Top Ten Movies of the 1980s

#8
Raging Bull

1980

Directed by: Martin Scorsese
Written by: Paul Schrader, Mardik Martin, Robert DeNiro and Martin Scorsese
Based on the autobiography by: Jack LaMotta
Cinematography by: Michael Chapman
Edited by: Thelma Schoonmaker
Starring: Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci, and Cathy Moriarty

Nowadays Raging Bull is considered by many to be Scorsese's masterpiece, the greatest movie of the 1980s and even one of the greatest movies of all time. In fact, io their revised list, the American Film Institute named it the 4th greatest movie of all time. This is one instance where mainstream critics get it right. It's an incredible movie. To be honest though, listing it as only #8 on my top of the 1980s list makes me feel pretty special. Again though, it is only so far down the list because the 1980s was such an amazing decade for movies. Raging Bull has got the classic flawed individual trying to make it on his own theme that mainstream critics love. The main character is a real piece of crap. In fact, when the movie was first released many critics were split on the movie because they found Jake LaMotta (Robert DeNiro) to have no redeeming qualities. While this may have split the critics initially, it is probably that difference that distinguishes it from most other movies and why it is a classic nowadays.

The movie is based on the autobiography of Jake LaMotta. He was a boxer in the 1940s and former middleweight champion. It follows his rise and fall both professionally and personally. In the ring, he works his way to the top only to throw it all away by diving in a match. In his personal life he has severe bouts of rage hurting all of the people around him. This causes his family to fall apart. In the end, his wife Vickie (Cathy Moriarty) and manager brother Joey (Joe Pesci) leave him.

Robert DeNiro is really amazing in this movie and deservedly won an Oscar for Best Actor for it. He even learned how to be a proper boxer. During the shooting, LaMotta who coached him, claimed that he could have had a good run as a boxer instead of an actor. Also, a sign to DeNiro's commitment to the role was the fact that he gained 70 pounds to play the older overweight Jake LaMotta. Something that was unheard of at the time in acting. In this scene here you can see how he captures the rage and masochism of Jake:



It's also a pretty funny scene too actually. Raging Bull was Joe Pesci's first major role and also the first of many great movies that he made together with DeNiro (Goodfellas, Casino).

The American Film Institute also recently named Raging Bull the greatest sports movie ever made. Take that Rocky and Million Dollar Baby! This is especially interesting because when DeNiro gave Scorsese the autobiography of Jake LaMotta and first talked about making a movie out of it, Scorsese declined because he claimed that he didn't know anything about boxing. The way the scenes in the ring are filmed though, maybe it was better that way. Take at look at the scene from a match where LaMotta destroys an up and coming 'good looking' boxer named Janiro:



This clip says so much about what makes Raging Bull such a great movie. The first half is brutal. Scorsese uses everything to show how violent it is inside the ring. That one shot of Janiro's nose opening up and blood pouring out is unforgettable. In addition to this, I love the unique use of sound effects. You hear the distant sound of a train as Jake goes for a knockout punch. In other scenes in the movie you hear the heavy breathing of wild animals mixed with the heavy breathing of the fighters themselves. There's plenty of small things like this that point to Scorsese's brilliance. What Scorsese also does so well is making the brutality seem so beautiful. Thus, in the second half of the clip, the high-contrast black and white images and the Pietro Mascagni opera score combine to make something as arduous as training appear heavenly.

The movie is about more than just boxing though. It was a highly personal movie for Scorsese to make. When he chose it to be his next project he was in a hospital recovering from a near-fatal drug overdose. He even thought that this could be his last movie so he put everything he could into it. The theme of redemption which applied to Jake LaMotta was also so pertinent to Scorsese himself. I can only assume that at the time Scorsese must have felt as pathetic and down as LaMotta appears in this next scene:



Even though Raging Bull is at the top of all the critics lists and considered to be the best Scorsese film by the critics, most people I talk to haven't seen it. When it comes to Scorsese everyone's seen Goodfellas, Casino, Gangs of New York, The Departed, and even Taxi Driver. Those are all great movies but you're missing something if you haven't seen this one, go check it out now.

For being both one of the most beautiful and most brutal movies ever made, in my opinion Raging Bull is the 8th greatest movie of the 1980s.

Top Ten Movie of the 1980s

#9
Blow Out

1981

Written and Directed by: Brian De Palma
Cinematography by: Vilmos Zsigmond
Edited by: Paul Hirsch
Music by: Pino Donaggio
Starring: John Travolta, Nancy Allen, John Lithgow, and Dennis Franz

This is a fantastic movie, and the fact that it's number nine on my list just shows how great I think that filmmaking was in the 1980s. The story concerns Jack (John Travolta) who is working as a sound technician for low-budget exploitation films in Philadelphia. The movie begins with him being told by his boss that he needs the perfect scream in order to complete the movie their working on. Basically he's given an ultimatum: get a good scream or find another job. So one night when he's out recording new sounds in a park he witnesses a horrific car crash and actually gets the audio recording of the whole thing. Dying in the car accident was the governor of Pennsylvania and soon to be Presidential candidate. Jack was able to rescue a prostitute named Sally (Nancy Allen) from the car though. The rest of the movie follows Jack and Sally as they try to uncover what they think was the assassination of the governor. The whole time, the hired assassin (John Lithgow) is trying to silence them.

Brian De Palma is one of the masters of suspense movies. In the 1970s when he came to prominence he was hailed as the new Hitchcock. He can take any scene and put an audience on the edge of their seat. This is achieved with a great combination of music, cinematography, editing, and of course, a great sound technician of his own. Check out this great scene when the assassination kills a prostitute in the train station washroom:



Everything comes together nicely in this scene to make it perfect. The shot of the long empty hallway leading to the washroom, the overhead shot in the bathroom stalls, the sharp score, and the great little details in the sounds like the watch string and the woman brushing her teeth. This movie is De Palma at his best.

One of the things I love most about this movie though, is the focus on the mechanics of movie making in the story itself. As a sound technician we can see behind the scenes of how movies are actually made. Unfortunately, most of the time in movies, you see a behind the scenes in Hollywood type of movie which tend to focus on the lives of big stars and the famous. This may be suitable for mass consumption, but with Blow Out we see behind the scenes of the technical aspect of movie making itself. Something which I think is a lot more interesting. Many of the scenes in the movie splice shots of movie making and actual recording images together. This is the most common use of self-reflexivity in movies; to remind the viewer that they are watching something that is not actually real but fiction. The opening scene does this, but with a bit of a twist as you will see:



I this scene we see the evening news on one half of the screen and Jack on the other half documenting the sounds he has recorded. By putting these two images together it is trying to remind the viewer that TV News is itself to a certain extent fiction. Although it may be reporting real events, there is a whole process behind the news to decide what is presented to the public and how it is presented also. For example, in this scene there are two subjects covered at the same time: the Liberty Day parade and the announcement of the governor of his Presidential candidacy. The seemingly small decision of covering both of these stories concurrently actually would help the candidate associate himself with the huge patriotic event of the parade to the viewing public. In reality, decisions like this are not small at all as they concern everyone who watches the evening news. This decision and the decision to run with a story like this as headline news are valuable propaganda tools used by TV and other media every day, or every hour really. De Palma wants to remind us with this scene that we are viewing something that was constructed and along the way, ideology was intrinsically tied to the process at every level.

The movie pays homage to Antonioni's Blow Up which was on my top movies of the 1960s list. While in the former someone was trying to solve a murder based on photos, in Blow Out Jack is using a sound recording. Still, the questions about the nature of reality and what we can know are just as potent as in Blow Up. George Lucas could learn a lot about the meaning of homage from this movie.

Of course, not all people like to think when they watch a movie. But for those of you who like to watch movies for other reasons than just entertainment, this movie is for you. I'm sorry if I sound a little bitter or arrogant here, but when this movie was first released it bombed at the box office. One of the main reasons for this was the fact that it had a bleak ending. Who says that movies should always have happy endings thought. That in itself maybe is another form of propaganda. Everything is not always alright, live with it. For my money, the movie has one of the best and most dramatic endings I've ever seen. I am hesitant in posting a clip though because it is such a big SPOILER. If you haven't seen the movie DO NOT WATCH THIS CLIP. It will be a much more enjoyable experience if you haven't seen this clip. I'm gonna post it anyway though, because I think it's so amazing:



As I've tried to show though, this is a great suspenseful thriller which can also be appreciated on the level of entertainment see you won't be bored to death. It is definitely John Travolta's best performance and was made before he became a caricature of his former self. I first saw this movie many years ago after reading that it was one of Quentin Tarantino's three favourite movies. I figured that alone was reason enough and I hope it also helps convince you to watch this awesome movie if you haven't seen it.

For being a great suspenseful thriller and for its self-reflexive aspect, Blow Out is in my opinion the 9th greatest movie of the 1980s.