Movies of the 80s
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We love the 1980s. Everything on this page is all about movies of the 1980s. Starting in 1980 and working our way the decade, we are preserving the stories and movies of the greatest decade, the 80s. https://www.youtube.com/@Moviesofthe80s
Stories (122)
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When Jeff Bridges’ Dog Helped Him Land Cutter’s Way
The Role That Bit Back Sometimes fate — or in this case, a dog — decides your next role. When producer Paul Gurian and director Ivan Passer drove out to Jeff Bridges’ Malibu home to convince him to star in Cutter’s Way, they probably didn’t expect the meeting to end in a trip to the hospital. As Bridges later recalled, one of his dogs took an instant dislike to Gurian and bit him — hard enough that the producer needed medical treatment.
By Movies of the 80s3 months ago in Geeks
Amy (1981): Disney’s Surprising Grown-Up Drama About Teaching the Deaf
Amy (1981) sits in a peculiar corner of Disney history. Most people think of the studio as a purveyor of cartoons, fairy tales, and family comedies, but here’s a twist: Disney took a quiet, earnest television drama about a woman teaching speech to deaf children and released it in theaters. Originally titled Amy on the Lips, the movie caught the attention of Walt Disney Productions executives, who felt the story was “so powerful” it deserved a wider audience. That decision alone makes the film a fascinating footnote in the studio’s output — a grown-up story in a catalog better known for child-friendly fare.
By Movies of the 80s3 months ago in Geeks
The Funhouse (1981): How Dean Koontz and Tobe Hooper Told Two Very Different Carnival Nightmares
Two siblings of the same horror story Tobe Hooper’s The Funhouse (1981) and the paperback novel published one year earlier under the pseudonym Owen West (later revealed to be Dean Koontz) are linked by title, setting, and a carnival of terrors—but they are not mirror images. The novel and the film share DNA, yet they grow into two very different beasts.
By Movies of the 80s3 months ago in Horror
The Back Roads That Went Nowhere: Sally Field, Tommy Lee Jones, and the Lost Ending of a Troubled 1981 Film
A Road Movie with Bumps Along the Way Martin Ritt’s Back Roads (1981) was meant to be a gentle Southern road movie, the story of two broken people trying to find something like redemption. Sally Field plays Amy Post, a small-town sex worker with dreams of California sunshine. Tommy Lee Jones is Elmore Pratt, a down-and-out ex-boxer drifting through life. Together, they hitchhike westward, bonding through shared hardship and a flicker of hope.
By Movies of the 80s3 months ago in Geeks
The Screenwriter with No Hands: The Strange Disappearance — and Solved Mystery — of Gary DeVore
The Writer Who Vanished Gary DeVore wrote about men making desperate choices. Then, one night in 1997, he made one himself — and paid the ultimate price. Driving home from New Mexico after finishing a screenplay, DeVore disappeared somewhere on the dark highway between Santa Fe and California. For a year, no one knew what happened.
By Movies of the 80s3 months ago in Geeks
Gary Coleman’s Movie That Took the Train: The Curious Case of On the Right Track (1981)
“Whatchu talkin’ ’bout, box office?” When Gary Coleman stepped off television and into a locker at Chicago’s Union Station, Hollywood thought it had a sure bet. The pint-sized superstar of Diff’rent Strokes was, for a few years, the most bankable child actor in America — a quick-witted, bright-eyed phenomenon with the charm of Chaplin and the confidence of someone twice his age.
By Movies of the 80s3 months ago in Geeks
Gene Siskel vs Maniac: How Critics, Shock Marketing & Backlash Defined the 1980 Slasher
If you know Maniac (1980), you probably know it stirred up trouble—blood, gore, controversy, and fierce criticism. But nothing quite compares to Gene Siskel’s public walk-out and verbal takedown of the film. Here’s what Siskel said (or is reported to have said), how star Joe Spinell and director William Lustig responded, and what the reaction meant for Maniac’s legacy.
By Movies of the 80s3 months ago in Horror
The Strange History of Eyewitness (1981): Knife Attacks, Box Office Failure, and a Bollywood Remake
Forgotten Film History A Real-Life Knife Attack on Set Sometimes the behind-the-scenes story is more thrilling than the movie itself. That’s the case with Peter Yates’ Eyewitness (1981), a thriller starring William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver, and Christopher Plummer.
By Movies of the 80s4 months ago in Geeks
When Chinatown Said “Enough”: The 1980–81 Protests Against Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen
A Familiar Figure, A New Generation of Critics Charlie Chan was once Hollywood’s most famous Asian detective — a fictional character created by novelist Earl Derr Biggers in the 1920s. For decades, the role was played by white actors in heavy makeup, delivering “fortune-cookie” wisdom in broken English. Studios considered Chan a cultural icon.
By Movies of the 80s4 months ago in Geeks
How American Pop Was Made: Ralph Bakshi, Rotoscoping, and the Music That Kept It Off Video Until 1998
Rotoscoping: Tracing Life Into Frame The 1981 animated feature American Pop remains one of Ralph Bakshi’s boldest and most unusual experiments. While mainstream animation in the early 1980s leaned toward family entertainment, Bakshi was chasing something very different: an animated epic that captured the sweep of American music across four generations.
By Movies of the 80s4 months ago in Geeks
