The 1980 Project: My 7th and 6th Favorite Movies of 1980

7. The Empire Strikes Back (1980, Irvin Kershner)

Full disclosure: every one of the films on the Top Ten list have been viewed (or rewatched) within the last two years, with one exception: this film. The last time I did see Empire, however, was of symbolic significance. It was spring 2004 at a theatrical screening held at the Arclight. The title of Episode 3 (in case you blocked it out of your memory, that title was Revenge of the Sith) had just been announced, and the theatre was packed with people (mainly late 20 to mid-30 something males) with bootleg t-shirts featuring the upcoming finale’s title using the font from the original title of the third film (er, episode six): Revenge of the Jedi. The buzzing pre-film excitement about the sure to be excellent sixth film (er, episode three) was palpable. This despite the fact that the first two prequels were, well, less than expected to put it kindly. While I wondered why the lack of cynicism or at the very least more measured expectations, I realized the reason for the high hopes were because of the film we were about to watch.

Sequelizing the highest grossing film of all time provides more than a few obstacles. But creator-producer George Lucas’, who was so burnt out by the process that he handed the directorial reins to his college professor, Irvin Kershner, follow up to Star Wars was more Godfather part II than Jaws II. The pacing is tighter, the themes more fully developed, Empire bests the original film in most aspects. Lucas’ love of cliff hanger serials resulted in a shocking denouement which saw our two main protagonists at a crossroads, one now embedded with life altering information, the other a statue for a slovenly loan shark.

Out of all the films on this list, this is the one whose placement led to the most internal debate. Do I discredit the film for the blahness of the prequel films giving me a serious case of Star Wars phobia? Do I pay extra credence to it since next to Airplane! it’s the movie on the list I’ve seen the most times in my life? When preparing this list, I had it placed as high as three and as low as nine. Ultimately, I am happy with it here at lucky number seven since the next six films always bring something to the table with each viewing as oppose to Empire, whose pleasure I’m pretty sure have been completely exhausted. Still, when I look at the state of modern blockbuster sequels (Iron Man 2 and Tron Legacy are the first that come to mind) I see failure where Empire succeeds. Empire expands the universe introduced in the first film and gives its characters challenges related to their past that provide depth whereas the two more recent efforts mentioned replace these elements merely with more characters and bigger budgets.

6. Melvin and Howard (1980, Jonathan Demme)

Whether or not you believe that Howard Hughes left 1/16th of his fortune to Melvin Dummar after he picked up the reclusive billionaire hitch-hiking (for the record director Jonathan Demme and screenwriter Bo Goldman proceed as if Dummar’s story is factual) is inconsequential. Demme’s hilarious yet humane comedy is more interested in contrasting the two flawed men, both prone to flights of fancy, rebellious gestures, doomed relationships and selfish grand acts, yet financially as disparate as possible, where Hughes owns his own casinos, movie studios and airlines, Dummar was a frequent mark for repo men.

Paul LeMat and Mary Steenburgen give career best performances that wonderfully balance being fully realized people and comedic foils, while Jason Robards in what is essentially a 15 minute cameo as the peculiar Hughes leaves an impression that permeates through the rest of the film. However, the star of the film is director Demme, who after a diverse decade of filmmaking that included being a director in Roger Corman’s exploitation production house, helming a woman in prison joint, a CB radio comedy and a Hitchcock inspired thriller, finds his thoroughly distinct voice, like Sam Peckinpah with Wild Bunch, Quentin Tarantino with Pulp Fiction and Wes Anderson with Rushmore, Melvin and Howard represents a turning point in the director career for which rhythms, tropes and themes that would reoccur later completely culminate.

The 1980 Project: My 9th and 8th Favorite Movies of 1980

9. The Stunt Man (Richard Rush)

On the lam from the cops, a petty criminal (Steve Railsback) hides out as a stunt man on the film set of a World War II epic, where he’s able to reinvent himself at the price of his sanity, as a ruthless director (Peter O’Toole, wonderful here), who appropriately enough is presented on the poster in silhouette with a devil’s tail, takes advantage of the situation and makes the newly anointed stunt man pay for his sins via elaborate death defying stunts and tests of his mental fortitude.

Richard Rush’s clever comedy plays with our perception of reality and is a tribute to the magic, and inherent madness, of cinema.







8. Stardust Memories (Woody Allen)

Very much a transitional film for Allen, it was his final for United Artists before jumping ship to Orion, and a declaration of his intentions to continue to tow the line between comedy and drama in the upcoming decade, and indeed, the 1980s were a potent decade for the writer-director rife with experimental formal exercises and quality results (Zelig, Broadway Danny Rose, Purple Rose of Cairo, Hannah and Her Sisters, Another Woman, Crimes and Misdemeanors).

Woody Allen’s 8 ½ inspired film angered some of his long time followers who felt insulted and slighted in being depicted as narrow minded and change phobic, but Stardust Memories' satirical edge is equally sharp in its portrayal of director Sandy Bates(Allen) ‘s pretensions.

Amongst the satire are some very interesting and pertinent questions about the relationship between artist and consumer, and who is or should be answering to whom.

The 1980 Project: My 10th Favorite Movie of 1980

So here's how this is going to go down, I will be posting brief to not so brief reviews of my ten favorite films from the year 1980 over the next five days. With the exception of this choice and my number one film, each post will have two films per article (for example tomorrow's post will be my 9th and 8th favorites).

Before we start, a little preamble, these are purely personal choices and not representative of some overall consensus of what the best films of 1980 are, I have no interest in that, and besides that's what the Academy Awards are there for. Speaking of Mr. Oscar, two of the five Best Picture nominees for 1980 make my list, but not the winner, Ordinary People (a film I run lukewarm/negative on).

I would like to dedicate this list to two men who passed away recently and whose work will be featured in this list (one very soon): Leslie Nielsen and Irvin Kershner.

10. Airplane! (Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker)

“Do you like gladiator movies?” “And don’t call me Shirley!” “I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue!”

Out of all the films on the list, the most quotable and the one I’ve watched the most times is easily Airplane! My last viewing was also my first since actually seeing the entire Airport series, which the ZAZ boys mercilessly satirized (along with the film Zero Hour), adding a new level of appreciation to my enjoyment.

While not the first of its type, its wild success led to a glut of (mostly awful) parody films that have popped up in its wake. Try as they might, those imitators, which in our ADD culture have been going strong again the last five or so years, what with the name check as many popular films and internet memes cinema of the likes of Epic Movie, Date Movie, Meet the Spartans and the Scary Movie franchise (some of which are depressingly even directed by Jerry Zucker himself) never match the wit and hilarity of it.

While that old adage about having to explain humor taking away from its impact is true, there needs to be some discussion of why Airplane! endures thirty years on, while most of the works of, say Seltzer-Friedberg, are already stale by their release date: namely a fidelity and focus on a specific target, the disaster film of the 70s in this instance, with an understanding of the structure, the tropes, etc, that are then completely dismantled coupled with a clever ear for language that twist well known clichés into subversive and hilarious results. Sure direct references are made to then current popular culture (Jaws, Saturday Night Fever) but those are jokes within jokes, not just lame name calls.

The other brilliant stroke, and soon to become cliché itself, the ZAZ boys conceived of was casting well known, dramatic actors past their prominence, and having them deliver everything as if it was a serious drama, the cast in this instance includes Leslie Nielsen (who reinvented his career and became a rock for the trio), Peter Graves (who admitted to never getting the whole concept), Robert Stack and Lloyd Bridges.

Thirty years later, Airplane! is still the standard by which we judge these types of satirical comedies, and don't start up with your white zone shit again.

The 198o Project: Honorable Mention

Before delving into my Top Ten Films of 1980 list (look for it starting this Sunday!) and the end of the 1980 Project (the 1981 Project is next), here are the ten films that just missed making the cut for the Best Of list.

20. Loulou (Maurice Pialit)


An upper class Parisian woman (Isabelle Huppert) leaves her husband and lifestyle for an affair with an aimless younger man (Gerard Depardieu) in Pialit’s film which strives for verisimilitude (no score, awkward staged fights) over theatrics or pat explanations. (My review)

19. The Changeling (Peter Medak)

A grief stricken professor (George C. Scott) purchases a dilapidated mansion that houses the spirit of a murdered child. As the slasher genre was really taking off (a genre for which I am a fan), Medak’s haunting, adult ghost story is subtly effective counter programming. (My review)

18. Blues Brothers (John Landis)


Following the tremendous success of their prior collaboration, Animal House, Landis and star John Belushi reteam for a loud over-the-top musical cum comedy road trip which incorporates every whim, favorite musical act and friend of the director and stars-writers Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, sparing no collateral damage to complete their mission from God.

17. Flash Gordon (Mike Hodges)

Candy colored, Queen scored and camp tinged, Flash Gordon is top shelf pop art comic book film adaptation, forgoing the seriousness of modern adaptations, Mike Hodges’ playful (and at times kinky) sci-fi throwback also was one of the first films I remember seeing theatrically. (An appreciation)

16. Times Square (Allan Moyle)


Two runaway teenage girls, one the daughter of a politician and the other a homeless girl with serious mental issues, form a punk band and a complement-each-other’s-deficiencies based friendship on the hard streets of New York. (My review)

15. Little Darlings (Robert F. Maxwell)


What could have been a forgettable teenage comedy with a tabloid plot synopsis (two 15 year olds enter a contest to see who will first lose their virginity) is actually a very potent, earnest, and at times solemn examination about how sex complicates matters and changes people. (My review)

14. The Fog (John Carpenter)

Carpenter follows up the massively influential Halloween with a ghost story and throwback to the EC Comics of his youth. (My review)

13. Used Cars (Robert Zemeckis)


Zemeckis’ second film as director has frantic energy, gleefully tossed around obscenities, endlessly quotable dialogue (“that’s too fucking high!”) and though there’s enough un-PC jokes to offend every one, the affable nature never leads to any actual offense. Most impressive, in contrast to the last two decades of Zemeckis films are the following aspects: no character arcs, a well-paced decent running time, and no special effects, save a fearlessly high-wired (and according to him, coked up) performance from Kurt Russel.

12. The Long Riders (Walter Hill)

This elegiac western tells the tale of the Younger-James gang, how they dissolved, and how they will always be connected. (My review)

11. The Ninth Configuration (William Peter Blatty)


Had this faded to black about ten seconds earlier and perhaps had a stronger directorial hand (Blatty, who’s making his directorial debut is certainly capable, but I’d love to live in the alternate universe where William Friedkin directed this) it might have snuck into the top ten. But as the film stands, it’s still quite an achievement: rife with over-the-top quirky characters and an otherworldly vibe (the film is set in “a castle” in the Pacific Northwest!), Blatty’s film balances humor, pathos, horror and big questions (like uh, the existence of a God and the meaning of life for two!) successfully in a way that Richard Kelly’s being attempting (and failing at) in each of his post-Donnie Darko films.

Favorite New to Me Films Watched in 2010

Normally I include this list when I do my year end stat post, but I always felt that it got lost in the shuffle of those unwieldy articles plus I dedicated more of my time this year to catching up on older film than ever before, so I am making this list its own individual post.

I've made no secret that I feel increasingly despondent when faced with the multitude of prepackaged, remakes, super hero, and sequels to films that I didn't care about in the first place that dominate the modern film landscape (of course there's always a dozen or so quality films that sneak through the conservative mindset needless to say), so delving into the vast history of cinema can be both stimulating and exhausting, the more you see, the more you need to see.


This year I discovered the joy of post-war Japan's film noir scene, finally became a devoted David Cronenberg fanboy (I always appreciated him, but this was the year I finally fell in lurve with him), and further delved the huge depths of Spaghetti Westerns, low budget exploitation horror and American film noir. This would not be possible without the aid of Netflix (and the increasingly useful Instant Watch feature), quality repertory theatres like the New Beverly and Cinefamily, Warner Archives, and a gray market bootlegger or two.

I have a lot of writing left to complete the 1980 Project, so I am just going to provide the list and some poster art, though if I wrote about the film over the course of the year, I will include a link to that post.


My only restrictions with this list is that the film must precede the year 2000 (I am kind of planning a late best of decade lists one of these days).

What were you favorite older cinematic discoveries of 2010?

My 20 Favorite Pre-2000s Films Seen for the First Time in 2010*

(*technically 24 four films, as I've included one five film series, which in full disclosure, I didn't finish the final chapter until the first few days of 2011).

in alphabetical order


A Colt is My Passport (1957, Takashi Nomura) (here I write a little about the film as part of the Criterion collection Nikkatsu Noir box set)
Comanche Station (1960, Budd Boetticher)
Deadlock (1970, Roland Klick)
Drunken Angel (1948, Akira Kurosawa)
Gambit (1966. Ronald Neame)

The Great Silence (1968, Sergio Corbucci)
Hausu (1977, Nobuhiko Obayashi)
The Leopard (1963, Luchino Visconti)
Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1976, Nichols Gessner) (Here I wrote about it for my Top 10 Underrated Horror Film list)
Lonely are the Brave (1962, David Miller)
The Misfits (1961, John Huston) Navajo Joe (1966, Sergio Corbucci)
Nightmare Alley (1947, Edmound Goulding)
Rabid Dogs (1974, Mario Bava)
Shivers (1977, David Cronenberg) (Here is the "Trailer of the Moment" post)
The Silent Partner (1978, Daryl Duke) (Here is the "Holidays as Backrop" post)
The Sniper (1952, Edward Dmytryk)
The Swimmer (1968, Frank Perry...and Sydney Pollack)
Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here (1969, Abraham Polonsky)
The Yakuza Papers: Battles Without Honor or Humanity series (1973-74, Kinji Fukasaku)

Books Read in 2010

I read 29 books last year, which is an increase from the 25 I read in 2009 (link), but still way below the 54 I read in 2008 (link), when I set a goal to read at a pace of one book per week.


Amongst the selection are some classic authors read for the first time (Sartre, Victor Hugo, William Burroughs, Thomas Mann), a rereading of Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye for the first time in about fifteen years prompted by the author’s death, film history related books (Midnight Movies, a Sam Peckinpah biography), and per usual, a lot of crime fiction (three books from Richard Stark’s Parker series, a Raymond Chandler, my first Charles Willeford).

Shamefully, this was the year I finally read some of Elmore Leonard’s work, and as expected, his gifted prose of flawed heroes, dim villains and crackerjack pacing, set their hooks in me; I read three of his books and have a stack twice that size on my ever intimidating “too read” pile. Also in the pile are recently received holiday gifts, thrift and used book store finds, and five film reference books of varying size (Stephen Thrower’s Nightmare USA, Destroy All Movies: Punks on Film, a Spaghetti Western history, Danny Peary’s Cult Movies and a history of Universal Monsters) that I have begun skimming.

Here for posterity's sake, are all the books I read in 2010.


1. Midnight Movies-J. Hoberman & Jonathan Rosenbaum
2. No Exit and Three Other Plays-Jean Paul Sartre
3. The High Window-Raymond Chandler
4. The Catcher in the Rye-J.D. Salinger
5. Margrave of the Marshes-John Peel & Shelia Ravencroft
6. Deliverance-James Dickey
7. The Book of Other People (complitation)-edited by Zadie Smith
8. Freaky Deaky-Elmore Leonard


9. The Man With the Getaway Face-Richard Stark
10. Mary-Vladimir Nabokov
11. The Hunchback of Notre Dame-Victor Hugo
12. The Leopard-Giuseppe di Lampedusa
13. Death in Venice/Tristan/Tonio Kruger-Thomas Mann
14. Yipee Kay Ya Moviegoer-Vern
15. Junky-William S. Burroughs
16. The Outfit-Richard Stark
17. The Burnt Orange Hearsay-Charles Willeford
18. 52 Pick Up-Elmore Leonard
19. A Special Providence-Richard Yates
20. The Big Rewind-Nathan Rabin
21. If They Move...Kill 'Em: The Life and Times of Sam Peckinpah-David Weddle
22. Glitz-Elmore Leonard
23. The Haunting of Hill House-Shirley Jackson

24. Carrie-Stephen King
25. My Year of Flops-Nathan Rabin
26. The Mourner-Richard Stark
27. No Borders, No Limits-Mark Schilling
28. The West End Horror-Nicholas Meyer
29. The Catch-Gary Meyers

What did you read in 2010?

The 1980 Project: My Favorite Performances

Where we equally celebrate achievements in dramatic and comedic acting and pay no heed to differentiating between the size of the role in selecting our favorite acting performances from the year in cinema, 1980.

-Lloyd Bridges, Peter Stack, Leslie Nielsen, Robert Stack, Airplane!

-Bill Murray, Caddyshack

-Sissy Spacek, Coal Miner’s Daughter

-John Hurt, The Elephant Man

-Harrison Ford, The Empire Strikes Back

-Tatsuya Nakadai, Kagemusha

-Catherine Deneuve, The Last Metro

-Kristy McNichol, Little Darlings

-David Carradine, The Long Riders

-Joe Spinell, Maniac

-Paul LeMat, Jason Robards, Mary Steenburgen, Melvin and Howard

-Dabney Coleman, Nine to Five

-Robert DeNiro, Raging Bull

-Jack Nicholson, The Shining

-Peter O’Toole, The Stunt Man

-Robin Johnson, Times Square

-Kurt Russel, Used Cars

2010 Films Watched Stats and Other Sundries

We'd like to interrupt the 1980 Project wrap-up currently in process to look at my film watching stats for the recently completed year. Personally, this was a particularly emotionally draining and sad year for me. Interestingly though, my film viewing seriously increased from the last two years, perhaps due to life generally making me a bit anti-social leading me to stay in and take comfort in the form of cinema.

Not all the year was bad, I made my first trip to Europe (France and Italy) in May, note below how that month featured the least amount of films watched but even then we caught a few repertory screenings in Paris and I watched five films on the flight back to America (thanks mainly to my lack of sleeping on airplane abilities and the book I brought on the plane not being all that compelling), and materialistically this was the year I finally got an HD television and Blu-Ray player, allowing me to watch films on Netflix Instant directly on my television, not to mention high-def cable channels (love you MGM HD!).


For the 2009 stats post, click here.
For the 2008 stats post, click here.

Total Number of Films watched in 2010^ : 352 (an impressive increase of 64 films from 2009)


First Film Watched: Monkey Business (1931, Norman MacLeod)
First Film Watched Theatrically: Antichrist (2009, Lars Von Trier)
Last Film Watched: The Town (2010, Ben Affleck)
Last Film Watched Theatrically: Tron Legacy (2010, Joseph Kosinski)

Films Watched for the first time: 231
Films Watched for the second time: 72
Films Watched for the third or more time: 49

By Decade:

Pre-1930s: 1
1930s: 8
1940s: 10
1950s: 18
1960s: 31
1970s: 63
1980s: 80
1990s: 18
2000s: 73
2010s: 50

Method of viewing:

DVD: 164
Blu-Ray: 34
Netflix Instant: 50
Theatre: 59
Online (YouTube, Hulu, etc.): 3
Cable/DV-R: 39
Airplane (watched on a little screen behind a seat from the US to Europe): 3

By month: January: 28
February: 29
March: 30
April: 26
May: 22
June: 30
July: 32
August: 28
September: 33
October: 36
November: 30
December: 28

By Country: United States: 241
Italy: 22
United Kingdom: 22
France: 15
Japan: 12
Canada: 11
Germany: 11
Australia: 3
Spain: 3
Mexico: 2
Sweden: 2
Korea: 2
Argentina: 2
Denmark: 1
Poland: 1
Turkey: 1
Czech Republic: 1

Directors Who I Saw three or more films by in 2010:


John Landis: 7 (Spies Like Us, Into the Night, Three Amigos, Amazon Women on the Moon (co-directed), Coming to America, Oscar, Innocent Blood)

Dario Argento: 6 (Deep Red, Suspiria, The Card Player, Opera, Inferno, Jenifer)

David Cronenberg: 5 (Shivers, Scanners, Rabid, The Brood, Fast Company)

Kinji Fukasku: 4 (The Yakuza Papers: Battles Without Honor or Humanity, Death Match in Hiroshima, Proxy War, Police Tactics)

Werner Herzog: 4 (Fitzscarraldo, Where the Green Ants Dream, Cobra Verde, Lessons of Darkness)

Howard Hawks: 4 (A Song is Born, Ball of Fire, Gentleman Prefer Blondes, Man’s Favorite Sport)

John Carpenter: 4 (Assault on Precinct 13, The Fog, The Thing, Starman)

Hal Ashby: 3 (The Last Detail, Lookin’ to Get Out, Being There)

Martin Scorsese: 3 (Taxi Driver, Shutter Island, Raging Bull)

J. Lee Thompson: 3 (Cape Fear, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, Battle for the Planet of the Apes)

Sam Fuller: 3 (Underworld USA, Pickup on South Street, Crimson Kimono)

Sergio Corbucci: 3 (The Great Silence, Django, Navajo Joe)

Larry Cohen: 3 (It’s Alive, It Lives Again, Black Casear)

And to give equal due to the boob tube:

Television Series Completed in 2010 (some of these shows started their season in 2009, or I began watching the DVDs prior to 2010): 18


Mad Men: Season Two (2008)
It’s Gary Shandling’s Show: Season One (1986-87)
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia: Season Four (2008)
Star Trek: Season Two (1967-68)
Community: Season One (2009-10)
Lost: Season Six (2009-10)
Mad Men: Season Three (2009)
The State: Complete Series (1993-95)
Justified: Season One (2010)
The Rockford Files: Season One (1974-75)
Seinfeld: Season One (1990)
Eastbound and Down: Season One (2009)
Seinfeld: Season Two (1990-91)
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia: Season Five (2009)
Mad Men: Season Four (2010)
Eastbound and Down: Season Two (2010)
Boardwalk Empire: Season One (2010)
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia: Season Six (2010)

With the exception of the Seinfeld and The State, everything was a first time viewing of the entirety of the noted season.

Over the next week or two, I will intersperse my books read and favorite pre-2009 films watched for the first time in 2010 lists with the 1980 Project wrap-up. And hopefully I will be able to swing the extra 13 films in 2011 to get the total up to an average of a film a day.

What did you watch in 2010?

^ Some rules: Films have to meet the standard Academy rule of being at least 45 minutes in length to count as a full length film. I must see the movie from beginning to end, so catching the last hour of a ninety minute movie would not be counted. Made for TV movies count, however, two hour TV pilots/finales do not count unless it was presented as a film in some capacity (for example: the 1970s pilot of Battlestar Galactica was shown theatrically so it was counted). Each viewing counts, so if I saw a film twice, each viewing counts as a film watched.