…are, in this order, Peter Weir‘s Witness, John Huston‘s Prizzi’s Honor, Albert Brooks’ Lost in America, Woody Allen‘s The Purple Rose of Cairo and Robert Zemeckis‘s Back to the Future.
These five share 1985’s top honors…then, now and forever. Over the last 40 years they’ve not only held on but deepened or added.
I could possibly make room for a sixth — John Boorman‘s The Emerald Forest. (I’m actually thinking right now about re-watching it.) And a seventh, I suppose — Lawrence Kasdan‘s Silverado. And an eighth — Hector Babenco‘s Kiss of the Spider Woman. And a ninth, come to think — Stuart Gordon‘s Re-Animator. And actually a tenth — William Friedkin‘s To Live and Die in L.A..
So that’s five great ones and five very goods. Plus seven honorable mentions for a total of 17….not a bad tally.
Sydney Pollack‘s Out of Africa, which won ’85’s Best Picture Oscar, is handsomely shot, nicely paced and very well acted (by Meryl Streep in particular), but I haven’t rewatched it once this century. That means something.
I never much cared for Clint Eastwood‘s Pale Rider…haven’t rewatched it, will probably ignore it for the rest of my time on this planet.
I hate Steven Spielberg‘s The Color Purple, Terry Gilliam‘s Brazil, Richard Attenborough‘s A Chorus Line, James Bridges‘ Perfect, Wolfgang Petersen‘s Enemy Mine, Richard Marquand‘s Jagged Edge, Richard Donner‘s Ladyhawke, Carolco’s Rambo: First Blood, Part II, Michael Ritchie‘s Fletch, Joel Schumacher‘s St. Elmo’s Fire….if you want to be cynical about it, you could say ’85 delivered way too many shallow or otherwise disposable films.
Honorable Mention: Fred Schepisi‘s Plenty, Martin Scorsese‘s After Hours, Andrei Konchalovsky‘s Runaway Train, Roger Donaldson‘s Marie, Alan Rudolph‘s Trouble in Mind; Akira Kurosawa‘s Ran, Peter Masterson and Horton Foote‘s The Trip to Bountiful. (7)