The Movie Journal

  The Big Red One (1980) Samuel Fuller’s The Big Red One is an epic, harrowing personal journey into how devastating World War II was. Even though the film is fictional, the film is based off the true stories that Fuller himself witnessed during the war. My review is the review of the reconstructed 158-minute feature that critic Richard Schnickel put together, which more closely resembles the story Fuller wanted to tell. When compared to war films, this particular movie is more episodic. Instead of scenes leading to one major scene, Fuller told this war story as is; as the group travels from North Africa to Italy to Omaha Beach. The unique degree of storytelling is what sets it apart from other war films. Even star Lee Marvin later said that his other major war film, The Dirty Dozen is “moneymaking junk” when compared to this feature. The idea of the film came about in the 1950’s when Warner Brothers sent Fuller to scout locations for the film. Studio head Jack L. Warner wanted Joh...

The Competition (1980) The Competition is a well-crafted movie that features some interesting ideas about forbidden romance, but it is highly forgettable in the end. If anything, the movie is a good showcase for Richard Dreyfuss, five years removed from his breakthrough performance in Jaws . The film also features a good deal of music and the piano work is masterful and soothing to the ears. However, this is really not about a piano competition or music. At its core, we get a sweet (and perhaps a bit superficial) love story between two pianists.   There is a huge international piano competition occurring in San Francisco, where the world’s best pianists gather to compete against each other. The first place prize is a $20,000 cash reward and a two-year concert contract. This is Paul’s (Richard Dreyfuss) last chance to win the prize. However, newcomer Heidi (Amy Irving) might be the slightly better pianist. The two rivals form an unlikely romance, but is it likely to su...

Raging Bull (1980) Raging Bull is hands-down my favorite movie of 1980. It is also the best boxing movie ever made, and it is a movie that will forever be remembered by American audiences. Martin Scorsese’s film tells the true story of the unhinged boxer, Jake LaMotta (who passed away last year at the ripe old age of 95). He was a boxer who punched hard, harder, and hardest, and he went all out in the boxing ring. Outside of the ring, he was a vulnerable man especially when it came to women. He believed women to be precious virgins for his own making, and only he can take away their virginity. The movie really went deep with his character, and I love how the movie is not afraid to throw punches.   This was Martin Scorsese’s big passion project. After the disappointment of his 1977 feature, New York, New York, he fell into a state of depression and that triggered his drug use which almost killed him. Fortunately, this movie took him away from those dark times. He was reluc...

Private Benjamin (1980) Private Benjamin is a movie that could have been a comedy classic. It has an all-star cast led by the likes of Goldie Hawn, Eileen Brennan, and Albert Brooks. The premise is comedy gold. Who wouldn’t like a snobby, self-centered person put into his/her place by the military. The thing is, Private Benjamin only partly delivers on the promise of an endearing comedy. The first half of the film is solid entertainment filled with funny gags. However, the second half was stale and it left me with a sour taste in my mouth that diminished the overall quality and effectiveness of the movie.   When Yale Goodman (Albert Brooks) dies after marrying his wife Judy Benjamin (Goldie Hawn), Judy decides to enlist in the United States Army. The Army recruiter, Jim Ballard (Harry Dean Stanton) paints her a picture about a wonderful life in the Army. But when she arrives to basic training, it is anything but that pretty picture. Now she must survive from the likes...

The Elephant Man (1980) “ I am not an animal. I am a human being.”   These are the heartbreaking words that John Merrick says when he gets fed up with people gawking at him and comparing him to an animal. David Lynch’s The Elephant Man is a hard-hitting story about a real-life person who is an outcast due to his deformities. However, Lynch who also wrote the script, portrays this subject matter in a more positive light. Themes of courage, and the fact that everyone is human no matter the circumstances are brought to light here. Prepare to bring the tissues, because this story is an emotional story and I can guarantee no one will have a dry eye when the end credits appear on screen.   I will go right into the thick of the story. John Merrick (John Hurt), nicknamed “The Elephant Man” is a man with a wonderful personality, but is hated by the English society because of his deformed body. He was discovered at a freak show by a kind doctor named Frederick Treves (...

Ordinary People (1980) 1980’s Ordinary People is a masterpiece. The story is about how grief can impact and tear apart a family, so this film is a very hard watch and it will most likely leave the viewer in an emotional state. That being said, this film is powerful because of the themes the movie tackles and because of four heartfelt, emotionally-driven acting performances.   Tragedy is something every family deals with. Someone dies, thus turning the world into pieces for families. Many families also have underlying problems that they choose to ignore or they cannot see, but are forced to confront these problems when tragedy strikes as it occurs with this one particular family, the Jarrett family. That is the whole essence of this movie, how these very real characters confront their issues.   By 1980, Robert Redford was a full-fledged movie star. He was in such movies like Bonnie and Clyde and The Sting. The time was ripe for Redford to make his directori...

Caddyshack (1980)   Golf is my least favorite sport. I think it’s boring, and not fun to play. So you could imagine my trepidation heading into a golf film such as 1980’s Caddyshack . I was pleasantly surprised by my reaction to this movie. The movie is really not about golf, but about the zany antics of the many characters in the film. The movie is crude and juvenile, but the humor really works. Not every joke is going to work, but there was enough screwball comedy to keep me chortling throughout the film.   Caddyshack is Harold Ramis’s directorial debut and he also written the screenplay along with Brian Doyle-Murray and Douglas Kenney. Ramis previously wrote one of my favorite 1978 comedies, Animal House . It is natural that he would bring the same type of humor to this film. As for directing, Ramis did a rather good job in his debut. There were some issues regarding connectivity of the characters, but I think he passed his first test.   When coming...

My Bodyguard (1980) My Bodyguard is a forgotten little gem of a movie. It is one of those movies you never hear of, but then you stumble across   it and fall in love with. This is a coming-of-age drama about how to gain revenge on the high school bullies; by hiring a guy who’s bigger and stronger than the bullies. The story is engaging, funny, and surprisingly heartfelt. It can also be a little predictable at times, mainly towards the end. The performances by the younger actors are phenomenal, and unlike many films that feature mostly younger actors, you actually care what happens to these well-developed characters.   Clifford Peache (Chris Makepeace) is the new kid in town. His popularity instantly diminishes when he insults the tough bully, Moody (Matt Dillon). Moody is a punk who makes a career extorting lunch money from kids. They pretend to protect the kids from the school legend, Linderman (Adam Baldwin). It is rumored that Linderman, a tall freak of nature...

Airplane! (1980) Airplane! is an early example of a spoof movie, and is one of the better spoof movies out there. Maybe it’s the garbage that has been released the past decade, but spoof movies are my least favorite genre. The concept of making fun of other movies is a genius idea, but the execution have been ranging anywhere from downright mediocre to absolutely horrendous. Fortunately, Airplane! is the right example how to make a spoof movie. There is no over-reliance on poop or fart jokes and although the movie is nearly forty years old, the humor ages like a nice bottle of fine wine. Plus it helps the movie sports a wonderful cast. One that began a career of comedy for many of the talented actors and actresses.   Although the plot can be tricky to describe because it pulls from many films, I will do my best to tell you about the basic story. Ted Striker (Robert Hays) is an ex-Navy pilot who is afraid of boarding a plane because of the war. He faces his fear and bo...

Dressed to Kill (1980) What do you get when you combine Alfred Hitchcock and a thriller suspense story from the 1980’s? Well, you would get 1980’s thriller Dressed to Kill. From the beginning, you can tell that director Brian De Palma was trying to emulate Alfred Hitchcock’s films of old. Many young filmmakers at the time tried to make films with a Hitchcock influence, but many of them failed. However, Dressed to Kill mostly succeeded in creating a “Hitchcock” film. According to famed critic Roger Ebert, “He (De Palma) places his emphasis on the same things that obsessed Hitchcock: precise camera movements, meticulously selected visual movements, characters seen as types rather than personalities, and violence as a sudden interruption of the most mundane situations.” While the movie may not be peak Hitchcock, we get have an entertaining thriller that is violent, engaging, and surprisingly effective.   My first thought of the movie was that it is a strangely erotic movie...

Brubaker (1980) Brubaker is one of those underseen hidden gems I had no idea existed until I began researching little-known movies that might peak my interest. I adore prison dramas no matter how ordinary or clichéd they may be. This movie is abundant of prison movie clichés, but it is the political nature of the story that fascinated me, as well as the strong cast. Let’s get the bitter stuff out of the way first. What do I mean by a clichéd story? It is all about the characters and who they represent. We got the idealistic reformer, the tough-as-nails colored guard, the rotten person on the prison board, and the psycho prisoner. These type of characters pop up in nearly all prison movies, but at least we have a very talented cast playing these roles with near perfection.   Before I can delve in with what fascinated me the most, we need to discuss the plot. There is a new prison warden at Wakefield Prison. Henry Brubaker (Robert Redford) decides to begin his new posit...

The Fog (1980) When done right, horror movies can work very well. But more times than not, they tend to suck which is why I am not a fan of the genre as a whole. With John Carpenter’s The Fog , we are presented with an interesting dilemma. It’s not a particularly great movie, but there is something about the movie I couldn’t resist. The movie does earn points because of its stylish nature. As the title appropriately suggests, this film is about a killer fog more or less and the production team does a wonderful job in showcasing just how creepy and scary that fog was. Every time I see the green fog travelling through the town of Antonio Bay, California, goosebumps legit appeared all over my body. The movie is also well-directed. John Carpenter is often called horror’s maestro, and you can see some examples of that here. He actually wants to create a story that doesn’t totally rely upon gore or jump scares and he somewhat succeed. The movie also has a very strong beginning. John Ho...

Coal Miner's Daughter (1980) Let me say it right here. Coal Miner’s Daughter is one of the best films of 1980. Period. I was literally taken by surprise by how much I enjoyed this movie especially from the kind of story it is. It’s a simple rags-to-rich story that does not stray far away from the formula, and yet I was moved by the characterization portrayed by director Michael Apted, screenwriter Thomas Rickman, and the two leads in Sissy Spacek and Tommy Lee Jones. Every character here is humanized  and they have flaws just as much as they have virtues. Sure the story follows formula (the simple early life, rise to stardom, the downfall, and of course the big comeback), but I was firmly glued onto the characters because of how they were. That is what made this movie excel. I wouldn’t expect a movie about a country music star Loretta Lynn would move me as much as it did. But there you go, life is made of surprises. When Loretta Webb (Sissy Spacek) was thirteen year...

Mad Max (1980) Mad Max is a film that spawned a new genre of post-apocalyptic sci-fi movies and the career of Mel Gibson. This movie also gave birth to three sequels and a variety of spinoffs. Its been years since I first learned of this franchise, but it took me awhile to actually get around into seeing these movies. I have now seen this movie twice. The first time, I did not really like the film. While still an imperfect film, I appreciated the film much more. The story isn’t spectacular-it’s a just a road trip action/thriller with Mel Gibson killing all the bad guys who get in his way, but the characters are what make this movie work. So Mel Gibson plays a man named Max, a cop in the wastelands of post-apocalyptic Australia. To say Max is a savage cop to those who undermine him is like saying I only merely like watching movies. This man is ruthless when it comes to his career, but what makes Max a bigger character is the other side of himself. He is a happy family man...

 In 1977, a cultural revolution began with the little-known science-fiction film called Star Wars created by visionary director George Lucas. It ended up being the highest-grossing film of all-time and it still ranks very high in the midst of today’s blockbusters. It was a very enjoyable movie and it created memorable characters that will live on for eternity. So of course we would get a sequel. In fact, Lucas created a whole world around his baby -an ambition that was not normal in 1980. With the sequel- The Empire Strikes Back , Lucas handed the directorial duties to his former college film professor Irvin Kershner because of his duties with his rising visual effects company Industrial Light and Magic, but of course he was very involved with this film. But enough of the background, let’s talk about this film. This sequel is much darker in tone, more mysterious, and quite frankly the best film in the franchise. Our favorite characters like Luke and Leia Skywalker and Han Sol...

The Shining (1980) Today, I will review the 1980 genre classic, The Shining. Directed by masterful director Stanley Kubrick, this film went down as one of the greatest modern day horror masterpieces. Although Stephen King will “kindly” disagree. The movie is borderline sadistic in how it psychologically messes with the audience. The amount of twists and turns add up to one hell of a psychological thriller that made a mess out of my brain. The film maintains an eerie atmosphere throughout the film and it never settles until days after the end credits rolled. Jack Nicholson delivers another career-defining performance as Jack Torrance. The actor’s charisma and scary demeanor matches the tone of the movie perfectly. However, Shelley Duvall quite literally took me out of the movie at times with her blubbering performance. I will explain the basic premise of the movie the best I can. There are so many different parts to the story, so many different interpretations and themes to m...