Movies from the 1980s

Local Hero (1983)

The iconic red telephone box featured in Bill Forsyth’s 1983 comedy Local Hero was just a prop: the tiny town of Pennan in Aberdeenshire didn’t actually have a phone box.

There’s nothing unusual about that, but in this case, life soon followed art as film fans and tourists lobbied BT to install one. And so they did, although in a slightly less dramatic position than the film’s booth. (more…)

Zelig (1983)

There isn’t much film footage of author F. Scott Fitzgerald around, so it’s always a treat to see him crop up in Woody Allen’s 1983 faux-documentary comedy Zelig. (more…)

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)

Watching Indiana Jones and Temple of Doom on the small screen, it’s easy to miss the fact that Dan Aykroyd makes a brief appearance. (more…)

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom may not be the strongest film in the series, but it opens with a fine song-and-dance number, followed by an equally well choreographed shoot-out in a Chinese nightclub. What’s being fought over are the earthly remains—such as they are—of the Chinese emperor Nurhaci. (more…)

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)

The Indiana Jones are full of Star Wars references: one of the more noticeable is the name of the nightclub in Temple of Doom.

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

In Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones needs to cut a stick to the right length in order to create The Staff of Ra, a doodad that will tell him the secret location of the Ark of the Covenant. Those dastardly Nazis are building their own staff with the help of evil archaeologist Belloq, but when the heroes make their calculations using clues on the staff’s headpiece, Jones realises that the bad guys have got it wrong: (more…)

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)

There’s a scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade where Indiana and his father are trying to escape from Nazi Germany. Indiana buys tickets on the first flight out of the country, and we see that it’s an airship.

I saw the film in the cinema on its release in 1989, and I distinctly remember that when the airship is revealed, it’s identified as the Hindenburg. (Either you saw a mooring post with the name, or it was painted on the airship itself.) There was also a dramatic, doom-laden music cue that played at that moment. (more…)

The Shining (1980)

“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” must be one of the best known lines in horror cinema. Not bad, given that it’s only ever shown on screen, and not spoken.

When Kubrick’s 1980 horror classic The Shining was first distributed to cinemas, the prints varied slightly by country: the close-ups of the manuscript had been filmed several times, substituting manuscripts in different languages.

The Italians got “Il mattino ha l’oro in bocca.” (The morning has gold in its mouth) (more…)