1984'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.

2033	2028	Dune	Lynch, David	1984	USA	137
2191	2339	Gremlins	Dante, Joe	1984	USA	106
2192	2127	Voyage to Cythera	Angelopoulos, Theo	1984	Greece	120
2211	2343	Nightmare on Elm Street, A	Craven, Wes	1984	USA	92
2242	2222	Top Secret!	Abrahams, Jim/David Zucker/Jerry Zucker	1984	USA	90
2294	2276	Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind	Miyazaki, Hayao	1984	Japan	116
2337	2294	Under the Volcano	Huston, John	1984	USA	109
2361	2289	Natural, The	Levinson, Barry	1984	USA	134
2364	2370	Peggy and Fred in Hell: Folding	Thornton, Leslie	1984-2016	USA	95
2488	2418	Favourites of the Moon	Iosseliani, Otar	1984	France	102
2493	3357	Threads [TV]	Jackson, Mick	1984	UK	110
2547	2526	Holy Innocents, The	Camus, Mario	1984	Spain	107
2549	2468	Our Nazi	Kramer, Robert	1984	France	113
2553	2532	Killing Fields, The	Joffé, Roland	1984	UK	141
2682	2612	Repentance	Abuladze, Tengiz	1984	Russia	155
2909	2833	Love Unto Death	Resnais, Alain	1984	France	92
3011	2361	Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension, The	Richter, W.D.	1984	USA	103
3166	3170	Birdy	Parker, Alan	1984	USA	120
3169	2983	Prozess, Der [TV]	Fechner, Eberhard	1984	West Germany	270
3180	3292	When the Tenth Month Comes	Minh Dang Nhat	1984	Vietnam	95
3241	3127	Egyptian Series	Brakhage, Stan	1984	USA	17
3258	3199	Streets of Fire	Hill, Walter	1984	USA	93
3316	3196	Sunday in the Country, A	Tavernier, Bertrand	1984	France	90
3472	4382	Shanghai Blues	Tsui Hark	1984	Hong Kong	103
3502	2911	Purple Rain	Magnoli, Albert	1984	USA	111
3526	3636	Beverly Hills Cop	Brest, Martin	1984	USA	105
3540	3869	Passage to India, A	Lean, David	1984	UK	163
3712	3602	Long Arm of the Law	Mak, Johnny	1984	Hong Kong	100
3761	4173	Sixteen Candles	Hughes, John	1984	USA	93
3857	3736	Barres	Moullet, Luc	1984	France	14
4035	3776	Nothing Lasts Forever	Schiller, Tom	1984	USA	82
4151	4084	Karate Kid, The	Avildsen, John G.	1984	USA	126
4565	4648	Boy Meets Girl	Carax, Leos	1984	France	100
4665	5252	Brother from Another Planet, The	Sayles, John	1984	USA	104
4717	5667	NeverEnding Story, The	Petersen, Wolfgang	1984	UK	92
4769	4672	Choose Me	Rudolph, Alan	1984	USA	106
4814	4798	Element of Crime, The	von Trier, Lars	1984	Denmark	104
4828	4689	Diary for My Children	Mészáros, Márta	1984	Hungary	106
4836	4698	Prague: The Restless Heart of Europe	Chytilová, Věra	1984	Italy	59
4914	4905	Company of Wolves, The	Jordan, Neil	1984	UK	95

Not a good year. Stop Making Sense easy, as confirmed by watching it again last October.

The rest:

Full Moon in Paris
Streetwise
The Terminator
The Times of Harvey Milk
Temple of Doom
Paris, Texas

Repo Man or The Terminator feel like the true grade-A standouts. though Ghostbusters and Temple of Doom are classic Hollywood product, and Paris, Texas is pretty sublime.

Love Streams over Harvey Milk and Repo Man. Crimes of Passion is the best movie not to make even the top 5,000.

Amadeus deserves it just for F Murray Abraham’s performance.

One of these:

Stop Making Sense
Stranger Than Paradise
Paris, Texas

Three distinct versions of American hipsterdom.

Alfred, your list is ... eh, too brute force

It's going to be Jarmusch or Cassavetes for me, easily my two favorite narrative films of the year, not to mention two of their best. (It feels like a passing of an era, with one being a breakthrough and the other a final masterpiece.)

Wish Carax's film was higher so it could be on the ballot.

Personal favorites from 1984 roughly in descending order:

Love Streams [John Cassavetes]
Stranger Than Paradise [Jim Jarmusch]
Swing Shift [Jonathan Demme, “Director’s Cut” - it's out there!]
Davandeh [Amir Naderi]
Stop Making Sense [Jonathan Demme]
Once Upon a Time in America [Sergio Leone, "Long Version"]
Broadway Danny Rose [Woody Allen]
Choose Me [Alan Rudolph]
Next Of Kin [Atom Egoyan]
Paris, Texas [Wim Wenders]
Nineteen Eighty-Four [Michael Radford]
Un dimanche à la campagne [Bertrand Tavernier]

(Forgot to list Boy Meets Girl in there)

The Terminator was so surprising and fun when it came out. It contained almost nothing of the "franchise" air around it.

Alfred, your list is ... eh, too brute force

― badpee pooper (Eric H.)

https://i.imgur.com/Z7JJ7FM.gif

My personal list in no order:

Stop Making Sense (Jonathan Demme)
Full Moon in Paris (Eric Rohmer)
The Terminator (James Cameron)
The Times of Harvey Milk (Rob Epstein)
Love Streams (John Cassavetes)
Choose Me (Alan Rudolph)
Streetwise (Martin Bell)
Top Secret! (Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker)
Paris, Texas (Wim Wenders)
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (Steven Spielberg)

I mostly don't ever click with Jarmusch, and this year's selection is no exception

I saw an article this week suggesting that Vice Squad (which is great) may have been an unconscious inspiration on Cameron as he made The Terminator. I can get behind that

Same. I've actually liked his last couple more than I ever have. xpost

I've said before: Amadeus is by far the most fun of a forbiddingly staid crop of '80s Best Picture winners. I can watch it anytime. No way is it remotely a great movie tho.

I feel funny about voting Stop Making Sense as it's not a "studio" film, but it is one of my favourite films. Would otherwise have voted for Amadeus. What a hoot!

I basically watch the thing for the court scenes.

Amadeus is by far the most fun of a forbiddingly staid crop of '80s Best Picture winners. I can watch it anytime. No way is it remotely a great movie tho.

Same basically, nearly to the letter (excepting that I do value quite a bit from Ordinary People and Terms of Endearment)

I started watching Ghostbusters recently for the first time in many decades and found it dated, sexist and frankly boring as fuck. 30 minutes and off. I understand this puts me in a minority though. Far too many films of yesteryear use sexual harrassment as a way of showing a character's wacky loveability, doesn't look good nowadays.

Not a good year.

Agreed! Would have voted Threads or Streets of Fire if it had been possible.

Voted for Class Relations because it's the freshest (to me) masterpiece on this list, seen only a few years ago (shortly after I'd read the Kafka, totally coincidentally). The way that Straub-Huillet stay amazingly faithful to Amerika while at the same time totally subsuming the text into their own world is p amazing. I just love their aesthetic and their politics. Excellent documentary on S-H rehearsing and filming Class relations on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bafL1399awE

Lots of gd things on this list!

I agree with the Academy about F. Murray Abraham's Oscar no matter how good Albert Finney is in Under the Volcano.

repo man

Not sure by what metric Amadeus fails to be a great film. Ok maybe deduct a half star for Tom Hulse’s annoying cackle, but it’s funny, tragic, has wonderful sets and costumes, a deep bench of character actors , great soundtrack, etc etc

Amadeus is absurd, but not quite absurdist enough to make that work on its behalf.

1. Stranger Than Paradise
2. The Times of Harvey Milk
3. Paris, Texas
4. This Is Spinal Tap
5. Blood Simple

Love Nineteen Eighty-Four; don't mind Body Double at all.

I know 1984 was the Year of Prince, so Mozart as his era's Prince proved irresistible as a marketing hook; but even in 1984 that Czech hippie Milos Forman and old hand Peter Shaffer couldn't resist turning Mozart into another McMurphy railing against a fatuous, ignorant establishment that wants to stifle him. It's 1968 for the Masterpiece Theater crowd. At least it's told by unreliable narrator Salieri.

Also: wasn't Salieri a rather good composer?

Head says Paris, Texas -- heart says Blood Simple. Voting Blood Simple.

I should've put Repo Man on my list.

It's not a bad movie, but as an adaptation of a really good play, it also feels lacking in inspiration. Excellent cast, excellent production values, but that's usually the minimum you'd expect from a "prestige" picture designed for awards season. Forman's American work can be disappointing in that way - I vastly prefer his earlier films, especially his Czech films.

(should've mentioned, that's for Amadeus)

Y'all know more about this than I do, but aren't the stagings of The Magic Flute, Don Giovanni, etc. rather flat?

P.S. That's young Cynthia Nixon as the Mozarts' maid, Salieri's agent.

From what I've heard of his work, Salieri was talented but not gifted.

Paris, Texas for sure.

xps That key scene from Don Giovanni may have been done well, but it's been too long since I've seen the film. I remember watching it early on (at a time when I probably saw maybe two movies that weren't broad comedies) and enjoying it, but when I revisited it years later as an adult, a lot of it seemed disappointingly dull, verging on paint-by-numbers filmmaking.

If you haven’t seen the R-rated director’s cut then you’re due for a rewatch.

I don’t see Forman’s Mozart as a rebel. He has no interest in overturning the establishment and doesn’t even think in those terms. He’s just a kind of holy fool who lacks instincts of self preservation but for utterly inexplicable reasons also has a divine gift.

That's fair. He does say to the Emperor that he has no interest in politics.

Love Kaos. There's a cinema owner in Munich who'd screen it every xmas, copy really breaking apart towards the last showings.

Forman's director's cut is almost as bad as Stone's for JFK

I can think of at least two good reasons why Forman’s cut is better than the original. (lol, please don’t flag me for that)

Too many notes?

In Turkey?!

its the terminator but after the last results the lord knows what ye will vote in out of arch spite

tbh an awful lot of this list ive started and turned off, the more critically beloved the more likely

amadeus one of the worst cringe efforts ive ever quarter-seen

If I was actually IN 1984? Sixteen Candles of course

Now that ... that's a terrible, irredeemable piece of shit movie

Dear, you're shaking.

Based on what I’ve seen, Spinal Tap it is

Kinda surprised to realize that Vigil didn't wind up anywhere in the top 5000.

This is probably Stop Making Sense vs. The Terminator.

xps Limiting Paul Newman to a brief mention in the memoriam reel but giving John Hughes a whole segment like he was Stanley Kubrick was enough to turn me off from ever watching the Oscars again.

They never gave a damn about him when he was alive.

lol

I haven't seen Stop Making Sense since it came out, it's still not available on streaming. I really want to see it again.

Of the ones I've seen recently, I thought Amadeus was brilliant and that Tom Hulce was amazing as Mozart and deserved the academy award over F. Murray Abraham.

Jim Jarmusch's Stranger Than Paradise was kind of jarring and disconcerting when I first saw it, but in retrospect it was beautiful and it has stuck with me

As an SF resident who has experienced the power of and hatred for the gay community here over decades, The Times of Harvey Milk has moved me more than any of these other films, so that's what I'm voting for

A deserved pick

Just remembered that Bill Forsyth's Comfort and Joy is '84. That would be me real (and easy) #1 pick--above anything in the poll or on the runners-up list.

"me real"--See? It even makes me talk British.

That would be me real (and easy) #1 pick--above anything in the poll or on the runners-up list.

I definitely like Comfort and Joy. It's quirky and original and the script is a little gem, but that's rating pretty darned high for a mild comedy that leans a bit too hard on its elements of mild pathos.

Seems to me it's exactly the kind of film that would strike a deep subjective response in someone that might escape others. Think I had it in my top 30 when we did the ILX all-time poll a couple of years ago.

i can't even get argumentative about this boring list

Is no-one else gonna rep for Heimat? One of the greatest things I've ever seen, and originally conceived for the cinema even though most folks (me included) will have only ever seen it on the small screen.

Really love the way Comfort & Joy films Glasgow, that soft winter light.

I was obsessed with Amadeus at the time, but I went with Repo Man. And I'm touched that Nothing Lasts Forever scored so high, despite never getting an official release.

Here's the rest of what's in the TSPDT database for '84:

5126	4869	Chuchelo	Bykov, Rolan	1984	USSR	127
5193	5101	Hotel New Hampshire, The	Richardson, Tony	1984	USA	110
5199	5106	J'ai faim, j'ai froid	Akerman, Chantal	1984	France	12
5311	4970	Japanese Village, A	Ogawa, Shinsuke	1984	Japan	210
5348	4995	Another State of Mind	Small, Adam & Peter Stuart	1984	USA	78
5391	7202	Home and the World, The	Ray, Satyajit	1984	India	130
5458	5280	Red Shift	Nelson, Gunvor	1984	---	---
5555	5379	Deaths in Tokimeki	Morita, Yoshimitsu	1984	Japan	105
5845	7478	Starman	Carpenter, John	1984	USA	115
5873	5696	Soldier's Story, A	Jewison, Norman	1984	USA	101
5875	5943	Anne Devlin	Murphy, Pat	1984	Ireland	121
5898	6219	Breakin'	Silberg, Joel	1984	USA	90
5927	5750	Cruel Romance, A	Ryazanov, Eldar	1984	USSR	142
5954	5776	Liberté, la nuit	Garrel, Philippe	1984	France	82
5959	5779	Romancing the Stone	Zemeckis, Robert	1984	USA	105
6084	5880	Swing Shift	Demme, Jonathan	1984	USA	100
6113	5905	Tarang	Shahani, Kumar	1984	India	171
6260	6053	1984	Radford, Michael	1984	UK	115
6302	6089	Razor's Edge, The	Byrum, John	1984	USA	128
6320	6108	Bianca	Moretti, Nanni	1984	Italy	96
6354	6142	Mondo Elvis	Corboy, Tom	1984	USA	28
6355	6145	Memories of Prison	Pereira dos Santos, Nelson	1984	Brazil	185
6642	6327	Box Theory, The	Land, Owen	1984	USA	16
6665	6482	Rock My Religion	Graham, Dan	1984	USA	55
6690	6439	Leila and the Wolves	Srour, Heiny	1984	UK	90
6821	6607	Sister Stella L.	De Leon, Mike	1984	Philippines	103
6827	6457	Blonde Death	Baker, James Robert	1984	USA	93
6865	6456	Every Picture Tells a Story	Scott, James	1984	UK	82
6868	6631	Posleslovie	Khutsiev, Marlen	1984	USSR	98
6969	7376	Pope of Greenwich Village, The	Rosenberg, Stuart	1984	USA	120
6998	8482	Saaransh	Bhatt, Mahesh	1984	India	137
7026	6844	Bounty, The	Donaldson, Roger	1984	USA	130
7139	6973	Success is the Best Revenge	Skolimowski, Jerzy	1984	UK	90
7167	7000	Shunters	Böttcher, Jürgen	1984	East Germany	21
7179	7019	Guest from the Future [TV]	Arsyonov, Pavel & Olga Gusakova	1984	USSR	---
7331	7171	Lie chang zha sha	Tian Zhuangzhuang	1984	China	---
7430	7304	Wundkanal	Harlan, Thomas	1984	France	---
7454	7266	Stadt in Flammen	Schmelzdahin	1984	West Germany	5
7479	7307	Work Done	Beavers, Robert	1984	USA	22
7608	7460	Imagining October	Jarman, Derek	1984	UK	27
7641	7833	Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer	Oshii, Mamoru	1984	Japan	98
7678	14429	Wheels on Meals	Sammo Hung Kam-Bo	1984	Hong Kong	108
7694	7571	Draw the Line of Flight	Manda, Kunitoshi	1984	---	---
7791	7687	Secret Honor	Altman, Robert	1984	USA	90
7811	7711	Almanac of Fall	Tarr, Béla	1984	Hungary	119
7893	7999	Tasio	Armendáriz, Montxo	1984	Spain	95
7903	7818	Homecoming	Yim Ho	1984	Hong Kong	96
7936	7865	Combat Shock	Giovinazzo, Buddy	1984	USA	91
7946	7871	Party	Nihalani, Govind	1984	India	110
7952	7875	Terence Davies Trilogy, The	Davies, Terence	1984	UK	101
8157	7859	Hit, The	Frears, Stephen	1984	UK	98
8383	9132	Los Sures	Echeverria, Diego	1984	USA	57
8439	8193	Priklyucheniya Petrova i Vasechkina, obyknovennye i neveroyatnye [TV]	Alenikov, Vladimir	1984	USSR	134
8562	8311	Hong Kong 1941	Leong Po-Chih	1984	Hong Kong	100
8593	8324	Flashpoint	Tannen, William	1984	USA	94
8606	9038	Footloose	Ross, Herbert	1984	USA	107
8650	8394	Ma'loul Celebrates its Destruction	Khleifi, Michel	1984	Israel	31
8674	8413	Red Dawn	Milius, John	1984	USA	114
8676	8415	Protocol	Ross, Herbert	1984	USA	96
8792	8649	Wanderers of the Desert	Khemir, Nacer	1984	Tunisia	95
8811	8892	Before Stonewall	Schiller, Greta	1984	USA	87
8886	8612	Bete Balanço	Rodrigues, Lael	1984	Brazil	74
8929	8660	Bicicletas son para el verano, Las	Chávarri, Jaime	1984	Spain	103
9001	10006	In This Life's Body	Cantrill, Corinne & Arthur Cantrill	1984	Australia	147
9069	8778	Rouge	Nasu, Hiroyuki	1984	Japan	95
9161	8852	Quilombo	Diegues, Carlos	1984	Brazil	119
9227	14152	Beat Street	Lathan, Stan	1984	USA	106
9313	9098	Comfort and Joy	Forsyth, Bill	1984	UK	105
9375	9110	Abwärts	Schenkel, Carl	1984	West Germany	90
9380	9115	Summer at Grandpa's, A	Hou Hsiao-hsien	1984	Taiwan	93
9578	9323	Falling in Love	Grosbard, Ulu	1984	USA	106
9606	9352	Night of the Comet	Eberhardt, Thom	1984	USA	94
9626	9375	American Playhouse: The Killing Floor [TV]	Duke, Bill	1984	USA	118
9714	9691	Karkalou	Tornes, Stavros	1984	Greece	85
9883	10479	Bayan ko: Kapit sa patalim	Brocka, Lino	1984	Philippines	108
10021	10097	Macross: Do You Remember Love?	Ishiguro, Noboru & Shouji Kawamori	1984	Japan	114
10163	10219	Camila	Bemberg, Maria Luisa	1984	Argentina	105
10333	9878	Places in the Heart	Benton, Robert	1984	USA	102
10334	10132	Jumping	Tezuka, Osamu	1984	Canada	7
10386	9904	Deutschlandbilder	Bitomsky, Hartmut	1984	West Germany	60
10392	9755	Revenge of the Nerds	Kanew, Jeff	1984	USA	90
10459	12551	Razorback	Mulcahy, Russell	1984	Australia	95
10477	10818	Last Starfighter, The	Castle, Nick	1984	USA	100
10569	10000	Funeral, The	Itami, Juzo	1984	Japan	124
10593	10245	Khandhar	Sen, Mrinal	1984	India	106
10661	10305	Beyond the Walls	Barbash, Uri	1984	Israel	103
10815	10438	Robin Hood [TV]	Young, Robert/Ian Sharp/Gerry Mill/James Allen/Sid Roberson/Alex Kirby/Dennis Abey/Ben Bolt/Christopher King	1984-86	UK	---
10867	10494	Kultpokhod v teatr	Rubinchik, Valeri	1984	USSR	93
10879	10505	Decoder	Muscha	1984	West Germany	87
10883	10513	Police Academy	Wilson, Hugh	1984	USA	95
10894	10528	Super-8 Girl Games	Scheirl, A. Hans & Ursula Puerrer	1984	---	2
11242	11925	Splash	Howard, Ron	1984	USA	111
11297	10825	Hullygully in Kaseburg	von Lutzelburg, Helmer	1984	West Germany	82
11333	11103	Sexmission	Machulski, Juliusz	1984	Poland	120
11340	10849	Ilha de Moraes, A	Rocha, Paulo	1984	Portugal	100
11402	---	Man from Majorca, The	Widerberg, Bo	1984	Sweden	106
11443	10917	Maya Miriga	Mahapatra, Nirad N.	1984	India	120
11715	11291	Muppets Take Manhattan, The	Oz, Frank	1984	USA	94
12329	11839	Madam Yu Ching	Chang Yi	1984	Taiwan	105
12374	13227	Cotton Club, The	Coppola, Francis Ford	1984	USA	127
12423	11934	Four Days in July [TV]	Leigh, Mike	1984	UK	96
12430	11940	Ardiente Paciencia	Skarmeta, Antonio	1984	Chile	80
12625	12159	Desiree	de Rooy, Felix	1984	Netherlands	96
12731	17913	Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter	Zito, Joseph	1984	USA	91
12774	12268	Shooting Party, The	Bridges, Alan	1984	UK	108
12785	12277	River Without Buoys	Wu Tian-Ming	1984	China	86
12796	12284	Letter from a Filmmaker: Chantal Akerman [TV]	Akerman, Chantal	1984	France	18
12818	12308	Children of the Corn	Kiersch, Fritz	1984	USA	93
12905	12392	Mrs. Soffel	Armstrong, Gillian	1984	USA	110
13006	12007	Ohan	Ichikawa, Kon	1984	Japan	112
13108	14324	C.H.U.D.	Cheek, Douglas	1984	USA	90
13109	18847	Black Devil Doll from Hell	Turner, Chester Novell	1984	USA	70
13145	12607	Naughty Boys	De Kuyper, Eric	1984	Belgium	105
13161	12605	Ronja Rovardotter	Danielsson, Tage	1984	Sweden	126
13228	12042	Hot Dog: The Movie	Markle, Peter	1984	USA	96
13380	12808	Whale Hunter	Bae Chang-ho	1984	South Korea	112
13497	12930	Mike's Murder	Bridges, James	1984	USA	109
13625	13050	Crazy Family, The	Ishii, Gakuryu	1984	Japan	106
13646	13068	Man of Flowers, A	Cox, Paul	1984	Australia	91
13678	18753	Ninja III: The Domination	Firstenberg, Sam	1984	USA	95
13746	13165	Electric Dreams	Barron, Steve	1984	USA	95
13790	13643	Crimes of Passion	Russell, Ken	1984	USA	101
13848	13275	Sonatine	Lanctot, Micheline	1984	Canada	91
13884	13312	Spinning Wheel	Lee Doo-yong	1984	South Korea	100
13913	13339	After the Rehearsal	Bergman, Ingmar	1984	Sweden	72
13965	13392	Trapalhões e o Mágico de Oróz, Os	Lustosa, Victor & Dedé Santana	1984	Brazil	93
14011	---	Atalanta Strategy	Brickman, Lawrence	1984	---	27
14014	---	Perfect Lives [TV]	Sanborn, John	1984	UK	175
14027	13431	Next of Kin	Egoyan, Atom	1984	Canada	70
14052	13457	Anna & Bella	Ring, Børge	1984	Netherlands	8
14099	---	Flash of Green, A	Nunez, Victor	1984	USA	131
14100	---	Racing with the Moon	Benjamin, Richard	1984	USA	108
14234	13564	Femme publique, La	Zulawski, Andrzej	1984	France	113
14531	13832	Sleepwalker	Logan, Saxon	1984	UK	52
14574	19013	2010	Hyams, Peter	1984	USA	114
14578	13907	Silent Night, Deadly Night	Sellier Jr., Charles E.	1984	USA	79
14638	13987	Finders Keepers	Lester, Richard	1984	USA	96
14740	14074	Comperes, Les	Veber, Francis	1984	France	92
15001	14335	Maria's Lovers	Konchalovsky, Andrei	1984	USA	100
15137	14470	Milano '83 [TV]	Olmi, Ermanno	1984	Italy	65
15180	14516	Echigo Okumiomote	Himeda, Tadayoshi	1984	Japan	---
15211	14557	Frankenstein 90	Jessua, Alain	1984	France	100
15232	14565	Women's Olamal: The Organisation of a Maasai Fertility Ceremony, The [TV]	Llelewyn-Davies, Melissa	1984	UK	114
15244	14580	Schlaf der Vernunft, Der	Stöckl, Ula	1984	West Germany	82
15266	14602	Tosca's Kiss	Schmid, Daniel	1984	Switzerland	87
15366	14699	Dog Who Stopped the War, The	Mélançon, André	1984	Canada	92
15438	19919	Supergirl	Szwarc, Jeannot	1984	UK	114
15528	14875	Jango	Tendler, Silvio	1984	Brazil	115
15549	14865	Som, ou Tratado de Harmonia, O	Omar, Arthur	1984	Brazil	17
15571	14909	Tricheurs	Schroeder, Barbet	1984	France	94
15590	14926	Vigil	Ward, Vincent	1984	New Zealand	90
15614	14947	Year of the Quiet Sun, A	Zanussi, Krzysztof	1984	Germany	106
15979	15299	Parad planet	Abdrashitov, Vadim	1984	USSR	97
15993	21029	Bachelor Party	Israel, Neal	1984	USA	106
16024	15355	BBC News Ethiopia Report	Vacek, Jack	1984	UK	---
16189	15549	W's Tragedy	Sawai, Shin'ichiro	1984	Japan	108
16219	15578	Carmen	Rosi, Francesco	1984	France	152
16348	15690	Pessi and Illusia	Partanen, Heikki	1984	Finland	77
16389	15718	Paar	Ghose, Goutam	1984	India	141
16500	15845	Farewell to the Ark	Terayama, Shuji	1984	Japan	127
16608	---	Scream for Help	Winner, Michael	1984	UK	89
16636	---	Special Effects	Cohen, Larry	1984	USA	93
16765	16068	Cudo nevidjeno	Nikolic, Zivko	1984	Yugoslavia	92
16845	16184	Michael's Death	Uribe, Imanol	1984	Spain	90
16926	16238	A and B in Ontario	Frampton, Hollis & Joyce Wieland	1984	Canada	15
16937	16233	Future is Woman, The	Ferreri, Marco	1984	Italy	99
17027	16331	Old Mao's 2nd Spring	Lee You-Ning	1984	Taiwan	---
17122	16375	Declic Years, The	Depardon, Raymond	1984	France	65
17196	16512	Teppanyaki	Hui, Michael	1984	Hong Kong	89
17197	16524	Cherie	Tam, Patrick	1984	Hong Kong	92
17255	16575	Improper Conduct	Almendros, Nestor & Orlando Jimenez Leal	1984	France	112
17278	16646	Pirate, La	Doillon, Jacques	1984	France	88
17415	16737	Hai tan	Teng Wenji	1984	China	90
17498	16834	Sole Survivor	Eberhardt, Thom	1984	USA	85
17499	16839	Wannsee Conference, The	Schirk, Heinz	1984	Austria	87
17593	---	'Merika	Portes, Gil	1984	Philippines	102
17600	---	Working Girls	Bernal, Ishmael	1984	Philippines	118
17615	---	Joyful Mystery	Dela Cruz, Abbo	1984	Philippines	122
17625	---	Uhaw sa pag-ibig	O'Hara, Mario	1984	Philippines	---
17652	---	Condemned	O'Hara, Mario	1984	Philippines	---
17656	---	Flowers of the City Jail	O'Hara, Mario	1984	Philippines	110
17760	17052	Ice Pirates, The	Raffill, Stewart	1984	USA	91
18162	17192	Micki + Maude	Edwards, Blake	1984	USA	118
18185	---	Frankenweenie	Burton, Tim	1984	USA	29
18693	17595	Nothing Left to Do But Cry	Benigni, Roberto & Massimo Troisi	1984	Italy	113
19191	18172	Christmas Carol, A [TV-1984]	Donner, Clive	1984	UK	100
19226	18067	Old Enough	Silver, Marisa	1984	USA	91
19306	18181	Moscow on the Hudson	Mazursky, Paul	1984	USA	115
19710	18640	Bodyline [TV]	Schultz, Carl/George Ogilvie/Denny Lawrence/Lex Marinos	1984	Australia	330
19724	18468	Femme de l'hôtel, La	Pool, Léa	1984	Canada	89
20080	18997	Cal	O'Connor, Pat	1984	UK	102
20123	19092	Death Warmed Up	Blyth, David	1984	Australia	85
20211	19194	American Dreamer	Rosenthal, Rick	1984	USA	105
20486	---	Dangerous Moves	Dembo, Richard	1984	Switzerland	100
20673	---	Far from Poland	Godmilow, Jill	1984	USA	106
20957	19817	Impulse	Baker, Graham	1984	USA	91
21078	19958	Don't Open Till Christmas	Purdom, Edmund	1984	UK	86
21083	20010	Perils of Gwendoline in the Land of the Yik Yak, The	Jaeckin, Just	1984	France	88
21227	20110	Soldier's Tale, The	Blechman, R.O. & Christian Blackwood	1984	USA	51
21298	20175	Children of the Steps	Peeri, Igal	1984	Israel	90
21419	20308	Dreamscape	Ruben, Joseph	1984	USA	99
21591	20518	Hardbodies	Griffiths, Mark	1984	USA	87
21695	20567	Test of Love, A/Annie's Coming Out	Brealey, Gil	1984	Australia	93
21765	20682	Love on the Ground	Rivette, Jacques	1984	France	169
21804	20717	Samson & Sally	Hastrup, Jannik	1984	Denmark	59
21926	20865	Raffl	Berger, Christian	1984	Austria	100
22030	20996	New Year Sacrifice	Sang Hu	1984	China	100
22068	20966	Man of Principle, A	Norden, Francisco	1984	Colombia	90
22402	21366	Nocaut	García Agraz, José Luis	1984	Mexico	---
22499	21437	All of Me	Reiner, Carl	1984	USA	93
22507	21445	Songwriter	Rudolph, Alan	1984	USA	94
22511	21449	1918	Harrison, Ken	1984	USA	94
22528	21472	George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey	Stevens Jr., George	1984	USA	110
22543	21485	Our Story	Blier, Bertrand	1984	France	110
22593	21560	Paroma	Sen, Aparna	1984	India	139
22596	21539	Aadmi Aur Aurat [TV]	Sinha, Tapan	1984	India	56
22604	21541	Utsav	Karnad, Girish	1984	India	145
22615	21548	Achamillai Achamillai	Balachander, K.	1984	India	160
22617	21559	Mohan Joshi Hazir Ho!	Mirza, Saeed Akhtar	1984	India	130
22742	21678	Paris vu par... 20 ans après	Akerman, Chantal/Bernard Dubois/Philippe Garrel/Frederic Mitterrand/Vincent Nordon/Philippe Venault	1984	France	100
22909	21883	Tightrope	Tuggle, Richard	1984	USA	114
22929	21852	Mutable Fire	Psyche, Erotic	1984	---	---
22954	21850	Ananas	Gitai, Amos	1984	France	76
23002	21962	Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes	Hudson, Hugh	1984	USA	129
23321	22277	Against All Odds	Hackford, Taylor	1984	USA	128
23330	22288	Fear City	Ferrara, Abel	1984	USA	96
23355	22316	Marlene	Schell, Maximillian	1984	Germany	96
23364	22326	Flamingo Kid, The	Marshall, Garry	1984	USA	100
23404	22467	Hair Piece: A Film for Nappyheaded People	Chenzira, Ayoka	1984	USA	10
23742	22780	Itam Hakim, Hopiit	Masayesva Jr., Victor	1984	USA	58
23814	22867	Firestarter	Lester, Mark L.	1984	USA	114
23818	22846	Love in Germany, A	Wajda, Andrzej	1984	Germany	110
23827	22873	Missing in Action	Zito, Joseph	1984	USA	101
23836	22884	Zombie Island Massacre	Carter, John N.	1984	USA	95
23859	22897	Bolero	Derek, John	1984	USA	104
23885	22890	Angel	O'Neill, Robert Vincent	1984	USA	92
23895	22833	Star Trek III: The Search for Spock	Nimoy, Leonard	1984	USA	105

#9606 Night of the Comet would have been one of my faves at the actual time

Dreamscape was one I was subjected to a few times thanks to my best friend as a kid

no mention of this absolute banger

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3161760/

it's da bomb!

Very excited to see that Comfort and Joy finished ahead of both C.H.U.D. and Bachelor Party.

Really love the way Comfort & Joy films Glasgow, that soft winter light.

Very much so (not that I've been to Glasgow)--especially when he's out driving at dusk the first time he encounters one of the ice cream trucks. Even made me appreciate Mark Knopfler for a couple of minutes.

TIL All of Me is, by TSPDT's formula, a less prestigious film than multiple 1984 slasher Santa flicks

In writing up his Top Ten list at the time, J. Hoberman wrote something to the effect that in a better year several of his picks would be moved down several notches, and #8-10 would’ve been off the list and honorable mentions instead (his #1 was Francisca which was actually from 1981, while #2 was Diary for My Children). I think Kent Jones also recalled 1984 as a particularly dire year, despite the breakthroughs of Stranger Than Paradise and Repo Man.

I would vote for the Jarmusch. Of the also-rans I need to see The Crazy Family again, which I was probably overhyped for when I saw it (via a gray market DVD-R some years ago). The unexpectedly graceful final scene has stuck with me.

Moscow on the Hudson? The Last Starfighter? Red Dawn?

This changes everything

Every Picture Tells a Story (Scott, James - 1984)

Never heard of it--intrigued!

I looked up Hoberman's top ten list for 1984:

01. Francisca (Manoel de Oliveira)
02. Diary for My Children (Marta Meszaros)
03. Stranger Than Paradise (Jim Jarmusch)
04. Der Riese (Michael Klier)
05. The Story of Chaim Rumkowski and the Jews of Lodz (Peter Cohen)
06. Tightrope (Richard Tuggle)
07. Girls Just Want to Have Fun [music video]
08. Nostalghia (Andrei Tarkovsky)
09. Kamilla (Vibeke Lokkeberg)
10. Once Upon a Time in America (Sergio Leone)

I'd list Dave Kehr's, but it's for the Chicago release schedule as he was with the Reader at the time, and quite a few titles had belated releases after opening much earlier in NYC and LA and elsewhere in the world.

And here's Cahiers'

01. Full Moon In Paris (Eric Rohmer)
02. Class Relations (Jean-Marie Straub/Daneille Huillet)
03. Liberte La Nuit (Philippe Garrel)
    First Name: Carmen (Jean-Luc Godard)
    Biquefarre (Georges Rouquier)
06. Rumble Fish (Francis Ford Coppola)
07. And The Ship Sails On (Federico Fellini)
    The Right Stuff (Phillip Kaufman)
    Paris, Texas (Wim Wenders)
10. Once Upon A Time In America (Sergio Leone)

(Sarris's list has quite a lot of '83 titles in there too.)

Tightrope and Moscow on the Hudson would make my longer list.

(xpost) Good for him. And in '86, Game 6 of the World Series--Mookie/Buckner--was on Hoberman's list. Made a lasting impression on me as to how seriously one should adhere to any rules attached to a list.

...Temple of Doom was the first "big" film I saw as a kid that really disappointed me (though the final Star Wars film the year before might have been a similar let-down that I wasn't yet able to acknowledge). Up to that point, most of those films really excited my imagination, but I saw it on vacation in Vancouver with my dad, and I remember in the hotel room afterwards noticing how little impact it had made. I think I had also been misled by all the talk about the "explicit violence", which I thought would be too much, and ended up being too silly. Both my dad and I were also really looking forward to Dune that December, and though that was by no means run-of-the-mill it was even more disappointing.

Of the poll options, I'm voting for Yellow Earth as a reflective mood piece, though it would be disingenuous to pretend that, as a rock fan, I haven't thought a lot more about Spinal Tap since.

Here's my top ten from the entire list:

1 Almanac of Fall
2 Sonatine
3 Love Unto Death
4 A Summer at Grandpa's
5 La Femme de l'hôtel
6 Love on the Ground
7 Yellow Earth
8 The Element of Crime
9 Next of Kin
10 This Is Spinal Tap

My memory of these is mainly a function of which ones my parents allowed us to copy on VHS. These were the ones I remember watching countless times: "The NeverEnding Story", "The Last Starfighter" and "The Ice Pirates". For ones I saw much later, "Pope of Greenwich Village" has nice mid-80s NYC atmosphere.

a little surprised at how infrequently BLOOD SIMPLE is getting mentioned — has its profile lessened over the years? I saw it on the big screen a couple years ago and really loved it

I still like it. It kind of stands apart from their later films--doesn't really fell like theirs to me--but maybe I'm not thinking about that carefully enough.

The tone feels different. It's about a botched scheme, so obviously fits perfectly with Fargo.

I also have fond memories of Revenge of the Nerds, since that was clearly off-limits by my parents, but my brother and I watched it at our cool uncle's house a couple of years later. The taste of forbidden fruit is always the sweetest.

It's mind-boggling how so many '80s comedies like Revenge of the Nerds are packed with sex crimes passed off as acceptable and even some kind of badge of honor. I'm sure some people called it out, but I imagine they were in the minority then.

Blood Simple is very well-made - the Coen have always been expert craftsmen with few equals among their peers in that regard - but it also leaves me cold. I now like their comedies far more than their other films, even though they can be uneven themselves.

Yeah I’m sure those 80s raunchy comedies gave me a lot of skewed ideas about sex that didn’t help me in trying to relate to real women a few years later.

It's as much Spinal Tap as it was 40 years ago, a film packed with lines I still use today.

Terminatah

Followed by Spinal Tap

Who here has seen Twenty Years Later?

I recently saw Blonde Death, it's pretty incredible - shot on video for a couple thousand dollars, kind of like Badlands filtered through John Waters and Repo Man.

1964's Best Movies: 60 Years Later

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

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

eesh

thems awful results

Great year for the USA

I expected this one, and endorse it

Ordinary voters--I hate 'em.

(It's the one line I remember from Repo Man. I'm fine with #1, less so with #2 and #3 ahead of #4.)

Oops--tie. I mean #2 and #3a ahead of Stranger Than Paradise.

I like Repo Man, but I much prefer Walker and especially Highway Patrolman.