MC Yearly Consensus - 1981

[Spinal]

Submit your five favorite films from this year and in a week I will give you a top ten. IMDb dates will be used.

The point system is as follows

1st Place-5 points
2nd Place-4 points
3rd Place-3.5 points
4th Place-3 points
5th Place-2.5 points

There will be no restrictions on short films. A minimum of three films must be listed. You may edit your post freely up until the time that the voting is closed, which will be in about a week. I will give at least 24 hours warning before tallying votes.

You may begin now.

IMDB Power Search (http://www.imdb.com/list)

[Spinal]

1. Raiders of the Lost Ark
2. Time Bandits
3. Das Boot
4. The French Lieutenant's Woman
5. An American Werewolf in London

[Philosophe_rouge]

Stupid 1981

[Watashi]

1. Raiders of the Lost Ark
2. The Road Warrior
3. Time Bandits
4. Gallipoli

[The Mike]

1. Blow Out
2. Escape from New York
3. Dead & Buried
4. The Cannonball Run
5. The Evil Dead

HM: Body Heat, Knightriders, Happy Birthday to Me

[origami_mustache]

1. The Garden of Earthly Delights
2. Pennies From Heaven
3. Diva
4. Gallipoli
5. My Dinner with Andre

[Boner M]

1. Blow Out
2. Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior
3. Raiders of the Lost Ark
4. An American Werewolf in London
5. Possession

HM: Modern Romance, The Howling, The Beyond, Polyester

Need to see: Rat Trap, Southern Comfort, Tales of Ordinary Madness, Ladies and Gentlemen... The Fabulous Stains, Prince of the City

[MacGuffin]

5. Possession

Blue Underground is reissuing this soon!


Polyester

My number one this year so far; too bad I haven't seen enough. I think this is John Waters' best.

[Stay Puft]

1. My Young Auntie
2. Blow Out
3. Raiders of the Lost Ark
4. The Evil Dead
5. An American Werewolf in London

[dreamdead]

1. Raiders of the Lost Ark
2. Ms. 45
3. Das Boot
4. Modern Romance

I can never be sure if I've largely avoided '80s films because few were good or if I just still haven't found the right '80s films.:frustrated:

[Winston*]

I can never be sure if I've largely avoided '80s films because few were good or if I just still haven't found the right '80s films.:frustrated:

In any case, you seem to have largely avoided Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior.

[Russ]

1. Gallipoli
2. Ragtime
3. S.O.B
4. Mommie Dearest
5. Springtime in Greenland

[Yxklyx]

1. Raiders of the Lost Ark (Steven Spielberg)
2. My Dinner with Andre (Louis Malle)
3. Das Boot (Wolfgang Petersen)
4. Diva (Jean-Jacques Beineix)
5. Body Heat (Lawrence Kasdan)

6. Blow Out (Brian De Palma)
7. An American Werewolf in London (John Landis)
8. Pennies from Heaven (Herbert Ross)
9. Ms. 45 (Abel Ferrara)
10. Lola (Rainer Werner Fassbinde)

[Pop Trash]

1. Raiders of the Lost Ark
2. Time Bandits
3. Das Boot
4. The French Lieutenant's Woman
5. An American Werewolf in London
You're not voting for your own freakin' avatar??

[Torgo]

1. Raiders of the Lost Ark
2. The Evil Dead
3. Chariots of Fire
4. Scanners
5. Vernon, Florida

[Pop Trash]

1. Polyester
2. Raiders of the Lost Ark
3. The Road Warrior
4. Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains
5. An American Werewolf in London

6. The Evil Dead
7. Clash of the Titans
8. Escape from New York
9. Christiane F.
10. Mommie Dearest


Not that great of a year for cinema...unless you love werewolf movies.

[Spinal]

You're not voting for your own freakin' avatar??

Let's be realistic here. It's not that great a film and I have five 4-star films on my list already.

[Pop Trash]

Let's be realistic here. It's not that great a film and I have five 4-star films on my list already.
I like Clash of the Titans better than Time Bandits. There I said it.

[Mysterious Dude]

1. Reds
2. Pixote
3. Raiders of the Lost Ark
4. Time Bandits
5. Das Boot

[MadMan]

Still much to see from this year. Some good stuff though.

1. Raiders of the Lost Ark
2. Escape From New York
3. An American Werewolf in London
4. The Evil Dead
5. Stripes
6. History of the World: Part I
7. Friday the 13th: Part II

[The Mike]

Not that great of a year for cinema...unless you love werewolf movies.Thus, it's a great year for cinema. :pritch:

(And yet I didn't even HM American Werewolf in London and Howling. What a Lame-O!)

[Derek]

I can never be sure if I've largely avoided '80s films because few were good or if I just still haven't found the right '80s films.:frustrated:

This is not only the weakest year of the 80s by far, but my vote for the single worst year in modern cinema. There aren't many awful films but a lot of disappointing films from otherwise great directors and a few other overrated ones in there to boot. And this isn't to say my top 5 isn't strong, but the quality drops off pretty quick after that.

1. The Road Warrior (George Miller)
2. America is Waiting (Bruce Conner)
3. Raiders of the Lost Ark (Steven Spielberg)
4. Blow Out (Brian De Palma)
5. Modern Romance (Albert Brooks)

HMs: Ms. 45 (Abel Ferrara), Stripes (Harold Ramis)

Overrated/Not all they're cracked up to be: History of the World, Part I (Mel Brooks), Pixote (Hector Babenco), Escape from New York (John Carpenter), Do You Remember Dolly Bell? (Emir Kusturica), Thief (Michael Mann), Vernon, Florida (Errol Morris), Body Heat (Lawrence Kasdan), An American Werewolf in London (John Landis), Lola (Rainer Werner Fassbinder), Whoever Says the Truth Shall Die (Philo Bregstein), Time Bandits (Terry Gilliam), Diva (Jean-Jacques Beineix)

[soitgoes...]

1. Raiders of the Lost Ark (Steven Spielberg)
2. Das Boot (Wolfgang Petersen)
3. Reds (Warren Beatty)
4. Blow Out (Brian De Palma)
5. Time Bandits (Terry Gilliam)
---------------------------------------------
6. Gallipoli (Peter Weir)
7. Do You Remember Dolly Bell? (Emir Kusturica)
8. The Fox and the Hound (Ted Berman, Richard Rich, Art Stevens)

Blech.

[baby doll]

1. Modern Romance (Albert Brooks)
2. Diva (Jean-Jacques Beineix)
3. Lola (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
4. La Femme de l'aviateur (Eric Rohmer)

Need to see: The Arabic Numerals Series (Stan Brakhage); Ms. 45 (Abel Ferrara); Too Early, Too Late (Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub)

Overrated: Blowout (Brian De Palma); Raiders of the Lost Ark (Steven Spielberg)

[origami_mustache]

2. Diva (Jean-Jacques Beineix)


edited

[Ezee E]

Pretty lousy year.

1. The Road Warrior
2. Raiders of the Lost Ark
3. Southern Comfort (I can't believe I'm the first person to put this in)
4. Escape from New York
5. Blow Out

[Raiders]

Pretty lousy year.

Ridiculous. This year is pretty awesome.

1. Southern Comfort (Hill)
2. Blow Out (De Palma)
3. Ms. 45 (Ferrara)
4. Raiders of the Lost Ark (Spielberg)
5. Do You Remember Dolly Bell? (Kusturica)

--------------------------------------

6. Pennies from Heaven (Ross)
7. Gallipoli (Weir)
8. The Aviator's Wife (Rohmer)
9. The Road Warrior (Miller)
10. Excalibur (Boorman)
11. Pixote (Babenco)

[Kurosawa Fan]

1. Raiders of the Lost Ark
2. Body Heat
3. An American Werewolf in London
4. Escape from New York
5. Thief

[Lazlo]

1. Raiders of the Lost Ark
2. Das Boot
3. Gallipoli
4. The Evil Dead
5. Escape From New York

[Melville]

1. Raiders of the Lost Ark
2. Das Boot
3. The French Lieutenant's Woman

[Yum-Yum]

1. Nightdreams
2. The Beyond
3. Student Bodies
4. Polyester
5. Mommie Dearest

[Grouchy]

Nothing whatsoever wrong with this year.

1. Mad Max 2: Road Warrior
2. Blow Out
3. Raiders of the Lost Ark
4. Scanners
5. Escape from New York

And I even left out History of the World and Evil Dead.

[thefourthwall]

1. The French Lieutenant's Woman
2. Raiders of the Lost Ark
3. Time Bandits
4. Gallipoli
5. The Road Warrior

[Malickfan]

1. Thief
2. Das Boot
3. Raiders Of The Lost Ark
4. Escape From New York
5. The Howling

[ledfloyd]

1. Raiders of the Lost Ark
2. An American Werewolf in London
3. Damn, I'm out.

[Malickfan]

Thief should be getting more love than this.

[transmogrifier]

No Southern Comfort?

This thread = epic fail.

EDIT: except for Raiders.

EDIT 2: and E.

Note to self: read, then post.

[SirNewt]

1. Riaders of the Lost Ark
2. Das Boat
3.
4. Chariots of Fire
5. Reds

[Malickfan]

1. Riaders of the Lost Ark
2. Das Boat
3.
4. Chariots of Fire
5. Reds

Thief. Put it in there. I'll give you a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.

[monolith94]

1. Time Bandits
2. Shock Treatment
3. Diva
4. Pennies from Heaven
5. My Dinner with Andre


a very quirky year

[SirNewt]

Thief. Put it in there. I'll give you a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.

Damn, I haven't seen it. And I want that Peanut Butter Cup soooooooo bad!

:frustrated:

[Spinal]

Last day.

[Sven]

Thief should be getting more love than this.

I've tried watching this movie three times and i have never made it past thirty minutes before I either fall asleep of turn it off out of sheer disinterest.

[Qrazy]

Thief. Put it in there. I'll give you a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.

Personally I can't stand any Mann films pre-Mohicans... and I"m not too sure about Mohicans... the stuff after that is quality though (for the most part).

[Spinal]

I've got some time to start counting this now. New ballots/posts will be accepted, but no more editing above this post.

[Spinal]

I'm not really sick any more, but I do find than spending 10 rep points is a rather efficient way to get this done. Any takers? I already have it tabulated. I'll send you the list and you can do the presentation.

[Raiders]

I'm not really sick any more, but I do find than spending 10 rep points is a rather efficient way to get this done. Any takers? I already have it tabulated. I'll send you the list and you can do the presentation.

Sorry. I recently changed the rep tabulating system (for the last time) since it seems 10 should likely be the final destination in terms of power.

[Spinal]

Sorry. I recently changed the rep tabulating system (for the last time) since it seems 10 should likely be the final destination in terms of power.

:|

[Raiders]

:|

Don't worry. I don't think any less of you.

[Spinal]

Quit trying to Tiger-proof the course, man.

Anyway, I guess I will rep you twice now if you want to finish this thread.

[Winston*]

Rep power should be calculated by rep points divided by post count IMHO.

[soitgoes...]

Ack, I'm back down to 1 rep power! Damn you Spinal for being a rep magnet and posting a bunch and stuff! What's the new formula if I might ask?

[Grouchy]

Quit trying to Tiger-proof the course, man.

Anyway, I guess I will rep you twice now if you want to finish this thread.
I'll do it. PM me the tabulatings.

[MadMan]

I for one salute our eventual rep power overlords.

[Spinal]

I'll do it. PM me the tabulatings.

Done.

[Grouchy]

#10

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y121/HawleyGriffin/1981/divaab1.jpg?t=1222919702


Diva

Director: Jean-Jaques Beineix

Country: France

Young Parisian mail courier is content with his bohemian lifestyle, his circle of friends and listening to opera, particularly one exceptional American diva who refuses to be recorded. So enamored with her, he makes an illegal tape of her at a concert. But when the tape is confused with one implicating a police chief with the mob, he must use all his ingenuity to survive.

The producers were looking for an actress who fit the description of Cynthia Hawkins (the Diva) in the original novel -- a beautiful black American woman who sings a flawless operatic soprano, and speaks both English and French fluently. They attended a performance of Carmen to familiarize themselves with opera performers. Wilhelmenia Fernandez was playing the title role the night they attended the opera. It was her first movie role and she did all her own singing.

"Style is the only consistent thing in ''Diva.'' Jules, who starts out as something of a psychopath, is an unwitting hero. His two eccentric friends, Gorodish (Richard Bohringer), who spends his time meditating in his lovely loft apartment, and Alba (Thuy An Luu), the pretty shoplifter who roller skates around Gorodish's pad and lives with him, become the unlikely instruments of his salvation. And the celebrtated Cynthia, against all common sense, sees the beauty within Jules's soul, perhaps because they both share an unbounded admiration for her talent". -- Vincent Canby

[Grouchy]

#9

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y121/HawleyGriffin/1981/ed8.jpg?t=1222920324

The Evil Dead

Director: Sam Raimi

Country: USA

Five friends go up to a cabin in the woods where they find unspeakable evil lurking in the forest. They find the Necronomicon and the taped translation of the text. Once the tape is played, the evil is released. One by one, the teens become deadly zombies. With only one remaining, it is up to him to survive the night and battle the evil dead.

Filmed in a real-life abandoned cabin in Morristown, Tennessee. Most of the cast left the production after completing principal photography for budget concerns, so half the film was shot with only Bruce Campbell and various stand-ins (jokingly called "shemps") in the set. The blood is a combination of Karo syrup, non-dairy creamer, and red food coloring. At one point, Bruce Campbell's shirt that he wears in the film was so saturated with the fake blood that after drying it by the fire, the shirt became solidified and broke when he tried to put it on. There's a ripped poster for The Hills Have Eyes visible in a scene.

"It's 1981, and amongst the polished studio horror and the repetitive indie slashers, a tiny little film from an unknown director pops onto the scene. At first glance, it appears to be much of the same - it's populated with college students, a nubile woman with not enough clothing runs through the woods, and there's an intense-looking guy with an axe and a chainsaw. Then again, the college students become the bad guys, the nubile woman was just raped by a tree, and the slightly insane fellow with the sharp instruments is the hero. The tiny little film is, of course, The Evil Dead, the unknown is Sam Raimi, and the experience is unlike anything anybody had seen before". -- Nate Yapp

[Grouchy]

#7 (tie)

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y121/HawleyGriffin/1981/galli2dg1.png?t=1222920464

Gallipoli

Director: Peter Weir

Country: Australia

The story of a group of young Australian men who leave their various backgrounds behind and sign up to join the ANZACs in World War I. They are sent to Gallipoli, where they encounter the might of the Turkish army.

The movie was initially to be made by the South Australian Film Corporation who were the original team behind the production. However, they withdrew support for the film over creative differences over the script. However, the movie was still partially filmed in South Australia: the Gallipoli Peninsula was filmed at Port Lincoln whilst the market sequence was also filmed in South Australia at a fish market. Producers advertised for 400 skilled male horse riders for the movie, yet only 200 turned up for shooting. The remaining 200 horse riders in the movie were women, dressed to look as men.

"The final battle is the indeed film’s most harrowing passage. Turkish soldiers are dug into trenches that run the length of the coastline, while the ANZAC forces try to push through enemy lines. The result is a grisly bloodbath that strikes at the ugliness and arbitrariness of violence on such an enormous scale. It seems that this has been the film’s final destination all along — the horrors of war — and it all happens so suddenly, so clearly, that it makes you wonder how it could have possibly taken so long to get there". -- Matt McKillop

[Grouchy]

#7 (tie)

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y121/HawleyGriffin/1981/awil-se_shot2l.jpg?t=1222920830

An American Werewolf in London

Director: John Landis

Country: UK / USA

Two American students are on a walking tour of England and are attacked by a Werewolf. One is killed, the other is mauled. The Werewolf is killed, but reverts to it's human form, and the townspeople are able to deny it's existence. The surviving student begins to have nightmares of hunting on 4 feet at first, but then finds that his friend and other recent victims appear to him, demanding that he find a way to die to release them from their curse, being trapped between worlds because of their unnatural death.

All the songs in this film have "moon" in the title, but they were three songs Landis wanted that couldn't be featured. Cat Stevens wouldn't allow "Moonshadow" because of his conversion to Islam. Bob Dylan wouldn't allow "Blue Moon" because of his conversion to Christanity. And Elvis Presley's version of "Blue Moon" was the subject of an ongoing legal battle at the time.

"When you actually analyse the film, there’s not a huge amount of plot going on - man gets attacked by werewolf, man becomes werewolf, man kills lots of people, man gets shot. But as with many true classics, it’s the little things that count. For one thing, American Werewolf isn’t just scary, it’s bloody funny and hugely quotable as well. And that classy, cultish feel oozes from pretty much every scene, even what could have been a simple, throwaway scene-setter in a British pub at the beginning". -- britishhorrorfilms.com

[Grouchy]

#6

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y121/HawleyGriffin/1981/23939-ff-anchor.jpg?t=1222921586

Time Bandits

Director: Terry Gilliam

Country: UK

A young boy's wardrobe contains a time hole. Through this hole an assortment of short people (i.e. dwarfs) come while escaping from their master, the supreme being. They take Kevin with them on their adventures through time from Napoleonic times to the Middle Ages to the early 1900s, to the time of Legends and the Fortress of Ultimate Darkness where they confront Evil.

Young Craig Warnock, who played Kevin, won the role after a wide search for the right child actor. An agent had seen Warnock's brother and sent him to an audition. That Craig went with him was merely a coincidence. Director Terry Gilliam, however, took more interest in Craig than his sibling, noting that the young man seemed rather intelligent yet aloof and quiet, as opposed to the stereotypical "cute" little boy. Gilliam wrote a script for Time Bandits 2, but scrapped the project due to the deaths of Jack Purvis and David Rappaport, two of the most prominent Bandits.

"Terry Gilliam's lavish, nightmarish fantasy is perhaps the most successful attempt at capturing the wild, adventurous, exciting imaginations and dreams of childhood. A rip-roaring journey through time, space and historical characters, the contrast is between little Kevin's obsession with books and his parents' disinterest, with total commitment to modern gadgets and a tedious life revolving round television game shows". -- Robert Ross

[Grouchy]

Second half tomorrow morning, folks. Gotta spank the monkey.

[Grouchy]

#5

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y121/HawleyGriffin/1981/DieKlapperschlange_scene_02.jp g?

Escape from New York

Director: John Carpenter

Country: USA

In the future, crime is out of control and New York City is a maximum security prison. Grabbing a bargaining chip right out of the air, convicts bring down the President's plane in bad old Gotham. Gruff Snake Plissken, a one-eyed lone warrior new to prison life, is coerced into bringing the President, and his cargo, out of this land of undesirables.

The studio wanted either Tommy Lee Jones or Charles Bronson for the role of Snake, since there was nothing about Kurt Russell's previous movies that signaled him as an action hero. The wire-frame computer graphics on the display screens in the glider were not actually computer graphics. (Computers capable of 3D wire-frame imaging were way too expensive when this was made.) To generate the "wire-frame" images, they built a model of the city, painted it black, attached bright white tape to the model buildings in an orderly grid, and moved a camera through the model city! 20 years after this movie, a plane actually crashed into the WTC as we all know.

"In elite film circles John Carpenter's name usually elicits weary eye-rolls. Or, from the most devoted fans, "didn't he once do something good a couple of decades ago?" But look closer and Carpenter is one of the few old-school filmmakers working today. Having studied the great directors of the studio system like Howard Hawks and John Ford, Carpenter has more or less based his entire career on their model. He has worked for all different studios, jumping from independent films to larger films. And yet he has always stayed true to his own singular vision. Each and every film Carpetner has made sports his signature style. This almost forgotten film reveals a near-visionary workmanship, a low-budget film heavy on atmosphere and playful of character. Its $6 million budget bought what looks like a $50 million film". -- Jeffrey M. Anderson

[Grouchy]

#4

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y121/HawleyGriffin/1981/Hood_Engine.jpg?t=1222961069

Mad Max 2

Director: George Miller

Country: Australia

A former police officer is now Mad Max, a lone wanderer, travelling through a devasted Australia after a nuclear war looking for the now-priceless fuel of petrol. He lives to survive and is none too pleased when he finds himself the only hope of a small group of honest people running a remote oil refinery. He must protect them from the bike gang that is terrorising them whilst transporting their entire fuel supply to safety.

Renamed The Road Warrior for American release because, at the time, the first Mad Max had opened in very few US theaters. George Miller earned the rights to this and Mad Max beyond Thunderdome to get him to step aside as the director of Contact. The writers of the script were inspired by Seven Samurai and by Joseph Campbell's book The Hero with a Thousand Faces. The most expensive Australian film ever made at the time.

"In this post-apocalyptic view of the world, everything is about the gas. Finding it. hoarding it . . . stealing it . . . filling finely tuned motor vehicles of all sorts, to chase and be chased across the desert by gangs marauding pirates . . . such as this one, here. Hard to tell if their prime directive is maiming and raping, or acquiring the gas. I guess in their case, the latter is the means to the former. Max, wounded in spirit – fatally, it would seem – by the murder of his family some whiles prior, comes upon a loosely knit band of decent folk trying to escape their makeshift refinery with their lives as well as their gas – with a gang of cutthroat punk pirates at their heels. Will Max come to their aid, or leave them to wallow in their righteous communality? The plot, to anyone who has seen a Hollywood western, is familiar, but the action was never so cool. Everything leads to a fabulously paced, spectacular chase involving an interminably long tractor-trailer and a poetic apotheosis, making The Road Warrior one of the best action films ever". -- Leonard Norwitz

[Russ]

#5 Escape from New York

Her??

/blum

[Grouchy]

#3

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y121/HawleyGriffin/1981/05863.jpg?t=1222961332

Blow Out

Director: Brian De Palma

Country: US

Jack is a sound-man who works on "Grade-B" horror movies. Late one evening, he is "sampling" sounds for use on his movies, when he hears something unexpected through his sound equipment and records it. Curiosity gets the better of him when the media become involved, and he begins to unravel the pieces of a nefarious conspiracy. As he struggles to survive against his shadowy enemies and expose the truth, he doesn't know who he can trust.

During the editing process, two reels of footage from the Liberty Parade sequence were stolen and were never to be seen again. This meant that the scenes had to be reshot at a cost of $750,000. Cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond was no longer available, so he was replaced by Lazlo Kovacs. The movie is an obvious unofficial remake of Blowup, only replacing photographs with audio recordings. Al Pacino was originally attached to star.

"De Palma owes a debt to Hitchcock for this near-noir actioner. However, an even greater debt is owed to such films as Coppola's The Conversation and Blow Out's more direct forefather, Antonioni's Blowup. Derivative though it may be, De Palma isn't simply going through the motions here. He claims all of these elements for his own, like the adept collector that he is. De Palma's skills at structuring and foreshadowing, while never allowing his film to become predictable, are used to their best affect here. His use of long tracking shots and carefully mirrored blocking scenes (Jack Terry's reenactment of the recording session is a pleasure) make this one hard to look away from (and not just during the scenes of nudity)". -- J.C. Macek

[Grouchy]

#2

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y121/HawleyGriffin/1981/PDVD_009.jpg?t=1222962095

Das Boot

Director: Wolfgang Petersen

Country: West Germany

It is 1942 and the German submarine fleet is heavily engaged in the so called "Battle of the Atlantic" to harass and destroy English shipping. With better escorts of the Destroyer Class, however, German U-Boats have begun to take heavy losses. Das Boot is the story of one such U-Boat crew, with the film examining how these submariners maintained their professionalism as soldiers, attempted to accomplish impossible missions, while all the time attempting to understand and obey the ideology of the government under which they served.

The bulk of the film's $15 million budget was spent on constructing U-boats. Specifications for the original Type VII-C U-boat were found at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. The plans were taken to the original builder of the subs, who was commissioned to build a full-sized, sea-going replica, their first such assignment since the war ended. A second full-sized model was built for interior filming. Because the original TV mini-series was severely criticized in Germany for portraying World War II Germans sympathetically, the producer greeted the first American showing of the film at the Los Angeles Film Festival with great trepidation. They weren't sure how a former enemy nation in that war would react the film, especially in a city with a large Jewish population, and their fears were reinforced when the audience applauded the opening caption saying 30,000 of 40,000 German submariners were lost in the war. However, when the film ended, the audience gave the film a standing ovation in appreciation of the artistry of the filmmakers.

"Peterson's film, which stars Jurgen Prochnow as a stoic German U-boat captain, is a visually spectacular film, distinguished by strong performances and brilliant Steadicam photography that snakes through the U-boat as its patrols the North Atlantic during World War II. It's suspenseful when it needs to be and intelligent in its depiction of the horrors of war and the sweaty claustrophobia of submarine life. On occasion, it's even -- pardon the pun -- deep". -- Edward Guthmann

[Grouchy]

#1

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y121/HawleyGriffin/1981/raiders_r1_pic1.jpg?t=12229621 88

Raiders of the Lost Ark

Director: Steven Spielberg

Country: US

Renowned archeologist and expert in the occult, Dr. Indiana Jones, is hired by the U.S. Government to find the Ark of the Covenant, which is believed to still hold the ten commandments. Unfortunately, agents of Hitler are also after the Ark. Indy, and his ex-flame Marion, escape from various close scrapes in a quest that takes them from Nepal to Cairo.

Tom Selleck was always the first choice for Indiana Jones, but had to resign when he couldn't break his commitment to "Magnum P.I.". Subsequently, Nick Nolte, Chevy Chase and Jack Nicholson all turned down the role. The character had been on George Lucas radar from before Star Wars, and when Spielberg mentioned to him that he wanted to do a James Bond film, Lucas remembered the concept and pitched it to him. Philip Kaufman dreamed up the idea of Indy looking for the Ark of the Covenant. Alfred Molina's first movie role. On his first day of shooting he was covered with tarantulas.

"You have to love a movie that is so devilishly clever as to make the hero's every effort, no matter how Herculean, irrelevant to the conclusion. Had Dr. Jones elected to go on an extended vacation to Mozambique and never have anything to do with the Ark of the Covenant, nothing would have changed. Jones doesn't save the day. In fact, he doesn't come close to rescuing it, unless one considers his having failed as being the key to success. (Although he does get the girl.) Yes, the movie ends with melting faces, but, underneath all of that liquefying flesh and exploding heads, there's an abundance of irony just waiting for the attentive movie-goer to unearth. When was the last time that an action hero has been so utterly, completely inconsequential as Indiana Jones?" -- James Berardinelli

[Grouchy]

1. Raiders of the Lost Ark 91
2. Das Boot 33
3. Blow Out 30.5
4. The Road Warrior 29
5. Escape from New York 22
6. Time Bandits 21.5
7t. An American Werewolf in London 17.5
7t. Gallipoli 17.5
9. The Evil Dead 15.5
10. Diva 14

Near misses:
The French Lieutenant’s Woman 11.5
Reds 11
Modern Romance 10.5

[The Mike]

Besides the obvious disrespect for The Cannonball Run, a good list.