, starting a strange, unpredictable adventure.
Director: Jim Jarmusch | Stars: John Lurie, Eszter Balint, Richard Edson, Cecillia Stark
Votes: 40,641 | Gross: $2.44M
46. Raging Bull (1980)
R | 129 min | Biography, Drama, Sport
The life of boxer Jake LaMotta, whose violence and temper that led him to the top in the ring destroyed his life outside of it.
Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Robert De Niro, Cathy Moriarty, Joe Pesci, Frank Vincent
Votes: 379,966 | Gross: $23.38M
47. Four Adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle (1987)
Not Rated | 99 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Two unlike girls are going to learn each other's world - lovely countryside and bustling Paris.
Director: Éric Rohmer | Stars: Joëlle Miquel, Jessica Forde, Mr. Housseau, Mme. Housseau
Votes: 3,518 | Gross: $0.22M
48. L'Argent (1983)
Not Rated | 85 min | Crime, Drama
A counterfeit bill that starts off as a schoolboy prank leads to incarceration and violence.
Director: Robert Bresson | Stars: Christian Patey, Sylvie Van den Elsen, Michel Briguet, Vincent Risterucci
Votes: 11,824
49. Blue Velvet (1986)
R | 120 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
The discovery of a severed human ear found in a field leads a young man on an investigation related to a beautiful, mysterious nightclub singer and a group of psychopathic criminals who have kidnapped her child.
Director: David Lynch | Stars: Isabella Rossellini, Kyle MacLachlan, Dennis Hopper, Laura Dern
Votes: 215,566 | Gross: $8.55M
50. Born in Flames (1983)
Not Rated | 79 min | Comedy, Drama, Sci-Fi
Set ten years after the most peaceful revolution in United States history, it presents a dystopia in which the issues of many groups - minorities, liberals, gay rights organizations, feminists - are dealt with by the government.
Director: Lizzie Borden | Stars: Honey, Adele Bertei, Jean Satterfield, Florynce Kennedy
Votes: 2,054
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