The Go Go Years

Jesse Walker now turns to the top films of 1980.  A decent year, but some odd choices.  Here's his top ten, (which does not include one of the most annoying films of the year, Best Picture winner Ordinary People, or notorious flop Heaven's Gate, or the unseen Fassbinder TV series Berlin Alexanderplatz):

1. Mon Oncle d'Amerique
2. Melvin and Howard
3. Raging Bull
4. UFOria
5. The Stunt Man
6. Bronco Billy
7. The Long Good Friday
8. Kagemusha
9. Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers
10. Airplane!

Most of these I like. At least three would make my top ten--2, 5 and 10.  1 and 8 are decent films from directors who have done better work.  Haven't seen 4 or 9.  Then there's 3 and 6.

Raging Bull's reputation mystifies me.  Good performances, but to what end?  A better title would be Two Pointless Hours With A Lout.  As for Bronco Billy, even Eastwood fans don't bring this one up too much.  It's sort of Clint's idea of a screwball comedy, with all the wit we've come to expect from him.  I saw it when it first came out, and, a few years ago, I accompanied a friend to a course he was taking on Clint Eastwood (!) and had to sit through this again.  It was as bad as I'd remembered.

Here are Jesse's honorable mentions.

11. Atlantic City
12. The Last Metro
13. Breaker Morant
14. The Ninth Configuration
15. Bad Timing 
16. Carny 
17. American Gigolo 
18. The Blues Brothers
19. Coal Miner's Daughter
20. History of the World in Three Minutes Flat

Some good films here.  Certainly Atlantic City would make my top ten.  Not sure what American Gigolo is doing on the list, and Blues Brothers has some decent musical performances but doesn't hold together too well.  Haven't seen #20.

Here are some other films which Jesse doesn't mention, though I'm sure he's aware of many of them.  First, the films that would have made my top ten list.

Top Ten

The Empire Strikes Back  (Conspicuous in its absence.  At the IMDb it's the #11 film of all time, and I bet if you polled fanboys it would be #1.)
Dressed to Kill
The Elephant Man
Superman II
Return of the Secaucus 7

Here are other films from 1980 that I like:

The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle, Altered States, Where the Buffalo Roam, The Gods Must Be Crazy, The Gong Show Movie (yep), Health, Used Cars, Hero at Large, D.O.A., Private Benjamin, Flash Gordon, From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China, Stardust Memories (at the time, it seemed Woody was getting worse, but looking back, still good enough), The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter, Seems Like Old Times, Spetters, Serial

Films of interest (a surprising number due to their notoriety), including a few shorts:

Any Which Way You Can, The Big Brawl (not great, but Jackie Chan in America!), The Apple, The Big Red One, The Blue Lagoon, Brubaker, Caddyshack (which some consider a classic), Can't Stop the Music, Cannibal Holocaust, Cheech & Chong's Next Movie, City of Women, Coast to Coast, The Competition, Cruising, Divine Madness, Don't Answer the Phone, Fame, The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu, The Fog, The Formula, Foxes, Friday the 13th, From the Life of the Marionettes, Galaxina, Gilda Live, Gloria, Gnomes, He Knows You're Alone, The Hollywood Knights, Honeysuckle Rose, Hopscotch, How to Beat the High Co$t of Living, The Idolmaker, In God We Tru$t, Inside Moves, It's My Turn, Just Tell Me What You Want, Karl Hess: Toward Liberty, The Last Married Couple in America, The Last Metro, Little Darlings, The Long Riders, Loose Shoes, McVicar, The Mirror Crack'd, My Bodyguard, Nijinksy, Nine to Five, The Nude Bomb, One Trick Pony, Popeye, Porklips Now, Prom Night, Roadie, Rockshow, Rough Cut, Rude Boy, Sauve qui peut (la vie), The Shining, Simon, Sitting Ducks, A Small Circle of Friends, Somewhere in Time, Stir Crazy, Terror Train, That Sinking Feeling, Times Square, Tom Horn, Tribute, Union City, Up the Academy, Urban Cowboy, Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe, Wholly Moses!, Willie & Phil, Xanadu