Gallipoli

Peter Weir, Australia, 1981 (7.8*)
Memorial Day War-a-thon film #17
Two sprinters from Ausralia, played by Mel Gibson and Marc Lee, are sent to the Gallipoli campaign in World War One, as battlefield runners, the speedy who carry messages between military commanders in days before radios and easier communication.

If you don't know the history of this battle, I won't spoil it here, but the battle footage is well done, fairly realistic (and without CGI). The main themes of the film will hit you like a brick wall at the film's conclusion, and they are the universal themes of all wars: on the whole, they are a futile exercise, but in some individual cases, heroes may rise from among average men and attain at least a moment of timeless glory.

Winner of 9 awards, 20 nominations, including 8 Australia Film Institute awards (Film, Director, Actor for Gibson, Supporting actor for Bill Hunter, Screenplay, Cinematography, Sound, Film Editing) - it didn't win any international awards, just Australian.Dur

Another in a line of excellent Peter Weir films, which include Fearless (my favorite), Witness, Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Last Wave, The Mosquito Coast, The Year of Living Dangerously, The Dead Poets Society, The Truman Show and Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.

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On Golden Pond

Mark Rydell, 1981 (8.4*)
A beautifully acted, slow-paced, adult family film about an elderly dad's attempt to come to terms with his estranged daughter while he still has a chance. Henry Fonda turned in the performance of his career, and was rewarded with his only Oscar® for acting. Daughter Jane Fonda was a supporting nominee in a role that she said was very hard to face day in and day out, as it was too close to reality for comfort. One can only imagine what Henry thought of his 'commie hippie' kids, who made drug (The Trip, Easy Rider) and soft core porn films (Barbarella, The Game Is Over) when young.

Katherine Hepburn got her record fourth Oscar® for her performance of Fonda's wife, in one of her best performances as well; she's credible and touching without over-sentimentality. In fact, more modern dialogue injects plenty of humor (and "face sucking") into what could have been a dreary play on the end of life, of love lost and love maintained.

Note: Henry was too ailing and near death to accept his Oscar®, so Jane did and gave one of the most touching speeches in academy history.

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An American Werewolf in London

John Landis, 1981 (8.3*)
For me this is Landis’ best film, in spite of Animal House and Blues Brothers. I think partially because I don’t like vampire, werewolf, or horror films and he was able to make a werewolf movie that I did enjoy, and it actually seemed the best paced of those three films. It also stars the lovely Jenny Agutter (Walkabout), a plus for any film, and has an acceptable performance for once by David Naughton as the title character, a visiting tourist who gets bitten by a werewolf. Dominick Dunne is hilarious as a recent victim and constantly deterioriating ghost who refuses to leave the scene, and keeps pestering Naughton’s character relentlessly. When Naughton tells him he reeks, Byrne replies "what do ya expect, I'm dead!" Very good special effects, they kept it simple and told a classic horror tale that you might find in the 19th century, but with much better available film technique than the classic bw horror films.
PS - Hey, whatever happened to Jenny Agutter?

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Outland

Dir: Peter Hyams, 1981, (7.7*)

This "space western" was based on the classis western High Noon, and may even be more appealing to some, due to the SciFi theme and terrific special effects. Sean Connery is the marshall of a despicable mining colony somewhere near Saturn, and it turns out that the company who owns it is selling a dangerous speed type drug to miners so they can work more. Peter Boyle is perfect as the company's bad guy on the scene. It becomes a "showdown at high noon" as the company sends assassins to take out Connery. Well-made and tense throughout, not a bad updating of a classic, but down a star for the same reason (unoriginality).

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Body Heat

Dir: Lawrence Kasdan, 1981 (8.5*)
Kasdan updates the film noir genre with a plot also based on legal moves and technicalities. Kathleen Turner provides the romantic heat in one of her best, most seductive parts. William Hurt is probably a little bland in his role as the lawyer Ned Racine, more than willing to bend a little for his desires, as she’s married to local millionaire Richard Crenna. Look for Ted Danson as a police detective, ‘sorta friend’ of Ned the lawyer, who inexplicably dances around onscreen like Gene Kelly – you can’t tell if he’s making a play on his name, showing off his Broadway chops, or Kasdan is having him say something about the plot without words. This one has more twists than any highway in Florida, where this takes place, causing more sweat than any film in memory.

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Time Bandits

Dir: Terry Gilliam, 1981 (8.6*)

Terry Gilliam's most accessible and entertaining movie, produced by George Harrison's Dark Horse films. It begins with a small boy fantasizing about knights in his room, suddenly he is invaded from beyond the wall by a band of midgets, who, it turns out, have stolen God's map of the time portals and are using it to cavort through history. The boy gets gladly swept up into their adventure, and along their way meets Robin Hood (John Cleese), King Agamemnon (Sean Connery), and Napoleon (Ian Holm). We eventually meet Pure Evil itself, David Warner, and a peturbed but grandfatherly Creator, James Mason. In a funny recurring gag, whenever the dwarves fall into a new era in time, they always interrupt Shelley Duvall in a romantic interlude! A time travel classic for all ages.

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Mephisto

Dir: Istvan Szabo, Hungary, 1981 (8.8*)
Best Foreign Film (AA)

This disturbing film about an actor in Nazi Germany put Klaus Maria Brandauer on the map, with a great performance as a man who "sells his soul" in order to remain an actor, basically by doing plays that the Nazi establishment choose for him to perform in Berlin, the most popular being Mephisto in Faust’s play. The ultimate statement concerns whether one remains true to his career or true to his heart. The novel my Thomas Mann's son Klaus, is based on the life story of his brother-in-law, an actor in Berlin. You may be also interested in Szabo's other film that covers this period in history, Sunshine, a multi-generational history of a Jewish family in Austria. Oscar® for foreign language film.

Quote: I’m just an actor, what do you want from me? (Brandauer)

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The Road Warrior

a.k.a. Mad Max 2
George Miller, 1981, Australia (9.1*)
One of the best slam-bang car (and truck, and cycle) chase films ever, made Mel Gibson a star. Throw in post-apocalypse Australian desert controlled by marauding vagabond warriors called "The Humungous", and you have all the makings for mayhem. Into a gasoline-starved world drops Mad Max (from a very inferior first film), this time known at "The warrior Max, the road warrior". The film starts with action, and only lets up to set up the next big action sequence. The drama surrounds an oil refinery manned like a fortress, and of course the Humungous descend to get the gasoline. Max decides to help the oil refiners in exchange for a tank load of gasoline. This was actually a pretty good sf plot hidden in a lot of severe road rage and violence; kudos to the costume designer, the weapons people, the mechanics, and apparently three stuntmen killed; and Emil Minty as "The Feral Kid", who has a deadly steel boomerang and just grunts and squeaks; also Bruce Spence as "The Gyro Captain", who admires and befriends Max, and flies around in an ultralight.
Quote: Never saw a man beat the snake before, gotta be pretty quick to beat the snake! (Gyro Captain)

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Das Boot (The Boat)

Wolfgang Peterson, 1981, Germany (8.9*)

This gripping war drama follows the tension aboard a German U-boat throughout World War II. This has to be the most involving and well-made submarine film of all time, nominated for six Oscars®. Of course it's a bit claustrophobic, as we seldom get fresh air, just like the crew. Sometimes when you expose yourself in wartime, all hell breaks loose.

Successful worldwide, it was also a six-hour miniseries in Germany. Six hours seems a bit long however; the only fault with this theatrical version is perhaps it's length, a bit long at over three hours. The cast, led by Jurgen Prochnow as the Captain, could not be better; and Peterson first wanted Paul Newman for the role!

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Reds

Dir: Warren Beatty, 1981 (8.4*)

It's easy to admire Beatty's acheivement here as Oscar-winning director (his only competetive Oscar), his most ambitious effort. This film has history, romance and war (but not enough), as we follow American journalist John Reed to the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917. Diane Keaton is his sometimes girlfriend, actress Louise Bryant (you can get a '29 film of hers on dvd), Maureen Stapleton (Oscar for Supp Actress) a fellow writer and supporter, Jack Nicholson plays a love rival, the playright Eugene O'Neill. However, this fails to be as involving as it should as it's too long at nearly four hours, so it loses it pace and punch. Not only that, it's about some danged pinko Reds, some free-love beatnik liberals! Up a star however for the best use of in-film interviews I've seen, with people who knew Reed and Bryant back then, a few of thousands who answered ads Beatty ran looking for eye-witnesses. Out of 12 nominations, 3 Oscars

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Raiders of the Lost Ark

Steven Spielberg, 1981 (9.0*)

AFI Top 100

Anyone remembering those old movie serials will realize the roots of this adventure, one of Spielberg's most fun. The pace starts fast, then allows you to catch your breath, then it starts up again, just like the old cliffhangers used to. This tall tale involves an archeaology professor, Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones, who searches the world for lost and valuable artifacts but seems to keep running into Nazis instead. Raiders has him on the quest of the "Ark of the Covenant", which housed the ten commandments and supposedly was a war weapon in ancient times. Throw in old flame Karen Allen, after a terrific drinking contest in Tibet, and Egyptian comrade John Rhys-Davies, and you have a motley crue of world-saving Nazi fighters. Classic adventure, 30’s style told in 80’s technical terms, with great special effects and mind-blowing revelations.

In keeping with the serial theme, this was followed by Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (6*), and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (*8).

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Diva

Jean-Jacques Beineix, 1981, France (9.1*)
This crime action film centers around an admiring opera fan who secretly records his favorite opera diva (who has refused to ever record) on a hidden, high quality recorder, thus making the rare tape a valuable item. Various criminal elements find out, and suddenly the young fan is the most wanted man in Europe, chased by gangsters and the police both. This is a very exciting action film, perhaps modern film noir, with great camera work and direction.

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