1983'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.

2008	1756	Angst	Kargl, Gerald	1983	Austria	87
2035	1541	Ah Ying	Fong, Allen	1983	Hong Kong	110
2055	1728	Bal, Le	Scola, Ettore	1983	France	109
2234	1792	Trading Places	Landis, John	1983	USA	116
2419	2549	News Items	Depardon, Raymond	1983	France	108
2434	2641	City of Pirates	Ruiz, Raúl	1983	France	111
2450	2332	Pauline at the Beach	Rohmer, Eric	1983	France	94
2706	2686	Outsiders, The	Coppola, Francis Ford	1983	USA	91
2743	2836	Seventeen	DeMott, Joel & Jeff Kreines	1983	USA	120
2773	2677	Carmen	Saura, Carlos	1983	Spain	102
2825	2843	Project A	Chan, Jackie	1983	Hong Kong	106
2843	8897	Utopia	Saless, Sohrab Shahid	1983	West Germany	198
2919	3780	Dead Zone, The	Cronenberg, David	1983	USA	103
3076	2346	Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro	Shah, Kundan	1983	India	143
3221	2896	Monty Python's The Meaning of Life	Jones, Terry	1983	UK	103
3265	5758	Gold Diggers, The	Potter, Sally	1983	UK	87
3279	2938	Big Chill, The	Kasdan, Lawrence	1983	USA	103
3301	2953	In the White City	Tanner, Alain	1983	Portugal	108
3405	2706	Return of the Jedi	Marquand, Richard	1983	USA	133
3515	2980	Années 80, Les	Akerman, Chantal	1983	Belgium	82
3516	3965	Star 80	Fosse, Bob	1983	USA	103
3532	4769	Cracking Up	Lewis, Jerry	1983	USA	89
3659	2923	Angelo, My Love	Duvall, Robert	1983	USA	115
3691	8165	Eight Diagram Pole Fighter, The	Liu Chia-Liang	1983	Hong Kong	98
3734	9096	Mer dare	Peleshian, Artavazd	1983	USSR	47
3772	14945	Possibly in Michigan	Condit, Cecilia	1983	USA	12
3781	2467	Christmas Story, A	Clark, Bob	1983	USA	94
3997	3566	Frida	Leduc, Paul	1983	Mexico	108
4024	3682	Deadly Circuit	Miller, Claude	1983	France	120
4026	3080	Flights in Dreams and in Reality	Balayan, Roman	1983	USSR	92
4051	---	Beirut My City	Saab, Jocelyn	1983	France	38
4195	5336	My Brother's Wedding	Burnett, Charles	1983	USA	115
4252	4234	Entre Nous	Kurys, Diane	1983	France	110
4281	3301	Family Game, The	Morita, Yoshimitsu	1983	Japan	107
4759	2801	Hunger, The	Scott, Tony	1983	USA	97
4787	3169	Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain	Tsui Hark	1983	Hong Kong	95
4812	4313	Danton	Wajda, Andrzej	1983	France	136
4855	4521	Crime, La	Labro, Philippe	1983	France	103
4911	3192	Ardh Satya	Nihalani, Govind	1983	India	130
4927	3166	Risky Business	Brickman, Paul	1983	USA	96

Right Stuff
King of Comedy
Videodrome

i need to see a lot of the others which might be contenders. I do really like Scarface but i can't put it up there with those three.

It's Sans soleil in a heartbeat, but these are all solid runners up for a year I used to think didn't measure up:

À NOS AMOURS (Maurice Pialat; France)
L'ARGENT (Robert Bresson; France)
DIMENSIONS OF DIALOGUE (Jan Svankmajer; Czechoslovakia)
THE KING OF COMEDY (Martin Scorsese; USA)
MERRY CHRISTMAS, MR. LAWRENCE (Oshima Nagisa; UK)
VIDEODROME (David Cronenberg; Canada)

Really need to get around to Born in Flames.

I like A Nos Amours but Pialat and I, for reasons I can't explain, aren't simpatico.

I haven't seen it but, that Fellini is a flaming embarrassment, right?

somehow haven't seen any movies from this year. they're probably all good though

That's the spirit!

based on the Fellinis i've seen that aren't la dolce vita or 8 1/2, it probably is...

My favourite is definitely on the follow-up list: The Dead Zone. From the main list, edge to Local Hero over King of Comedy. Parts of Videodrome I love, but not the gross stuff at the end.

Carrying over the sour persimmons from the '73 thread, this is probably the only year with a De Palma vs. Scorsese head-to-head where I can say with confidence I'm going with Scorsese, no question.

I never saw Obsession when it came out, so I'm pretty sure, from Carrie onward, Scarface was the first De Palma film I really hated.

Man, I really don't know the 80's. Have only seen mainstreem selections King Of Comedy, Rumble Fish and Scarface. Guess koc is the best out of those yeah.

I haven't seen it but, that Fellini is a flaming embarrassment, right?

Not seen it either, but I saw Orchestra Rehearsal and despite some early promise that collapses pretty badly into old man shouting at cloud territory.

It's worse than an embarrassment: It's a case for euthanasia.

fond of KOC, Local Hero, The Right Stuff

I used to have a DVD of The Boys from Fengkuei handy, but it's been boxed up and in storage for half a decade now.

This is gonna be The Right Stuff or Videodrome for me. I like more Scorsese than I dislike, but I fucking loathe King of Comedy. Its influence has been absolutely pernicious in the culture, from The Office (both versions) to fucking Joker. Plus, it gave the world Sandra Bernhard, for which life without parole. Plus plus, fuck Jerry Lewis, a competent if all-seams-are-visible-at-all-times craftsman who convinced himself — and spent decades desperately trying to convince literally anyone else — that he was a genius.

Bravo, a post that from its very first clause to its conclusion, is diametric to my own experience.

(Minus Joker sucking, which is not King of Comedy's fault.)

Only seen a few of these and of the ones I had at/around the time of release, The Right Stuff was enjoyable but Local Hero was a real delight and I stand by it all the years later. Of two films I remember being released and reviewed via Siskel/Ebert but which I'd never seen back then, I'm kinda glad to have finally seen Tender Mercies in recent years -- a long time favorite of my dad's in particular and it suits him to a T, as well as being the kind of film that deftly portrays the presence of religion almost in passing as being primarily a social connection while not in fact central, which made Duvall's concluding words more effective as a result -- and I caught a one-off screening of Rumble Fish last year, better than I guessed it might be, but you could have knocked me over with a feather when some characters playing video games showed up and I realized it was supposed to be a present-day film (or at least unstuck in time) rather than a period piece.

One of these, likely TRS because I haven't yet voted for a Yank film in these polls:

L'Argent
The Right Stuff
Local Hero
Sans Soleil

Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence collapsed into a couple striking set pieces when I watched it again in December.

I have no use for The King of Comedy; lord knows I've tried.

Voted Sans Soleil because I think it's remarkable (re-Marker-able), but I love Local Hero to pieces.

I also loved The Right Stuff when it came out, but I was a kid and haven't seen it since. (How much did I love it? Enough to read the whole Tom Wolfe book, which I also loved and pointed me in some other interesting directions.)

I'll give The Right Stuff another viewing one of these days. My memory of it is that it's borderline boomer hagiography territory, tho understandably so

Local Hero was a real delight

I'm a fan. It succeeds in striking a tone in scene after scene that's very difficult to describe and even harder to maintain at feature length. One of my favorite scenes is MacIntosh approaching a group of men near a fishing boat. In their midst is a baby in a pram. Trying to be agreeable, MacIntosh says, "Cute baby! Whose is it?" whereat all the men stay uncomfortably silent while casting evasive looks at the sky or at the ground. End of scene.

My memory of it is that it's borderline boomer hagiography territory, tho understandably so

The movie's against hagiography of any sort.

They're rascals in it for the fame and the dough.

Dimes!

LOL, it really has been a long time then

Apollo 13 is the conservative reaction.

The movie's against hagiography of any sort.

Well, Sam Shepard as Chuck Yeager is as cool as just about any man has been in a film.

Especially compared to Tom Hanks as, well, anyone

Also, no one in The Right Stuff is a boomer, though they like to think so.

Kaufman's wise enough to let Shepard do his nuclear glow on the side lines.

Also, no one in The Right Stuff is a boomer, though they like to think so.

― Chris L,

Its audience, alas...

I haven’t seen many of the films on this list, but THE KING OF COMEDY is one of my 5 favorite of all time, so I feel pretty comfortable voting for it. it’s aged like fine wine

like more Scorsese than I dislike, but I fucking loathe King of Comedy. Its influence has been absolutely pernicious in the culture

did it influence the culture, or anticipate it?

Still the best moment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjaKdtYbTto

terms

Tender Mercies is a sentimental favorite; certainly one of Duvall's best roles.

Videdrome is notable mostly for Debbie Harry, but that is almost enough.

I've come to love King of Comedy, but I totally understand hating it (my initial reaction in 1983, in fact). As I've posted about other films: when someone make something truly experimental, or intentionally alienating, or as an exercise in complete provocation, why wouldn't some people hate it? That's basically what the filmmaker (or writer, or band, or artist, or whatever) set out to do.

Yes, a film that is intentionally off-putting. I've always loved it (I almost said "enjoyed," but that's not the right word).

I didn't see Sans Soleil until a year or so ago. I'm sure I wouldn't have appreciated it at the time it was released, but it narrates a fascinating, searching look at the world with a quest for understanding, with ideas and images that flow together almost too fast to comprehend in one viewing.

I rewatched Sans Soleil this weekend, coincidentally.

I'd like to write in Trading Places, but I suspect that has aged badly.

besides Videodrome I thought The Dead Zone was one of the most interesting early Cronenberg films

Yeah, I re-watched The Dead Zone less than a year ago and it was really good. Walken seemed almost human, except in the one or two scenes where he was called upon to smile.

:)

Long Live the new flesh

Trump = President Stillson

I've seen half of the top list and I'm voting Nostalghia.

I consider Prénom Carmen to be Godard's worst "big" film, a real failure of spirit (but kudos to Jacques Villeret as "L'homme qui mange du yaourt" in the bathroom scene). Pialat often leaves me wondering "what was that about", including here; El Sur is fine but the weakest of Erice's three features. The Bresson and Marker films are perfect in their way but I don't love them.

Best film from the bottom list: In the White City, a beautiful mood piece with Bruno Ganz as a sailor in Portugal.

Best film ranked even lower: The Makioka Sisters.

I can never remember if it was Prenom Carmen or Passion I’ve seen but whichever it was I didn’t like it

Passion had paintings turned into tableaux vivants, plus a KISS pinball machine.

oh I missed The Makioka Sisters: put that one in my top five.

tableaux vivants, ugh

Fuck these lists and their attitude that comedy doesn’t exist. I cast a write-in vote for National Lampoon’s Vacation.

This list literally has the KING of COMEDY

I didn't realise there was a movie of The Makioka Sisters so I need to see that

Thread might prompt me to rewatch Sans Soleil this weekend which I voted for with not much hesitation

Love King of Comedy, Local Hero, Sans Soleil, El Sur and Three Crowns of the Sailor but voting L'Argent for being the perfect distillation of Bresson's style and the most economical film critique of western capitalism I can think of, without being as dry as that sounds

My students responded as well to L'Argent last summer as they did to Pickpocket.

The ATM skimming scene gives me mega ASMR

The movie's against hagiography of any sort.

― the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, May 2, 2023 12:49 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

it's crucially and trickily also not against the idea that these guys were exceptionally brave dudes. it engages in some iconography obv but it feels earned after a lot of time spent showing them as these flawed and vulnerable individuals. the focus on their wives, the love and support between them all, the occasional strife and domestic issues, was pretty key to this film as well. even more crucially it's a massively entertaining film imo.

OTM. The scenes between Glenn and his wife are some of the decade's quietest and sultriest.

Read that as "the scenes between Glenn (Close) and his wife"

https://i.imgur.com/CpRCd8X.gif

Terms of Endearment is one of the few Oscar best pictures I'd characterize as underrated, at this point

Shirley is amazing in ToE but that movie is glorified hallmark trash

Jack is p good too even though he plays that role up to and past as good as it gets

Winger's even better.

Ugh, that movie made me sob and I don't even really like it

Do it for him https://t.co/98QN5FLjmR pic.twitter.com/scmaZGY3iX

— 🏳️‍🌈 Ms. Marya E. Gates 🦩 (@oldfilmsflicker) May 8, 2023

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

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

LOL Zelig, a one-joke film stretched to an interminable 75 minutes or whatever

Rightest winner in any of this series so far

1963's Best Movies: 60 Years Later