Friday 27th February 2009 - 18:51:54
The Eighties may have had dodgy fashion and even dodgier hair cuts but the one thing that you can say about the decade is it's movies were damn good.
The blockbuster trend continued as Star Wars continued to dominate the box office, as well as the birth of a new action icon but more about that later.
The decade provided something for everyone sc-fi, romantic comedy, blockbusters, war films and the gritty dramas so lets take a looks at some of the pictures that stood out during this era.
Director Oliver Stone draws on his harrowing experiences in Vietnam as he wrote and directed this insight into brutality of guerrilla warfare in the heat of the jungle for his movie Platoon.
Platoon is an unsympathetic film it doesn't gloss over the troubles in Vietnam to suit and American cinema going audience.
Stone depicts some soldiers as violent killers who struggle with seeing their friends injured and killed and take out their rage on a nearby village.
The village scene is perhaps one of the most harrowing of the entire film as American soldiers, struggling with their anger as they kill, torture and rape Vietnamese villagers.
Stone also showed controversial issues within the U.S. army such as drug abuse, which has largely been speculated upon in recent years, the bullying behaviour by more experienced soldiers on the new, inexperienced recruits and the killing of unpopular officers.
Since it's release Platoon has widely become to be regarded as one of the finest war movies ever brought to the big screen.
1985 brought together a great ensemble child cast for The Goonies with Lethal Weapon's director Richard Donner behind the camera and the script was penned by Chris Columbus but the story was by Stephen Spielberg.
Despite the well known names behind the project The Goonies was met by a mixed response from the critics when it was released.
It went on to gross over US$61 million that year, placing it among the top ten highest grossing movies of 1985 in America.
However in recent years the film has gained a strong cult following and is popular amongst movie fans who were children at the time of it's release.
The Goonies also launched the acting careers of the likes of Sean Astin, Samwise Gamgee in Lord of the Rings, and Josh Brolin, Llewelyn Moss in No Country for Old Men.
The film is a family friendly romp of adventure, pirates, skeletons and bad guys that is one of the most memorable teen-movies of it's time.
The character of Indiana Jones, played by Harrison Ford, was introduced in 1981 with the release of the film Raiders of the Lost Ark, which was set in 1936.
The eighties continued the blockbuster trend as another great franchise was introduced to movie go-ers, with Harrison Ford taking in another iconic role.
Raiders of the Lost Ark was the biggest grossing movie of 1981 and remains one of the biggest grossing movies of all time.
Over the years Indiana Jones has become a successful franchise and the character of Jones with his bullwhip, fedora, leather jacket have become iconic and it was great to him back last summer after a hiatus of nearly two decades.
The eighties belonged to Harrison Ford as his sci-fi flick Blade Runner was another piece of great filmmaker from Ridley Scott.
Loosely based on Philip K.Dick's short story, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? And was released in 1982.
But when the film was eventually released it did poorly at the box office, but it did have to compete with other sci-fi movies including Spielberg's E.T and The Thing.
Despite performing this poor box office performance and mixed reviews the film went on to be nominated for a succession of awards including an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.
While it wasn't a success upon release Blade Runner has become a cult hit and included in many charts listing the best movies of all time.
Its dark style and futuristic designs and effects have served as a benchmark and an influence for many science fiction movies that have been made and released since.
Other top movies of the decade include another partnership between martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro as they produced Raging Bull, considered one of their best movies.
E.T was the big science fiction movie of the era as the film went on to become a classic, and launch the career of Drew Barrymore.
Other successes came in the form of comedy When Harry Met Sally, The Empire Strikes Back and The Terminator.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
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