Since we’re about to punch our ticket out of the first decade of the new millennium, I thought it would be interesting to ask GITS readers what their favorite decade of movies is.
Easy to go with the 70s, but arguments can be made for other decades as well.
When you respond, mention a few of the important movies from the decade of your choice.
50s blew me away with North By Northwest and On The Waterfront; 60s bred some of my favorites including The Graduate and Easy Rider; But the 70s had One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Chinatown, Network and Play It Again Sam amongst others… I'd have to go with the 70's.
1980's
"Aliens"
"The Road Warrior"
"The Terminator"
"Back to School"
"Splash"
"Die Hard"
"Young Guns"
"Romancing the Stone"
"A Fish Called Wanda"
"Return of the Jedi"
"Raiders of the Lost Arc"
"Batman"
"Predator"
"Platoon"
"Leathal Weapon"
"Legend"
"Major League"
"Footloose"
"Gremlins"
"Poltergeist"
"Goonies"
"E.T. the Extra-Trestrial"
"Back to the Future"
"Wall Street"
"The Lost Boys"
"Fright Night"
"Risky Business"
Good luck topping that…
- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA
Actually this past decade was my favorite. Many of my favorite movies are from then:
-The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-2003)
-Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
-Million Dollar Baby (2004)
-Love, Actually (2003)
-Big Fish (2003)
-Kill Bill Vol.2 (2005)
-Unbreakable (2000)
-Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (2008)
-Star Trek (2009)
60s, hands down.
The Wild Bunch. Strangelove. Space Odyssey. Bonnie and Clyde. Battle of Algiers. Once Upon a Time in The West. Fistfull of Dollars.
Gotta go with the 70s, though, let's face it, the 90s we're good as well.
Just looking at some of the 70s Best Picture winners seals the deal for me:
Patton
The French Connection
The Godfather, PTS 1 AND 2
Now add some other classics into the mix and it's a cut and dried case.
Rocky
Star Wars
Mean Streets
Saturday Night Fever
Three Days of the Condor
The Day of the Jackal
Annie Hall
Across 110th Street
The Taking of Pelham 1,2,3
The list just goes on and on
80's, Ghostbusters… end of discussion.
As loathsome a decade as the 80's was (music, fashion, greed run amok), it certainly did churn out some classics. Good ole' EC covered the BIG ones but this decade could very well be seen as the genesis of the "indie feature" since people like Jarmusch, Lynch, Sayles, the Coens, Raimi, Spike Lee, Van Sant, Soderburg, and Demme were really coming into their own.
Examples:
Stranger Than Paradise
Down By Law
Blue Velvet
Something Wild
Blood Simple
Miracle Mile
Re-Animator
Stop Making Sense
The Evil Dead (1 & 2)
Repo Man (are they remaking this????)
She's Gotta' Have It
Matewan
Drugstore Cowboy
Sex, Lies, and Videotape
I dunno', I think for me, since I was coming of age when these directors were coming of age, creatively, it was certainly the most exciting time in film for me. I figured the indies would rule and the future of the cinema was nothing but bright.
Naive nincompoop, wasn't I? Little did I know…
The 1990s because it was when there was a resurgence in independent films and a (temporary) break from studio formula. These were films that didn't hit you over the head with special effects or gore or jiggling tits. Instead they got you to think and weep and cheer, to make it exciting to go to the cinema again. Ones that come to mind:
Memento
12 Monkeys
Pulp Fiction/Reservoir Dogs/Jackie Brown
Fargo
Unforgiven
Goodfellas
The Matrix
Saving Private Ryan
LA Confidential
The Usual Suspects
Heat
Boogie Nights
Clerks
The 90's, three things make me think this
1. Disney renaissance
2. Se7en
3. Pulp Fiction
Wanted to clarify that not all the films I mentioned aren't indie, of course. These were ones from the 90s that I felt got people talking most about cinema again.
The 70's; definitely.
The majority of my favorite movies were made then.
Examples:
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Suspiria
Jaws
Chinatown
The Godfather
Mean Streets
Saturday Night Fever
Taxi Driver
A Clockwork Orange
The Omen
Alien
The Amityville Horror
Carrie
Apocalypse Now
Halloween
Dawn of the Dead
The Life of Brian
The Exorcist
Barry Lyndon
Play Misty For Me
Wicker Man
American Graffiti
Soylent Green
Young Frankenstein
Blazing Saddles
Rocky
I rest my case.