What is the typical 80s movie?

We do not mean the preferably Film from the 1980s. That’s a different category.

Which film truly represents and sums up the 80s?

The Breakfast Club (1985) – Perhaps nothing captures the decade better than this teen classic from John Hughes. It brought together five kids representing five different social cliques and their strategies for dealing with the disinterested system that has power over their lives.

Beverly Hills Cop (1984) — What makes this film so great is that it is entertaining and dramatic at the same time. Yet it is Eddie Murphy’s Axel Foley who is unlike any other from the 70s, 60s, 50s or even 40s.

Of course, there have been cheeky detectives before (that was an old cliché even in the 1980s), but it was Axel’s DGAF attitude towards authority that shaped an entire generation.

Poltergeist (1982) — The first scene is one of the best openings to a film ever and is pure 1980s suburban life. The feeling of what it was like to live in the 80s is perfectly portrayed. It’s not until the release of Stranger Things on Netflix that a film or series has captured the spirit of the moment so well.

Valley Girl (1983) — Every generation needs a star-crossed love story. The decade offered plenty to choose from, including Say Anything and The Man Who Came to Life. This is quintessential ’80s… with the Plimsouls headlining a killer soundtrack.

Back to the Future (1985) — What sets Generation X apart are films like this one that question the nature of reality. Our hero Marty McFly is aware of two realities, one good and one bad, resulting from actions and inactions. For teenagers and young children, this is a real mindf***.

It’s not just about asking a girl to prom, which is challenging enough. It’s about your entire existence. If you screw it up, your life is over, to quote another ’80s classic.

Terminator (1984) — You can only understand the intensity of this film if you’ve seen it in the cinema and held your breath for two hours. There’s never been anything like it, the sheer relentlessness of the Terminator chasing you. And much like The Breakfast Club, there’s a kind of nihilism to this film, the inevitable, relentless running over of a human being.

It’s not the high school bullies. The monster here is technology. That’s fitting, because Generation X was the first generation to be consumed by technology.

Sex Lies and Videotape (1989) — Speaking of technology consumption, this brilliant little film by Steven Soderbergh (arguably one of his best) shows the challenges that Generation X faced in the 1980s. The tensions between boys and girls, men and women weren’t enough. Now they’re captured and witnessed on video.

Generation X is the first generation to have to live with the critical parent turning into real technology, and it’s only gotten worse since then.

Blue Velvet (1986) — I thought long and hard about the difference between a good 1980s film and a typical 80s film. Could the film have been made before 1980 or did it have elements that were unique to the 80s?

“Blue Velvet” is on the list because the mystery is triggered by an ear found in a suburban garden. The deeper meta-symbolism of it being an ear. In a suburban garden. Brilliant.

Did we listen? No.

The Ghostbusters (1984) — There were a lot of great comedies in this decade, and quite a few of them were by Harold Ramis and Ivan Reitman. Their “Ghostbusters” beats “Stripes” and “Caddyshack” (which is really a ’70s comedy) and “Back to School” because it has ghosts in it.

Ghosts are fun. They’re scary, sure, but they’re also interesting, and like Poltergeist, this film hints at a deeper truth: all the buried bodies came out both literally and figuratively in the form of mental illness, social justice, etc.

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986) — Ferris is the shadow of 80’s nihilism. We see him now as the villain in the story that he always was, but back then he was like Axel Foley… full of fun and chaos.

Films from the 80s like Footloose capture both the best and the worst of that era. It’s crazy to think that today a film could be made where a young girl gets beat up and no one says boo. And just a few years later, Love Potion No. 9, where a man basically rapes an entire college dorm for fun.

We have come a long way culturally since then. I miss some of that, but I’m glad we’ve grown up, or at least pretend to be adults.

Which film do you think best characterizes the 80s?

Best 80s Movies by Category

comedy

• Stripes
• Beetlejuice
• Caddyshack
• Ghost Hunters
• Crazy Science
• Beverly Hills Cop
• A fish named Wanda
• The Witches of Eastwick
• The shrill four on the road
• I think I’m standing in the forest

action

• Raiders of the Lost Ark
• Escape from New York
• Conan the Barbarian
• Deadly weapon
• Street House
• Red Dawn
• 48 hours
• Predator
• Die Hard
• F/X

horror

• Aliens
• The thing
• poltergeist
• The Shining – The Wonderful World of Madness
• Angel Heart
• The inseparables
• Re-Animator
• An American Werewolf in London
• The Changeling
• The Serpent and the Rainbow

drama

• The Breakfast Club
• Body heat
• Risky business
• Train
• The Outsiders
• Witness
• Stand by Me
• The defendant
• The colour purple
• The Name of the Rose
• Less than zero
• Rain Man
• War games
• WallStreet
• The right stuff
• News broadcasts
• The Natural
• Living and dying in LA
• The year of dangerous living

romance

• The unbearable lightness of being
• 9 1/2 weeks
• Against all odds
• The accidental tourist
• Valley Girl
• Harry and Sally
• On the hunt for the green diamond
• Children of a lesser god
• A fateful affair
• Blue Velvet
• Say something

Science fiction/fantasy

• Blade Runner
• The Empire Strikes Back
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
• Excalibur
• Terminator
• Brazil
• you live
• The Road Warrior
• Back to the future
• ET – The Extra-Terrestrial
• The fly
• Batman
• Fire starter
• Dreamscape
• Enemy mine
• Highlanders
• The Golden Child
• Altered conditions
• Heavy metal
• The running man
• My science project
• Cherry 2000