Lifetime Movies: 1985

Name me another film like this...do it I dare you. Brazil is the best film of 1985. No other film deserves to be mentioned, there is no other nominations for 1985. Gilliam's problems with making films started here, we all know his history with films...and this was the start. If possible and you are a collector of films I recommend the Criterion Collection of this film, it comes with 3 discs, 2 versions of the film, plenty of really good extras and interviews, especially over the history of making this film. No one wanted the "Gilliam" version, the studio wanted a happy ending and Gilliam even gave them one, but he also made his own version. The best of Gilliam is here:
1. Futuristic city
2. Nightmarish State Run Country
3. Dreams
4. Unhappy ending
5. Absurd comedy
I wish Gilliam would make something from his roots again...Parnassus was close but not quite there, maybe it was Heath's death, maybe it was the CGI...but Brazil is a masterpiece.

Others of note:
Back to The Future: Like I said..the best time travel movie ever

Rocky 4: Wyoming takes the place of Russia...training in Russia is apparently medieval...and the whole of Cold War relations can be summed up in this film...say what you will..Drago was a great bad guy.

Breakfast Club: classic 80's comedy..last time I counted 11 people in this film

Goonies: I am still pissed that when I bought the Goonies cards...there was a scene of an octopus on the card..I have never yet seen that scene..its an extra I am still waiting for

Legend: R Scott was distilled..this film is good...the character of DARKNESS is awesome and scary

Real Genius: classic again...and I still can not hammer a spike into a piece of wood with my penis

Year of the Dragon: Mickey Rourke and Micheal Cimino at it again..look for the scene where Rourke is in the apartment and the background is the NY skyline with the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridge...they just could have filmed that background...but no ...Cimino is so good he built that set on a roof of a building between those two bridges...amazing.

Till 1986...BOOM

Lifetime Movies: 1985

Nominees: Back to the Future, Better Off Dead, Brazil, The Breakfast Club


And that’s just the B’s. Strange alphabetical anomalies aside, a solid year in the heart of the decade. I still remember first seeing Back to the Future and leaving the theater in awe at how much fun I had. And as you know from the infamous Episode 0 of the SMC Podcast, this movie holds up as one of best time travel movies ever (the best, according to our very own Vin). Since we are at the halfway point of the magnificently ridiculous 80s, it’s only fitting that we get two of the films that have always defined the time period for me. I think of teen movies, not just because there were so many of them, but because they represented a bigger cultural shift. The Breakfast Club is not the best of these films or even John Hughes’s best, but it captures that mood perfectly. And Better Off Dead captures the other aspect of movies from that time: their quirkiness. It was this perfect storm of the free-thinking rebel mindset of the 70s and the looming corporatization of the 90s. You had a studio system that was relying on these non-establishment filmmakers and the results were offbeat, subtly subversive, and most importantly, interesting. Which are rather fitting adjectives for Terry Gilliam, and then some.

Ok, I watched Brazil last night just for this post because it had been years since I’d last seen it and I wanted to make sure I remembered it correctly. I didn’t. It wasn’t nearly as weird and confusing and “Gilliam-esque” as popular opinion holds it. It was actually very linear with a tight, controlled narrative and I don’t understand why so many people claim to have a difficult time following the story. Yes, it was better than I remembered and one of the best science-fiction films ever made.

Winner: Brazil

Notes: This was the year of me and Chuck Norris. Invasion U.S.A. and Missing in Action 2: The Beginning. God, I was a little tool back then...I haven’t seen Young Sherlock Holmes since it came out, but I remember it having some really cool effects for the time. Anyone seen it recently?...Overall, though, this was a fun year at the movies with The Goonies, Weird Science, Teen Wolf, Real Genius, and even bad movies like The Last Dragon. If I miss anything from this time, it’s that innocent goofiness. Damn you, 90s and your hipster cynicism.

City of God

The end of any period of time brings with it lists reviewing, ranking, commemorating the opinions of whomever is making the list. Sometimes these people actually know what they are talking about and like to refer to themselves as "critics" or "people with jobs as professional writers." Truth be told, I'm grateful they exist because there's just so much stuff out there.

For example, reading Paste Magazine's Best of the Decade list I was surprised to discover that I had not seen their #1 pick: Fernando Meirelles' 2002 Brazilian film, City of God (or Cidade de Deus, for you elitists). I'd heard of it, of course, had picked up on the buzz from time to time since its release, but like I said, there's a lot of stuff to see. So, I saw it. And it was good.

The titular locale is the hardcorest of the hardcore Rio slums and the story--which is based on real events--is about the devastating drug trade of the 70s and 80s. There are obvious parallels to John Singleton's Boyz n the Hood, but it's all in the timing, I suppose, because what struck me more were the similarities to The Wire, the amazing HBO series that I am 4 episodes from completing as of this writing. Both feature kiddie criminals--City of God's Runts and The Wire's Baltimore corner boys--as the backbone of all-encompassing drug empires. Yeah, I get that one takes place decades ago in a third-world country and the other is in a modern-day major American City. They don't call it Bodymore, Murdaland for nothing. PLUS