Our Favourite Films of the 80s

Once again encouraged by someone else's bright idea (in this case Sam Fragoso at moviemezzanine.com), I polled the staff and a few of our friends about their favourite films of the 1980s. When we did the 90s a few months back I included a list of some of the biggest, misunderstood disasters of that decade, but this list needs no such addendum. Here we embraced the failures as warmly, if not more so, as the classics. If you tallied up the votes, I think our top five would look like this, and I think it's pretty ok. 

Blue Velvet
The Shining
Brazil
Hannah And Her Sisters
Die Hard

And our best directors (based on who had the most, diverse choices among us)
David Cronenberg
Woody Allen
Terry Gilliam
Martin Scorsese
John Carpenter
Wim Wenders
Jim Jarmusch


Without further ado, our individual ballots:

Sean Van Deuren
My Dinner With Andre
Hannah and Her Sisters
Le Rayon Vert
Mystery Train
The Meaning of Life
Paris, TX
Nostalghia
After Hours
sex, lies, and videotape
The Shining


Fox Johnson 
The Empire Strikes Back
The Shining
Brazil
This is Spinal Tap
Ran
Better Off Dead
Blade Runner
The Thing
Full Metal Jacket
Airplane!

Gifford Elliott
Clue: The Movie 
When Harry Met Sally
Le Rayon Vert
Hannah and Her Sisters
Die Hard
Airplane!
The Shining
Paris, TX
A Room With a View
Le Dernier Métro

Dan Khan
Shoah
The King of Comedy
Die Hard
Blue Velvet
A Fish Called Wanda
Altered States
To Live and Die in L.A.
Ran
Hannah and Her Sisters
Fanny & Alexander


Noah Aust
Brazil
Repo Man
Time Bandits
Blade Runner
Alice
Stranger than Paradise
The Adventures of Baron Münchausen
Stop Making Sense
Return to Oz
Crimes and Misdemeanors

Andrew Haskell
Phenomena
Krull
Monster Dog

Popeye
Heavy Metal Parking Lot
UHF

Ernest Goes To Camp

Lucas Mangum
Videodrome
Hellraiser 2
Possession
Blue Velvet
Nightmare on Elm Street 3
Basket Case
The Toxic Avenger
Big Trouble in Little China
Howard the Duck
The Terminator

Honorable Mentions: Xtro, The Hidden, Robocop, Escape from New York, The Road Warrior

Tim Earle
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Tootsie
Scrooged
The Adventures of Baron Münchausen
Brazil
Radio Days
Raising Arizona
Princess Bride
Die Hard
Broadcast News

Honorable mentions: Ghost Busters, Cutter's Way, This is Spinal Tap, Airplane!, Top Secret!


Beccah Ulm
Labyrinth 
Videodrome
The Shining
Heathers
Little Shop of Horrors
Beetlejuice 
sex, lies, and videotape 
Blue Velvet
The Fly
The Breakfast Club

honorable mentions: The Color Purple, The Accused, Dead Ringers, Fatal Attraction, Princess Bride, Scanners, Hairspray, Stand By Me

Scout Tafoya
Below The Belt
Razorback
Blue Velvet
The Loveless
Au Revoir Les Enfants
The Thing
Caravaggio
Betty Blue
Wings of Desire
Down By Law

Honorable mention: 
Distant Voices, Still Lives, Nostalghia, Heaven's Gate, Berlin Alexanderplatz, Near Dark, Repo Man, Hannah and Her Sisters, The Color of Money, Stop Making Sense, Aliens, The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, Her Lover, Dead Ringers, The Fly, Ghosts...of the Civil Dead, UHF, Britannia Hospital

Noah Lyons
Blue Velvet
The Shining
The Last Temptation of Christ
Videodrome
Crimes & Misdemeanors
Fitzcarraldo
Wings of Desire
Blade Runner
Amadeus
Element of Crime

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