No need to elongate this latest entry into our History of Film feature by reiterating the fact that this sort of ranking of art is arbitrary. We all know it is, and continue to indulge in this guilty pleasure-like exercise anyway. Below are ballots collected from the staff and friends of Movie Mezzanine. In the comment section, rattle off your ten favorite films from the 1980s. The results and analysis of your selections to come a month from today. Enjoy!
The Movie Mezzanine Staff
Sam Fragoso, Editor-In-Chief
1.) Blow Out
2.) Crimes and Misdemeanors
3.) Say Anything …
4.) Bull Durham
5.) Drugstore Cowboy
6.) Blade Runner
7.) Platoon
8.) Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
9.) Broadcast News
10.) The Empire Strikes Back
Tom Clift, Co-Founder
1.) The Shining
2.) Aliens
3.) Full Metal Jacket
4.) The Fly
5.) Little Shop of Horrors
6.) Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
7.) Blade Runner
8.) Blue Velvet
9.) Do The Right Thing
10.) Grave of the Fireflies
Jake Cole, Senior Editor
1.) King Lear
2.) The Green Ray
3.) Berline Alexanderplatz
4.) The King of Comedy
5.) Mauvais Sang
6.) Heaven’s Gate
7.) L’Argent
8.) Distant Voices, Still Lives
9.) A City of Sadness
10.) Body Double
Kristen Sales, LA Correspondant
1.) Possession
2.) After Hours
3.) The Elephant Man
4.) Au revoir les enfants
5.) Ghostbusters
6.) My Neighbor Totoro
7.) Broadway Danny Rose
8.) Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
9.) Mystery Train
10.) An American Werewolf in London
Christopher Runyon, Essayist
1.) The Shining
2.) Grave of the Fireflies
3.) The Last Temptation of Christ
4.) Kiki’s Delivery Service
5.) Full Metal Jacket
6.) Castle in the Sky
7.) Hannah and Her Sisters
8.) Back to the Future
9.) Blue Velvet
10.) Die Hard
Nick Usen, Columnist
1.) Radiers of The Lost Ark
2.) Raging Bull
3.) This Is Spinal Tap
4.) Top Gun
5.) Robocop
6.) Predator
7.) The Thing
8.) The Great Mouse Detective
9.) Heaven’s Gate
10.) Shoah
Jesse Knight, Contributor
1.) Possession
2.) Evil Dead II
3.) Heathers
4.) This Is Spinal Tap
5.) Brazil
6.) Crimes and Misdemeanors
7.) Modern Romance
8.) Airplane!
9.) Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
10.) Porky’s
Forrest Cardamenis, Contributor
1.) Do The Right Thing
2.) Fanny & Alexander
3.) Blade Runner
4.) Wings of Desire
5.) Isle of Flowers
6.) Nostalghia
7.) Mauvais Sang
8.) Grave of the Fireflies
9.) Videodrome
10.) The Thin Blue Line
Kevin Ketchum, Austin Correspondant
1.) Blade Runner
2.) Raging Bull
3.) Raiders of the Lost Ark
4.) Empire Strikes Back
5.) E.T. The Extra Terrestrial
6.) Ran
7.) Blow Out
8.) My Neighbor Totoro
9.) Shoah
10.) Grave of the Fireflies
James Blake Ewing, Criterion Columnist
1.) Blade Runner
2.) Paris, Texas
3. Wings of Desire
4.) A Short Film About Love
5.) Amadeus
6.) Babette’s Feast
7.) My Neighbor Totoro
8.) Koyaanisqatsi
9.) Brazil
10.) L’argent
Dan Schindel, Contributor
1.) Fanny and Alexander
2.) Brazil
3.) The Purple Rose of Cairo
4.) After Hours
5.) The Shining
6.) Sherman’s March
7.) When the Wind Blows
8.) Crimes and Misdemeanors
9.) Robocop
10.) Airplane!
Michal Oleszczyk, Contributor
1.) Distant Voices, Still Lives
2.) Once Upon A Time In America
3.) Ballad of Narayama
4.) Mrs. Soffel
5.) Something Wild
6.) Moonstruck
7.) My Dinner with Andre
8.) A Nos Amours
9.) Chameleon Street
10.) Lost In America
Odie Henderson, List-Maker
1.) Do The Right Thing
2.) Raiders of the Lost Ark
3.) Tootsie
4.) Raging Bull
5.) Coming to America
6.) Terms of Endearment
7.) The Mighty Quinn
8.) The Empire Strikes Back
9.) Raising Arizona
10.) Fanny Alexander
Friends of Movie Mezzanine
Matt Zoller Seitz, RogerEbert.com
1.) Raising Arizona
2.) Top Secret!
3.) Do The Right Thing
4.) Fanny & Alexander
5.) Blue Velvet
6.) The Fly
7.) The Right Stuff
8.) Wings of Desire
9.) The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover
10.) Hannah and Her Sisters
Kenji Fujishima, In Review Online
1.) Videodrome
2.) City of Sadness
3.) L’Argent
4.) Modern Romance
5.) Blow Out
6.) Amadeus
7.) Fanny and Alexander
8.) Sherman’s March
9.) The Thing
10.) Die Hard
Amy Nicholson, LA Weekly
1.) Pennies From Heaven
2.) The Shining
3.) Amadeus
4.) Brazil
5.) Die Hard
6.) Beetlejuice
7.) Hairspray
8.) Fizcarraldo
9.) Risky Business
10.) The Neverending Story
Andrew Parker, Dork Shelf
1.) King Lear
2.) A Nightmare on Elm Street
3.) Fitzcarraldo
4.) The King of Comedy
5.) Do the Right Thing
6.) Blood Simple
7.) Platoon
8.) Planes, Traines, and Automobiles
9.) Crimes and Misdemeanors
10.) Say Anything …
Scott Renshaw, City Weekly
1.) Airplane!
2.) Raising Arizona
3.) Hannah and Her Sisters
4.) This Is Spinal Tap
5.) Amadeus
6.) Raiders of the Los Ark
7.) The King of Comedy
8.) Bull Durham
9.) The Untouchables
10.) Brazil
Kevin B. Lee, Press Play
1.) Heaven’s Gate
2.) Berlin Alexanderplatz
3.) Zu: Warriors of Magic Mountain
4.) L’Argent
5.) Love Streams
6.) Aliens
7.) Handsworth Songs
8.) The Dante Quartet
9.) Yeleen
10.) A City of Sadness
David Ehrlich, Film.com
1.) Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters
2.) Sans Soleil
3.) L’Argent
4.) The Green Ray
5.) Fanny and Alexander
6.) Broadcast News
7.) The Naked Gun! From the Files of Police Squad
8.) Paris, Texas
9.) Koyaanisqatsi
10.) The Shining
Scott Mendelson, Forbes
1.) Batman
2.) Field of Dreams
3.) Airplane!
4.) Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
5.) Raiders of the Lost Ark
6.) Do the Right Thing
7.) Empire Strikes Back
8.) Reds
9.) Lethal Weapon
10.) Killing Fields
Matt Prigge, Metro Us
1.) Modern Romance
2.) Do the Right Thing
3.)The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover
4.) Blood Simple
5.) Sans Soleil
6.) Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story
7.) Airplane!
8.) The Fly
9.) Rehearsals for Extinct Anatomies
10.) Blow Out
Matt Goldberg, Collider
1.) Back to the Future
2.) The Princess Bride
3.) Die Hard
4.) The Thing
5.) Airplane!
6.) Field of Dreams
7.) Das Boot
8.) The Wrath of Khan
9.) This Is Spinal Tap
10.) Broadcast News
Tina Hassannia, Slant Magazine
1.) The Green Ray
2.) Love Streams
3.) Vagabond
4.) Spoorloos
5.) Where is the Friend’s Home?
6.) Sans Soleil
7.) Bashu, the Little Stranger
8.) The Sacrifice
9.) Distant Voices, Still Lives
10.) Blue Velvet
Cameron Williams, Graffiti With Punctuation
1.) Back to the Future
2.) Empire Strikes Back
3.) Terminator
4.) Raiders of the Lost Ark
5.) Die Hard
6.) Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
7.) Blade Runner
8.) This is Spinal Tap
9.) The Shining
10.) Big Trouble in Little China
Ryan McNeil, The Matinee
1.) Raging Bull
2.) Raiders of The Lost Ark
3.) Blade Runner
4.) When Harry Met Sally
5.) Full Metal Jacket
6.) The Empire Strikes Back
7.) Breakfast Club
8.) Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
9.) Do The Right Thing
10.) Wall Street
James Ward, Visalia Times Delta
1.) E.T. The Extra Terrestrial
2.) Raiders of the Lost Ark
3.) The Empire Strikes Back
4.) Terms of Endearment
5.) Blade Runner
6.) Tootsie
7.) The Right Stuff
8.) Aliens
9.) The Blues Brothers
10.) Raging Bull
Germain Lussier, SlashFilm
1.) Return of the Jedi
2.) Empire Strikes Back
3.) Back to the Future
4.) Raiders of the Lost Ark
5.) Aliens
6.) Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
7.) Lost Boys
8.) Say Anything …
9.) Karate Kid
10.) Full Metal Jacket
Calum Marsh, The Village Voice
1.) King Lear
2.) A City of Sadness
3.) Love Streams
4.) The Green Ray
5.) The Sacrifice
6.) Distane Voices, Still Lives
7.) Sans Soleil
8.) Vagabond
9.) Videdrome
10.) Mauvais Sang
Carrie Rickey, The Philadelphia Inquirer
1.) Desperately Seeking Susan
2.) Angry Harvest
3.) Dirty Dancing
4.) L’Argent
5.) Do the Right Thing
6.) Babette’s Feast
7.) E.T. The Extraterrestrial
8.) Entre Nous
9.) The Fabulous Baker Boys
10.) The Long Good Friday
Allison Loring, Film School Rejects
1.) Top Gun
2.) Back to the Future
3.) Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
4.) Dirty Dancing
5.) Say Anything…
6.) The Goonies
7.) Die Hard
8.) Adventures in Babysitting
9.) Radiers of the Lost Ark
10.) Weekend at Bernie’s
Jason Bailey, FlavorWire
1.) Raging Bull
2.) Do the Right Thing
3.) Crimes and Misdemeanors
4.) Tootsie
5.) Sex, lies, and videotape
6.) Radio Days
7.) Broadcast News
8.) Hannah and Her Sisters
9.) Blue Velvet
10.) Brewster’s Millions
Peter Labuza, The Cinephiliacs
1.) Raging Bull
2.) Damnation
3.) Christine
4.) They All Laughed
5.) Ishtar
6.) Mephisto
7.) Police Story
8.) The Wind
9.) They Live
10.) My Friend Ivan Lapshin
Jordan Raup, The Film Stage
1.) The Shining
2.) Blade Runner
3.) Paris, Texas
4.) Raiders of the Lost Ark
5.) Raging Bull
6.) Fanny and Alexander
7.) Die Hard
8.) Blue Velvet
9.) Wings of Desire
10.) Do the Right Thing
Jack Giroux, Film School Rejects
1.) Raiders of the Lost Ark
2.) The King of Comedy/The Last Temptation of Christ
3.) Rumble Fish
4.) The Shining
5.) Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
6.) Blow Out
7.) Crimes and Misdemeanors
8.) Modern Romance
9.) Wings of Desire
10.) Once Upon a Time in America
Steve Greene, CriticWire
1.) Full Metal Jacket
2.) Blue Velvet
3.) Broadcast News
4.) 28 Up
5.) Raiders of the Lost Ark
6.) Wings of Desire
7.) Amadeus
8.) Brazil
9.) The Princess Bride
10.) Somewhere in Time
Chris Stuckmann, Filmmaker
1.) The Empire Strikes Back
2.) Raiders of the Lost Ark
3.) ET
4.) Predator
5.) Die Hard
6.) Back to the Future
7.) The Shining
8.) The Terminator
9.) Aliens
10.) Field of Dreams
…..
Now it’s your turn to contribute readers. In the comment section below, provide your top ten of the 1980s (1980-89), ordered from 1 – 10. Again, we thank you.
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