1982's Best Movies: 40 Years Later

In keeping with previous polls, I've gone with the contenders in the top 2,000 films, but they now offer the entire starting spreadsheet. Here are the titles that carry through through the top 5,000 films ever.

2168	Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan	Meyer, Nicholas	USA
2180	One from the Heart	Coppola, Francis Ford	USA
2185	White Dog	Fuller, Samuel	USA
2274	Reassemblage	Trinh T. Minh-ha	USA
2313	World According to Garp, The	Hill, George Roy	USA
2344	Toute une nuit	Akerman, Chantal	Belgium
2582	Sophie's Choice	Pakula, Alan J.	USA
2621	Conan the Barbarian	Milius, John	USA
2630	Liquid Sky	Tsukerman, Slava	USA
2784	Bête lumineuse, La	Perrault, Pierre	Canada
2839	Boat People	Hui, Ann	Hong Kong
2840	First Contact	Anderson, Robin & Bob Connolly	Australia
2919	Diva	Beineix, Jean-Jacques	France
2925	Scénario du film 'Passion'	Godard, Jean-Luc	France
2942	Victor/Victoria	Edwards, Blake	UK
2999	Identification of a Woman	Antonioni, Michelangelo	Italy
3127	Tron	Lisberger, Steven	USA
3142	Secret of NIMH, The	Bluth, Don	USA
3224	Made in Britain [TV]	Clarke, Alan	UK
3230	Atomic Cafe, The	Loader, Jayne	USA
3326	Entity, The	Furie, Sidney J.	USA
3391	Ashes and Embers	Gerima, Haile	USA
3488	Moonlighting	Skolimowski, Jerzy	UK
3517	Himala	Bernal, Ishmael	Philippines
3534	Nomad	Tam, Patrick	Hong Kong
3631	Tenebre	Argento, Dario	Italy
3634	Honkytonk Man	Eastwood, Clint	USA
3759	Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean	Altman, Robert	USA
3825	Question of Silence, A	Gorris, Marleen	Netherlands
3901	Rocky III	Stallone, Sylvester	USA
3927	Blue Planet, The	Piavoli, Franco	Italy
4261	On Top of the Whale	Ruiz, Raúl	Netherlands
4378	Time Stands Still	Gothár, Péter	Hungary
4387	Père Noël est une ordure, Le	Poiré, Jean-Marie	France
4500	Illusions	Dash, Julie	USA
4523	Prefab People, The	Tarr, Béla	Hungary
4540	Secvente	Tatos, Alexandru	Romania
4601	48 Hrs.	Hill, Walter	USA
4635	Wild Style	Ahearn, Charlie	USA
4677	Basket Case	Henenlotter, Frank	USA
4737	Last American Virgin, The	Davidson, Boaz	USA
4773	Hours for Jerome I & II	Dorsky, Nathaniel	USA
4957	Fela Kuti: Music Is the Weapon	Flori, Jean-Jacques & Stéphane Tchalgadjieff	France

I never did finish last year's 10-year anniversaries for years ending in "1" either. Must get on that...

love a lot of these but its Fanny & Alexander by a wide country mile

My top ten a few years ago:

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (Steven Spielberg)
Shoot the Moon (Alan Parker)
Tootsie (Sydney Pollack)
Burden of Dreams (Les Blank)
Diner (Barry Levinson)
Moonlighting (Jerzy Skolimowski)
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (Nicholas Meyer)
Fast Times at Ridgemont High (Amy Heckerling)
Personal Best (Robert Towne)
Mephisto (Istvan Szabo)

HONORABLE MENTIONS: The Thing (John Carpenter), Veronika Voss (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)

One of those years where my formative upbringing in horror can't be tamped down...

Poltergeist (Tobe Hooper, USA)
Creepshow (George A. Romero, USA)
Tenebrae (Dario Argento, Italy)
The King of Comedy (Martin Scorsese, USA)
E.T.—The Extra-Terrestrial (Steven Spielberg, USA)
White Dog (Samuel Fuller, USA)
Dimensions of Dialogue (Jan Svankmajer, Czechoslovakia)
Vice Squad (Gary A. Sherman, USA)
Querelle (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, West Germany)
Fanny & Alexander (Ingmar Bergman, Sweden)

ooh White Dog -- for sure.

I might've included F&A in 1983 but still think the movie errs in showing little interest in Fanny.

Isn't The King of Comedy 1983?

I was at the mercy of IMDB making my lists. I know that's one of the most glaring "no way" year discrepancies from that method.

I think I've seen 15 from the top list and 6 from the bottom. Some good directors in decline (Herzog, Wenders, Antonioni), some just getting underway (Greenaway, Tarr).

Best film on lower list: Toute Une Nuit
Best musical cue in a weak film: "Sons of Pioneers" by Japan in Identification of a Woman
Worst film: The Thing
Disappointment: Passion, one of Godard's coldest
Best film not on the list: Béla Tarr's two-shot TV movie of Macbeth
Films I'd most like to see: the two Raúl Ruiz movies
Embarrassing admission: I get confused between Yol and Yor, Hunter from the Future
Voted for: Koyaanisqatsi

this is v difficult. fanny is prob the most accomplished

I do not much care for Godard in the early '80s.

I'm also indifferent to Old Master paintings, which doesn't help when watching Passion.

this is a good reminder that i've had Moonlighting on my shelf for years now and never got around to it, will have to remedy that soon

still Bruce Willis' most charming work

was great to see him reunited with Irons in Die Hard 3: There Can Only Be One 'Moonlighting' Guy

some fly by niiiiight

would i be voting for the movie edit of fanny and alexander here? i've only ever seen the miniseries

It's gonna be E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Tootsie, or The Thing. This morning I'm not feeling the arthouse choices.

Yol has a dope soundtrack

stacked poll, dang!

i went with Burden of Dreams, which grips my attention even more than Fitzcarraldo

Fast Times at Ridgemont High
The Verdict
Tootsie
Fanny and Alexander
E.T.

i went with Burden of Dreams, which grips my attention even more than Fitzcarraldo

― Karl Malone,

Fitzcarraldo exists for the sake of BOD is how I look at it.

How many feature films have been made based on rock LPs (not including "video albums" or things that were originally meant as stage shows, like Hair)?

Tommy (1975)
Sgt. Pepper's (1978)
Quadrophenia (1979)
Pink Floyd: The Wall (1982)

Any others?

would i be voting for the movie edit of fanny and alexander here? i've only ever seen the miniseries

good point - my Fanny & Alexander vote was in honor of the long version, even though I'm not certain when that actually got its first release, might have been 83. I've never seen the 3hr version either & have no desire to.

I presume that the TSPDT version that's ranked is the full-length.

The full-length F&A is the only way to watch that film.

I actually kind of prefer the shorter version, but I need to give the miniseries another try

i guess the right stuff was 1983!

choosing between koyaanisqatsi and the thing, too bad i can't vote for the movie i just created in my head: koyaanisqatsi but with montages sourced from the thing.

Any others?

Bobcat Goldthwait was developing a film adaptation of the Kinks' School Boys In Disgrace that ultimately never happened, and Julia Phillips approached Don'n'Glenn about a Hotel California film that also obviously never happened. So I think you've listed them all.

is purple rain a rock lp?

i voted for The Draughtsman's Contract because

is purple rain a rock lp?

It's a soundtrack to the movie, the movie isn't a dramatization of the story of the record.

There was also supposed to be a Lamb Lies Down on Broadway film at one point. I thought somebody might have made a movie out of a record by Green Day or someone like them.

American Idiot hasn't been filmed yet.

Forgot about Willie Nelson doing a Red-Headed Stranger movie in the '80s.

There was the TV special Starmaker in 1974, but that predated The Kinks Present a Soap Opera album.

If that counts, than so does Serge Gainsbourg's Melody Nelson special.

The Thing.

Runners Up: Fast Times, Blade Runner.

Poltergeist (Tobe Hooper, USA)

Just watched this recently, first viewing in a long time... I'd forgotten just how completely Spielbergian this film actually is

Busy year for him

How many feature films have been made based on rock LPs

Not rock, but they made a film version of Kenny Rogers' Coward of the County.... starring Kenny himself

There's also Kenny as The Gambler, but those are just single story songs made into movies. They did the same with Ode to Billy Joe, Harper Valley PTA, etc.

1982 also included Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains

I've made a new thread to discuss this:

Concept albums that were later made into movies?

I don’t get The Thing at all. Blade Runner has its virtues but I never thought it was a particularly good PKD adaptation; Total Recall is superior. I like Fast Times a lot, but it seems too minor? Fanny & Alexander has masterful parts but feels disjointed somehow (yes, not enough Fanny). Really not sure how to vote here. Seriously considering Tootsie.

fuck it, I may join you, Josefa. btw this:

never thought it was a particularly good PKD adaptation; Total Recall is superior

is otm

Honestly I haven’t seen a lot of these movies.

The Wrath of Khan is probably my favourite on either list.

Diner is a 1982 American bromantic comedy film written and directed by Barry Levinson.

Diner I loathed. It’s been too long since seeing ET and I doubt I’d feel much, same with Poltergeist.

Blade Runner is to PKD what The Shining is to Stephen King... the books sparked the original screenplay, but I don't think they're meant to be faithful adaptations

Mazursky's Tempest is surely the biggest flop of '82? Budget was thirteen million, box office took in five

none of the others come close to Fanny and Alexander for me, thought that film was just about perfect

so how do you address the criticism about its ignoring of Fanny?

I'm not putting you on the spot, I'm just curious.

I tend to think the opening dinner scene runs long, but I've seen the film four times and made my peace with it.

it was notable, but it didn't detract from the film for me

"Bergman said Fanny was based on his own sister. The complicated nature of that relationship — the two were very distant as adults; she had writerly ambitions — may explain the strange mixture of prominence in the title and sketchiness in the film itself that Fanny is afforded."

It's remarkable how Woody Allen pilfers the opening scene for the Thanksgiving party in Hannah and Her Sisters.

It’s admittedly weird that the movie is named after her but I’ve never felt the film suffers as a result of her small role any more than it does for any of the other supporting characters. If it were instead called Alexander and His Family it would be the same film

Vice Squad (Gary A. Sherman, USA)

Scariest villain of the 80s. Maybe the scariest villain ever.

also really liked Fitzcarraldo and Veronika Voss, and am interested in seeing Koyaanisqatsi, The Year of Living Dangerously, and Querelle again. haven't seen Burden of Dreams yet

The only two RWFs I really can't stand (I've seen over 30)are "Querelle" (drugs do take their toll) and "Satan's Brew" (wacky farce was not his forte, and this is the painful evidence).
― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, May 31, 2005 1:56 PM

I've seen 16 of these. I went with (fanny &) Alexander.

The Thing and Tootsie are a lot of fun.

Querelle is RWF's only hambone film, which is saying a lot. It looks like a rough draft of mid '80s Bowie videos.

Much hotter.

All ham, no bone.

The Verdict may not be the best film on the list, but it's one of Newman's best performances.

Saw it again in February. The plot contrivances are a drag in a film whose surface realism impresses me: it looks and feels like late '81/early '82. But those scenes between Newman and the louse of a judge and anytime Mason's on screen still crackle. Mason and Newman don't say a word to each other the entire film (there's a good moment when Mason's lawyer looks about to say something to Newman, changes his mind as if in pity, and walks away).

Mason and Newman don't say a word to each other the entire film

Seen it probably 10 times and never thought about that--interesting. (The moment when Mason almost speaks to him is memorable.)

Jack Warden's excellent too.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Ultimately had to vote for the film that offered a dismembered head turning into a spider before being sprayed with a fire extinguisher. Congratulations, Sydney Pollack!

Chucking a vote to Missing which I really like. Also Vangelis' other 1982 score.

What a year.

Ultimately had to vote for the film that offered a dismembered head turning into a spider before being sprayed with a fire extinguisher. Congratulations, Sydney Pollack!

You want me to act like some gross caricature of an ILX poster, you macho shithead!

What is idiotic about wanting to make an ILX poster masculine?

Um sorry poorly formed joke - macho subtext unintentional

Blade Runner is my emotional pick. I remember liking The Year of Living Dangerously quite a bit. Peter Weir was on quite a tear in the mid 70s/early 80s.

xp nah nah, Alfred and I will never pass up an opportunity to directly quote Tootsie

Oh geez totally missed that reference

Went with The Thing. Have a soft spot for The Wall though, it's madness from start to finish and the Scarfe stuff is incredible.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

lol @ Blade Runner better than Tootsie

Hey, even Fast Times at Ridgemont High was rated over Tootsie, Alfred.

Oof.

Passive voice.

too bad i can't vote for the movie i just created in my head: koyaanisqatsi but with montages sourced from the thing.

I feel like Koyaanitootsie has potential.

I shall rephrase that for you. When ILXors were asked to vote which among the listed films they thought was best, the resulting vote rated Fast Times at Ridgemont High above Tootsie.

Aimless, take a joke!

Speaking of jokes, I was the lone vote for Ghandi, because (punchline alert!) it was the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences choice for Best Film of 1982. QED.

"Year of Living Dangerously" and "First Blood" deserved better.

As one of four Fast Times voters, I was deeply, deeply wounded by that "even" in Aimless's post.

One must learn to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune or, by opposing, end them with a bare bodkin.