1980s: Blockbusters and a lot of great gems (Part Three)

The Color of Money (1986)
Directed by Martin Scorsese and based on a novel by Walter Tevis continuing the story of “Fast Eddie Felson” from the movie “The Husler”, starring Paul Newman reprising his role from The Hustler, Tom Cruise, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, and several top pool players of the 1980s. Pool hustler Eddie finds the young, promising pool player Vincent in a local bar and sees in him a younger version of himself. To try to make a comeback for himself, Eddie offers to teach Vincent how to be a hustler. Together with Vincent’s girlfriend Carmen, they go on a tour through the country to work the pool halls. But Vincent’s tendency to show off his talent and thus warning the other players and losing money soon leads to a confrontation with Eddie. Cruise performed most of the trick shots himself, with the exception of a hard trick shot which would have taken too much time to learn. The movie positively influenced the popularity of pool.

Empire of the Sun (1987)
Directed by Steven Spielberg and based on a 1984 novel by the same name written by J.G. Ballard. In Shanghai, 1941, on the eve of the Japanese invasion of the foreign quarters, a young boy named Jim Graham lives a privileged life. His father is a rich businessman, and Jim attends an exclusive prep school. Along with his family, Jim attends a costume ball at the estate of some friends, where Jim ecounters a unit of Japanese soldiers nearby. A few days later the invasion of Shanghai is a reality, and the evacuation of the city begins. The Graham family find themselves crushed amongst the crowd fleeing from the Japanese army, and Jim is separated from his mother and father. The rest of the film shows how Jim is forced to deal with his transition into adulthood, growing up against the backdrop of an international war. The movie was nominated for six Oscars and won three British Oscars. It starred 13-year old Christian Bale in his first feature film, who received a special citation for Best Performance by a Juvenile Actor, as well as John Malkovich, Joe Pantoliano, and Miranda Richardson.

Full Metal Jacket (1987)
Produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick and based on the novel The Short Timers by Gustav Hasford, the film is named after the full metal jacket bullets used in military ammunition. The film follows Joker, Animal Mother, Gomer, Eightball and Cowboy during the Vietnam War. From the physical and psychological training with harsh drill instructors home on Parris Island, to the battlefields in Vietnam during the whole process of the inhumanity of ordinary citizens and professional soldiers. The epic war movie portrays war from the point of view of the US Marines, and asks questions about purpose of war by showing us the destiny of the soldiers.

The Last Emperor (1987)
Bertolucci’s biographical epic film which tells the incredible story of the life of Pu Yi, who in 1908 at the age of three became ruler of nearly half of the world’s population. He was the “Son of Heaven”, “Lord of Ten Thousand Years” and the last emperor of China. The film starts in 1950 with Yi’s re-entry into the just proclaimed People’s Republic of China as a prisoner and war criminal, but covers his life through flashbacks from the age of three when he became emperor, the object of worship by half a billion people, to his decline and dissolute lifestyle, and finally his obscure existence as a gardener. “The Last Emperor” was one of the biggest and most ambitious productions ever undertaken. The director and producer spent two years in negotiations before being granted unprecedented permission to film in China. It was also the first feature film authorized to film within the Forbidden City. It stars John Lone, Joan Chen, and Peter O’Toole. The film was nominated for and won nine Oscars.

The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)
Director Martin Scorsese’s controversial movie, adapted from the 1951 novel of the same name. It opened in nine cities despite objections by some Christians who thought the film was sacrilegious. It stars Willem Dafoe as Jesus, Harvey Keitel as Judas, Barbara Hershey as Mary Magdalene, and David Bowie as Pontius Pilate and Harry Dean Stanton as Paul. The film depicts the life of Jesus Christ and the central thesis is that Jesus was still subject to every form of temptations that humans face, such as fear, doubt, reluctance and lust, which results in Jesus imagining himself engaged in sexual activities, a notion that has caused outrage from some Christians. The main source of controversy comes from a scene in which Jesus is tempted by Satan with the life of being a normal man, and thus imagines himself marrying Mary Magdalene instead of dying on the cross, where a brief scene of the married couple making love can be seen, sparking the anger of many protesters. Protests against the movie from religious communities began before the film had even finished production, and major religious leaders in the US blasted the film in fiery sermons. In recent years, the film has received a more positive light from the Christian community. Some conservative Christian groups have re-examined it and found it to be an acceptable hypothesis.

The Untouchables (1987)
One of Brian De Palma’s masterpieces, it depicts the efforts of Eliot Ness to bring Al Capone to justice. It stars Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, Robert De Niro, and Andy Garcia. Treasury Department agent Eliot Ness arrives in Chicago and is put in charge of leading the crusade against Al Capone and his empire. After an unsuccessful raid on a warehouse suspected carrying crates of Whiskey, Ness is turned into the laughing stock and finds out that Capone has paid off the police department. Ness encounters a veteran beat cop named Jim Malone, perhaps the most honorable cop in the city. Together they form a small force of honest, untouchable cops dedicated to bringing down Capone’s illegal alcohol and gun empire. The film became a solid hit, grossing over $75 million dollars domestically.

Rain Man (1988)
Barry Levinson’s Academy Award winning film, starring Tom Cruise, Dustin Hoffman and Valeria Golino. Charlie Babbitt is in the middle of a business deal which is being threatened by EPA, but success seems sure due to a quick bit of deception perpetrated by Charlie and one of his employees. Charlie then leaves for a weekend trip to Palm Springs with his girlfriend, which is spoiled by the sudden death of his father. Charlie travels to Cincinnati to settle the estate, but learns that an undisclosed person is inheriting all the money from his father. He finds out that the money is being directed to a mental institution only to discover that he has a brother named Raymond, who is autistic. The film was nominated for eight Oscars and won four, including Best Actor in a Leading Role for Hoffman, and Best Director for Levinson. The film also won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival.

Big (1988)
A comedy film about a teenage boy who is aged to adulthood by a magical fortune-telling machine. It is directed by Penny Marshall and stars Tom Hanks, John Heard, Elizabeth Perkins, and Robert Loggia. After being humiliated while trying to impress an older girl at a carnival, Josh goes to a fortune-telling machine and wishes that he was a grown up. When he wakes up the next morning, his wish has come true, but later on when his mother sees him, she drives what she thinks is an intruder out of the house. With the help of a friend, Josh rents a room in Manhattan and gets a job at the MacMillan Toy Company. When checking out some toys at a store, he meets the company’s owner, which is impressed with his childlike enthusiasm. This earns Josh a promotion to a dream job, where he gets to test toys all day long and get paid for it. The film was nominated for two Oscars, including Best Actor in a Leading Role for Hanks, and also won a Golden Globe to Hanks. It was arguably the first feature film that sent Tom Hanks into future stardom.

Die Hard (1988)
An action film directed by John McTiernan starring Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Bonni Bedelia, Reginald VelJohnson and William Atherton. New York City police detective John McClane arrives in Los Angeles to reunite with his estranged wife Holly for Christmas. He is picked up in a limousine and taken to her place of work, a large office building by the name of Nakatomi Plaza. A company Christmas party is taking place on the 30th floor, but unknown to any of the party-goers a gang of terrorists, led by Hans Gruber, silently invade the building. The terrorists then proceed to take everyone at the party hostage, and it is up to McClane to save their Christmas. “Die Hard” is considered to be one of the best action films of its era. It reinvented the action genre and set a new standard for action movies to come. The film was also responsible for creating the lone hero action archetype that is wearing few pieces of clothing, frequently shouts out one-liners, and has a rough look across his face. The film grossed $80 million at the US box-office and was highly acclaimed by critics, spawned three sequels, and was the first feature film of both Bruce Willis and Alan Rickman, which propelled them into future stardom.

Mississippi Burning (1988)
Alan Parker’s dramatical film about the investigation into the real-life murders of three civil rights workers in Mississippi in 1964, starring Gene Hackman, Willem Dafoe, Frances McDormand, Brad Dourif, and R. Lee Ermey. The movie highlights the injustice of the Southern American society in the 1960s. Two fictional FBI agents, Ward and Anderson, are given the task of investigating the fate of three civil rights workers. While they investigate, they uncloak the social inequity in Mississippi. When Ward is unable to penetrate the thick fog of oppression by the Ku Klux Klan, Anderson takes over the investigation, forcing the information out of the people responsible. The film was nominated for seven Oscars.

The Abyss (1989)
An award-winning underwater science-fiction film written and directed by James Cameron, starring Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Michael Biehn. When an American nuclear submarine sinks under mysterious circumstances, a SEAL team accompanied by the platform’s designer, Lindsey, is inserted on to an experimental underwater oil platform named “Deep Core” to proceed with operations from there. Benthic Petroleum, the owner of the platform, volunteers both the platform and its crew of oil workers, including Lindsey’s husband Virgil, to the Navy to assist in what they believe to be a rescue operation. The SEAL team and oil workers investigate the submarine wreck without finding any survivors, instead they encounter a non-terrestrial intelligence, but are uncertain what to make of it. This leads to a conflict of interest when the SEAL team believes it to be an uncatalogued Soviet submersible as they decide to recover a nuclear warhead from the submarine as a contigency plan to destroy the American submarine to prevent it from falling into enemy hands. The situations worsens when a nearby hurricane causes a catastrophic accident that leaves Deep Core severly damaged and cut-off from the surface. “The Abyss” was the pioneer in using a new generation of expensive computer-generated imagery and graphics which was used in creating the translucent water creatures. The underwater scenes were filmed in the containment building of an unfinished nuclear power plant and it took over 26 million litres of water to fill the tank, making it the largest underwater set ever. The cast members and actors had to become certified divers before filming began, and the depth and length of time spent underwater meant that the cast and crew sometimes had to go through decompression. Initially the movie was not praised much by critics due to its complex plot, but since the release of the director’s cut it has gained a strong cult following. The film was nominated for four Oscars and won one for Best Visual Effects.

Born on the Fourth of July (1989)
The Academy Award winning film directed, written and produced by Oliver Stone and Ron Kovic, based on the best-selling autobiography by Kovic, who was paralyzed in Vietnam and became an anti-war activitist, starring Tom Cruise as Kovic, Kyra Sedgwick, Willem Dafoe, and Frank Whaley. The film’s title was based on Kovic’s actual birthday, July 4th 1946. The film tells the story of Kovic’s life growing up in Massapequa, New York, joining the Marines and going to Vietnam, witnessing the horrors of war, getting shot, finding himself bound to a wheelchair, struggling with family and friends when he returns, and finally starting a new life for himself as an anti-war activist. The themes of the film centers around the physical and mental anguish Kovic suffered, including symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorders. He is robbed for his ability to walk, something which agonizes him since he was an athlete in high school, and he is unable to have normal sex due to his paralysis. The film was nominated for eight Oscars and won two, including Best Director for Stone.

Dead Poets Society (1989)
Directed by Peiter Weir and starring Robin Williams and Ethan Hawke among others. The film follows a group of students at the fictional prestigious Welton Academy prep school as they meet their new teacher John Keating, who uses unorthodox methods of teaching. In their first class, Keating takes them out of the classroom to focus on the idea of “carpe diem” by looking at the pictures of former students, and in a later class Keating tells the students to rip out the first page of a book. The students are going through a process of awakening where they discover that authority must always act as a guide, but the only place where one can find out one’s true identity is within oneself. They secretly revive an old literary club, which Keating was a member of, called the Dead Poets Society. Then things start to turn worse when one of the boys takes matters a bit too far and publishes an article in the school flyer that proposes that girls be allowed at Welton. The film was arguably Ethan Hawke’s first feature film that sent him into future stardom. It was nominated for four Oscars and won one for Best Writing.

Do the Right Thing (1989)
A motion picture produced, written, and directed by Spike Lee about bigotry and racial conflict in a multi-ethnic community in Brooklyn, starring Spike Lee, Danny Aiello, Ruby Dee, John Turturro and others. It is a heated day in Brooklyn as Sal strive to run his Italian-American pizzeria, which he has owned for decades because he respects his customers. The street where the pizzeria is located is populated by many distinct personalities who are just trying to find a way to deal with the intense heat that day and go on about their regular activities. “Buggin’ Out” is a black nationalist. When he enters Sal’s pizzeria he notices Sal’s “Wall of Fame”, which is decorated with dozens of celebrities, all of them Italian. He asks Sal about his wall and demands he place some pictures of African-American celebrities on the wall since it is an African-American neighborhood, but Sal refuses. Buggin’ tries to start a protest about the wall, but no one listens to him, except for “Radio Raheem”, who had been criticized by Sal earlier for playing his boombox too loud. When they both march back into Sal’s later and stage a sit-in protest, Sal demand that they turn the radio down or leave. When they refuse, Sal snaps and destroys the boombox and fights ensue. “Do The Right Thing” features both Martin Lawrence and Rosie Perez in their first feature film. When released, it received protests from many reviewers who thought that the film could incite black audiences to riot. This never happened, and Lee criticized white reviewers for assuming that black audiences were incapable of restraining themselves while watching fiction. The film was later deemed culturally significant by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.