- Repo Man
- Videodrome
- Blue Velvet
Friday, July 23, 2004
An art professor friend of mine is teaching a course on "The Eighties" next quarter and wants to include at least five films. Blade Runner is out because it's over-taught already and apparantly today's college freshmen find it incredibly boring (it lacks any Will Smith-style fistfighting, and most kids don't get the noir references). Derek Jarman's Jubilee is a possibility, but it seems more late 70s than full-on 80s in its references. I suggested that if he really wanted to show an 80s film, he should go with something like Rambo or Top Gun, but he really wants to stick to "paranoiac" 80s films. So with the "paranoiac" in mind we came up with
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4 comments:
How about the Clash's Rude Boy, or The Decline of Western Civilization? Cronenberg's Naked Lunch, or any Stephen King movie....
RED DAWN is amazing to watch. It's about the take-over of the US by Russian and Cuban (!) communist forces, beat back by patriotic high schoolers. What could be more 80s? Kids won't be bored by it, after all it's got The Swayze in it. I'd venture it's relevant today. Replace the communists with al Qaeda and you have yourself a party. Go Wolverines!
WAR GAMES is another classic.
Don't forget TERMINATOR, ROBOCOP, or THEY LIVE (rowdy roddy piper!).
just American 80s?
Well, how can you do an 80s movie without Tron or Weird Science or War Games or something that captured the absurd misunderstanding of technology that still grips Hollywood?
Not sure if it is too late to chime in, but an argument could be made that the entire class could be designed around the 80's oeuvre of Michael Douglas. In a near trifecta, he hit upon (way too convincingly I may add) about all that is bad with the white american male as endangered species - and the associated angst. May I propose in order 1) "Falling Down" (is that early 90's - it sure felt kinda 80's), 2) Wall Street and 3) Fatal Attraction.
Barring those entries, I add Verhoven's RoboCop and my stealth choice, and probably an undergrad crowd pleaser as well, Blue Thunder. Great copter action, LAPD and a paranoia/voyeur thing as well. Oh yeah, as far as 80's, "Out of the Blue" and "Colors." Yer thoughts on any of these.
jb
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