1982 In Film

My personal favorite is probably Coup de Torchon, Bertrand Tavernier's brilliant adaptation of Jim Thompson.  Actually, between that, Fanny and Alexander, and Fitzcarraldo, the famed Summer of '82 doesn't even crack my top three of the year.  However, of those, The Thing is probably my favorite.

My favorite '82 films are The Year Of Living Dangerously, Tootsie, & The Grey Fox. Classics all.

If you held a survey asking "What are some of the best films ever made in a particular genre?",  many answers received would be films from '82.

What 's the best horror film ever made?

The Thing

...science-fiction film?

Blade Runner

...family film?

E.T.

....comedy film?

Tootsie & Diner

...drama?

Gandhi & Sophie's Choice

...action film?

The Road Warrior

...fantasy film?

The Dark Crystal & Conan The Barbarian

How many classics came out in the past five years alone? Not as many as 1982, that's fer sure.

The Holy Trinity of 1984 gives 1982 a serious run.  And let's not forget The Terminator, Romancing the Stone, Beverly Hills Cop, The Karate Kid, Star Trek III, and The Last Starfighter.  Maybe not on par with the full 1982 roster, but it belongs in the conversation.

But 1982 was just a great year to be a movie geek, and not just for the movies that were released.  We were a year away from Return of the Jedi -- or Revenge, as we thought it would be.  We knew a second Indiana Jones film was on the way.  The speculation and anticipation were insane.

As for the films that have been mentioned, I think Tootsie is one of the greatest comedies.  It's not just for ET's sake that I begrudge Gandhi its Best Picture win; Tootsie was every bit as worthy.  I also remember the absolute gob-smacked surprise with which I watched The Road Warrior for the first time.  I'd seen the poorly-dubbed Mad Max and expected a slightly more polished retread and was just blown away by how the world had been expanded.  I was sadly late to the party on Blade Runner and Poltergeist, not seeing them until they hit home video.  And then there was ET.  That thing was everywhere, and it played forever.  Nothing like it until Titanic.

And let's not forget Rocky III from the 1982 lineup.  Yes, it's when the series made its complete descent into the cartoonish, but when it's such a damn fun cartoon, who cares?

1982 weren't no joke.

SO many good movies came out in 1982, didn't they? I never really thought about it before.

Of course, we mustn't forget this one:

Don't forget Conan, The Beastmaster, Creepshow, Class of 1984, Porky's, Fast Times At Ridgemont High...and the list goes on.

In 1982 I was 13 years old and here are the movies I saw in the theater that year (as well as I can remember):

Airplane II: The Sequel

The Beastmaster

The Dark Crystal

E.T.

Megaforce

Poltergeist

Rocky III

Six Pack

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Tex

Tootsie

Tron

I didn't see any of the R-rated movies until the next year (we had Showtime and Cinemax).

Yeah I do kinda consider this my film geek ground zero in a lotta ways. Thing is, the old man was as big a movie buff as his six year old son, so we had a ball that year and the years after thanks to that modern wonder of the age, VHS.

1982 was a pinnacle year for movies without a doubt.  It's hard to believe when you look back at it.  I don't know what was in the water, but I wish it'd come back. 

Favorites are all of them, but especially The Year of Living Dangerously, The Thing, E.T., Poltergeist and Blade Runner. 

I have strong memories of seeing The Thing for the first time.  My sisters and I were so excited to see it but when we got there, the theater was almost completely empty on a Friday night.  We loved it of course, but that was a first for me. 

Fat Elvis, For me it was easy.  I...Couldn't see any R Rated films.

1) Star Trek II

2) The Beastmaster

3) Rocky III

4) Megaforce

5) Firefox

6) Timerider

7) E.T.

Now of course I would also add...

Conan The Barbarian

The Road Warrior

Forced Vengeance

I The Jury

Zapped

Looking back, I think it's fair to say that 1982 was a huge year for me. star Wars had softened me up but this was the year I remember starting to consciously think think that I loved movies. I remember my dad taking me to see Blade Runner in Sydney (This was back in the day when parents were actually allowed to drag their kids into grown-up movies) and it blowing my seven-year-old mind to such an extent that my only memories of it were the voiceover and  the 'drive in the woods' ending. Part of the reason why the BR five-disc is my favourite box set of all time, is that it finally allowed me to watch the theatrical version and see these things that had seared themselves into my brain.

And then there was the movies I loved at the time (ET, Tron) and all the movies I'd later discover (The Thing, First Blood, Poltergeist)... Yeah 1982, I hope you realize what you did.

I think one of the biggest ones for me was seeing The Dark Crystal on the big screen, it equal parts riveted, fascinated, delighted and terrified my young mind at the time and I think was the seed that caused me to eventually seek out The Hobbit and LOTR a few years later.

So Jim Hensons beloved fever dream of 1982 also made me a fantasy geek too - pretty formative year for me all round really.

The Dark Crystal is one of the most alien films ever made & I wouldn't be surprised if, in 150 years, it's all that Henson will be remembered for. It's a hell of a feat on every level it's a film I still have difficulty wrapping my head around.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Art Decade 

The Dark Crystal is one of the most alien films ever made & I wouldn't be surprised if, in 150 years, it's all that Henson will be remembered for. It's a hell of a feat on every level it's a film I still have difficulty wrapping my head around.

I think it's representative of what Henson would have been doing if the Muppets hadn't turned into what they did.  There's more than a little echo of the SNL Muppet sketches there, and I like to think that if Henson had lived, he'd have turned more towards this kind of film rather than cranking out more Muppet movies.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Art Decade 

The Dark Crystal is one of the most alien films ever made & I wouldn't be surprised if, in 150 years, it's all that Henson will be remembered for. It's a hell of a feat on every level it's a film I still have difficulty wrapping my head around.

From the opening shot onwards it was like nothing my six year old brain had ever imagined, let alone seen...

...and I must concur...

Fuck, did the Skeksis scare the shit out of me as a kid. Yet, I couldn't look away because they were so awesome. They basically did such a number on me with the terror/fascination combo, I credit them as the reason why 99% of horror movies fail to impress me to this day. The Skeksis got in first, and did it better.

Not only did the Skeksis look gruesome, their lurching asthmatic screeches did alot to place TDC ahead of The Thing & Poltergeist as the scariest film of 1982.

As bad as the Skeksis were, it's the fucking Landstriders that tore into my young soul & filled the hollow with cringing terror:

It's their unnatural motion that freaks me out still today. Who was the acid casualty that gave these Mist looking things the green light?

The Hensons. Never afraid to "go dark" (an actual still from a Muppet TV special from the late 90s/early 00s).

Even tho nothing specifically horrible happens in the Trial By Stone between Chamberlain and The General, for the first few years of watching it (and I watched it a lot) scared me so much I'd watch the scene through my hands...

...and then the ending with Chamberlain being set upon by the others and stripped raw while he screams, screams, screams - dear god, childhood nightmare fuel right there.

This was meant to be a kid movie! God I miss the days when childrens entertainment could seriously traumatize and disturb.

Oh God, I forgot about the screaming & ripping! How the F*CK was that supposed to sell Happy Meals?!

You have to wonder if the recent kid-ification of Star Wars was born out of an over-corrective reaction by Lucas toward that bizarre trend in 80s kids' films.  

Quote:

Originally Posted by Art Decade 

Oh God, I forgot about the screaming & ripping! How the F*CK was that supposed to sell Happy Meals?!

You have to wonder if the recent kid-ification of Star Wars was born out of an over-corrective reaction by Lucas toward that bizarre trend in 80s kids' films.  

"Bizarre"?... or "awesome".

Hell even Disney gave us Dragonslayer, with a princess being graphically eaten by dragon babies and Something Wicked This Way Comes, a film I can only assume was consciously designed to traumatize children - and they were either side of the golden year, in 81 and 83.

It was a good time to be a kid if you wanted to grow up a bit left of center in your tastes, thats for sure.

"Bizarre" by today's standards of common business sense but, yeah, it was definitely awesome. I wouldn't have had it any other way.

I'd like to think that those films burned away the kind of sunny naivete that has defined Gen Y & informed Generation X that the world can be a strange as shit (TDC) & nasty place (Something This Way...) filled with death, loss, & heartache (E.T.)  where "fairness" is an arbitrary concept that has no place in reality (The Neverending Story).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Art Decade 

"Bizarre" by today's standards of common business sense but, yeah, it was definitely awesome. I wouldn't have had it any other way.

 

I'd like to think that those films burned away the kind of sunny naivete that has defined Gen Y & informed Generation X that the world can be a strange as shit (TDC) & nasty place (Something This Way...) filled with death, loss, & heartache (E.T.)  where "fairness" is an arbitrary concept that has no place in the real world (The Neverending Story).

Todays cotton wool wrapped kids raised by their neurotic helicopter parents would never be able to handle such lessons. How will they stay at home until they're thirty if they have an understanding of the real world outside?

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Rain Dog 

"Bizarre"?... or "awesome".

 

Hell even Disney gave us Dragonslayer, with a princess being graphically eaten by dragon babies and Something Wicked This Way Comes, a film I can only assume was consciously designed to traumatize children - and they were either side of the golden year, in 81 and 83.

 

It was a good time to be a kid if you wanted to grow up a bit left of center in your tastes, thats for sure.

I vote 'awesome' every time. You just have to look back to the Brothers Grimm to see that childrens' tales at their best have always been unafraid to get intense when the stories demanded it. It's a way of showing kids that bad stuff does happen in the world, in a fantastical sense that filters it enough taht they can process it. Modern kids' stories are so obsessed with coddling kids and hiding from them anything that might shock them that they miss out on what the older stuff's nastiness was designed to impart - the awareness of bad stuff, and the importance of consequences. From a philosophical perspective, you could argue that by kids being scared by a story but enjoying it nonetheless, it also teaches them that fears can be overcome. All these things are worth a little bit of fear, which most kids will recognize as awesome within five minutes.
 

Someone said...1984 was just as good as...82.  1981 is pretty fantastic as well!

1) Raiders Of The Lost Ark

2) Cannonball Run

3) Clash Of The TItans

4) Caveman

5) Dragonslayer

6) Modern Problems

7) Saturday The 14th

R Rated Goodness

An Eye For An Eye

Escape From New York

History Of The World Part 1

Nighthawks

Stripes

1956 ain't no slouch either

The Searchers

Forbidden Planet

Giant

Moby Dick

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

The Ten Commandments

Stanley Kubrick's The Killing

Godzilla, King of the Monsters!

The Man Who Knew Too Much

The Girl Can't Help It

The Court Jester

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fat Elvis 

I think 48 HRS. is one of the funniest films of all time.  I think the politically incorrect nature of the racial humor plays so much more unsafe than the typical comedy both then and now. It's both shocking and refreshing. The anchor, Eddie Murphy's performance, is exhilarating in the boundary pushing. Nolte is also gruffly hilarious. I've said it before, but it really is THE greatest buddy movie, and is in its own way perfect.

It's fantastic I agree and what most people fail to appreciate too is that Murphy was eighteen fucking years old when he starred in the thing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Rain Dog 

 Murphy was eighteen fucking years old when he starred in the thing.

 

I did NOT know this.  Whoa...

Wiki says he was 20 in 48 Hrs & 18-19 on SNL. Still - HOLY SH*T.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Art Decade 

Wiki says he was 20 in 48 Hrs & 18 on SNL. Still - HOLY SH*T.

He was 20 when it was released - he was 18 when it was being shot. I have one of his very first standup recordings when he's just 19 in '81 and he talks about "shooting a film with Nick Nolte last year".

*EDIT* Beaten to the punch.  However his age when he "starred" in it would lead one to think of the release date, RD.  An amendment to your post noting "while it was shooting" would make you more accurate. /pedantism

Quote:

Originally Posted by TzuDohNihm 

*EDIT* Beaten to the punch.  However his age when he "starred" in it would lead one to think of the release date, RD.  An amendment to your post noting "while it was shooting" would make you more accurate. /pedantism

The dude we know as Eddie Murphy is 18 years old at the time of filming, apologies for not being clearer.

No wonder he's relegated himself to bottom barrel crap over the past 20 years. There's just no way that someone could be the same artist they were at that young an age. By 30, you're either spent or different - never the same. If he died around 1986, he'd be remembered as the Charlie Parker of comedy.

At some point we should open a thread titled The Unspeakable Genius Of Eddie Murphy (and other celebrities' melons).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Art Decade 

No wonder he's relegated himself to bottom barrel crap over the past 20 years. There's just no way that someone could be the same artist they were at that young an age. By 30, you're either spent or different - never the same. If he died around 1986, he'd be remembered as the Charlie Parker of comedy.

 

At some point we should start a thread titled The Unspeakable Genius Of Eddie Murphy (and other celebrities' melons).

That's actually a context for the latter half of Murphys career I just never considered before - but you are, of course, dead right on that one Art.

One of my teachers at film school was an assistant producer on The Beastmaster. This made him a hero to a very small portion of our class.

Seeing E.T. in a packed theater at the age of 7 is one of the top 5 moviegoing experiences of my life. I still remember the sound of dozens and dozens of kids (and their parents) sobbing when it looked like E.T. was going to die.

Another 1982 classic lost in the mix:  CREEPSHOW.  

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ratty 

Another 1982 classic lost in the mix:  CREEPSHOW.  

Definitely!  Love Creepshow and Creepshow 2 as well (though it's obviously not '82). 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mangy 

Seeing E.T. in a packed theater at the age of 7 is one of the top 5 moviegoing experiences of my life. I still remember the sound of dozens and dozens of kids (and their parents) sobbing when it looked like E.T. was going to die.

The first time I saw E.T. was one of the great moviegoing experiences of my young life too.  My sisters and I always went to movies on Friday nights no matter what was playing.  When we got there, there was a huge line for a sneak preview of E.T. but we didn't know anything about it, what it was, nothing.  We got in line anyway but it sold out before we got to the front.  Most of the people left or went into other movies after they cut the line, but a few stragglers stayed behind just to see if they'd run it again, including us.  I think we waited about a half hour before they announced they were going to run it again.  So, we got our tickets and waited and ended up seeing E.T. for the first time with a half-full theater of diehards in the middle of the night.  It was an incredible shared experience, hard to put into words, but it was like we had discovered something miraculous and were the only ones who knew about it.  Once the movie opened, I saw it many more times but it was never as great as that first time. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by yt 

The first time I saw E.T. was one of the great moviegoing experiences of my young life too.  My sisters and I always went to movies on Friday nights no matter what was playing.  When we got there, there was a huge line for a sneak preview of E.T. but we didn't know anything about it, what it was, nothing.  We got in line anyway but it sold out before we got to the front.  Most of the people left or went into other movies after they cut the line, but a few stragglers stayed behind just to see if they'd run it again, including us.  I think we waited about a half hour before they announced they were going to run it again.  So, we got our tickets and waited and ended up seeing E.T. for the first time with a half-full theater of diehards in the middle of the night.  It was an incredible shared experience, hard to put into words, but it was like we had discovered something miraculous and were the only ones who knew about it.  Once the movie opened, I saw it many more times but it was never as great as that first time. 

Nice story. Funnily enough E.T. taught me that my dad could cry... only to have his then-six year old son ask loudly in the middle of a dead silent theater...

"Are you crying Dad? DAD ARE YOU CRYING?!?!?!"

After a few muffled "shut ups!" from the old man, I realised that may not be the most appropriate question to ask in that circumstance.

A profoundly memorable moment in my childhood.

The first time I saw E.T. was with a bunch of friends, but I liked it so much I went home and told my parents they just HAD to go see it. My Mom would have none of it, but I finally convinced my Dad to go and, even a couple of weeks later, the theater was still packed when we went. He didn't cry, but he really liked it.

My favorite theater experience of the year was definitely Poltergeist. I went with a couple of friends and some girls they knew from a different school on opening weekend. The place was packed to the bursting point so we had to sit down in the second row. From the moment the movie started the crowd was putty in Hooper's and Speilberg's hands. Laughing, screaming, covering their eyes. Never seen anything like it before or since. I came out of the theater on a high and was just in awe of what I had seen. I stayed up most of the night; partly from the high I was feeling and partly because I knew I'd have nightmares if I went to sleep! Nothing since has come close to that experience except for maybe an opening weekend midnight showing of Batman in '89.

Fat Elvis, I...Second the...Awe-Inspiring Action of...The Beastmaster!  While Marc was the Lead...Singer as Dar, John Amos celebrated alot of...Good Times as the King's Bodyguard!  The Beastmaster is also...Tanya Roberts Greatest Film!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ambler 

 

 

 

 

I'd go if they were showing Megaforce.

CHUD not involved with that one guys? Shame. It sounds like a blast.

Mister Falcon, I...second the Love for...Megaforce!  Clearly it is Hal Needham's...Epic!