For this week's Ranked!, we compiled the twenty greatest movies from 1980. Tell us what you think when you get down to #1. And let us know if you would've ordered them differently.
Here are numbers 6-10:
10. Raging Bull
I was far too young to see, understand, or appreciate Raging Bull when it first hit theaters. But that's okay, because the movie is timeless. It's lived on because of the powerful performance from Robert De Niro and the flawless attention to detail by director Martin Scorsese. I didn't step into the ring with Raging Bull until my teenage years, when the movie geek in me went searching for films with meaning and substance. Its an unflinching character study It's a sports movie that is so much more than a sports movie. It's a work of art from people at the top of their craft.--Daddy Geek Boy
9. Friday The 13th
This movie is about a mom who exacts revenge on a group of summer camp counselors who let her young boy drown because they were too busy drinking and drugging and fornicating. It's mindless blood and gore. So why does it deserve a spot in our top 10 movies of 1980? Has any other film on this list spawned nine sequels, a crossover with a horror movie icon with a fondness for striped sweaters, a reboot, a television series, been the subject of countless television and movie parodies and homages, and helped launch the career of Kevin Bacon? Your move, Caddyshack.--Chris
8. Flash Gordon
Flash Gordon was a movie with everything going AGAINST it when it hit the theaters in 1980. It was based on a movie serial and comic strip that hit their peak popularity in the 1940s. Anyone who has seen the serials knows that, although they were meant to be sci-fi drama at the time, they are the height of hilarity to today's audiences. Big, over-the-top villains, damsels in distress, and a square-jawed hero who always saves the day (probably partly due to his amazing ability to step out the door of his spaceship and leap onto the enemy's spaceship to do battle--no small feat, that). So, when the Hollywood powers that be decided to bring this dusty old gem to the big screen again, the whole thing could have gone horribly wrong. I think it would have if they had taken the subject matter seriously as they did in the '40s, but instead they decided to play it as high camp. They brought in the bright color palette of the comic strips and the goofy dialog and total disregard for the laws of science of the serial and set it to a rocking soundtrack by Queen. The result? Pure, unadulterated genius. I know there are plenty of people out there who disagree with me on this one, but Flash Gordon remains one of my all-time favorite movies of the '80s.--Dave
7. 9 To 5
What is there not to love about this movie? There's pot smoking, S&M references, drunks, homicidal cartoons, guns, and singing! I immediately fell in love. I had already hearted Lily Tomlin hard since the days of that giant chair and now she was dressed as Snow White fantasizing about killing her boss. I think this was pretty formative for my ideas of feminism. Plus, Dolly Parton and Jane Fonda so rocked the fro! I completely understood why they wanted to string up Dabney Coleman and it's very validating when you see him dangling from the ceiling. In retrospect, this movie was totally inappropriate for a nine-year-old. Parenting in the '70s and '80s really was a giant fail.--The Weirdgirl
