My Favorite: Movies: 1982

The stretch between 1980 and 1982 was kind of epic for my childhood in terms of favorite movies: Empire Strikes Back, Superman II, Raiders of the Lost Ark and now Star Trek II: KAHNNN!!!!, Tron and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Let’s start off with my usual excursion over to IMDB to remember what I’ve seen and what I haven’t but probably should get around to watching.

HAVE SEEN: Tootsie, 48 Hours, Tron, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Deathtrap, Nightshift, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Firefox, Poltergeist, Blade Runner, The Thing, Annie, One from the Heart, Zapped!, My Favorite Year, The Grey Fox, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Gandhi, First Blood, Pink Floyd The Wall, The Dark Crystal, The Secret of NIMH, The World According to Garp.

HAVE NOT: Porky’s, An Officer and a Gentleman, The Verdict, The Toy, Victor Victoria, Diner, Honkytonk Man, Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid, Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, Q, The Year of Living Dangerously, Cat People, Eating Raoul, Swamp Thing, Fanny and Alexander, Conan the Barbarian, Sophie’s Choice, Creepshow, Fitzcarraldo, Missing, The Man from Snowy River, Personal Best.

Somewhere I saw someone had linked to this “preview” of summer movies coming out in 1982 — it’s a bit of a cool time capsule:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wf39eB1YGUo?rel=0]

Despite all of the movies I loved seeing as a kid in the theaters that year, my favorite is Blade Runner which I saw later and have seen many times since. There are so many striking moments from that movie but the scene with Rutger Hauer is beautiful and haunting.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_saUN4j7Gw?rel=0]

What is kind of amazing is that Blade Runner was set in 2019 which in 2013 isn’t all that far off.

After Blade Runner, Star Trek, Tron and E.T. still place very highly for me. I’d have to throw The Thing in the top ten too. I did see Poltergeist, a pretty scary movie, in 1982, but didn’t see The Thing until many years later. I still don’t like the most disgusting parts of The Thing but the movie as a whole is fantastic. The very recent prequel to it was actually also really good (and one of the few prequels to actually work).

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