1981
by ApeAgainstTheMachine | created - 22 Sep 2015 | updated - 4 months ago | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. The Grilling (1981)
87 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A police inspector, suspecting an attorney of two child sex murders, has him held for a questioning session that goes on for hours.
Director: Claude Miller | Stars: Lino Ventura, Michel Serrault, Romy Schneider, Guy Marchand
Votes: 5,345
2. An American Werewolf in London (1981)
R | 97 min | Comedy, Horror
Two American college students on a walking tour of Britain are attacked by a werewolf that none of the locals will admit exists.
Director: John Landis | Stars: David Naughton, Jenny Agutter, Joe Belcher, Griffin Dunne
Votes: 120,592 | Gross: $30.57M
3. Prince of the City (1981)
R | 167 min | Crime, Drama
A New York City narcotics detective reluctantly agrees to cooperate with a special commission investigating police corruption, and soon realises he's in over his head, and nobody can be trusted.
Director: Sidney Lumet | Stars: Treat Williams, Jerry Orbach, Richard Foronjy, Don Billett
Votes: 9,526 | Gross: $8.12M
4. Excalibur (1981)
PG | 140 min | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy
Merlin the magician helps Arthur Pendragon unite the Britons around the Round Table of Camelot, even as dark forces conspire to tear it apart.
Director: John Boorman | Stars: Nigel Terry, Helen Mirren, Nicholas Clay, Cherie Lunghi
Votes: 67,206 | Gross: $34.97M
5. Quest for Fire (1981)
R | 100 min | Adventure, Drama
This story takes place in prehistoric time when three tribesmen search for a new fire source.
Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud | Stars: Everett McGill, Ron Perlman, Nicholas Kadi, Rae Dawn Chong
Votes: 24,137 | Gross: $20.96M
6. La Chèvre (1981)
91 min | Adventure, Comedy, Crime
A daughter of a millionaire, distinguished by incredible bad luck, goes missing. The idea how to find her is either insane or brilliant - to send after her an equally unlucky person.
Director: Francis Veber | Stars: Pierre Richard, Gérard Depardieu, Pedro Armendáriz Jr., Corynne Charbit
Votes: 10,638
7. Viens chez moi, j'habite chez une copine (1981)
85 min | Comedy
Guy is fired from is job, and asks to stay with his friend and his girlfriend in their apartment. The longer he stays, the more disaster he creates.
Director: Patrice Leconte | Stars: Michel Blanc, Bernard Giraudeau, Thérèse Liotard, Anémone
Votes: 1,479
8. Clean Slate (1981)
Not Rated | 128 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
A pathetic police chief, humiliated by everyone around him, suddenly wants a clean slate in life - and resorts to drastic means to do so.
Director: Bertrand Tavernier | Stars: Philippe Noiret, Isabelle Huppert, Stéphane Audran, Jean-Pierre Marielle
Votes: 6,718
9. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
PG | 115 min | Action, Adventure
In 1936, archaeologist and adventurer Indiana Jones is hired by the U.S. government to find the Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis can obtain its awesome powers.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, John Rhys-Davies
Votes: 1,037,233 | Gross: $248.16M
10. Christiane F. (1981)
R | 138 min | Biography, Drama
A teen girl in 1970s Berlin becomes addicted to heroin. Everything in her life slowly begins to distort and disappear as she befriends a small crew of junkies and falls in love with a drug-abusing male prostitute.
Director: Uli Edel | Stars: Natja Brunckhorst, Eberhard Auriga, Peggy Bussieck, Lothar Chamski
Votes: 29,445
11. Whose Life Is It Anyway? (1981)
R | 119 min | Comedy, Drama
Ken Harrison is an artist who makes sculptures. One day he is involved in a car accident, and is paralyzed from his neck down. All he can do is talk, and he wants to die. In hospital he ... See full summary »
Director: John Badham | Stars: Richard Dreyfuss, John Cassavetes, Christine Lahti, Bob Balaban
Votes: 3,553 | Gross: $8.21M
12. Blow Out (1981)
R | 108 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A movie sound recordist accidentally records the evidence that proves that a car accident was actually murder and consequently finds himself in danger.
Director: Brian De Palma | Stars: John Travolta, Nancy Allen, John Lithgow, Dennis Franz
Votes: 63,347 | Gross: $13.75M
13. Scanners (1981)
R | 103 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A scientist trains a man with an advanced telepathic ability called "scanning" to stop a dangerous Scanner with extraordinary psychic powers from waging war against non scanners.
Director: David Cronenberg | Stars: Jennifer O'Neill, Stephen Lack, Patrick McGoohan, Lawrence Dane
Votes: 61,798 | Gross: $14.23M
14. Thief (1981)
R | 123 min | Action, Crime, Drama
An ace safe cracker wants to do one last big heist for the mob before going straight.
Director: Michael Mann | Stars: James Caan, Tuesday Weld, Willie Nelson, Jim Belushi
Votes: 39,056 | Gross: $11.49M
15. Das Boot (1981)
R | 149 min | Drama, War
A German U-boat stalks the frigid waters of the North Atlantic as its young crew experience the sheer terror and claustrophobic life of a submariner in World War II.
Director: Wolfgang Petersen | Stars: Jürgen Prochnow, Herbert Grönemeyer, Klaus Wennemann, Hubertus Bengsch
Votes: 264,439 | Gross: $11.49M
16. Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981)
R | 96 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
In the post-apocalyptic Australian wasteland, a cynical drifter agrees to help a small, gasoline-rich community escape a horde of bandits.
Director: George Miller | Stars: Mel Gibson, Bruce Spence, Michael Preston, Max Phipps
Votes: 193,852 | Gross: $12.47M
17. Time Bandits (1981)
PG | 110 min | Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy
A young boy accidentally joins a band of time travelling dwarves, as they jump from era to era looking for treasure to steal.
Director: Terry Gilliam | Stars: Sean Connery, Shelley Duvall, John Cleese, Katherine Helmond
Votes: 68,394 | Gross: $42.37M
18. Reds (1981)
PG | 195 min | Biography, Drama, History
A radical American journalist becomes involved with the Communist revolution in Russia, and hopes to bring its spirit and idealism to the United States.
Director: Warren Beatty | Stars: Warren Beatty, Diane Keaton, Edward Herrmann, Jerzy Kosinski
Votes: 24,725 | Gross: $40.38M
19. The Howling (1981)
R | 91 min | Horror
After a bizarre and near deadly encounter with a serial killer, a television newswoman is sent to a remote mountain resort whose residents may not be what they seem.
Director: Joe Dante | Stars: Dee Wallace, Patrick Macnee, Dennis Dugan, Christopher Stone
Votes: 40,227 | Gross: $17.99M
20. Time for Revenge (1981)
R | 112 min | Drama, Thriller
Two coworkers fake an accident to blackmail the company they work for for a sum of money. However, the plan goes awry and one of them dies. The surviving employee demands a compensation, but the company refuses to pay him.
Director: Adolfo Aristarain | Stars: Federico Luppi, Haydée Padilla, Julio De Grazia, Ulises Dumont
Votes: 1,315
21. Ragtime (1981)
PG | 155 min | Drama
A young black pianist becomes embroiled in the lives of an upper-class white family set among the racial tensions, infidelity, violence and other nostalgic events in early 1900s New York City.
Director: Milos Forman | Stars: James Cagney, Elizabeth McGovern, Howard E. Rollins Jr., Brad Dourif
Votes: 10,562 | Gross: $21.02M
22. Gallipoli (1981)
PG | 110 min | Adventure, Drama, History
Two Australian sprinters face the brutal realities of war when they are sent to fight in the Gallipoli campaign in Turkey during World War I.
Director: Peter Weir | Stars: Mel Gibson, Mark Lee, Bill Kerr, Harold Hopkins
Votes: 41,983 | Gross: $5.73M
23. Do You Remember Dolly Bell? (1981)
Not Rated | 110 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A young man's personality is shaped, involving some weird happenings around.
Director: Emir Kusturica | Stars: Slavko Stimac, Slobodan Aligrudic, Ljiljana Blagojevic, Mira Banjac
Votes: 6,797
24. Escape from New York (1981)
R | 99 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
In 1997, when the U.S. president crashes into Manhattan, now a giant maximum security prison, a convicted bank robber is sent in to rescue him.
Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Kurt Russell, Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Donald Pleasence
Votes: 157,602 | Gross: $25.24M
25. The Evil Dead (1981)
NC-17 | 85 min | Horror
Five friends travel to a cabin in the woods, where they unknowingly release flesh-possessing demons.
Director: Sam Raimi | Stars: Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, Richard DeManincor, Betsy Baker
Votes: 232,500 | Gross: $2.40M
26. Southern Comfort (1981)
R | 106 min | Action, Thriller
During a routine exercise, a team of National Guardsmen are threatened by angry and violent locals.
Director: Walter Hill | Stars: Keith Carradine, Powers Boothe, Fred Ward, Franklyn Seales
Votes: 21,940 | Gross: $5.00M
27. Eye of the Needle (1981)
R | 112 min | Romance, Thriller, War
A ruthless German spy, trying to get out of Britain with vital information about D-Day, must spend time with a young woman and her crippled husband.
Director: Richard Marquand | Stars: Donald Sutherland, Kate Nelligan, Stephen MacKenna, Philip Martin Brown
Votes: 11,858 | Gross: $17.58M
28. Outland (1981)
R | 109 min | Action, Crime, Sci-Fi
A federal marshal stationed at a mining colony on the Jupiter moon of Io uncovers a drug-smuggling conspiracy. He gets no help from the workers or authorities when he finds himself marked for murder.
Director: Peter Hyams | Stars: Sean Connery, Frances Sternhagen, Peter Boyle, James Sikking
Votes: 32,377 | Gross: $17.37M
29. Malevil (1981)
Not Rated | 120 min | Drama, Sci-Fi
A group of ordinary French survived a nuclear war and found themselves in the face of what was left of civilization.
Director: Christian de Chalonge | Stars: Michel Serrault, Jacques Dutronc, Jacques Villeret, Robert Dhéry
Votes: 964
30. 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: 14,320 | Gross: $0.11M
31. Ms .45 (1981)
R | 80 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A timid and mute seamstress goes insane after being attacked and raped twice in one day, in which she takes to the streets of New York City after dark and randomly shoots men with a .45 caliber pistol.
Director: Abel Ferrara | Stars: Zoë Lund, Bogey, Albert Sinkys, Darlene Stuto
Votes: 12,566
32.
Play for Today (1970–1984)
Episode:
Psy-Warriors
(1981)
73 min | Comedy, Drama
Soldiers are captured and interrogated by terrorists: but is it real or only a sadistic form of psychological training exercise?
Director: Alan Clarke | Stars: Rosalind Ayres, Anthony Bate, Colin Blakely, Warren Clarke
Votes: 94
33. Cutter's Way (1981)
R | 109 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Richard spots a man dumping a body, and decides to expose the man he thinks is the culprit with his friend Alex Cutter.
Director: Ivan Passer | Stars: Jeff Bridges, John Heard, Lisa Eichhorn, Ann Dusenberry
Votes: 7,640 | Gross: $1.73M
34. Polyester (1981)
R | 86 min | Comedy
A suburban housewife's world falls apart when she finds that her pornographer husband is serially unfaithful to her, her daughter is pregnant, and her son is suspected of being the foot-fetishist who's been breaking local women's feet.
Director: John Waters | Stars: Divine, Tab Hunter, Edith Massey, David Samson
Votes: 9,011
35. Une étrange affaire (1981)
105 min | Drama
Louis Coline assists the head of advertising of a department store in decline. He has little to do, but seems content with his marriage to Nina, his visits to his mother and grandmother, ... See full summary »
Director: Pierre Granier-Deferre | Stars: Michel Piccoli, Gérard Lanvin, Nathalie Baye, Jean-Pierre Kalfon
Votes: 590
36. Beau-père (1981)
13+ | 123 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
After her mother dies, fourteen-year-old Marion falls in love with her stepfather, Remy.
Director: Bertrand Blier | Stars: Patrick Dewaere, Ariel Besse, Maurice Ronet, Geneviève Mnich
Votes: 3,712
37. Le maître d'école (1981)
95 min | Comedy, Drama
After having lost his job for having saved a child accused of shop lifting, Frédéric Barbier decides to become a school teacher with some funny results.The great comedy actor Coluche is excellent as a simple school teacher.
Director: Claude Berri | Stars: Coluche, Josiane Balasko, Jacques Debary, Charlotte de Turckheim
Votes: 1,155
38. Chariots of Fire (1981)
PG | 125 min | Biography, Drama, Sport
Two British track athletes, one a determined Jew and the other a devout Christian, are driven to win in the 1924 Olympics as they wrestle with issues of pride and conscience.
Director: Hugh Hudson | Stars: Ben Cross, Ian Charleson, Nicholas Farrell, Nigel Havers
Votes: 65,922 | Gross: $58.97M
39. Hotel America (1981)
Not Rated | 95 min | Drama, Romance
Hélène, a distracted pill-popping anesthetist, almost runs down Gilles one evening on a Biarritz street. She is still numb from the drowning death earlier that year of her lover, a visionary architect.
Director: André Téchiné | Stars: Catherine Deneuve, Patrick Dewaere, Etienne Chicot, Sabine Haudepin
Votes: 1,128
40. One from the Heart (1981)
R | 107 min | Drama, Musical, Romance
A couple has a fight after living together 5 years in Las Vegas. They go out and celebrate 4th of July, each with a new partner. Breakup?
Director: Francis Ford Coppola | Stars: Frederic Forrest, Teri Garr, Raul Julia, Nastassja Kinski
Votes: 7,242 | Gross: $0.64M
41. The Professional (1981)
Not Rated | 108 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Victim of a plot which has resulted in his imprisonment in a Central African jail for two years, a French secret agent arrives in Paris to settle accounts.
Director: Georges Lautner | Stars: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Desailly, Cyrielle Clair, Marie-Christine Descouard
Votes: 17,278
42. The Cabbage Soup (1981)
102 min | Comedy, Drama, Sci-Fi
2 buddy farmers are visited by aliens who like their domestic cabbage soup.
Director: Jean Girault | Stars: Louis de Funès, Jean Carmet, Jacques Villeret, Claude Gensac
Votes: 9,583
43. S.O.B. (1981)
R | 122 min | Comedy, Drama
A successful movie director makes the most expensive film in his career and it becomes a huge flop. He tries to salvage his career by reshooting the film as an erotic production, where its family-friendly star takes her top off.
Director: Blake Edwards | Stars: Julie Andrews, William Holden, Marisa Berenson, Larry Hagman
Votes: 6,483 | Gross: $14.87M
44. Roar (1981)
PG | 95 min | Adventure, Comedy, Thriller
A naturalist living with big cats in East Africa expects a visit by his family of four from Chicago. A mix-up leaves him searching for his family, who have been left in the clutches of wild lions.
Director: Noel Marshall | Stars: Tippi Hedren, Noel Marshall, Melanie Griffith, John Marshall
Votes: 4,590
45. The Cannonball Run (1981)
PG | 95 min | Action, Comedy, Sport
A wide variety of eccentric competitors participate in a wild and illegal cross-country road race. However, the eccentric entrants will do anything to win the road race, including low-down, dirty tricks.
Director: Hal Needham | Stars: Burt Reynolds, Roger Moore, Farrah Fawcett, Dom DeLuise
Votes: 39,975 | Gross: $72.18M
46. Possession (1981)
R | 124 min | Drama, Horror
A woman starts exhibiting increasingly disturbing behavior after asking her husband for a divorce. Suspicions of infidelity soon give way to something much more sinister.
Director: Andrzej Zulawski | Stars: Isabelle Adjani, Sam Neill, Margit Carstensen, Heinz Bennent
Votes: 42,920 | Gross: $1.11M
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