Ok, so I've been watching 1982 movies. Any movie: good, bad, regular; just following the alphabetical order, and if I'm able to find the movie I have to watch it: that's the rule... So, I've made a top 10 of the most underrated/forgotten movies of 1982...
But that defeats the whole purpose cause I don't want some asshole telling me what's supposed to be good. So, I decided to write something on the conclusions I've arrived after this long journey (around 60 movies!):
1) If you got like a group of teenagers or better young adults you gonna have one or more punk kids, dressed in black leather, and weird hair, maybe a chain, sure a knife; they call themselves punks...
But I think they don't fully understand the whole punk philosophy... they usually get the rebellious side well enough, but in these movies they can even be pacifist punks! Like in Alone in the Dark (1982, Jack Sholder. Horror), you got the stupid punk-sister character against the proliferation of Nukes!
I mean, all I've learned about Punks is from Sex Pistols: but if you are a punk, isn't it supposed to be like better if the place goes to hell? But maybe not! Because in this universe, this fucking guy is also a punk...
Granted the quality of my tape is just terrible, but I like to think that this weirdo's glasses read Poonk!
2) Sometimes kids will say really weird fucked up things.
Kids in the 80's talk about sex, drugs, shit, body parts. They use them for shock value. Usually little kids but also teens. Like in Amityville Horror part II (1982, Damiano Damiani, Horror) A creepy 27ener guy ends up fucking his own super-hot sister
"because the demon made me do it"
She's playing an under-age and pretty much look the part to me... but I guess she was 21 at the time... so that makes it right...
You know, I have a theory that this is the only scene in this whole movie that Damiano Damiani really enjoyed shooting...
I also get the vibe that people didn't understand how bad drugs could be. In The Last American Virgin you got this very, very inappropriate scene with teens snorting cocaine!
And The Police in the background with De Do do do...
Of course the whole thing is funny, tender and cute because it really is just sugar powder; but the whole point is that you can only find this sort of scene back in the 80's. What madman approved this? Good Stuff!
3) They treat objects like Women, man.
There's not a single adult movie that doesn't show at some moment a piece of Tit or Ass, full nudity, bush style or some really cringe-inducing sex innuendo. Frequently there's a rape scene, that makes you feel like a terrible human being for watching it (while furiously masturbating)
Paul Newman gives Charlotte Rampling a good old bloody smuck in the face in The Verdict (1982, Sidney Lumet); not that she didn't deserve it but still: Can you imagine like Ryan Gunslinger punching Jennifer Lawranz whenever she's being a cunt?
In the 80's Women were treated like pieces of shit. In My Favorite Year, there's a pair of legs inside a Cigarette Box costume!
And the gaffer then says: "Hey, Janice, When you gonna let me get into your box?"
And it comes with another girl dressed as matches... and then the fucking guy uses the matches to light his cigar (Which is a symbolism for... I don't know) Ohhh is so cute and misogynistic at the same time. And I've just picked a random movie... and I know the whole point of the scene is to show a dickhead, a movie mogul or something; But do you remember all the bitching from this ad?
I mean Wtf! He was Doomsday or something and he was mad.
4) By 1982 people started to feel Nostalgia for Classic Hollywood Movies. I found three paying direct homage to oldies: Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, My Favorite Year and Hammett. There are also multiple movies playing oldies in the background or something, like in Making Love. 30-40 years separate 1982 from classical 40's and 50's which is more or less the same time that separates me from the 80's!
5) Sad forgotten movie genres:
- Sex comedies: with lame out-of-place jokes, misogyny, racism, homophobic jokes, fat phobia... you name it. You got the purest form in something like the crying inducing Porky's (1982, Bob Clark) or The Beach Girls. Maybe mixed with a coming of Age like Last American Virgin and of course the master piece Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982, Amy Heckerling)
- Fantasy: We don't see Conan and the likes anymore. Dungeons and Dragon's, Frank Frazetta style: The Dark Crystal, The BeastMaster, The sword and the Sorcerer...
- Slashers: Like Friday the 13th, part 3, silly movies with some wacko as a serial killer, the plot is there if you want it but all you care really is how many teenagers are gonna get wasted (and how); there was a finding for me in The Slumber Party Massacre (1982, Amy Jones) with my new favorite: Drill-Man!
- Spoofs: like Airplane 2 or Pandemonium; movies that make fun of other movies I miss those days...
- Erotic movies. Is so easy to get porn now, that the genre is just dead: like Aphrodite... Or movies in which the whole point of existence is to show some hot chick in the nude like Pia Zadora in Butterfly (and also... Is really creepy to think that men would go to theaters, pay a ticket, maybe buy some popcorn, with hot sweet butter in it, and a cold delicious beer or a coke just to be able to whack off on Pia Zadora. (Which reminds me there's a scene just like that with Joe Spinell jerking off in a Theater in The Last Horror Film... Joe Spinell touching himself: that's something I'll take to my fucking grave!)
6) They weren't afraid of controversial subjects: Mariel Hemingway fucks with Patrice Donnelly in Personal Best (1982, Robert Towne)... But I'm being unfair here because this wasn't like a lesbian shock value film; it's a beautiful piece of art! Is like Riefenstahl's Olympia (1936); but a little less Nazi, and there're no underwater fish shots and way more bushy down there and gay... I love the 80's
But you also got like Making Love! Wtf a 1982 Coming of Gay movie! And people think Brokeback with the Sheep on the Mountain or something was like the first gay movie ever;
You know, a friend told me that in one scene Heath Ledger use his own saliva as a lubricant, so yeah apparently he spits on Jake Gillenhalls ass... And now, now I'm not sure if the scene is real or not... Because I seem to remember it! And I'm just too afraid to go back and watch it again?...
You don't see that in Making Love I tell you that much!
(by pelida77)
Ok if you are curious about what movies I've watched and which ones I've found to be the best, here's the list
Ok if you are curious about what movies I've watched and which ones I've found to be the best, here's the list
