Criterion Collection by Decade (1980s), a list by Adam McGready

7.7

/54407/

77

/1219/

76

/862/

4.1

/59665/

95

/43/

92

/1489/

82

/19/

Mob assassin Jeffrey is no ordinary hired gun; the best in his business, he views his chosen profession as a calling rather than simply a job. So, when beautiful nightclub chanteuse Jennie is blinded in the crossfire of his most recent hit, Jeffrey chooses to retire after one last job to pay for his unintended victim's sight-restoring operation. But when Jeffrey is double-crossed, he reluctantly joins forces with a rogue policeman to make things right.

73

32

7.8

/1024/

59

/25/

66

/7/

3.7

/1561/

89

/9/

In 1988, renegade filmmaker Robert Altman and Pulitzer Prize–winning Doonesbury cartoonist Garry Trudeau created a presidential candidate, ran him alongside the other hopefuls during the primary season, and presented their media campaign as a cross between a soap opera and TV news. The result was the groundbreaking Tanner ’88, a piercing satire of media-age American politics.

86

7.9

/158922/

76

/4127/

74

/1562/

3.9

/211084/

98

/175/

92

/7950/

92

/30/

4.0

age 14+

"This Is Spinal Tap" shines a light on the self-contained universe of a metal band struggling to get back on the charts, including everything from its complicated history of ups and downs, gold albums, name changes and undersold concert dates, along with the full host of requisite groupies, promoters, hangers-on and historians, sessions, release events and those special behind-the-scenes moments that keep it all real.

84

63

9.0

/5225/

81

/77/

82

/140/

4.5

/18300/

Through the eyes of ten-year-old Alexander, we witness the delights and conflicts of the Ekdahl family, a sprawling bourgeois clan in turn-of-the-twentieth-century Sweden.

77

7.0

/36597/

71

/768/

67

/542/

3.5

/44809/

88

/69/

76

/1458/

76

/22/

4.0

January 1978. After their success in England, the punk rock band Sex Pistols venture out on their tour of the southern United States. Temperamental bassist Sid Vicious is forced by his band mates to travel without his troubled girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, who will meet him in New York. When the band breaks up and Sid begins his solo career in a hostile city, the turbulent couple definitely falls into the depths of drug addiction.

81

67

8.4

/5215/

73

/87/

74

/43/

4.2

/6196/

94

/34/

In late 1920s Berlin, Franz Biberkopf is released from prison and vows to go straight. However, he soon finds himself embroiled in the city’s criminal underworld.

76

7.2

/58163/

71

/1438/

71

/966/

3.9

/123826/

86

/50/

82

/1056/

86

/15/

2.5

Elliot, a successful gynecologist, works at the same practice as his identical twin, Beverly. Elliot is attracted to many of his patients and has affairs with them. When he inevitably loses interest, he will give the woman over to Beverly, the meeker of the two, without the woman knowing the difference. Beverly falls hard for one of the patients, Claire, but when she inadvertently deceives him, he slips into a state of madness.

86

83

8.9

/34522/

85

/369/

85

/91/

4.6

/28723/

Dekalog (pronounced [dɛˈkalɔk]) is a 1989 Polish drama television miniseries directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski and co-written by Kieślowski with Krzysztof Piesiewicz, with music by Zbigniew Preisner. It consists of ten one-hour films, inspired by the decalogue of the Ten Commandments for thematic inspiration and an overarching structure, grapple deftly with complex moral and existential questions concerning life, death, love, hate, truth, and the passage of time. Each installment explores characters facing one or several moral or ethical dilemmas as they reside in an austere housing project in 1980s Poland, whose lives become subtly intertwined as they face emotional dilemmas that are at once deeply personal and universally human.

78

7.6

/304897/

76

/12294/

73

/5535/

3.9

/379606/

92

/88/

84

/7598/

70

/17/

3.0

age 17+

In a violent, near-apocalyptic Detroit, evil corporation Omni Consumer Products wins a contract from the city government to privatize the police force. To test their crime-eradicating cyborgs, the company leads street cop Alex Murphy into an armed confrontation with crime lord Boddicker so they can use his body to support their untested RoboCop prototype. But when RoboCop learns of the company's nefarious plans, he turns on his masters.

83

7.5

/29017/

74

/798/

72

/404/

3.9

/38849/

97

/32/

89

/773/

82

/16/

4.0

age 17+

In the late 1970s, Cockney crime boss Harold Shand, a gangster trying to become a legitimate property mogul, has big plans to get the American Mafia to bankroll his transformation of a derelict area of London into the possible venue for a future Olympic Games. However, a series of bombings targets his empire on the very weekend the Americans are in town. Shand is convinced there is a traitor in his organization, and sets out to eliminate the rat in typically ruthless fashion.

74

6.9

/73457/

70

/2331/

66

/1103/

3.5

/72373/

92

/53/

77

/2330/

79

/18/

3.0

age 9+

Young history buff Kevin can scarcely believe it when six dwarfs emerge from his closet one night. Former employees of the Supreme Being, they've purloined a map charting all of the holes in the fabric of time and are using it to steal treasures from different historical eras. Taking Kevin with them, they variously drop in on Napoleon, Robin Hood and King Agamemnon before the Supreme Being catches up with them.

75

68

7.4

/7294/

69

/126/

72

/159/

3.8

/7248/

82

/11/

82

/89/

In 1914, a cruise ship sets sail from Naples to spread the ashes of beloved opera singer Edmea Tetua near Erimo, the isle of her birth. During the voyage, the eclectic array of passengers discovers a group of Serbian refugees aboard the vessel. Peace and camaraderie abound until the ship is descended upon by an Austrian flagship. The Serbians are forced to board it, but naturally they resist, igniting a skirmish that ends in destruction.

79

7.8

/220772/

78

/5431/

76

/3563/

4.1

/250950/

98

/62/

90

/7405/

84

/18/

2.0

age 17+

Low-level bureaucrat Sam Lowry escapes the monotony of his day-to-day life through a recurring daydream of himself as a virtuous hero saving a beautiful damsel. Investigating a case that led to the wrongful arrest and eventual death of an innocent man instead of wanted terrorist Harry Tuttle, he meets the woman from his daydream, and in trying to help her gets caught in a web of mistaken identities, mindless bureaucracy and lies.

83

8.1

/7069/

80

/463/

78

/154/

4.1

/16734/

95

/20/

91

/155/

79

/11/

A testament to NASA's Apollo program of the 1960s and '70s. Composed of actual NASA footage of the missions and astronaut interviews, the documentary offers the viewpoint of the individuals who braved the remarkable journey to the moon and back.

78

7.2

/40405/

70

/569/

69

/493/

3.7

/22497/

86

/29/

84

/944/

73

/17/

4.0

Successful surgeon Tomas leaves Prague for an operation, meets a young photographer named Tereza, and brings her back with him. Tereza is surprised to learn that Tomas is already having an affair with the bohemian Sabina, but when the Soviet invasion occurs, all three flee to Switzerland. Sabina begins an affair, Tom continues womanizing, and Tereza, disgusted, returns to Czechoslovakia. Realizing his mistake, Tomas decides to chase after her.

80

7.5

/67217/

72

/1433/

72

/1152/

3.9

/117793/

82

/106/

84

/1766/

80

/18/

4.0

age 16+

Jesus, a humble Judean carpenter beginning to see that he is the son of God, is drawn into revolutionary action against the Roman occupiers by Judas -- despite his protestations that love, not violence, is the path to salvation. The burden of being the savior of mankind torments Jesus throughout his life, leading him to doubt.

84

7.6

/15475/

76

/383/

73

/346/

4.1

/75838/

100

/26/

85

/133/

4.0

Mona Bergeron is dead, her frozen body found in a ditch in the French countryside. From this, the film flashes back to the weeks leading up to her death. Through these flashbacks, Mona gradually declines as she travels from place to place, taking odd jobs and staying with whomever will offer her a place to sleep. Mona is fiercely independent, craving freedom over comfort, but it is this desire to be free that will eventually lead to her demise.

69

64

6.7

/12098/

63

/185/

64

/215/

3.4

/15642/

83

/18/

72

/216/

66

/6/

Fisher, an ex-detective, decides to take one final case when a mysterious serial killer claims the lives of several young girls. Fisher, unable to find the culprit, turns to Osbourne, a writer who was once respected for his contributions to the field of criminology. Fisher begins to use Osbourne's technique, which involves empathizing with serial killers; however, as the detective becomes increasingly engrossed in this method, things take a disturbing turn.

87

7.9

/122413/

78

/3479/

77

/1922/

4.4

/477967/

92

/150/

89

/3366/

93

/26/

4.0

age 16+

Salvatore "Sal" Fragione is the Italian owner of a pizzeria in Brooklyn. A neighborhood local, Buggin' Out, becomes upset when he sees that the pizzeria's Wall of Fame exhibits only Italian actors. Buggin' Out believes a pizzeria in a black neighborhood should showcase black actors, but Sal disagrees. The wall becomes a symbol of racism and hate to Buggin' Out and to other people in the neighborhood, and tensions rise.

73

7.3

/7166/

65

/162/

70

/209/

3.7

/6618/

88

/8/

82

/63/

2.5

A pathetic police chief, humiliated by everyone around him, suddenly wants a clean slate in life, and resorts to drastic means to achieve it.

81

7.3

/20203/

71

/333/

69

/282/

3.8

/21805/

98

/42/

81

/252/

85

/20/

4.0

age 16+

George is a small-time crook just out of prison who discovers his tough-guy image is out of date. Reduced to working as a minder/driver for high class call girl Simone, he has to agree when she asks him to find a young colleague from her King's Cross days. That's when George's troubles just start.

82

7.5

/51388/

75

/1103/

72

/602/

4.0

/86627/

84

/86/

93

/3760/

84

/18/

4.0

age 16+

Two out-of-work actors -- the anxious, luckless Marwood and his acerbic, alcoholic friend, Withnail -- spend their days drifting between their squalid flat, the unemployment office and the pub. When they take a holiday "by mistake" at the country house of Withnail's flamboyantly gay uncle, Monty, they encounter the unpleasant side of the English countryside: tedium, terrifying locals and torrential rain.

67

6.8

/7004/

69

/178/

62

/104/

3.6

/9563/

65

/17/

77

/269/

63

/22/

2.5

Pressure from his boss and a skin-cream client produces a talking boil on a British adman's neck.

82

7.6

/53695/

73

/1608/

74

/756/

4.0

/146077/

96

/51/

88

/862/

3.5

Rex and Saskia, a young couple in love, are on vacation when they stop at a busy service station. Saskia is abducted in broad daylight and three years pass with no answers or closure surrounding her disappearance. Rex has nearly given up all hope when he suddenly begins receiving letters from her abductor.

73

7.1

/9874/

72

/309/

70

/171/

3.5

/8343/

80

/30/

78

/174/

3.0

When CIA operative Miles Kendig deliberately lets KGB agent Yaskov get away, his boss threatens to retire him. Kendig beats him to it, however, destroying his own records and traveling to Austria where he begins work on a memoir that will expose all his former agency's covert practices. The CIA catches wind of the book and sends other agents after him, initiating a frenetic game of cat and mouse that spans the globe.

79

7.6

/58181/

75

/967/

73

/812/

4.1

/75186/

88

/32/

93

/1294/

75

/20/

3.0

A disc jockey, a pimp and an Italian tourist escape from jail in New Orleans.

77

47

8.1

/1547/

73

/54/

74

/28/

4.1

/4376/

Jimi Hendrix's debut American set at 1967's Monterey Pop Festival is generally considered one of the most radical and legendary live shows ever. Virtually unknown to American audiences at the time, even though he was already an established entity in the UK, Hendrix and his two-piece Experience explode on stage, ripping through blues classics "Rock Me Baby" and Howlin' Wolf's "Killing Floor," interpreting and electrifying Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone," debuting songs from his yet-to-be-released first album and closing with the now historic sacrificing/burning of his guitar during an unhinged version of "Wild Thing" that even its writer Chip Taylor would never have imagined. Hendrix uses feedback and distortion to enhance the songs in whisper-to-scream intensity, blazing territory that had not been previously explored with as much soul-frazzled power.

81

80

7.6

/23810/

72

/390/

72

/283/

3.9

/16181/

100

/34/

90

/535/

82

/15/

age 11+

A boy, obsessed with comparing himself with those less fortunate, experiences a different life at the home of his aunt and uncle in 1959 Sweden.

80

7.6

/8221/

74

/125/

71

/148/

3.9

/11438/

76

/17/

85

/1/

4.0

In Munich 1955, German film star Veronika Voss becomes a drug addict at the mercy of corrupt Dr. Marianne Katz, who keeps her supplied with morphine. After meeting sports writer Robert Krohn, Veronika begins to dream of a return to stardom. As the couple's relationship escalates in intensity, Veronika begins seriously planning her return to the screen -- only to realize how debilitated she has become through her drug habit.

78

70

7.4

/7328/

72

/120/

69

/127/

3.8

/10587/

93

/15/

84

/62/

Germany in the autumn of 1957: Lola, a seductive cabaret singer-prostitute exults in her power as a temptress of men, but she wants out—she wants money, property, and love. Pitting a corrupt building contractor against the new straight-arrow building commissioner, Lola launches an outrageous plan to elevate herself in a world where everything, and everyone, is for sale. Shot in childlike candy colors, Fassbinder’s homage to Josef von Sternberg’s classic The Blue Angel stands as a satiric tribute to capitalism.

73

7.2

/111591/

71

/3684/

72

/2385/

3.9

/342287/

83

/60/

80

/2714/

58

/6/

As the president of a trashy TV channel, Max Renn is desperate for new programming to attract viewers. When he happens upon "Videodrome," a TV show dedicated to gratuitous torture and punishment, Max sees a potential hit and broadcasts the show on his channel. However, after his girlfriend auditions for the show and never returns, Max investigates the truth behind Videodrome and discovers that the graphic violence may not be as fake as he thought.

76

7.2

/3689/

66

/64/

66

/45/

3.7

/10392/

77

/13/

78

/111/

4.0

In his New Jersey study, Richard Nixon retraces the missteps of his political career, attempting to absolve himself of responsibility for Watergate and lambasting President Gerald Ford's decision to pardon him. His monologue explores his personal life and describes his upbringing and his mother. A tape recorder, a gun and whiskey are his only companions during his entire monologue, which is tinged with the vitriol and paranoia that puzzled the public during his presidency.

89

8.1

/70851/

77

/952/

77

/847/

4.4

/70186/

100

/46/

94

/1018/

100

/8/

4.0

age 17+

As children in the loving Ekdahl family, Fanny and Alexander enjoy a happy life with their parents, who run a theater company. After their father dies unexpectedly, however, the siblings end up in a joyless home when their mother, Emilie, marries a stern bishop. The bleak situation gradually grows worse as the bishop becomes more controlling, but dedicated relatives make a valiant attempt to aid Emilie, Fanny and Alexander.

72

26

7.5

/1094/

67

/17/

68

/18/

3.8

/1256/

75

/5/

The Making of Fanny and Alexander is a fascinating look at the creation of a masterpiece. Directed by Ingmar Bergman himself, this feature-length documentary chronicles the methods of one of cinema’s true luminaries as he labors to realize his crowning production.

85

7.9

/40538/

77

/741/

78

/709/

4.2

/43692/

89

/27/

92

/710/

84

/15/

4.0

Akira Kurosawa's lauded feudal epic presents the tale of a petty thief who is recruited to impersonate Shingen, an aging warlord, in order to avoid attacks by competing clans. When Shingen dies, his generals reluctantly agree to have the impostor take over as the powerful ruler. He soon begins to appreciate life as Shingen, but his commitment to the role is tested when he must lead his troops into battle against the forces of a rival warlord.

84

7.9

/8966/

78

/250/

75

/145/

4.1

/21878/

91

/22/

91

/204/

77

/14/

4.0

The Amazon rain forest, 1979. The crew of Fitzcarraldo (1982), a film directed by German director Werner Herzog, soon finds itself with problems related to casting, tribal struggles and accidents, among many other setbacks; but nothing compared to dragging a huge steamboat up a mountain, while Herzog embraces the path of a certain madness to make his vision come true.

61

6.9

/10253/

63

/210/

65

/160/

3.7

/11526/

46

/13/

74

/209/

1.5

Alex Linden is a psychiatrist living in Vienna who meets Milena Flaherty though a mutual friend. Though Alex is quite a bit older than Milena, he's attracted to her young, carefree spirit. Despite the fact that Milena is already married, their friendship quickly turns into a deeply passionate love affair that threatens to overtake them both. When Milena ends up in the hospital from an overdose, Alex is taken into custody by Inspector Netusil.

90

8.2

/149647/

80

/2532/

80

/1722/

4.5

/224656/

96

/94/

95

/2188/

97

/21/

4.0

Shakespeare's King Lear is reimagined as a singular historical epic set in sixteenth-century Japan where an aging warlord divides his kingdom between his three sons.

86

8.0

/38179/

78

/673/

75

/705/

4.2

/49189/

97

/36/

93

/731/

88

/18/

4.0

age 12+

Au revoir les enfants tells a heartbreaking story of friendship and devastating loss concerning two boys living in Nazi-occupied France. At a provincial Catholic boarding school, the precocious youths enjoy true camaraderie—until a secret is revealed. Based on events from writer-director Malle’s own childhood, the film is a subtle, precisely observed tale of courage, cowardice, and tragic awakening.

77

7.1

/7692/

67

/221/

68

/214/

3.9

/24372/

89

/9/

80

/79/

3.5

Fifteen-year-old Suzanne seeks refuge from a disintegrating family in a series of impulsive, promiscuous affairs. Her fulsome sexuality further ratchets up the suppressed passions of her narcissistic brother, insecure mother and brooding, authoritarian father.

74

6.7

/5812/

66

/137/

60

/107/

3.5

/17740/

90

/20/

74

/82/

81

/19/

3.5

The buttoned-down, superstitious Kay is attempting to lead a normal existence with her new boyfriend Louis. That’s until Sweetie, her rampaging, devil-may-care sister, returns home after an absence, exposing the rotten roots of their family and placing a strain on Kay and Louis’ relationship.

50

18

5.3

/795/

57

/19/

55

/13/

3.1

/1215/

26

/17/

Two musicians and a roadie take money that is owed to them from a job. One flees to Mexico, and everyone has questions.

80

78

7.7

/12942/

76

/296/

74

/259/

4.2

/42490/

88

/16/

86

/245/

A woman narrates the thoughts of a world traveler, meditations on time and memory expressed in words and images from places as far-flung as Japan, Guinea-Bissau, Iceland, and San Francisco.

79

7.2

/25477/

71

/523/

68

/331/

3.7

/23535/

93

/30/

79

/464/

78

/13/

4.0

A psychiatrist comes to the aid of a compulsive gambler and is led by a smooth-talking grifter into the shadowy but compelling world of stings, scams, and con men.

83

7.4

/42928/

72

/733/

71

/579/

3.9

/74898/

100

/26/

88

/764/

86

/13/

4.0

A New Yorker's life is thrown into a tailspin when his younger cousin surprise-visits him, starting a strange, unpredictable adventure.

68

61

6.5

/4588/

60

/85/

61

/116/

3.3

/8674/

96

/24/

64

/127/

Walt is a lonely convenience store clerk who has fallen in love with a Mexican migrant worker named Johnny. Though Walt has little in common with the object of his affections — including a shared language — his desire to possess Johnny prompts a sexual awakening that results in a tangled love triangle.

72

6.8

/6753/

65

/105/

65

/98/

3.5

/5995/

74

/19/

71

/126/

70

/14/

4.0

Against a background of war breaking out in Europe and the Mexican fiesta Day of Death, we are taken through one day in the life of Geoffrey Firmin, a British consul living in alcoholic disrepair and obscurity in a small southern Mexican town in 1939. The consul's self-destructive behaviour, perhaps a metaphor for a menaced civilization, is a source of perplexity and sadness to his nomadic, idealistic half-brother, Hugh, and his ex-wife, Yvonne, who has returned with hopes of healing Geoffrey and their broken marriage.

82

7.7

/118325/

75

/2734/

75

/1842/

3.9

/80082/

86

/126/

88

/1366/

76

/15/