Favourite Films of 1981
Monday is about movies. Sometimes TV. Sometimes I work through the years and list my favourite films. Today is that day once again. First time in a while. So, today, my favourites from 1981…
Every now and then I try to work through my favourite films of a year. We’ve made it to the eighties, and then I stalled. It was a while back that I covered 1980. Still, feel free to check that previous newsletter out, and from there you can get the links to go all the way back through the 70s — I started this caper at 1970.
Favourite Films of 1980
Today, however, it’s 1981. Incredible year for horror. So I’m just gonna list a bunch here that won’t make the cut to be raved about but all made huge impressions on me: Scanners, The Evil Dead, Maniac, The Prowler, Zombi 2, Blood Beach, Eyes Of A Stranger, The Howling, Friday The 13th Part 2, Halloween II, An American Werewolf in London, and even Omen III: The Final Conflict. There are more too. Including one that will make the actual list, and adjacent magic like John Carpenter’s Escape From New York. But geez, maybe I need to revisit 1981 as one of the golden years of horror. Some incredible films there. Of course I wasn’t watching any of them in 1981, I was too young. But some of the films that make my list are because I saw them in 1981/82, young — too young for them perhaps — and therefore so hugely impressionable.
So, on with the show. Hopefully you know how this works by now. It’s not my word against yours. Just my word. You then can have your say at the end. This is the list of films I remember as being the most important and/or ‘favourite’ for me.
As always, in no order, beyond how they appear to me, and as I think of them here are my Favourite Films of 1981:
The Postman Always Rings Twice
I probably saw this just after I saw The Shining — and with Batman’s The Joker performance still in my mind too, and maybe I’d only recently seen Cuckoo’s Nest, now I think about it. It was certainly a glut of Jack, and I loved all of it. Postman was my introduction to what a great actor Jessica Lange is too — I’d seen her in things, but this is where I realised she’s so thoroughly excellent. Yeah, it’s a remake, and I went back and watched the 40s original, and that’s good too — but because I saw this as purely A Jack Nicholson Film, I wasn’t holding anything against it. The picture doesn’t have the greatest critical acclaim, but to me it was a horny, electric film — and I loved the premise and the execution of it.
I recently watched the Faye Dunnaway documentary (recommended!) and it reminded me instantly of what a huge film this was in my life — saw it in the 80s sometime, shortly after it was released I guess; I was very young to be watching it, and the scene where the kid is beaten with a coat hanger absolutely terrified me, felt like the first time I genuinely tried to experience an empathy for someone around my age too, thinking about how awful that was. It also made me a fan of Faye, and I’ve loved her approach in almost every film she was in. Again, I watched this when I was so young, I had no idea it was basically a camp classic, mocked and laughed at on the one level, and then revered by a crowd that watched it as if it was The Rocky Horror Picture Show, basically. But I dig that about it now also. I think it’s one of my favourite book-to-film “based on a true story” biopics. Brutal. And a really beautiful bit of film making. It’s stayed with me forever.
A Michael Mann film, starring James Caan, with music by Tangerine Dream. Sign me the fuck up! Actually, Thief is Mann’s feature film debut, if you don’t count the TV movie he made ahead of it (which I adore). It’s also one of the last of Mann’s films for me to get to — but its reputation was already known to me. Sometimes you finally reach a film like this and you wonder what the fuss was about. Not so here though. A brilliant, taut thriller. The kind of film I absolutely adore. Also, one of Tangerine Dream’s very best scores. And that’s saying something.
Not to compare them, but I could have chosen Brain DePalma’s mystery/thriller, Blow Out, but went — instead — for Lawrence Kasdan’s Body Heat, more of an erotic thriller, and a film so visceral you can feel the tension (and heat) through the screen. What a cast! William Hurt and Kathleen Turner in the lead. Richard Crenna, Ted Danson, and Mickey Rourke in support. I just love the mood of this film, and though it wasn’t the first time I’d seen Kathleen Turner, it was the film that gave her a career and it made sense, going back and seeing this. She was one of my favourites across the 80s and early 90s for her work with John Waters, and the Romancing The Stone/Jewel of the Nile/War of the Roses trilogy, and of course as Jessica Rabbit. But all of that magic was unleashed on the world here. I’ve grown to love William Hurt too, but this was the film where I first understood his intensity as an actor. I love another Kasdan classic, The Big Chill, and so knew him already from that, but it was here that I saw why so many people raved about him. Amazing film. Classic modern noir.
I have strong memories of watching this with my folks, as one of the early dramas that they wanted to see, and the kids were given the option of watching, or walking away. I went to walk away, but the film pulled me in. And I loved how funny it was for a drama, and how sad it was, and how amazing these old screen legends were — my introduction to Henry Fonda and Katherine Hepburn. I wonder if this film stands up now? I assume, overall, it would. But I don’t know that I’d ever watch it again. I don’t want my memory of it ruined.
And here’s five notable mentions — again in no particular order:
Any of Albert Brooks’ films — for starters. But also, Modern Romance is one of those rare rom-coms that’s as much a drama as a comedy and equally successful when considering either of the vestiges separately, or the brilliant way the action flows through both comedy and drama. Brooks is at his neurotic best here, acting, writing, directing. Genius.
Only saw this film quite recently — loved it. I do get into a bit of neo-noir, and so what if they can get a bit bonkers, that’s part of it. Great to see and hear and feel the way this film plays out — it just looks fantastic! And a great Jeff Bridges performance, long before he was phoning in Being Jeff Bridges (which I still and always love, by the way).
I’m barely even an Indiana Jones fan — I still haven’t got close to finishing the series, and really only remember the first two films. But Raiders blew my mind as a child. A wonderful action blockbuster. And it’s really held up well, rewatched it for the first time in nearly 40 years just recently. Absolutely held me. Harrison Ford had so fully established his wise-cracking persona — and what a run of films for him, playing two of cinema’s legendary smart-talking heroes back to back to back…
It wasn’t just a great year for horror, it was the year that three brilliant werewolf films came to screens and started a bit of a thing. Wolfen might take the back seat to American Werewolf and Howling in terms of the overall brand recognition, but it’s one of the smartest horror films of its era, and it just looks fantastic. Great angles, beautiful use of the city as scenery, and moving through it — great action, great drama, and just smart. You don’t always see smart horror films. You don’t always want smart horror films,
By no stretch of the imagination a good film, but it sure felt important to be watching this…a sneaky treat. We felt naughty, and didn’t really get it, but watched it anyway, because that’s what you did. In the 90s the comedies that owed a debt to this were filthier and dumber, and we loved those for a while too.
There were a lot of “big” and “important” films I saw at the time that I remember vividly too that I haven’t mentioned here. Like Chariots of Fire, and Gallipoli, and daft stuff too like Ringo Starr’s vehicle, Caveman, and the bizarre and brilliant Condorman. And things that were big and important and daft and bizarre and brilliant all at once, like Arthur. And Stripes. I guess 1981 was a trip, cinema-wise…
What were your favourites from that year? Anything that’s on my list? Or all new things that I’ve ignored or simply not mentioned?
Never saw Body Heat, might have to now. I loved Kathleen Turner in romancing the stone as a kid also, so seems like a must see.
My school in Palmy took a whole cinema load of primary kids to see ‘The Cannonball Run’ at the State theatre in 1981.. that was a cinematic magical event, including the constant sound track of rattling and rolling tangy fruits on the sloped floor. The year before they took us to Herbie Goes Bananas!
I’m loving this series. Thanks!