One of my faves from the class of '87:
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 ...
Silly list. What about:
Three Men and a Baby
Lethal Weapon
Good Morning, Vietnam
First half good; second half crap. Why did Matthew Modine speak like he had some sort of brain injury throughout the film?
I REALLY miss 1987, Reagan, Hair Bands, Lots of wine women and song... It was so much simpler back then. No internet and 24/7 connectivity with every other person place and thing on the planet. PC BS was only in it’s infancy. You didn’t have some nanny type chasing after every so-called ‘wrong’ and inventing plenty of their own. Kids these days have no idea how much fun they missed. God I am getting old...
Sure there were problems. Lots of’em. But I’d bet most of us who lived that era prefer it to this one. Anyone got the URL for the time machine the jock in Napoleon Dynamite ordered? ;)
Those were my high school days. Good times. Is it me, is there any normal kids out there? I don’t have any, but every lady I date has jacked up kids..
One of my faves from the class of '87:
The little red X square? I don’t remember that one.
Ugh, I can honestly say I would never care to see any of those films again. My 1987 list:
The Untouchables
Planes, Trains and Automobiles
Robocop
The Running Man
The Princess Bride
These are part of the culture, probably to stay:
Ernest Goes to Camp
Planes, Trains and Automobiles
Princess Bride
Robo Cop
Wall Street
Sometimes, the films that people are still watching and quoting matter more than the ones the critics loved at the time.
The ONLY time anyone ever heard about Olympia Dukakis was when Michael Dukakis was running for the Presidency. And the media pretended HE had a good chance at winning.
See my post 10
GMTA
Great call on “Untouchables”
I had the internet in 1987. Newsgroups. Email. No WWW.
I honestly don’t know. There must be a few somewhere. I graduated in 83. When I think of ‘us’ back then and compare it to our modern counterparts, it doesn’t even seem like we’re of the same species. Has there ever been such a generational gap? By 16 today, the average kid has had more ‘experiences’ of ALL types than many of our era has had to date. There is no innocence left. Being thoroughly jaded at such an early age leaves little hope for their future.
Just to keep somewhat on topic, look at the movies of the two eras. Even the kid/teen centered fare is nihilistic when it’s not total ecopropaganda. And even then the end result is that doom hangs in the air.
My daughter (22 now) always says she wishes she could have lived back then. Most of her favorite entertainment, clothes etc are from that era. But even though she’s a lot closer to ‘us’ than them’ in her views etc., she’d have been completely lost in 87, having grown up in today’s society.
You and about 5 other people ;)
“The Princess Bride”: Proof that Jewish humor can be really good.
Ugh
But looking back, which film left the most enduring mark on the culture, on the era?
Nobody puts Baby in a corner! :-)
% rn
Weird Science? Ferris Buehller? Sir mix alot? Van Halen? Def leppard? I miss those days.
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.
Indeed it is.
Never saw the Running Man, but since I like the rest of your list, I’ll try to find it somewhere.
“I went through each day knowing that tomorrow was going to bring something better.”
That perfectly sums up the 80s/Reagan for me. To a ‘T’.
And for movies, Charlie Sheen, before everyone knew what a space cadet he was, was fantastic. The Brat Pack stuff as well. I find it funny how many times Hollywood has conceptually gone to the 80s well, if not straight re-dos, and fails miserably every time. There have been a few ‘spiritua;’ remakes of Pretty in Pink/Breakfast Club and they never work. Why? Probably because of the ‘innocence’ thing I mentioned earlier. Kids/younger people today are too jaded to relate. Plus the acting leaves a lot to be desired.
Unles the sex/nudity can be called acting. In that case they all need Oscars today. Not that I’m totally opposed to nudity in films but come on. It’s gotten ridiculous.
Running Man is awesome, imho. Richard Dawson (RIP) really does a great job playing the “game show” host.
I’d say being a child in the 60s and early 70s in a Southern California beach town beats that.
Uncrowded, 100% safe, fun, perfect weather — we kids were allowed to run free from sunrise to sunset, play in the local parks, explore the local canyons, play in the surf, build bonfires on beaches — set off fireworks on the 4th of July. Truly Wonderful!!
Now? Come to Southern California and see for yourself!! Local beaches regularly receive grades of F and F - for the quality of the water. Homes have expensive security and surveillance systems. Local parks have been taken over by gangs or large Mexican families blasting ranchero music, fireworks are illegal almost everywhere. No one dares to take their eyes off their precious children for even one nano-second here. Doors are locked, people are suspicious. Decades of unfettered illegal immigration have ruined this state.
And taxes! Don’t get me started.
This is what leftist maniacs have done to my home state.
Yep.
It is obviously difficult to separate being in your 20s from deciding what were the best times of your life, and so the '80s were the time I float back to in my daydreams. The music, the hope, the optimism.... In the early '80s I was in the Marines and Reagan was my Commander-in-Chief. Then came marriage, kids, a new house.. The economy was roaring back to life and the sky was the limit. Morning in America was warm and sunny.
And now I'm making myself sick thinking about pushing 60, the era of the Kenyan communist Ubama, the sodomization of the military, the celebration of depravity, the handing over of a nation to third-world, next-gen, Democrat parasites, and the irreversible decline of America.
Whoop-de-freaking-do..
As the great Rodney Dangerfield once said, "Death, where is thy sting?"
I lived in Orange in 78-79. Cali was tanking already, but even then it was still a great time. Height of skateboarding’s golden era. “The Big O” skatepark was heaven ;)
Was back for a couple months (Riverside) in 2001. It didn’t take long to leave.
My Top Faves from ‘87:
Barfly - My second favorite Mickey Rourke movie after The Pope of Greenwich Village.
Hellraiser
The Last Emperor
Predator - Maybe not Oscar-worthy cinema, but a heck of a lot of fun!
Robocop
The Untouchables
***
Honorable mentions:
Tin Men
Full Metal Jacket
The Running Man - another fun Arnie flick. The scene with Maria Conchita Alonzo working out in her lingerie is reason enough to watch (yowza!)
***
My least faves from 87:
Wall Street
Fatal Attraction
Superman IV: Pee-YEW!
I had a recent conversation with someone regarding just how ‘available sex is today for anyone that wants it and why porn/sexual fetishes ect gets more and more extreme as time goes by.
Even in the 80s, we had to work for it. The romantacized notion of the ‘thrill of the hunt’ was still quite real. But today, it’s just ‘friends with benefits’ and literally less of a big deal than calling someone to hit a show or concert was back then. Today it just a text message “Wanna FXXX later?”
And that’s considered 100% normal. By 16 YOs. Literally. Absolutely no emotion attached. Purely self infulgent physicality.
Now granted, I had my fun, but there was ‘fun’ to be had. Today? Not from what I’m told. Purely a mechanical act and the ‘fun only comes in with seeing just how far one can degrade the other. Gee...can’t understand why things are as they are now....
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