Roger Ebert’s favourite movies of the 1980s
Beginning his career at the Chicago Sun-Times in 1967, Roger Ebert cast his critical eyes over the films of his native United States and the rest of the world until his death in 2013. Ebert transcend the very medium of film criticism, imbuing his writing with an air of humanism that married his widespread knowledge of film production and general narrative storytelling.
By the time the 1980s swung around, Ebert had been writing for more than a decade and was on hand to judge the kind of movies that arrived in the decade of excess. The writer had once stated his favourite movies from the 1980s, which ranged from science fiction to historical dramas and war movies of the most brutal kind.
First up for Ebert is David Mamet’s directorial debut, 1987’s House of Games, starring Lindsay Crouse, Joe Mantegna and Ricky Jay, based on a story Mamet wrote with Jonathan Katz. The film tells of a therapist who helps her patient confront his inner issues after he threatens suicide but learns that he is, in fact, a conman and not a bookie as she had originally believed.
As far as war movies of the 1980s go, it’s hard to look beyond Oliver Stone’s iconic 1986 Vietnam War film Platoon, starring Willem Dafoe and Charlie Sheen, and it’s another film that captured Ebert’s attention. Discussing why Platoon succeeded, Ebert said Stone “abandoned the choreography that is standard in almost all war movies. He abandoned any attempt to make it clear where the various forces were in relation to each other, so that we never know where ‘our’ side stands and where ‘they’ are.”
After giving his respects to Alan Parker’s Mississippi Burning, Ebert turned his attention to Akira Kurosawa’s eternally memorable 1985 film Ran, loosely based on William Shakespeare’s King Lear and the legend of Mori Motonari, telling of a warlord who decides to abdicate his rulership for one of his sons.
The 1980s works of Steven Spielberg looked to have made quite an impression on Ebert, too, as he names both Raiders of the Lost Ark and E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial in his top picks of the decade. The critic said that the first movie in the Indiana Jones franchise is “an out-of-body experience, a movie of glorious imagination”, while E.T. “made my heart feel glad, filled with innocence, hope, and good cheer.”
Elsewhere, Louis Malle’s mesmerising My Dinner with Andre and Spike Lee’s inimitable Do the Right Thing also received the highest praise from Ebert. At the number two spot, the legendary movie critic placed Philip Kaufman’s 1983 epic historical drama The Right Stuff, which focuses on the military pilots selected to be the astronauts for Project Mercury, the first United States spaceflight.
At the top spot, though, is one of Martin Scorsese’s greatest-ever movies, 1980’s Raging Bull, in which Robert De Niro played the middleweight boxing champion Jake LaMotta. “He is an engine driven by his own rage,” Ebert said of the character. “The equation between his prizefighting and his sexuality is inescapable, and we see the trap he’s in.”
Roger Ebert’s favourite 1980s movies:
- House of Games (David Mamet, 1987)
- Platoon (Oliver Stone, 1986)
- Mississippi Burning (Alan Parker, 1988)
- Ran (Akira Kurosawa, 1985)
- Raiders of the Lost Ark (Steven Spielberg, 1981)
- My Dinner with Andre (Louis Malle, 1981)
- Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee, 1989)
- E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (Steven Spielberg, 1982)
- The Right Stuff (Philip Kaufman, 1983)
- Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese, 1980)