Movies 1980s English Language, a list by bbrodka1963

8.7

/11439/

81

/278/

82

/214/

4.5

/16063/

100

/37/

97

/117/

99

/4/

4.0

age 15+

Director Claude Lanzmann spent 11 years on this sprawling documentary about the Holocaust, conducting his own interviews and refusing to use a single frame of archival footage. Dividing Holocaust witnesses into three categories – survivors, bystanders, and perpetrators – Lanzmann presents testimonies from survivors of the Chelmno concentration camp, an Auschwitz escapee, and witnesses of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, as well as a chilling report of gas chambers from an SS officer at Treblinka.

90

8.7

/23683/

85

/1120/

83

/344/

4.7

/172044/

100

/71/

97

/571/

94

/15/

3.5

A concert film documenting Talking Heads at the height of their popularity, on tour for their 1983 album "Speaking in Tongues." The band takes the stage one by one and is joined by a cadre of guest musicians for a career-spanning and cinematic performance that features creative choreography and visuals.

89

8.7

/1486712/

86

/41653/

83

/17967/

4.4

/1986377/

93

/174/

97

/42485/

82

/25/

4.0

age 9+

The epic saga continues as Luke Skywalker, in hopes of defeating the evil Galactic Empire, learns the ways of the Jedi from aging master Yoda. But Darth Vader is more determined than ever to capture Luke. Meanwhile, rebel leader Princess Leia, cocky Han Solo, Chewbacca, and droids C-3PO and R2-D2 are thrown into various stages of capture, betrayal and despair.

89

8.1

/70863/

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.

88

8.4

/1100906/

82

/29867/

79

/13299/

4.2

/1167108/

94

/157/

96

/26529/

86

/17/

4.0

age 11+

When Dr. Indiana Jones – the tweed-suited professor who just happens to be a celebrated archaeologist – is hired by the government to locate the legendary Ark of the Covenant, he finds himself up against the entire Nazi regime.

87

8.1

/405908/

78

/5821/

79

/4610/

4.2

/521776/

92

/151/

93

/7166/

90

/28/

4.0

age 17+

The life of boxer Jake LaMotta, whose violence and temper that led him to the top in the ring destroyed his life outside of it.

87

7.9

/122451/

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.

87

8.4

/285608/

82

/4641/

81

/2406/

4.3

/101514/

98

/55/

96

/2946/

85

/16/

age 15+

A German submarine hunts allied ships during the Second World War, but it soon becomes the hunted. The crew tries to survive below the surface, while stretching both the boat and themselves to their limits.

87

8.5

/1431172/

85

/47175/

83

/21273/

4.2

/2405392/

92

/118/

95

/40116/

88

/27/

3.5

age 10+

Eighties teenager Marty McFly is accidentally sent back in time to 1955, inadvertently disrupting his parents' first meeting and attracting his mother's romantic interest. Marty must repair the damage to history by rekindling his parents' romance and - with the help of his eccentric inventor friend Doc Brown - return to 1985.

87

8.2

/3548/

81

/165/

75

/64/

4.4

/17109/

100

/12/

4.0

This documentary about teenagers living on the streets in Seattle began as a magazine article. The film follows nine teenagers who discuss how they live by panhandling, prostitution, and petty theft.

87

8.1

/137910/

80

/3092/

81

/2115/

4.4

/622721/

95

/58/

93

/1253/

81

/13/

4.0

A man wanders out of the desert not knowing who he is. His brother finds him, and helps to pull his memory back of the life he led before he walked out on his family and disappeared four years earlier.

87

8.4

/463299/

81

/7930/

80

/4589/

4.3

/476825/

90

/159/

95

/7757/

87

/28/

4.0

age 15+

Disciplined Italian composer Antonio Salieri becomes consumed by jealousy and resentment towards the hedonistic and remarkably talented young Salzburger composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

86

7.9

/82994/

78

/1476/

78

/1452/

4.3

/173331/

95

/65/

93

/2055/

79

/9/

4.0

Two angels, Damiel and Cassiel, glide through the streets of Berlin, observing the bustling population, providing invisible rays of hope to the distressed but never interacting with them. When Damiel falls in love with lonely trapeze artist Marion, the angel longs to experience life in the physical world, and finds — with some words of wisdom from actor Peter Falk — that it might be possible for him to take human form.

86

8.0

/38189/

78

/673/

75

/704/

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.

86

8.1

/3259/

77

/155/

74

/73/

4.1

/4308/

100

/13/

92

/72/

4.0

Just two years away from turning 30, participants in Michael Apted's documentary series are facing serious questions of identity and purpose, wondering whether they've found their place in the world.

86

7.8

/84391/

76

/1378/

75

/985/

3.9

/61380/

98

/45/

92

/1439/

97

/18/

4.0

age 16+

No one expects much from Christy Brown, a boy with cerebral palsy born into a working-class Irish family. Though Christy is a spastic quadriplegic and essentially paralyzed, a miraculous event occurs when, at the age of 5, he demonstrates control of his left foot by using chalk to scrawl a word on the floor. With the help of his steely mother — and no shortage of grit and determination — Christy overcomes his infirmity to become a painter, poet and author.

86

7.9

/158999/

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.

86

8.1

/467360/

79

/8887/

77

/4907/

4.0

/316664/

89

/122/

93

/9634/

92

/16/

4.0

age 17+

As a young and naive recruit in Vietnam, Chris Taylor faces a moral crisis when confronted with the horrors of war and the duality of man.

85

8.4

/832850/

82

/24887/

79

/10522/

4.1

/839877/

94

/143/

94

/22899/

84

/23/

3.5

age 15+

Ripley, the sole survivor of the Nostromo's deadly encounter with the monstrous Alien, returns to Earth after drifting through space in hypersleep for 57 years. Although her story is initially met with skepticism, she agrees to accompany a team of Colonial Marines back to LV-426.

85

7.6

/7307/

76

/185/

72

/142/

4.2

/25153/

100

/19/

88

/71/

4.0

Two closely-bound, emotionally wounded siblings reunite after years apart.

85

7.7

/11617/

79

/265/

74

/197/

4.0

/27530/

100

/13/

89

/128/

4.0

Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1983. In the last and turbulent days of the military dictatorship, Alicia, a high school history teacher, begins to ask uncomfortable questions about the dark origins of Gaby, her adopted daughter.

85

7.9

/34456/

78

/611/

77

/589/

4.3

/85738/

88

/43/

90

/293/

85

/21/

4.0

Alexander, a journalist, philosopher and retired actor, celebrates a birthday with friends and family when it is announced that nuclear war has begun.

85

7.9

/26835/

77

/1276/

76

/376/

4.2

/65621/

100

/15/

91

/391/

92

/5/

Documentary style account of a nuclear holocaust and its effect on the working class city of Sheffield, England; and the eventual long run effects of nuclear war on civilization.

85

7.8

/68519/

77

/1884/

74

/931/

4.0

/37019/

96

/53/

90

/1076/

91

/16/

4.0

age 12+

At the dawn of the Space Race, seven test pilots set out to become the first American astronauts to enter space. However, the road to making history brings momentous challenges.

85

8.3

/404914/

81

/6489/

83

/5836/

4.2

/277678/

86

/56/

93

/3956/

75

/20/

4.0

age 18+

A former Prohibition-era Jewish gangster returns to the Lower East Side of Manhattan over thirty years later, where he once again must confront the ghosts and regrets of his old life.

84

7.9

/2036/

74

/33/

71

/27/

3.7

/1311/

100

/14/

92

/61/

4.0

Real-life letters written by American soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines during the Vietnam War to their families and friends back home. Archive footage of the war and news coverage thereof augment the first-person "narrative" by men and women who were in the war, some of whom did not survive it.

84

8.0

/480561/

82

/15242/

76

/4933/

4.1

/975805/

93

/148/

94

/37194/

78

/20/

3.5

age 9+

In this enchantingly cracked fairy tale, the beautiful Princess Buttercup and the dashing Westley must overcome staggering odds to find happiness amid six-fingered swordsmen, murderous princes, Sicilians and rodents of unusual size. But even death can't stop these true lovebirds from triumphing.

84

8.2

/7087/

79

/166/

72

/115/

4.1

/11024/

96

/27/

94

/282/

3.5

age 14+

Harvey Milk was an outspoken human rights activist and one of the first openly gay U.S. politicians elected to public office; even after his assassination in 1978, he continues to inspire disenfranchised people around the world.

84

7.9

/8970/

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.

84

7.9

/16293/

79

/487/

78

/332/

4.4

/98678/

79

/72/

90

/267/

84

/15/

4.0

A fictional account of the life of Japanese author Yukio Mishima, combining dramatizations of three of his novels and a depiction of the events of November 25th, 1970.

84

7.8

/80965/

74

/1246/

74

/1117/

4.0

/85988/

92

/59/

90

/1335/

90

/12/

4.0

age 15+

Between two Thanksgivings, Hannah's husband falls in love with her sister Lee, while her hypochondriac ex-husband rekindles his relationship with her sister Holly.

84

7.6

/93976/

75

/2763/

75

/1658/

4.1

/390213/

90

/70/

87

/1215/

89

/9/

4.0

Desperate to escape his mind-numbing routine, uptown Manhattan office worker Paul Hackett ventures downtown for a hookup with a mystery woman.

84

7.7

/231287/

77

/10731/

75

/6023/

4.0

/414077/

96

/76/

85

/13278/

83

/15/

4.0

age 12+

'Toon star Roger is worried that his wife Jessica is playing pattycake with someone else, so the studio hires detective Eddie Valiant to snoop on her. But the stakes are quickly raised when Marvin Acme is found dead and Roger is the prime suspect.

84

8.4

/1209457/

81

/29684/

82

/18486/

4.2

/2865902/

84

/111/

93

/28526/

68

/26/

4.0

age 15+

Jack Torrance accepts a caretaker job at the Overlook Hotel, where he, along with his wife Wendy and their son Danny, must live isolated from the rest of the world for the winter. But they aren't prepared for the madness that lurks within.

83

7.4

/6341/

74

/120/

71

/102/

3.8

/6177/

100

/25/

89

/95/

4.0

Inside the Blue Note nightclub one night in 1959 Paris, an aged, ailing jazzman coaxes an eloquent wail from his tenor sax. Outside, a young Parisian too broke to buy a glass of wine strains to hear those notes. Soon they will form a friendship that sparks a final burst of genius.

83

7.5

/29029/

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.

83

8.0

/17724/

78

/2204/

76

/969/

3.7

/52559/

100

/8/

91

/246/

Ebenezer Scrooge is far too greedy to understand that Christmas is a time for kindness and generosity. But with the guidance of some new found friends, Scrooge learns to embrace the spirit of the season. A retelling of the classic Dickens tale with Disney's classic characters.

83

7.8

/63104/

76

/1327/

74

/796/

3.9

/33452/

91

/45/

91

/1094/

76

/18/

4.0

age 16+

New York Times reporter Sydney Schanberg is on assignment covering the Cambodian Civil War, with the help of local interpreter Dith Pran and American photojournalist Al Rockoff. When the U.S. Army pulls out amid escalating violence, Schanberg makes exit arrangements for Pran and his family. Pran, however, tells Schanberg he intends to stay in Cambodia to help cover the unfolding story — a decision he may regret as the Khmer Rouge rebels move in.

83

7.8

/62874/

75

/1035/

74

/924/

4.0

/52738/

92

/50/

91

/1184/

77

/10/

4.0

age 14+

A renowned ophthalmologist is desperate to cut off an adulterous relationship…which ends up in murder; and a frustrated documentary filmmaker woos an attractive television producer while making a film about her insufferably self-centered boss.

83

7.9

/42270/

75

/925/

76

/842/

4.1

/74988/

77

/30/

92

/844/

4.0

Fitzcarraldo is a dreamer who plans to build an opera house in Iquitos, in the Peruvian Amazon, so, in order to finance his project, he embarks on an epic adventure to collect rubber, a very profitable product, in a remote and unexplored region of the rainforest.

83

8.3

/1000688/

82

/20252/

82

/12652/

4.1

/1387619/

78

/82/

93

/30667/

65

/9/

4.0

age 18+

After getting a green card in exchange for assassinating a Cuban government official, Tony Montana stakes a claim on the drug trade in Miami. Viciously murdering anyone who stands in his way, Tony eventually becomes the biggest drug lord in the state, controlling nearly all the cocaine that comes through Miami. But increased pressure from the police, wars with Colombian drug cartels and his own drug-fueled paranoia serve to fuel the flames of his eventual downfall.

83

7.9

/467032/

77

/19247/

75

/11739/

3.8

/1165016/

99

/146/

72

/1318882/

92

/30/

4.0

age 7+

An alien is left behind on Earth and saved by the 10-year-old Elliott who decides to keep him hidden in his home. While a task force hunts for the extra-terrestrial, Elliott, his brother, and his little sister Gertie form an emotional bond with their new friend, and try to help him find his way home.

83

8.1

/480160/

80

/11038/

78

/6287/

4.2

/1035399/

92

/66/

94

/13407/

75

/20/

age 14+

After learning that a boy their age has been accidentally killed near their rural homes, four boys decide to go see the body. Gordie, Vern, Chris, and Teddy encounter a mean junk man and a marsh full of leeches, but they also learn more about one another and their very different home lives. Just a lark at first, the boys' adventure evolves into a defining event in their lives.

83

7.9

/10973/

76

/135/

72

/113/

3.9

/9148/

93

/29/

93

/218/

79

/18/

4.0

After destroying his older brother's motorbike in retaliation for his constant bullying, 11-year-old Krishna is sent to a traveling circus to earn money to pay for the bike's repairs, but soon winds up in the streets of Bombay's poorest slums. There, he befriends the drug dealer Chillum and young prostitute Sola Saal, while trying to make enough money at a neighborhood tea stall to repay his debt to his family.

83

8.1

/7070/

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.

83

7.7

/29828/

75

/851/

74

/437/

4.1

/90846/

93

/27/

85

/519/

83

/15/

4.0

Two old friends meet for dinner; as one tells anecdotes detailing his experiences, the other notices their differing worldviews.

83

7.4

/42939/

72

/734/

71

/579/

3.9

/75466/

100

/26/

88

/764/

86

/13/

4.0

New York layabout Willie forms an unexpected bond with his young Hungarian cousin Eva when she pays him a surprise visit. Later, Eva moves in with their aunt in Cleveland, and Willie takes his best friend Eddie to see her—a visit that culminates in a strange, eventful trip to Florida.

83

7.7

/61184/

74

/1048/

75

/673/

4.0

/60067/

90

/105/

88

/1360/

86

/18/