A Bear In The Woods

Jesse Walker now looks back at the 80s.

https://jessewalker.blogspot.com/2025/12/the-year-of-rainbow-warrior-ive-reeled.html

Here are his top ten films for 1985:

1. Brazil

2. Crime Wave

3. Ran

4. Pee-wee's Big Adventure

5. Mix Up Ou Meli-melo

6. Vagabond

7. After Hours

8. Louie Bluie

9. Static

10. Return To Oz

There are lots of things wrong with Brazil (fantasy sequences--perhaps the reason Terry Gilliam made the film--that go on way too long, and a story that sometimes makes no sense and runs out of steam), but what's good about it is so good it deserves a spot in the top ten.  But not #1. (And let's say goodbye to Oscar-nominated co-writer Tom Stoppard. Also, let me note one of the first people I knew in Hollywood was the guy in charge of the TV version of this film that gave it a happy ending.)

Never seen Crime Wave (not to be confused, Jesse notes, with 1985's Crimewave), but I'd like to.  Same for Mix Up Ou Meli-melo, Louie Bluie and Static.

Ran is okay, but I don't think it makes my top ten list for Kurosawa films.

It's a miracle that Pee-wee's Big Adventure works so well.  I'm not sure how much credit goes to the Pee-wee character for having more to him than anyone imagined, or to Paul Reubens (plus Phil Hartman and Michael Varhol) for knowing just what sort of story to give the character, or to then-newcomer Tim Burton for having the flair and imagination to pull it off.  Definite top ten.

Vagabond is powerful in a quiet way. Still remember seeing it in a Greenwich Village cinema.

After Hours is a trifle from Scorsese.

I saw Return To Oz the day it opened (I was in Grand Rapids at the time--surprising what you remember).  The sparse audience was not amused, and I believe the film killed Walter Murch's directing career.  But I liked it.  Not sure if it'd be top ten, though.  By the way, I chose to see it over another film that opened the same weekend and was a big hit--a fantasy about old people becoming young that I list below as a title that should make the top ten. See if you can figure out which one.

Here are Jesse's honorable mentions:

11. Mishima

12. Fool For Love

13. The Gospel At Colonus

14. Tapei Story

15. Come And See

16. Prizzi's Honor

17. Fluke

18. Chain Letter

19. Epic Of Gilgamesh

20. Back To The Future

Don't particularly go for Mishima, Fool For Love or Prizzi's Honor.

Back To The Future should be top ten. (I just read Michael J. Fox's Future Boy, by the way)

The rest I haven't seen.  Let me note Fluke is a short, not to be confused with the 1995 feature of the same name.

Here are some other films that would make my top ten or twenty:

Cocoon

Dreamchild

Explorers

Heaven Help Us

Lost In America (probably #1)

My Life As A Dog

Police Story

The Sure Thing (Rob Reiner's forgotten film)

Tampopo

Here are other films from 1985 that I like:

28 Up, Better Off Dead, Colonel Redl, Commando, Day Of The Dead, Desperately Seeking Susan, Fletch, Into The Night, The Jewel Of The Nile, Krush Groove, The Last Dragon, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, Mala Noche, My Beautiful Laundrette, Plenty, Real Genius, A Room With A View, Runaway Train, Spies Like Us, When Father Was Away On Business, Witness

 

Other films of note:

The Adventures of Mark Twain. Agnes of God, Alamo Bay, American Flyers, American Ninja. The Aviator, Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend, Bad Medicine, The Black Cauldron, The Boys Next Door, The Breakfast Club, Brewster's Millions, The Bride, Cat's Eye, The Care Bears Movie, A Chorus Line, Clue, The Coca-Cola Kid, Code of Silence, The Color Purple, Compromising Positions, D.A.R.Y.L, Dance with a Stranger, Death Wish 3, Defence of the Realm, Desert Hearts, Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart, Eleni, The Emerald Forest, Enemy Mine, The Falcon And The Snowman, Fandango, Final Justice, Flesh and Blood, Friday the 13th, Part V: A New Beginning, Ghoulies, Girls Just Want to Have Fun, The Goonies, Gotcha!, Grace Quigley, Hail Mary, The Holcroft Covenant, Insignificance, Invasion U.S.A., Jagged Edge, Joshua Then and Now, The Journey of Natty Gann, Just One of the Guys, King David, King Solomon's Mines, Kiss Of The Spider Woman, Ladyhawke, Legend, The Legend Of Billie Jean, Letter to Brezhnev, Lust in the Dust, The Man with One Red Shoe, Marie, Mask, Maxie, The Mean Season, Movers & Shakers, Murphy's Romance, My Sweet Little Village. National Lampoon's European Vacation, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge, No End, No Surrender, The Official Story, Once Bitten, One Magic Christmas, Ordeal by Innocence, Out of Africa, Pale Rider, Perfect, Pizza Connection, Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment, Private Resort, The Protector, The Purple Rose Of Cairo, Radioactive Dreams, Rambo: First Blood Part II, Re-Animator, Red Sonja, Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins, The Return of the Living Dead, Revolution, Rocky IV, Rustlers' Rhapsody, Santa Claus: The Movie, Secret Admirer, Sesame Street Presents Follow That Bird, Shoah, The Shooting Party, Silver Bullet, Silverado, The Slugger's Wife, Smooth Talk, St. Elmo’s Fire, Stick, Subway, Summer Rental, Sweet Dreams, Target, Teen Wolf, That Was Then...This Is Now, That's Dancing!, To Live and Die in L.A., Transylvania 6-5000, The Trip To Bountiful, Trouble In Mind, Tuff Turf, Turk 182!, Turtle Diary, Twice in a Lifetime, UFOria, A View to a Kill, Vision Quest, Volunteers, Wetherby, Weird Science, Wild Geese II, White Nights, Year of the Dragon, Young Sherlock Holmes, A Zed & Two Noughts