1983 in Film
I saw most of the movies released in 1983 much later, on video or television. This is reaching back into the days before I really did much cinema. The Star Wars film may be the only one actually. A lot of these movies go back to that year in my life where we lived in Costa Rica and had one cable provider that supplied one channel that switched around to whatever the guy who supplied the cable wanted to see. (That ended up being a lot of Cubs baseball and movie channels.) One stand-out film that probably suffers from the circumstances of my viewing it was Mr. Mom. I saw it on the flight from San Jose to Santiago, Chile and I did not know that you could watch it in English. So between my being only half-awake and only knowing a little Spanish, it remains one of my worst movie experiences to this day.
Top Ten Personal Films of 1983:
*. Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
1. A Christmas Story
2. Wargames
3. Something Wicked This Way Comes
4. Mickey’s Christmas Carol
5. Never Cry Wolf
6. Never Say Never Again
7. Octopussy
8. Krull
9. Trading Places
10. Yentl
Bottom (or Most Disappointing) Films of 1983:
1. Jaws 3D
2. The Hunger
3. Mr. Mom
4. Brainstorm
5. Blue Thunder
Films I Still Need to See or Revisit:
Gorky Park
The King of Comedy
The Right Stuff
Scarface
Terms of Endearment
Top Ten Personal Films of 1983:
*. Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
1. A Christmas Story
2. Wargames
3. Something Wicked This Way Comes
4. Mickey’s Christmas Carol
5. Never Cry Wolf
6. Never Say Never Again
7. Octopussy
8. Krull
9. Trading Places
10. Yentl
Bottom (or Most Disappointing) Films of 1983:
1. Jaws 3D
2. The Hunger
3. Mr. Mom
4. Brainstorm
5. Blue Thunder
Films I Still Need to See or Revisit:
Gorky Park
The King of Comedy
The Right Stuff
Scarface
Terms of Endearment
Yentl would make my bottom 5 list. How long was she married before the truth came out? I still cringe thinking about the wedding night scene. But I still cry every single time I see Terms of Endearment. Every. Single. Time.
ReplyDeleteTHE RIGHT STUFF was 1983?! boy, i feel old. but it was a GREAT film!
ReplyDeleteYeah, Deanna. Yentl is very squirm-worthy. Still a good film though. I love the exteriors of Prague, especially back in those days!
ReplyDeleteThat is the problem with these older years. Sometimes it is hard to come up with 15 films for a list! A lot of these movies (on the good list) are 3 star at best. When I go pre-80s I plan to make these decade lists.