In 1982,
Elk Cloner, the first computer virus, was created;
Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands;
The World’s Fair was held in Knoxville;
Fahd became King of Saudi Arabia;
Italy won the World Cup;
The first CDs were created in Germany;
Yuri Andropov became Secretary General of the Communist Party;
Michael Jackson released Thriller;
Barney Clark became the first person to receive an artificial heart;
The computer was selected as Time’s Man of the Year;
Gilbert Arenas, Eddie Redmayne, Lauren Cohan, Ruth Negga, Ruth Wilson, Dwayne Wade, Pete Buttigieg, Adam Lambert, Alice Eve, Natalie Dormer, Jessica Biel, Thomas Middleditch, Thora Birch, Jenny Slate, Chloé Zhao, Brian Tyree Henry, Colbie Smulders, Hayley Atwell, Jay Baruchel, Seth Rogen, Gina Carano, Kelly Clarkson, Kirsten Dunst, Cory Monteith, Apolo Ohno, Tara Lipinski, Jodie Whitaker, Prince William, Lily Rabe, Sophia Bush, Jared Padalecki, Elizabeth Moss, Anna Paquin, Brad Renfro, Allison Mack, Yvonne Strahovski, Sebastian Stan, LeeAnn Rimes, Andy Roddick, Billie Piper, Anna Camp, Lil Wayne, St. Vincent, Lacey Chabert, Louis Oosthuizen, Matt Smith, Anne Hathaway, Gemma Chan, Elisha Cuthbert, Riz Ahmed, Nicki Minaj, Charlie Cox, Allison Brie, and Kristin Kreuk were born;
While Victor Buono, Kay Hammond, Paul Lynde, Stanley Holloway, Alex Harvey, Thelonious Monk, Lee Strasberg, Philip K. Dick, John Belushi, Ayn Rand, Abe Fortas, Arthur Lowe, Romy Schneider, Satchel Paige, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, John Cheever, Henry King, Alma Reville, Vic Morrow, Henry Fonda, Ingrid Bergman, Grace Kelly, Glenn Gould, Bess Truman, King Vidor, Jacques Tati, Leonid Brezhnev, Barack Obama Sr., and Marty Feldman died.
The following is a list of my ten favorite films released in 1982:
10. Sophie’s Choice
The arrival of would be writer Stingo (Peter MacNicol) disrupts the precariously balanced life of Polish immigrant Sophie Zawistowski (Meryl Streep) and her violent, schizophrenic boyfriend Nathan Landau (Kevin Kline).
Sophie yearns to escape Nathan’s control, but ultimately forgoes a chance at a more stable life with Stingo, and the two tortured souls commit suicide.
Sophie cannot accept what she did during the war, when cruel guards at Auschwitz forced her to choose which of her children would be spared death in the gas chamber. She saved her son and her daughter was killed, but now she has no idea if her son survived the war or not.
This film cemented Streep as one of the preeminent actresses of the late twentieth century. Her work was universally lauded, especially the detail she put into the accent.
Kevin Kline’s debut was excellent as the manic, doomed Nathan, but Peter MacNicol was miscast. His forte is not dramatic roles and he was easily the weakest link in the film.
It’s a horrifying scenario. Every parent’s nightmare, and the guilt Sophie struggles with is understandably too big for her life.
It’s a tough movie, but an important one, which forces us to confront the cruelty we allow to happen in our world.
9. Frances
Though little remembered today, Frances Farmer had a promising future as an actress, before her tumultuous personal life and refusal to conform to expectations derailed it.
She dated Clifford Odets and had a fling with an alleged communist. A key figure in the famed Group Theatre, her rebelliousness and rocky relationship with her jealous mother, led to a nervous breakdown and a stint an abusive mental institution.
It’s a heartbreaking character study of a woman who deserved better. Jessica Lange declared herself a force in the 1980s with this and Tootsie.
Much like Frances, this film has been undeservedly cast aside; it’s a beautifully rendered project about a complex woman and seems tailor made for post “Me-Too” audiences.
A stranded alien meets Elliott (Henry Thomas) who develops a deep empathetic connection to the creature. As ET’s health declines, Elliott and his siblings help the creature reunite with his family.
Spielberg drew on his imaginary childhood friends and the loneliness following his parents divorce to create this paean to childhood innocence.
Henry Thomas was pitch perfect as Elliott and Drew Barrymore was a sensation as his younger sister Gertie.
The special effects inspired a generation of filmmakers. Few, if any, saw the bicycles soaring through the sky with a giant moon behind them and weren’t spellbound. The iconic image has been Spielberg’s calling card for forty years.
The score by John Williams is another notch in his considerable resume.
Maybe the quintessential move of the 1980s, this is one of the first films anyone thinks of when they think of aliens and it has thoroughly permeated our culture.
Rupert Pupkin (Robert De Niro) is an aspiring comedian looking for his big break. He idolizes talk show host Jerry Langford (Jerry Lewis) and dreams of one day performing on his program. When he meets his idol, Pupkin think he’s finally made it, but Langford is dismissive of his talent, and Pupkin takes extreme action.
This is a refreshing take on celebrity culture and the worship it inspires / demands. The flip side to Andy Warhol’s fifteen minutes of fame is everyone thinks they should already be famous.
Pupkin doesn’t see the countless hours performing at small night clubs, touring, and auditioning required for success. He sees the end result and thinks it’s the starting point.
His recent comedy work has mostly been a spoof of his tough guy image, but De Niro’s work here is more nuanced and impressive than the broad comedy in Meet the Parents (2000), The Big Wedding (2013), or Grudge Match (2013). Pupkin is just as deranged as Travis Bickle.
Jerry Lewis is not flashy as Jerry Langford. Lewis wisely allows his frustration and anger to build over the course of the film; he’s the straight man to Pupkin’s dangerous joke.
A lesser movie would have had Rupert kill Jerry, but in Scorcese’s hands Rupert blackmails his way into a prized spot on Langford’s show. The movie had lead us to believe Rupert was not funny, so when he gives a raucously funny performance it changes our perception. Because he’s talented, it almost makes us feel the lengths he went to get his break were worth it.
Rupert confesses to the audience, “tomorrow you’ll know I wasn’t kidding and you’ll all think I’m crazy. But I figure it this way: better to be king for a night, than schmuck for a lifetime.” This is the secret, unspoken mantra of thousands of reality television stars in the twenty-first century. We are all Rupert Pupkin now.
6. Blade Runner
In one of the seminal science fiction films, Graf (Edward James Olmos) recruits former cop Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) to hunt a group of rogue replicants led by Roy Blatty (Rutger Hauer).
Joe Turkel is certainly not a household name, but the bartender at The Overlook and head of the Tyrell Corporation is a helluva one two punch.
Sean Young has never been better than Rachael, the replicant and potential love interest of Deckard.
The always great M. Emmet Walsh is delightful as a replicant engineer.
Blattty’s death speech as he laments the transient and ephemeral nature of his life is a perfect encapsulation of the human condition.
Harrison Ford’s place in Hollywood is more than secure. He may only have one Oscar nomination, but his films will be seen in fifty years, while other more celebrated artists will struggle to avoid the rising tide of obscurity which comes to wash us all away.
Coming five years after the release of Alien, director Ridley Scott cemented his place in the pantheon of great science fiction directors. His work since has largely eschewed genre work, but it is his legacy.
5. A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy
Woody Allen once again turns to one of his idols for inspiration, Ingmar Bergman. You get the impression Allen wished he were a Swedish director of arthouse cinema instead of an unwillingly participant in the American (Hollywood) filmmaking machine.
He adapts Bergman’s Smiles of a Summer Night into a dizzying carousel of cheating, decoupling, and recoupling focused on an elderly professor, Leopold Stugress (Jose Ferrer) and his new, young wife, Ariel (Mia Farrow). In supporting roles, Allen is Andrew, Julie Hagerty is Dulcy Ford and Mary Steenburgen is Adrian.
The nearly seventy year old Ferrer was bringing it. This was the beginning of a fruitful thirteen film collaboration between Allen and Farrow before their personal drama derailed the possibility of them working together.
Fresh off her Oscar win, Mary Steenburgen is great and Julie Hagerty is wonderful as the slightly ditzy Dulcy (proving Airplane! wasn’t a fluke).
In this light, frothy comedy, Allen said in an interview he was trying to do the seriousness as subtext. For my money, he succeeded; there’s something deeper hiding here, about the nature of relationships and the regret of missed opportunities. It’s not Allen at his peak, but he is rounding into form in a decade which would see him become an absolute master.
Superstar rocker Pink (Bob Geldof) undergoes an existential crisis, yearning for meaning in his chaotic life.
The combination of live action (directed by Alan Parker) and animation (directed by Gerald Scarfe) contributes to the uncertainty and uneasiness of the film. It explores the scary parts of fame, the unwavering devotion it engenders and what that means to both performer and observer. Pink Floyd’s bassist Roger Waters was the primary creative force in the film and used his own trauma to explore how we construct and maintain defense mechanisms.
Pink Floyd is rightfully thought of as one of the best rock bands of all time and this only solidifies their legendary status. It’s a tough film, but an important entry in the rock inspired films of the twentieth century.
With the encouragement of her friend Toddy (Robert Preston), Victoria Grant (Julie Andrews) pretends to be a female impersonator to get a job at a nightclub.
Mobster King Marchand (James Garner) sees through the ruse and falls in love with her.
Director Blake Edwards is at his peak. Julie Andrews is hysterical in a decidedly against type role. Robert Preston gave the performance of his life. James Garner and Leslie Ann Warren are great. Alex Karras is hysterical as a gay bouncer.
It’s a wonderful farce. The kind of old school gender bending movie which doesn’t try to advance an agenda or make a point, but is content to just be hysterical and entertaining. It works on every level. When Blake Edwards was cooking, few were better. He’s an underrated director and should be thought of slightly below Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, and Carl Reiner as the comedic voices of the Baby Boomers.
2. Tootsie
Michael Dorsey (Dustin Hoffman) is a talented actor, but can’t find work because of his difficult reputation. Frustrated, he auditions for a soap opera as a woman, Dorothy Michaels, and surprisingly wins the job. Everything is fine, until he falls in love with his female costar, Julia (Jessica Lange), while his older lecherous costar (George Gaynes) and Julia’s father (Charles Durning) fall in love with his alter ego, Dorothy.
Lange rightly won an Oscar for her work. Durning is excellent and Gaynes gives a career high performance. Coleman is in his wheelhouse as a lecherous sexist. And while it’s one of his lesser wattage performances, Bill Murray is fascinating. Terri Garr is consistently underrated, and Dustin Hoffman was at the peak of his considerable talent.
Director Sydney Pollack effortlessly blends many influences and genres, moving between broad farce and bracing social satire and the film’s feminist message still hits strong today.
While most comedies struggle to get a laugh five years later, this one has been consistently getting audiences to laugh for forty years.
1. Annie
John Huston was nominated for a Razzie for Worst Director and Aileen Quinn won the Razzie for Worst Supporting Actress (odd since she was the titular character and in nearly every scene). In spite of the critical consensus, I unashamedly love this film and invariably smile when I think of it.
How could a movie directed by John Huston and starring Carol Burnett, Tim Curry, Bernadette Peters, and Albert Finney not be awesome?
I admit my adoration is informed by childhood nostalgia. Judge me if you want, but this schmaltzy film is infectiously optimistic, and contains sone of my favorite musical numbers.