14 months ago I posted HE’s top 30 films of 1986. I’ve since rewatched Bruce Beresford‘s Crimes of the Heart, and I hated it so much I turned it off after a half-hour. So I took it out and popped in John Carpenter‘s Big Trouble in Little China and Clint Eastwood‘s Heartbreak Ridge.
So here’s HE’s top 23 films of ’86, along with 8 good ones that were compromised by minor flaws.
It’s very hard to accept that 1986 was 40 effing years ago.
(1) Oliver Stone‘s Platoon;
(2) James Cameron‘s Aliens;
(3) Oliver Stone‘s Salvador,
(4) David Lynch‘s Blue Velvet,
(5) Jonathan Demme‘s Something Wild,
(6) Michael Mann‘s Manhunter,
(7) Neil Jordan‘s Mona Lisa,
(8) Woody Allen‘s Hannah and Her Sisters,
(9) David Cronenberg’s The Fly,
(10) Jim Jarmusch‘s Down By Law,
(11) Mike Nichols‘ Heartburn,
(12) James Ivory‘s A Room with a View,
(13) Jean-Jacques Beineix‘s Betty Blue,
(14) Spike Lee‘s She’s Gotta Have It
(15) Adrien Lyne‘s 9 1/2 Weeks,
(16) Hal Ashby‘s 8 Million Ways to Die,
(17) Randa Haines‘ Children of a Lesser God,
(18) Martin Scorsese‘s The Color of Money,
(19) David Anspaugh‘s Hoosiers,
(20) Tim Hunter’s River’s Edge,
(21) Jamie Foley’s At Close Range,
(22) Sidney Lumet‘s The Morning After
(23) Clint Eastwood‘s Heartbreak Ridge
Generally Good but Slightly Second Tier:
(24) Roland Joffe‘s The Mission, (25) Claude Berri‘s Manon of the Spring, (26) Tony Scott‘s Top Gun, (27) Fons Rademakers‘ The Assault, (28) David Zucker‘s Ruthless People, (29) Paul Mazursky‘s Down and Out in Beverly Hills, (30) John Hughes‘ Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, (31) John Carpenter‘s Big Trouble in Little China.