Was the 80s the Golden Age of American Cinema?

I happen to think it was. Just rattling off the film titles from that decade, it's pretty ridiculous. Anyone agree? Disagree? Counter-point? Rebuttal?

Breakin 2: Electric Boogaloo

/thread

How can you go wrong with a decade that brought you the Terminator, Robocop, Lethal Weapon, and Die Hard franchises in the action genre. The Police Academy, Naked Gun, and Vacation franchises in the comedy genre. The Friday The 13th, A Nightmare On Elm Street, and Child's Play films in the horror genre. And of course let's not forget films such as The Goonies, The Monster Squad, Adventures In Babysitting, Gremlins, Ghostbusters, Caddyshack, the first two Back To The Future films, The Running Man, and too many more awesome movies to count. You just can't.

Blade Runner. Empire.

for pure nostalgic reasons the 80's is my favourite decade, still have great memories of watching some of my favourite films such as batman, ghost busters, highlander and robocop

Alright so I know I made a big splash in the 70s thread, but I love the 80s too, and not for all those popcorn and franchise movies that FC has so kindly listed off (though I do love some of those). Of course, he did miss probably the most important series of the decade: Raiders of Lost Ark and the subsequent Indiana Jones films.

Anyway, the 80s were good to film audiences, as they brought us such classics as Raging Bull, The Shining, Blow Out, E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, The Thing, Risky Business, Scarface, Amadeus, This Is Spinal Tap, Blue Velvet, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, and Do the Right Thing, amongst other non-American movies and ones that have already been mentioned and ones that I failed to mention because I could spend all day doing this and needed to stop at some point.

I also think it's worth pointing out that there are 4 films from the 80s in my top 10. So yeah.

Yes.

The 80s warn't no golden age of nothing... apart from maybe Molly Ringwald and tom-boy drummers.
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Today is the golden age of cinema, thanks to blu-ray discs and affordable high-quality home projectors.

Furthermore, if we count international films and cinematic TV shows, and we totally should, there's probably more good and great stuff being made now than ever before. (Maybe a slight dip due to the Great Recession, but...)

Having a favorite decade/era is fine, but invoking golden ages in just about any large/historic context is akin to buying a fast and cheap ticket to Hyperboletown, population: you. IMHO. :wink:

Holy shit, Gatos, I was wrong, and you're right. What a wise, intelligent, articulate, and downright frighteningly sexy man you are - all of this I can tell by your prose and reasoning alone. :-D

(Although, for the sake of our friends at the FBI/NSA, I'd like to note that the 90s was very probably Ringwald's golden age as a babe, if not as a cinematic presence. )

(Although '95 was the year she went topless onscreen.)

(Not that anyone's keeping score or anything.)

Wait a second... are Weird Science, Pretty in Pink, and Some Kind of Wonderful really not available on blu-ray?! And Amazon only lists one, freaking one, copy of a Swedish Region B The Sure Thing blu? Outrage!




"F***ing unacceptable."



Still, Gatos, you're right - once those movies and more left theaters, good luck ever seeing them again except on crappy VHS until DVDs became a thing almost a whole decade later. Meaning that, as much as I'd love to hop in a DeLorean and see them with opening-night crowds, today really is the golden age of 80s movies, as well as that of most other decades'. (Maybe not some of the early silent period, in terms of films that are now lost, but that'd be the big exception to the rule.)


Now, we're just talking movies here - things to see in the dark and relative quiet. In terms of venues, music, outfits, and general culture, I could definitely entertain an argument that the 80s were the golden age of American nightclubs and almost certainly of malls; not everything preserves as well or much over time as the movie-watching experience... sigh...

Gatos said:

Today is the golden age of cinema, thanks to blu-ray discs and affordable high-quality home projectors.

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Yes, but we're talking about the films themselves, not the medium in which they're available. And how can anyone consider today the golden age of cinema with all the crappy remakes, reboots, and countless unnecessary sequels made just to cash in on a, sometimes long dead, franchise? And let's not forget the gimmick known as 3D. Plus now they have some new gimmick with rumble seats or something, with tickets costing over 20$ a pop.With all that it's clear that Hollywood doesn't care about quality. They just want to make as much money as possible without really thinking about it. If today is the golden age of cinema then I am truly in Hell.

Frantic Canadian said:

Yes, but we're talking about the films themselves, not the medium in which they're available. And how can anyone consider today the golden age of cinema with all the crappy remakes, reboots, and countless unnecessary sequels made just to cash in on a, sometimes long dead, franchise? And let's not forget the gimmick known as 3D. Plus now they have some new gimmick with rumble seats or something, with tickets costing over 20$ a pop.With all that it's clear that Hollywood doesn't care about quality. They just want to make as much money as possible without really thinking about it. If today is the golden age of cinema then I am truly in Hell.

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Huge *face palm*. Frantic Canadian, I was been sarcastic. Please refer to this thread. Gaith made a similar post in my thread about the 70's being the golden age of cinema. I agree with your response though. I just felt it wasn't worth responding to Gaith in my thread.

Frantic Canadian said:

Yes, but we're talking about the films themselves, not the medium in which they're available. And how can anyone consider today the golden age of cinema with all the crappy remakes, reboots, and countless unnecessary sequels made just to cash in on a, sometimes long dead, franchise? And let's not forget the gimmick known as 3D. Plus now they have some new gimmick with rumble seats or something, with tickets costing over 20$ a pop.With all that it's clear that Hollywood doesn't care about quality. They just want to make as much money as possible without really thinking about it. If today is the golden age of cinema then I am truly in Hell.

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I'm not 100% sure, but I think you missed the joke.

JEDIT: DAMN YOU [MENTION=8731]Gatos[/MENTION] FOR BEING TOO FAST!!!

Gatos said:

Huge *face palm*. Frantic Canadian, I was been sarcastic. Please refer to this thread. Gaith made a similar post in my thread about the 70's being the golden age of cinema. I agree with your response though. I just felt it wasn't worth responding to Gaith in my thread.

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TV's Frink said:

I'm not 100% sure, but I think you missed the joke.

JEDIT: DAMN YOU Gatos FOR BEING TOO FAST!!!

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My bad. I stopped following that thread so I didn't see Gaith's original post which you copied from. And because of that your reply here looked genuine. Who knew I had to read one thread to be able to follow another one. :lol:

Gatos said:

The 80s warn't no golden age of nothing... apart from maybe Molly Ringwald and tom-boy drummers.
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Who's the girl on the right?

Mark Moore said:

Who's the girl on the right?

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Mary Stuart Masterson

@ MM: You will watch Some Kind of Wonderful, a Hughes-written gender-flipped reworking of Pretty in Pink, starring original Marty McFly Eric Stoltz in surely his most Marty-like role, and then you will exercise punishment protocol nine alpha!

The '80s were certainly a golden era of porn, an age of discov. . . oh, wait, exshkyooz me.

In terms of creativity, 21st-century American cinema so far has nothing on the '80s.

Gaith said:

@ MM: You will watch Some Kind of Wonderful, a Hughes-written gender-flipped reworking of Pretty in Pink, starring original Marty McFly Eric Stoltz in surely his most Marty-like role, and then you will exercise punishment protocol nine alpha!

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Isn't that the movie where some of the "Kidd Video" cast members have cameos?

ssj said:

In terms of creativity, 21st-century American cinema so far has nothing on the '80s.

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Apparently you've never heard of a little film called Crouching Tiger - The Tiger Lily Cut.

Mark Moore said:

Isn't that the movie where some of the "Kidd Video" cast members have cameos?

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Uh... *Googles*... I guess? It's certainly not a "thing"... not like the original Marty McFly and Lea Thompson sharing the screen...