Posted on 06/16/2012 6:25:40 AM PDT by Saije
Rock of Ages" revels in the big hair and tight leather pants of a very specific place and time: the Sunset Strip in 1987, when bands like Guns N' Roses and Poison got their start. But a lot of great movies came out that year, too. Here are five of them:
"Full Metal Jacket": One of Stanley Kubrick's best — and I really should find a reason to compile that list one of these days — this Vietnam War drama lulls you in with its humor in the first half, then blows you away with its brutality in the second...
"Raising Arizona": Still one of my all-time favorites from the Coen brothers and a great example of the off-kilter vibe that arose from their brief collaboration with then-cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld...
"Moonstruck": I've always enjoyed the balance that director Norman Jewison and Oscar-winning screenwriter John Patrick Shanley strike here. This is a movie that's unabashedly old-fashioned and sweet but with a no-nonsense and slightly shaggy streak...
"Less Than Zero": A lurid depiction of the drugs and decadence of the time. Having grown up in Los Angeles in the 1980s, I can attest that this is not necessarily what it was like — not in my tame little corner of the San Fernando Valley, where sneaking wine coolers felt rebellious...
"Dirty Dancing": This is a nostalgic choice, admittedly. I probably should have picked something artsier and more respected like "The Last Emperor," which won nine Academy Awards including best picture. But looking back, which film left the most enduring mark on the culture, on the era? Of the five listed here, it's "Dirty Dancing," far and away...
(Excerpt) Read more at superiortelegram.com ...
I try to avoid nostalgia because it makes me feel old. And I don’t think I’d want to go back to no Internet.
List of 1987 movies:
http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/index1987.php
Some notables...to me:
Lethal Weapon
Roxanne
Predator
Spaceballs (quotable)
Full Metal Jacket
Dirty Dancing
Fatal Attraction
The Princess Bride (quotable)
Planes, Trains and Automobiles
Good Morning Vietnam
I miss the 80’s :(
I’m with ya. It makes me very sad how constricted and controlled kids’ lives are today (and ours too.)
My children can’t believe it when I tell them that when I was in high school, there actually was a “smoke break” when students could go outside for a quick cigarette.
I was informed today that my 8th grader can’t work at Vacation Bible School because he hasn’t been through “Safe Environment Training”.
"Red X" was a classic!
Oops. My computer displays a photo of The Untouchables. Don't know why an X is displayed on others.
1987...Two years before The Simpsons hit the big time after The Tracey Ullman Show.
Yeah, but one of them was Jan Brunvand. The guy who wrote a series of books on urban legands that Snopes ripped off for their website.
On many occasions I’ve been traveling in a foreign country or with a group of people here in the U.S. who were born and raised in another country. Whenever the conversation of our family backgrounds and childhood years comes up, I always tell these folks that nothing — absolutely nothing — can ever match the feeling of being a teenager here in the U.S. during the Reagan years.
“No Way Out”. Best film from 1987.
Moonstruck is one of my all time favorite movies. It is a gem. Although Nicholas Cage, as usual cannot act his way out of a paper bag. Even he couldn’t ruin it for me!
Moonstruck is one of my all time favorite movies. It is a gem. Although Nicholas Cage, as usual cannot act his way out of a paper bag. Even he couldn’t ruin it for me!
I graduated in 87....I remember several of my guy friends hanging their shotguns in the back of their trucks because they were going hunting after school. That amazes my kids. :)
I must have watched Dirty Dancing 50 times, the others I don’t even remember.
I totally agree. One of the things, obscure but one that really defines the 80s/Reagan era for me is Berke Breathed’s Bloom County comic strip. Bloom had a go at Reagan Reagan and his admin and was pretty scathing at times. Yet there was no hate in it. And he/it didn’t shy away from having an equal go at the left. If anything Breathed, a lefitst, was even more critical of the left than he was of Reagan. And the ‘Cruise Basselope’ weapon system he devised should have been a defense Dept priority dammit! ;)
But that aside, it was indeed a great feeling to be able to see RR on TV, feel pride in him as our president and KNOW that he had America’s back. It was the last time I honestly felt ‘safe’...as in the big picture sense of the word.
I remember it as one of the most optimistic times of my life. A lot of it had to do with my age at the time, but it’s probably the one time in my life where I went through each day knowing that tomorrow was going to bring something better.
Well the lists of movies have convinced me 1987 sucked movie wise. Moonstruck was good.
Full Metal Jacket joins Dune as the only movies I ever walked out on in my life. After Vincent D’Onofrio blew his brains out on the wall I had to give my wife a reprieve. Dune was a joint walk out.
Good old UseNet.
I’ve never seen one of those movies.
Well, I didn’t like any of the movies on your list and I have never seen a Coen brothers movie that I didn’t HATE, but I do like lists of movies, so way to go.
Loved The Princess Bride. It holds up.
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