Movies that exemplify the 80’s aesthetic? *

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by Arthur Pewty, Dec 17, 2019.

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  1. tkl7

    tkl7 Agent Provocateur

    Location:
    Lewis Center, OH
    River's Edge doesn't have the 80's feel IMO. The characters are too gritty, and the look is too realistic. I would say it is more of a precursor to the 90s independent film boom.
     
  2. Bungo

    Bungo Forum Resident

    Location:
    Madison, WI
    The Lost Boys comes to mind:

    • Cheesy '80s boy actors with cheesy '80s clothing and haircuts
    • Cheesy '80s plot and humor
    • Cheesy '80s soundtrack
    • Kiefer Sutherland sporting a mullet!

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
  3. LeBon Bush

    LeBon Bush Hound of Love

    Location:
    Austria
    - Bright Lights, Big City (yuppie culture. Lots of drugs, constant pressure, meaningless sex, and the soundtrack as a whole)

    - Wall Street ("Greed is good")

    - Ferris Bueller's Day Off (that over-the-top humor, again the soundtrack, hedonistic symbols of wealth, narcissism as a means to get what you want)

    - To Live And Die In L.A. (just. about. everything in this movie.)

    - Thief (the slick visuals, especially. Foreshadows much of Miami Vice's artstyle)

    - After Hours (counterculture. The dark side of living in 1980s NYC with all of its stark contrasts)
     
  4. Ghostworld

    Ghostworld Senior Member

    Location:
    US
    Oh those movies are so painful. The hair! I am mediately think about the one where Melanie Griffith is the lowbrow secretary who somehow makes it as a successful business woman. To me that’s the woman’s 80s movie. Joan Cusack was the perfect 80s beyatch.
     
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  5. Ghostworld

    Ghostworld Senior Member

    Location:
    US

    That’s it!!!! I was backtracking through this thread!
     
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  6. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    Pretty much any Stallone or Schwarzenegger flick from 1985-89 = "80s".

    Even the sorta pretty good "Predator" still exists as a serious relic of that era...
     
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  7. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    Along with...

    Can't Buy Me Love

    [​IMG]

    Big hair, normal size everything else.

     
  8. hi_watt

    hi_watt The Road Warrior

    Location:
    San Diego, CA
    For me it was the aesthetic of the characters (teens) in the film, which were an accurate portrayal of the acquaintances/friends that my older brother hung out with in '87.
     
  9. Combination

    Combination Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Orleans
  10. KeninDC

    KeninDC Hazy Cosmic Jive

    Location:
    Virginia, USA
    Linklater's Everybody Wants Some (2016) nails 1980. Party culture. Jock culture. Music.

    [​IMG]
     
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  11. googlymoogly

    googlymoogly Forum Resident

    “Manhunter”
    “9 1/2 Weeks”
    “Porky’s”
    “Revenge of the Nerds”
     
  12. tkl7

    tkl7 Agent Provocateur

    Location:
    Lewis Center, OH
    Yes, the portrayal of teens was accurate, which makes River's Edge really different from other 80s teen films. Teens were generally not portrayed in such a realistic manner - this was the John Hughes era, after all.
     
  13. the pope ondine

    the pope ondine Forum Resident

    Location:
    Virginia
  14. skinnyev

    skinnyev Forum Resident

    Location:
    Toronto
    Top Gun and Risky Business stand out to me, especially that scene from RB where he is sliding across the floor. The parents are away, kid turns the place into a bordello, dances to music, those are my memories of the 80's as well.

    Weird Science and Sixteen Candles also have strong 80's vibes.
     
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  15. American Psycho
     
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  16. Jerk The Handle

    Jerk The Handle Electrician

    Location:
    Moonbeam levels
    Streets of Fire (1984)

    It mixes genres and periods like Tom Cruise does drinks in "Coctail", but it's undoubtedly 80's.

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    Subway (1985)

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Dec 18, 2019
  17. Tim Lookingbill

    Tim Lookingbill Alfalfa Male

    Location:
    New Braunfels, TX
    Michael Mann's "Manhunter" where some of the set design and look of the film seemed to inspire Miami Vice tv series which also exemplified Florida during the '80's especially the drug cartel culture.
     
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  18. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    How does that one scream 80s? It takes place in 1954!
     
  19. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    "Miami Vice" debuted in 1984, 2 years before "Manhunter".

    Michael Mann had a heavy hand in "Vice" anyway, so it's not surprising it'd bear similarities with "Manhunter"...
     
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  20. Jerk The Handle

    Jerk The Handle Electrician

    Location:
    Moonbeam levels
    Great score!
     
  21. Tim Lookingbill

    Tim Lookingbill Alfalfa Male

    Location:
    New Braunfels, TX
    Wasn't aware of the debut year of "Miami Vice" mainly because I never watched it so my memory of that bit of detail got passed me, but the look of the"Manhunter" movie reminded me of the TV network's advertisements and media coverage of the new Vice series.

    But both exemplified the look of the '80's especially in regard to re-designing cop dramas. Everything in the '80's seemed to have too many bola ties, Armani suits and pastel fabrics dropped in to each scene so the less sophisticated like myself and my co-workers were made to feel we were missing out on a better life. I hated the '80's for making me feel that way in that I lacked the panache of materialism.
     
  22. KAT

    KAT Forum Resident

    Location:
    Austin, Tx
    Probably the most cliched 80's Sci-fi. I saw this in the theater as a kid and it's even more 80's (In my opinion) than Tron, Krull, Megaforce, Metalstorm: The destruction of Jared Syn. etc. It rips off Mad Max, various horror and socery flicks, etc. The strange thing about this film, the theater I saw this in played a music video by the band W.A.S.P. at the end of the movie. The film was so bad I didn't even rewatch it when it came on HBO. As someone who has grown to love B movies, I may have to revisit this one.

     
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  23. Tim Lookingbill

    Tim Lookingbill Alfalfa Male

    Location:
    New Braunfels, TX
    Call it an omen but it seemed like the '80's weren't going to go too well for me when I saw the fedora design from the Raiders Of The Lost Ark change in a bad way in "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom". A website was created just to address this that got Spielberg's attention and the fedora was finally returned to its original design in "Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull"...

    IndyGear.com: Fedora

    I'm just glad there was someone more obsessed with this during the '80's than myself. It was bothering me that I couldn't get over it. I was getting the idea of what "Mad Hatter" was really about.
     
  24. Nice Marmot

    Nice Marmot Nothin’ feels right but doin’ wrong anymore

    Location:
    Tryon NC
    The teenagers in Return of the Living Dead:

    [​IMG]
     
  25. GodShifter

    GodShifter Forum Member

    Location:
    Dallas, TX, USA
    Yeah, but he wouldn’t have been listening to Bob Seger.
     
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