Recently, during a workday where I was in charge of the office television, I happened on a showing of ‘Red Dawn’, which none of my older colleagues had seen. When the other forty-something and I tried to explain that it’s the greatest cinematic achievement of Charlie Sheen and perhaps the greatest film of the year 1984, we were met with skepticism. But it’s true on both counts, with only his dramatic moment getting shot down by Brian Keith in an outhouse comparing for Charlie, and bringing up the question of what other cinematic wonders were available in the Eighties, leading to today’s totally tubular query…
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) dodged a bullet, as ‘The Black Hole’ came out in 1979, and The New Warriors #1 in 1990, avoiding a blue-screen-of-death moment in my brain, asking: What’s your favorite pop-culture moment from the decade of The Eighties?
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K.I.T.T. Turbo Boost. You know how hard its to convince your parents to let you watch TV at 8PM when you’re 4? Totally worth it.
Seeing the Ninja Turtles come to life by Jim Henson.
Tough one. Having been born in 1979, the 80’s was my childhood, so it is REALLY hard to choose one favorite when so many, many things stuck out and stuck with me. But off the top of my head, I’ll go with “Ghostbusters” and the moment when the destroyer of the world is revealed to be the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man. Even as a child who didn’t fully grasp what was going on, that was just too funny to me and it is still one of my all-time favorite movie moments.
“In 1972, a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn’t commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government they survive as soldiers of fortune.
Today, still wanted by the government they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them….maybe you can hire The A-Team.”
Culturally, I don’t know if anything can top the communal experience of trying to go see Return of the Jedi A.S.A.P. upon its release.
We made it in on day 6, buying tickets in the early a.m., and the earliest showing we could get had us then wait six hours before showtime. Taking it in shifts to sit in line for seat choice, running around the mall & being obnoxious adolescents.
Everyone in that theater was there because they wanted to be there, had been anticipating the movie for years. That audience experience alone raised the film up several notches in enjoyment.
Roy Batty’s soliloquy at the end of Bladerunner. Still one of the most powerful and touching speeches in cinema.
Once upon a time, you could go to a movie with out leaks and spoilers. I saw Ghostbusters, Raiders and the Lost Starfighter knowing next to nothing about them. That makes the experience a bit more special.