# The Greatest Year for Movies: 1984? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 31, 2009, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-year-for-movies-1984/504870 "2009-07-31T14:43:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![SSG\_Schwartz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@SSG\_Schwartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SSG_Schwartz)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-year-for-movies-1984/504870/21 "2009-08-01T01:09:37Z")
I object, 1986 had the best movies: _Top Gun Crocodile Dundee Platoon Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home Back to School Aliens Ferris Bueller’s Day Off The Color of Money An American Tail Heartbreak Ridge Peggy Sue Got Married Little Shop of Horrors Hoosiers Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives_ SSG Schwartz ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-year-for-movies-1984/504870/22 "2009-08-01T01:32:07Z")
The usual answer, and the correct one, is 1939: Babes In Arms Beau Geste Dark Victory Destry Rides Again Drums Along the Mohawk Gone with the Wind Goodbye, Mr. Chips Gunga Din Gulliver’s Travels The Hunchback of Notre Dame Mr. Smith Goes to Washington Ninotchka Of Mice and Men The Rules of the Game (La règle du jeu) The Spy in Black Stagecoach Stanley and Livingstone The Stars Look Down The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle The Wizard of Oz The Women Wuthering Heights And the next few best years are probably in the 40s. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-year-for-movies-1984/504870/23 "2009-08-01T02:19:15Z")
> [@ArchiveGuy](#): > > For my money, that first list though formidable (primarily because of the foreign entries) still pales compared to the other two. Yes, there are lots of well-known titles (_GWTW, Mr. Smith, Mr. Chips_, etc.) missing from the '39 list, but I’d argue they’re fondly remembered but still terribly overrated, especially the high-profile lit. adaptations (_Hunchback, Geste, Wuthering_). Utter balderdash, sir. Gone With the Wind is a classic, and will always be so. Goodbye, Mr. Chips is for its time quite good. Hardly “over rated.” Oh, and your 1972 list is filled with several total stinkers, and a lot of movies no one even bothers to rent any more. ---
**Author:** ![Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellis_Aponte_Jr)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-year-for-movies-1984/504870/24 "2009-08-01T16:07:20Z")
The OP list looks to me like any upcoming schedule on TBS. **Red Dawn** … really? Since we’re throwing out lists I’ll submit (more or less at random) **1968** Barbarella Bullitt Faces Funny Girl The Lion in Winter Night of the Living Dead The Odd Couple Once Upon a Time in the West Oliver! Planet of the Apes The Producers Romeo and Juliet Rosemary’s Baby The Thomas Crown Affair 2001: A Space Odyssey Yellow Submarine ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-year-for-movies-1984/504870/25 "2009-08-01T16:14:32Z")
I think that the O.P.s list is more about what was fashionable,for whatever reasons at that time. Some of the films mentioned were not only not classics but were total tripe.(I’m not intenionally trying to be offensive here so don’t take it personally) IMO a classic is a film that stands the test of time,long after it has ceased to be perceived as trendy or innovative. Off of the top of my head heres some of my ideas(though I’ll think of more later)though some of these are not to my personal taste. The Maltese Falcon Gone With the wind. The private life of King Henry the Eighth Brief Encounter The Longest Day The "Road"series with Bob Hope,Bing C and Dorothy Lamour. Metropolis (FritzLang) Platoon The Wizard of Oz Saving Private Ryan The Marx brothers movies Charlie Chaplins silents The Keystone Cops Shane The magnificent Seven The Seven Samurai The Third Man More to Follow. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2009, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-year-for-movies-1984/504870/26 "2009-08-01T23:20:28Z")
> [@HelloNinja](#): > > According to [this article on EW.com,](http://popwatch.ew.com/2009/07/25/was-1984-the-greatest-year-in-movies-ever/) 1984 could possibly be the best year ever in terms of movies released that are now considered classics. Hard to disagree… > > Here are a bunch from the list, but they have even more listed in the article. > > Ghostbusters > Red Dawn > Sixteen Candles > Bachelor Party > Beverly Hills Cop > Amadeus > The Killing Fields > Blood Simple > A Nightmare on Elm Street > The Terminator > Purple Rain > Muppets Take Manhattan > The Karate Kid > Gremlins > The Natural > Splash > Footloose > Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Many of those movies were fun, but nearly half of them flat-out SUCKED, and VERY few have any claim to being “classics.” If “Red Dawn” and “Buckaroo Banzai” are classics, we need a whole new word for “Citizen Kane.” ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2009, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-year-for-movies-1984/504870/27 "2009-08-02T00:53:33Z")
_Buckaroo Banzai_ is a classic, albeit a cult classic. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2009, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-year-for-movies-1984/504870/28 "2009-08-02T01:39:29Z")
> [@](#): > > How about 1982? > > 48 Hours > Blade Runner > Conan the Barbarian > The Dark Crystal > Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid > Diner > E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial > Fast Times at Ridgemont High > First Blood > Frances > Gandhi > Missing > My Favorite Year > An Officer and a Gentleman > Pink Floyd The Wall > Poltergeist > Rocky III > The Secret of NIMH > Sophie’s Choice > Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan > The Thing > Tootsie > Tron > The Verdict > Victor/Victoria > Volver a empezar > The Year of Living Dangerously > Good year, especially for SF/fantasy classics! I was going to come in and say this. 1982 was a great year for SF/Fantasy. Besides the above, we had \*\*Firefox Atomic Cocktail Ordinary People Annie \*\* It also saw the re-release of **Bambi** Other movies, not so great, were **Grease 2 Swamp Thing Funhouse Paradise** Although it had been released two years earlier, 1982 was the year Akira Kurasawa’s **Kagemusha** came to my town. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2009, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-year-for-movies-1984/504870/29 "2009-08-02T01:45:42Z")
> [@Lute Skywatcher](#): > > _Buckaroo Banzai_ is a classic, albeit a cult classic. You know, cult classic would be a good term to refer to the next time someone gets all pissy about “conspiracy theory” not meaning the sum of its parts. ---
**Author:** ![It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/it_s_not_rocket_surgery/32/312_2.png) [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/It_s_Not_Rocket_Surgery)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2009, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-year-for-movies-1984/504870/30 "2009-08-02T02:59:25Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I was going to come in and say this. 1982 was a great year for SF/Fantasy. > > Besides the above, we had > > \*\*Firefox > Atomic Cocktail > Ordinary People > Annie > \*\* Ordinary People was released in [1980](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081283/). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-year-for-movies-1984/504870.md?page=1)