Why 1980s Movies are Awesome

The 1980s was one of, if not the, best decades for Hollywood film ever. Many of you may not agree with this, but I believe that it is fundamentally true. 1980s movies mastered the art of being both smart and silly. For that reason, they perfected the most fun genres.

The 80’s owns the action comedy (Ghostbusters, Beverly Hills Cop, Indiana Jones), the romantic comedy (When Harry Met Sally …, Say Anything), the teen movie (The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Dirty Dancing, Heathers), the time travel movie (Back to the Future, Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure), the Christmas movie (Die Hard, Scrooged, Gremlins), the odd-couple movie (Lethal Weapon, Trading Places, Midnight Run), the fish out of water movie (ET, The Terminator, Coming to America), the John Candy movies (Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Uncle Buck), films about childhood (Hope and Glory, Stand By Me, Big), the musical montages (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Flashdance, Top Gun).

So, frankly, you can take your Citizen Kanes and your Deer Hunters and you can stick ’em. Do you want to spend your Friday night with Apocalypse Now? Knock yourself out. We’ll be over here, hooting away to Trading Places. And you know you’ll end up wandering over and hooting next to me on the sofa. Pass the frozen orange juice, and let us tell you what exactly makes 80’s movies so damn good? Well, ladies and gentlemen, we present to you our Top Reasons Why 80’s Movies are Awesome…

• The Clothes
  Fashion has taken some whacky turns in the last century but arguably never more so than in the 80’s. Whilst films like Beetlejuice allowed for costume departments to experiment, even the more grounded Brat Pack films pushed the barriers of fashion decency.
• The Creative Stories
  Then try to imagine if today a film about three teachers and a random guy trying to start a company to exorcise ghosts with backpacks, was released. It’s difficult to imagine a concept like this even being green-lit today with a significant budget. The effects and the budget of films like Ghostbusters would likely be too much of a risk in today’s industry. But in the 80’s? The risk Columbia Pictures took on Ghostbusters would be destined to become the 2nd highest-grossing film of that year. The same can be said of many of the biggest films of the period; E.T., the Indiana Jones and Back to the Future saga’s and more. They may still have been risks back then but the fact that they overcame this highlights the fact that audiences may have been more receptive.
• The Soundtracks
  Complimenting the spirited story-lines that were abundant in cinemas of the decade, 80’s movie soundtracks were about as memorable as the films themselves. Though hugely varied, the soundtracks featured a huge number of classics. Dance movies of the era brought us the now cheesetastic Footloose-types, classics such as Back to the Future and Ghostbusters bought us Huey Lewis’s “The Power of Love” and Ray Parker Jr.’s “Ghostbusters” whilst the likes of John Williams continued to write their epic scores.
• The Special Effects
  The Oscar’s introduced the award for best special effects in 1981 thanks to the brilliance of those used in An American Werewolf in London. Long before advanced CGI appeared in almost every single movie released, 80’s movies were taking pioneering steps in special effects. From the shapeshifting Alien in The Thing to the likes of Gremlins and E.T., from the outright gore of films like A Nightmare on Elm Street to the brilliant effects used in Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video, the 80’s were testing just how far they could push their effects departments. The 1980s were the decade where practical effects took over and, in some cases, result in better effects than today. Indeed, you can tell that they are not exactly real, but they are plausible and so much more believable than today’s overly processed CGI special effects.
• The Characters
  It seems ridiculous to think that there was a time when Indiana Jones didn’t exist, a time when Marty McFly wasn’t nipping back to future, but there was, and it’s otherwise known as the 70’s. Whilst cinema has brought us much-loved characters in the years since the 80’s, none will be as memorable as those in this iconic decade.
• The Blockbusters
  The Blockbuster was unarguably the main movement of the 80’s. Whilst we still have blockbusters, the meaning has altered slightly. Instead of being high concept films, with real originality and appeal but most of all a desire to make huge amounts of money. The term is used to describe the biggest films with the most explosions. Indeed the term is almost derogatory now, but you can’t deny that they helped create some of the best films and icons, which is the whole point of the Shat the Movies Podcast.
• The Quotes
  Few films are as quotable as those produced in the 80’s (the decade features most dominantly in our Top 10 Movie Quotes Feature so this claim is fully substantiated). From John McClane’s ‘Yippee-kai-yay’, to E.T.’s eternal quest to ‘phone home’, 80’s movies gave as a constant source of reference. Who’ya gonna call, indeed.
• The Directors
  Many of the most famous directors made their name in the 80’s. Whilst Jaws and Close Encounters both came out in the 1970s, Steven Spielberg wowed audiences in the 80’s with the Indiana Jones trilogy as well as directing E.T. Robert Zemeckis brought us Back to the Future and Who Framed Roger Rabbit and the late John Hughes bought us many a Brat Pack movie. Other notable directors from this decade include John Carpenter, David Cronenberg, and Rob Reiner.

Conclusion
In truth, it is only really down to a few aspects that make the 80’s the best decade for film. The decade allowed a substantial amount of creative freedom, due to how much audiences accepted and could tolerate. It was not as limited by budget and social conventions as previous decades. In turn the kind of stories that we’re able to be told were much more free than the following years. This led to modern classics and some of the most entertaining films that are still regularly watched today.