Decades of Film-Part 5: The Greatest of Them All

The time has finally come to name what I believe to be the Greatest Decade of Filmmaking of All-Time. No more Runner-Ups, just the winner of the Grand Prize in this fantastic adventure. So what is the Greatest Decade of Filmmaking of All-Time? None other than the 1980s themselves.

I like to think of it like this, the 1970s was just merely the cause, the 1980s were the effect. The '70s was the origination of the American auteur and the rise of the blockbuster, but neither of these things really seemed to come into full bloom till the '80s, this was when we finally saw the bona fide effect of such massive changes on the industry. As well, the '80s saw a thriving international film market, the likes of which we're still experiencing today. So many countries really jumped into the film spotlight in this decade, from Germany all the way to Hong Kong; most notably thanks to director John Woo and actor Jackie Chan and the Hong Kong action film. Not to mention, in Japan, animation would be totally reinvented as a form of artistic expression with the rise of Studio Ghibli and director Hayao Miyazaki. The '80s was just a fantastic decade all the way around the world, but it was a decade that not only reflected it's time, it preceded it.

There has not been another decade in the history of cinema where the movies themselves had such a massive impact on pop culture. In previous decades people generally were more influenced by actors than they were by the films in which the actors were in, but in the '80s it was almost a total opposite with fresh young faces filling the screen for most of the decade. Just look at the Star Wars films, almost every kid was mimicking Yoda or Darth Vader way back in these days, even adults like our President at the time used Star Wars quotes to address the nation. If that isn't widespread pop culture phenomena, I don't know what is. Not to mention, the works of folks like auspicious '80s auteur John Hughes had a major impact on society in general.

That is why the '80s was one of the few decades where Hollywood didn't simply reflect the times, they changed the times. Films like Sixteen Candles, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and The Breakfast Club. These movies of the '80s created the '80s through their optimistic messages that they sent to the world's youth. It was a decade all about the youth of the world, and the movies were telling them that they could take back our world, which resulted in the end of a Cold War and the destruction of the Berlin Wall. Pop culture aside, the films of the '80s were just fantastic films as well.

There is a reason why the blockbuster became popular, and it was because of the '80s. The blockbusters of the '80s were big event films, like they are today, but unlike today, the filmmakers of the '80s didn't have all of this high tech machinery we now have to do whatever. The special FX work was crude, it was getting better, but it was also exceedingly expensive. So these early blockbusters compensated for the lack of technological whiz bang wizardry and covered it up with solid storytelling. This is how we got The Empire Strikes Back, or E.T., or Back to the Future. These filmmakers still didn't know whether the technology could be achieved, and so these films were made with a certain motra of story first and big FX second, something many filmmakers of today could take away from the '80s. And even though FX work was still crude, this was a decade of sharp technological advancement.

Video games and home computers were becoming increasingly more popular, and the movies were reflecting that. Cinema was pushing movie technology to the edge with folks like ILM and their work on the Star Wars films, to movies like TRON, culminating in the first ever, full on CGI character in Young Sherlock Holmes. Of course, through all of this, the smaller, more personal films were never lost.

The great thing about the '80s was that there was a little bit of something for everyone. The blockbusters appealed to all ages, races, and genders. The teen comedies got the youth. The smarmy romances got the women. The adrenaline-fueled action flicks that rose to existence in the '80s with stuff like Die Hard got the men. And the works of auteurs like Martin Scorsese attracted the intellectuals wanting some food for thought. This is the same cross-section our industry still uses, but in the '80s it was well-balanced, unlike it being a one-sided victor as it is now.

So there you have it, the Greatest Decade of Filmmaking of All-Time. A decade that gave us such talented actors as Tom Hanks, how can it be bad?

The Twenty Best Films of the 1980s:
20. Terminator
19. Honey, I Shrunk the Kids
18. Kiki's Delivery Service
17. Ran
16. Castle in the Sky
15. Die Hard
14. The Karate Kid
13. Raging Bull
12. Ferris Bueller's Day Off
11. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
10. Empire of the Sun
9. Batman
8. Back to the Future
7. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
6. My Neighbor Totoro
5. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
4. Return of the Jedi
3. Raiders of the Lost Ark
2. E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial
1. The Empire Strikes Back