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