"You mean the guys in that Prince movie?"
-"Yeah, Purple Rain"
-"That shit was so gay ! Fucking 80's style"
-"Hey!" -"Never say an unkind word about the Time!"
There's no doubt that every era of movies looks back on previous eras.
One full generation before is far enough back to reflect on while still being fresh.
So it's pretty common for directors and producers to make movies and TV shows
that take place in that previous generation, in the generation they grew up in.
"It's a Wonderful Life" goes from the 40s to the 20s,
"Back to the Future" goes from the 80s to the 50s,
and "That 70s Show" goes from the 2000s to the 70s.
And the same thing goes for the 2010s looking back on the 1980s.
But this era seems to have more of a craze than a simple homage to the 80s.
Countless movies and TV shows give meticulous detail to the movies, videogames and overall style of that era,
all to critical acclaim and box-office success.
Nothing encapsulates our current obsession with the 1980s more than "Ready Player One",
a novel turned movie about a future world where people use virtual reality
to relive old 80's pop culture and media.
It doesn't get more 80s obsessed than that.
I think there are several reasons the 80s phenomenon is so much more prominent than the nostalgia of other generations.
For one thing, the 80s was the birth of audio-visual entertainment with the music video,
creating a whole new art form that continues to influence movies today.
It was also the Golden Age of teen movies; the teens watching those movies have since become the movie creators,
and creating thematically complicated teenagers paved the way for casting more kids in lead roles.
But I want to focus on the 80s phenomenon for another reason entirely.
The perfect timing of the 80s created movies designed to be "homaged to" later on.
Movies begging to be revisited. And that's because of how the directors and producers made them.
And to understand the 80s creators, you have to understand where they came from :
Mid 60s to late 70s films, in a period referred to as "New Age Hollywood",
were defined by deviation from classical cinematic norms.
These films questioned the Hollywood system, creating more experimental movies.
Movies that challenged genre norms, conventional filming techniques and the Hollywood production code.
Maybe the pinnacle of New Age Hollywood was "Bonnie and Clyde":
a movie with insane violence, sexually confused characters, and counterculture sentiment.
And in this hotbed of cinematic experimentation came the pioneers of the 80s blockbuster :
The creative talent with a hyper awareness of Hollywood conventions.
Conventions they themselves knew how to abide by when they wanted and break when they didn't.
So the eventual leaders of the 80's blockbuster were the first generation of filmmakers to grow up during classical Hollywood,
and then rise to the top during a period of extreme experimentation.
So their film language is based on previous films, and their style is driven by how they follow or break film conventions.
And how do I know that's how they made their movies ?
Because online, there's a transcript of perhaps the two most important 80s directors
conceiving the idea for one of the best movies of the 1980s.
Steven Spielberg and George Lucas discussing "Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark".
A lot of people enjoy reading the banter between the two directors, and how they thought of the iconic sequences in the movie,
but I want to discuss these transcripts with a new Hollywood 80s homage perspective.
Because as you read it, you realize how their entire means of communicating ideas comes from building off of previous movies.
Lucas pitched the movie as a spaghetti western or James Bond, but in the 30s.
They described the Indiana Jones by comparing him to other movie characters.
He's professional like Mifune from "The Seven Samurai".
He has to go against people like Eli Wallace from "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly".
He's a John Wayne / Clint Eastwood / Sean Connery kind of professional,
but scruffy like Humphrey Bogart in "Treasure of the Sierra Madre".
The action should be like "Wind and the Lion" and the jungle is "King Kong"-ish.
Their language is built on entirely homage.
And in doing so, they create a completely fresh character and story by using old movies.
But it's more than just using old to create new.
These creators also wanted to capture the spirit of movies before New Age Hollywood:
movies with less social commentary and more classic Hollywood fun.
A movie to instill the 80's mindset was undoubtedly "Star Wars" in 1977
George Lucas describes the phenomenon himself :
He criticizes 70s TV shows at the time, like "Kojak" and "The Six Million Man",
that were popular and well made, but also extremely bleak and almost too realistic.
Basically, they missed out on the fun.
So the 80s blockbuster brought back what made movies entertaining in the first place.
James Cameron's "The Terminator" is inspired by 1950s sci-fi and "The Outer Limits", a 1960 sci-fi show,
as are a lot of other 80s like "ET" and "Ghostbusters".
And notice how these later movies don't make aliens horrific or bleak: they make aliens whimsical and fun.
Even "The Princess Bride", a fantasy movie, seems to perfectly capture the George Lucas and Steven Spielberg spirit.
Many 60s and 70s teen movies are defined by their over stylized characters or plots with extreme sexual deviations.
"Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me."
John Hughes was one of the first to create an honest portrayal of teenagers: one defined by clumsy romance and entertaining hijinks.
I think Roger Ebert sums up what these 80s creators accomplished in his review of "Indiana Jones":
So I think that's the biggest reason why 80s movies are so popular today,
and why "Stranger Things" has dozens of 80s movies references,
San Junipero won two Emmys,
and "It" is the highest grossing horror movie of all time.
The movies of the 80s capture the spirit of entertainment and these modern homages want to do the same.
When you watch another 80s movie made in the present day, notice how there's almost always some shot
where we see what blockbuster is currently out in theaters at the time.
80's movies reinvigorated that Hollywood blockbuster,
and that's why we look back to that time period when we're trying to do the same today.
So the next time you see a big-budget 80s movie coming out,
remember there's some part of that director trying to capture the spirit that made 80s movies so timeless and fun to watch.
Because they really did have everything.
-"Are there sports in it ?" -"Are you kidding?"
"Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, Giants, monsters,
chases, escapes, true love,
miracles."
-"It doesn't sound too bad. I'll try and stay awake."
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