The decade of the 1980s in Western cinema saw the return of studio-driven pictures, coming from the filmmaker-driven New Hollywood era of the 1970s.[1] The period was when the "high concept" picture was created by producer Don Simpson,[2] where films were expected to be easily marketable and understandable. Therefore, they had short cinematic plots that could be summarized in one or two sentences. Since its implementation, this method has become the most popular formula for modern Hollywood blockbusters. At the same time in Eastern cinema, the Hong Kong film industry entered a boom period that significantly elevated its prominence in the international market.
Trends
The cinema of the 1980s covered many subgenres, with hybrids crossing between multiple genres. The course strengthened towards creating ever-larger megahit films, which earned more in their opening weeks than most previous movies due in part to scheduling releases when there were less competition for audience interest.
Action: In the 1970s, action films usually focused on maverick police officers. However, the genre did not become dominant in Hollywood until the 1980s, when it was popularized by action stars such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Chuck Norris, and Bruce Willis. Schwarzenegger built an iconic career out of action classics such as The Terminator (1984), Commando (1985), and Predator (1987). Stallone starred in 1982's First Blood about a returning Vietnam War veteran fighting a small town sheriff, as well as its sequels Rambo: First Blood Part II and Rambo III. Previously seen as a taboo in the 1970s, Vietnam War flicks like Oliver Stone's Platoon and Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket made the conflict a popular subject in the 1980s. Norris starred in the Missing in Action trilogy (1984, 1985, 1988) about a Vietnam veteran going back to rescue POWs. The release of Die Hard in 1988 was particularly influential on the development of the genre in the subsequent decade. In the film, Willis plays a New York City police detective who inadvertently becomes embroiled in a terrorist take-over of a Los Angeles office building. Meanwhile, Hong Kong action cinema was being revolutionized by filmmakers Jackie Chan, Tsui Hark, and John Woo; garnering increased attention all over the world with the likes of Project A (1983), Police Story (1985), A Better Tomorrow (1986), and The Killer (1989). Which featured increasingly complex martial arts and gunfight choreography with generally unsafe and most often uninsured stunt work. Blazing the trail for newer types of action movies like the heroic bloodshed subgenre. Tango & Cash, starring Stallone and Kurt Russell, was one of the two last Hollywood films to be released in the 1980s.[3]
Blockbusters: The decade started by continuing the blockbuster boom of the mid-1970s. The sequel to 1977'sStar Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, opened in May 1980 becoming the highest-grossing film of the year. It is considered among the greatest films of all time (being the highest rated 1980s film on IMDb). It was followed by Return of the Jedi (1983) finishing the Star Wars original trilogy. Superman II was released in Europe and Australia in late 1980, but not distributed in the United States until June 1981. Though now seen as campier over the original 1978Superman, Superman II was received with a positive reaction. From the success of The Empire Strikes Back, creator George Lucas teamed up with director Steven Spielberg to create one of the most iconic characters in the 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark starring Harrison Ford, who had also co-starred in The Empire Strikes Back. The story about an archaeologist and adventurer, Indiana Jones (Ford), hired by the U.S. government to go on a quest for the mystical lost Ark of the Covenant, created waves of interest in old 1930s style cliffhanger serials as well as treasure hunting adventures like 1984's Romancing the Stone. It became the highest-grossing film of 1981, leading to sequels all in the top-10 films of the decade. In 1982, Spielberg directed his fairy-tale, sci-fi family blockbuster E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, which shattered all records, earning 40% more than any Star-Wars film, and double or triple the revenue of 46 of the top 50 films.
Dance: Many movies during the 80s were centered around dancing. 1983's Flashdance, 1984's Footloose, and 1987's Dirty Dancing were all extremely successful as well as their soundtracks.
Fantasy: Fantasies saw a resurgence particularly in sword and sorcery films. In 1981, Dragonslayer and Excalibur started it off, but it was 1982'sConan the Barbarian which caused the fantasy explosion. The epic starred Arnold Schwarzenegger in his acting breakthrough as he began his ascent to stardom. Loosely based on the original tales by Robert E. Howard, the film was written by the unlikely pairing of Oliver Stone and John Milius. Its sequel followed in 1984 with the light-weight Conan the Destroyer. Schwarzenegger returned again to a similar sword-wielding role in 1985'sRed Sonja. The same year as Conan the Barbarian, similar films followed such as The Sword and the Sorcerer, The Beastmaster and the Ator films. Fairy-tale fantasy was also popular with films such as The NeverEnding Story (1984), Legend (1985) and The Princess Bride (1987). Disney's Return to Oz, a big-budget sequel to 1939's classic The Wizard of Oz, was a major flop, yet became a major success on home video. Jim Henson's Labyrinth (1986) was not an initial success but has since become a major cult classic. In Hong Kong, 1987's A Chinese Ghost Story blended fantasy with several other genres such as horror, action, comedy, and romance to great effect. Becoming an international favorite all over Asia.
James Bond: The James Bond film series entered its third decade in 1981 with Roger Moore starring in the more realistic For Your Eyes Only after the outlandish excess of Moonraker in 1979. The decade saw the beginning of a new era for Bond since the previous decade's directors originally directed a 1960s Bond; the new director brought to the series, John Glen, criticized for a less stylistic and more "workman" style of direction, directed all the EON Bond films from 1981 to 1989. Moonraker was the last for regular Bernard Lee who portrayed Bond's boss M. For the 1980s Bonds, a collection of numerous MI6 superiors would brief Bond on his missions. 1983 was a significant year for the series as a non-EON Bond was released, Never Say Never Again, directed by The Empire Strikes Back director Irvin Kershner, with Sean Connery returning to the role for the first time since 1971's Diamonds Are Forever; it was competing with the next EON film, Octopussy at the box office with media dubbing the situation "The Battle of the Bonds". Even lesser known in the same year was one-time Bond George Lazenby appearing in the TV reunion film The Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E. as Bond-like character "JB". A View to a Kill (1985) was the last for Roger Moore before Timothy Dalton was chosen as the new Bond in 1987's The Living Daylights and lastly in 1989'sLicence to Kill.
Rite-of-Passage: Beyond just the teenager "coming-of-age" stories, more complex "rite-of-passage" films had older actors changing or transforming through the rituals. So although teenagers were the focus of 1983's Risky Business, 1984's The Karate Kid and its sequels (1986, 1989), and 1985's The Breakfast Club and St. Elmo's Fire featuring the Brat Pack, older people with troubled lives were the subjects of Top Gun (1986) or An Officer and a Gentleman in trying to become a fighter pilot, a female welder in Flashdance transforming into a ballet dancer, and Cocoon's (1985) elderly set overcoming old age. Even The Big Chill (1983) reunion was a rite-of-passage that challenged old classmates to redirect their lives after the suicide of a friend. The Goonies in 1985 and Stand by Me in 1986 were both successful at the box office and went on to be considered classics of the decade. They also both featured a number young actors that would see future success both on the big screen and the small screen.
Thriller: The 1980s saw an immense amount of thriller films, many being of an erotic nature, including Fatal Attraction (1987) and Body Heat (1981). Perhaps two of the most influential examples of 1980s thriller films were David Lynch's bizarre cult classicBlue Velvet (1986), which dealt with the underworld of a seemingly idyllic U.S. suburbia, a subject which has spawned many imitations well into the first decade of the 21st century and Stanley Kubrick's horror/thriller The Shining (1980).
The decade saw an increased amount of nudity in film, as well as the increasing emphasis in the American industry on film franchises; especially in the science fiction, horror, and action genres. Much of the reliance on these effects-driven movies was due in part to the Star Wars films at the advent of this decade and the new cinematic visuals they helped to pioneer.
With the release of 1984's Red Dawn, the PG-13 rating was introduced in the U.S. to accommodate films that straddled the line between PG and R. Which was mainly due to the controversies surrounding the violence of the PG films Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Gremlins from earlier that same year.[5]
Some have considered the 1980s in retrospect as one of the weaker decades for American cinema in terms of the qualities of the films released. Quentin Tarantino (director of Pulp Fiction) has voiced his own view that the 1980s was one of the worst eras for American films.[6] Film critic Kent Jones also shares this opinion.[7] However, film theorist David Bordwell countered this notion, saying that the "megapicture mentality" was already existent in the 1970s, which is evident in the ten highest-grossing films of that decade, as well as with how many of the filmmakers part of New Hollywood were still able to direct many great pictures in the 1980s (Martin Scorsese, Brian de Palma, John Carpenter, etc.).[8]
In the list, where revenues are equal numbers, the newer films are listed lower, due to inflation making the dollar-amount lower compared to earlier years.
^Ebert, Roger; Bordwell, David (2008). Awake in the Dark: The Best of Roger Ebert (Paperback ed.). Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press. p. xvii. ISBN978-0226182018. In his pluralism, [Roger] Ebert proved a more authentic cinephile than many of his contemporaries. They tied their fortunes to the Film Brats and then suffered the inevitable disappointments of the 1980s return to studio-driven pictures.
^ abHurlburt, Roger (3 July 1989). "Martial Arts Flick Loses Kick Third Time Around". Sun-Sentinel. Archived from the original on 2019-03-26. Retrieved 27 January 2021. The Karate Kid (1984) and the sequel, The Karate Kid Part II, went on to gain critical acclaim and $130 million each at the box office
