Don't believe the hype. This wasn't just the decade movies began to rot. Though pockmarked by ugly blockbusters and yuppie navel-gazing, the '80s also featured seismic shifts and a quiet revolt. Major talents emerged, directors excised Reagan-era excess, and amid all the fretting about the death of cinema, indie films began to thrive — taking up residence in outposts like Brooklyn and Utah. In truth, there was no shortage of sharp art to puncture the decade's glassy sheen — especially if you were hip to Lynch, Lee, and Soderbergh, whose work foreshadowed the revolution to come.
Airplane! sets a JPM (jokes per minute) record: July 2, 1980
Setting out to spoof the plane, train, and automobile disaster films of the '70s, the writing-directing triumvirate of Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and David Zucker packed a dizzying number of naughty double entendres, apropos-of-nothing sight gags, and straight-faced Hollywood vets into Airplane!'s 88 minutes and started their own bona fide mini-genre (The Naked Gun, Top Secret!, Hot Shots!). ''I read it on a plane,'' says star Robert Hays, who can still recite entire scenes 19 years later. ''There was literally something on every page that made me laugh out loud.'' Surely he can't be serious. I am serious. And don't call me Shirley. Rank 63
Ordinary People uncovers the dysfunctional family: Sept. 19, 1980
For millions of suburbanites, Ordinary People wasn't just a movie. Robert Redford's directorial debut became a mirror: The American family saw itself and winced. Every sensitive prepster in America could relate to Timothy Hutton's fragile son, hounded by guilt after the death of his golden-boy brother. Meanwhile, no mother in the world would admit to the icy manipulations of Mary Tyler Moore's country-club shrew. (Moore says the character was a lady ''who found it difficult to be affectionate and loving.'' Which is like calling Lady Macbeth a supportive housewife.) The Official Preppy Handbook's evil twin, Ordinary People went down like a bitter pill plopped into a gin fizz. Rank 99
Raging Robert De Niro wins Best Actor for Method eating: March 31, 1981
It's arguably the greatest film of the '80s, but Martin Scorsese never wanted to make Raging Bull. From the get-go, the tragic story of middleweight champ Jake LaMotta was solely the passion of Scorsese's on-screen alter ego, De Niro. Like a rabid Method-acting pit bull, De Niro took grueling boxing lessons from LaMotta before shooting, then put the film on hold for four months to go on his infamous ice-cream-and-pasta bender, packing on 50-plus pounds in order to portray the boxer in flabby decline. ''Dieting is not acting,'' says Bull cowriter Paul Schrader, ''but De Niro was the first one to do that kind of thing. It would've been a gimmick if he wasn't so good...but I think it's the gimmick that won him the award.'' Rank 41
Warren Beatty creates the epic Reds: Dec. 4, 1981
Diane Keaton calls it ''a Herculean task.'' As Evil Empire-baiting Ronald Reagan settled into the White House, Beatty directed a gorgeous, three-hour-plus epic about...Communists. Reds, the romantic tale of American lefties Jack Reed and Louise Bryant (Beatty and Keaton), bucked the conservative mood of the nation — and the studios. ''Let's say it took some energy,'' says Beatty, who'd won Paramount's trust with 1978's smash hit Heaven Can Wait. Beatty's itinerary was enough to take your breath away: ''We shot the movie in New York, L.A., Washington, Seattle, Taos, London, Manchester, Helsinki, Rovaniemi, Madrid, Stockholm, Guadix, and Seville.'' Those frequent-flier miles translated into 12 Oscar nominations — including 4 for its producer-director-cowriter-star. Rank 84
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