1984: A Movie Year To Be Remembered

[zombiewhacker]

We're well into September, which means that a new year is almost upon us once again. Before 2009 fades into oblivion, though, perhaps we should take a moment to commemorate the fact that this is the 25th anniversary of 1984. No, I'm not talking Orwell here. I mean 1984, the movie year.

I've always felt this was a touchstone year. Box office blockbusters. Classic films. Classic schlock. Cult movies. Movies that made that made their mark on pop culture. Movies that pop culture ended up mocking.

For those who were there to remember it, 1984 was one heck of a year:

Ghostbusters
Beverly Hills Cop
The Karate Kid
Gremlins
Police Academy
Footloose
Splash
Purple Rain
Bachelor Party
The Natural
Revenge of the Nerds
Red Dawn
The Terminator
The Gods Must Be Crazy
A Nightmare on Elm Street
Star Trek 3: The Search for Spock
This is Spinal Tap
Sixteen Candles
Breakin'
All of Me
The Neverending Story
Dead Calm
Once Upon a Time in America
The Killing Fields
Amadeus
Blood Simple
A Soldier's Story
Places in the Heart
A Passage to India
Romancing the Stone
Nausica of the Valley of the Wind
Repo Man
1984
Night of the Comet
Dune
Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter
Conan the Destroyer
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
2010
Missing in Action
Cannonball Run 2
Oh, God, You Devil

Not to mention a few films that ended up getting riffed by... well, you know who:

Cave Dwellers
Pod People
Devil Fish
Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders
Final Justice

In short 1984 rocked. So let's all take a moment and pay our adieu's. Get slimed, wax on/wax off, play a game of scary noises, and do magic, because 1984 (drum roll, please) will not be back.

[Truck Farmer]

And turn it up to 11.

[Bix Dugan]

You're right. Scads of well-known and often watched movies on that list.
I don't think you could cite 2009 as a "great year for movies" twenty-five years from now.

[Bix Dugan]

I was showing this list to my brother last night. He agreed, it's an impressive list, and will be difficult for any year to match it, let alone beat it.

Then he saw the MST3K'd movies at the bottom...

"I've seen Pod People." he said.

I said "You may have seen a movie with pods, and people, but you haven't seen Pod People, I'm sure!"

So now I have to show him a clip. Maybe the "Trumpy can do magic things" scene?

[zombiewhacker]

Sadly, the same cannot be said of cinematic year 1985. (But we'll save that for another thread.) The next best year from the '80s could arguably be 1986, though it's still a distant shadow to 1984.

Oh, well, two years from now we can celebrate all over again!