The 100 Best Movies of the 1980s

The 1980s. They were quite a time. The earrings were big and the hair was bigger. (Want to know why there was suddenly a massive hole in the ozone layer in the early ’80s? Just look at any picture of the band Poison from the years 1986 to 1990.)

The movies got bigger too. Following the massive success of Jaws and Star Wars, the early 1980s was the era when New Hollywood gave way to the blockbuster. Film studios never looked back — unless you count looking back to old movies they could remake or use to create sequels. (Then, yes, they did look back.)

While the ’80s were a decade dominated by massive action and special-effects extravaganzas, it was also a time when auteurs still had freedom to experiment. Directors like Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola produced some of the most striking work of their careers. And by the end of the decade, the American independent movement began to really rev up with films like Steven Soderbergh’s sex, lies, and videotape, which not only put its director on the map, it helped bring attention to the special regional screening event that launched it, something called the Sundance Film Festival.

There were so many great movies in the 1980s, in fact, that ScreenCrush had no difficulty assembling a list of the decade’s 100 greatest titles. Actually, that’s not true; there are so many worthy contenders, that the hard part was leaving some things out. (Forgive us, Dead Poets Society!) Maybe we should expand the list 250 films at some point. Making it bigger would be the ’80s thing to do, after all.

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