We rented “Amadeus” the other night. I think the last time I saw it was shortly after it came out in 1984, and it’s held up well. A very fun watch, so now I want more recommendations of movies that I’ve probably seen but forgotten about.
So what else is worth a re-watch from the mid-1970s through the 1980s? Being a teenager during that era, I’ve seen movies like the stupid comedies and the John Hughes Molly Ringwald over and over and over. I’m looking for something that I may have missed because I was a stupid teenager, or seen and not really enjoyed (once again, because I was young and stupid.)
Since you’re looking for 70s movies too, I highly recommend The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane and Badlands. Both have Martin Sheen in them and both are amazing, provided you like darker films.
The French Connection
Gandhi
All The President’s Men
The Godfather
Blade Runner
To Live And Die In L.A. (well I liked it)
Network
All That Jazz
The Year of Living Dangerously
The Killing Fields
And a bunch more that don’t spring to mind right now.
I just watched Logan’s Run for the first time in at least 20 years.
Whoohoo!
Wow, we were much more liberal with the body flashing back then!
Nowadays that’d be rated R, but then it was considered only PG.
Brazil - Terry Gilliam’s 1985 film, a black comedy about a dystopian, bureaucracy-laden future. A man (Jonathan Pryce) daydreams about adventures with a beautiful woman while working in his boring government job under a bumbling boss (Ian Holm). When he’s trying to deal with a problem that led to a regular citizen being misidentified as a terrorist and killed, he sees his actual dream girl in the flesh - she’s the widow of the dead man. He’s got to help her escape being considered an “associate of a terrorist” by correcting the problem (and maybe win her heart if he’s lucky), but bureaucracies/governments don’t like being told they’re wrong. Other great cast members: Katherine Helmond, Michael Palin, Jim Broadbent, Robert DeNiro, Bob Hoskins, and a bunch other I’m forgetting.
The Warriors - It’s a film that holds up surprisingly well, and it’s got some great lines in it. Takes the idea of an Odessean Journey into a new setting taking place in NYC.
Also: Scarface is great too while we’re on gang films.
Also, make sure you’ve seen the Mel Brooks films: Blazing Saddles, History of the World Part I, Spaceballs, and Young Frankenstein all come to mind.
And after you’ve watched the Mel Brooks films, you can relax with a couple of comedies that are actually funny: The Cheap Detective and Murder By Death.
I’ve recommended it before, but Spaced Invaders is awesome. I love that stupid movie.
The Package is also really good, but it’s very stuck in its time with George Bush I and Mikail Gorbachev signing a nuclear missile treaty being a main plot point.