Roger ebert best films of the 80s

And it makes me want to sit in a theater and watch them all now. There is in all of us a fascination for the inside dope, for the methods of the confidence game, for the secrets of a magic trick. But there is an eternal gulf between the shark and the mark, between the con man and his victim. And there is a code to protect the secrets. I met a woman once who was divorced from a professional magician.

She hated this man with a passion. She used to appear with him in a baffling trick where they exchanged places, handcuffed and manacled, in a locked cabinet. I asked her how it was done. The divorce and her feelings meant nothing compared to her loyalty to the magical profession. He abandoned the choreography that is standard in almost all war movies.

Instead of battle scenes in which lines are clearly drawn, his combat scenes involve degrees: Any shot might be aimed at friend or enemy, and in the desperate rush of combat, many of his soldiers never have a clear idea of exactly who they are shooting at, or why. The South grew, the whole nation grew, more comfortable with the radical idea that all men were created equal and endowed with certain inalienable rights, among them life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

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Roger ebert best films of the 80s: Raging Bull, Scarface, and

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Roger ebert best films of the 80s: 1. Raging Bull · 2. The

April 10, at am. Release Date June 12, Writers Lawrence Kasdan. Cast Harrison Ford. Karen Allen. Alfred Molina. Image via Studio Ghibli. Release Date April 16, Runtime 86minutes. Director Hayao Miyazaki. Writers Hayao Miyazaki. Cast Dakota Fanning. Elle Fanning. Body Heat R. Release Date August 28, Director Lawrence Kasdan. Cast William Hurt.

Kathleen Turner. Richard Crenna. Main Genre Crime. Image via Orion Pictures. Amadeus R. Release Date September 19, Director Milos Forman. Writers Peter Shaffer. Cast F. Murray Abraham. Tom Hulce. Elizabeth Berridge. Main Genre Biography. Image via Universal Pictures. Scarface R. Release Date December 9, Director Brian De Palma. Cast Al Pacino. Michelle Pfeiffer.

Robert Loggia. Image via United Artists. Raging Bull R. After years of working in British television, Jeremy Irons solidified his standing as a film actor with moonlighting, and this was the debut film for Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer The Lion King, Gladiator. Sergio Leone's final film Once Upon a Time in America spans from the early s to the late s, and centers on an aging gangster De Niro who returns to his old haunts in New York City.

In a series of flashbacks, we learn how his life on the streets eventually left him broken and penniless. A timeless score by Ennio Morricone and a fantastic, all-star cast highlight the film. For its American release, producers cut over an hour and a half from Leone's original cut that screened at the Cannes Film Festival. While Leone's cut at nearly four hours was widely praised, the shorter American version was a flop with critics.

Thankfully, Leone's original cut is the only one now available on physical disc and streaming.

Roger ebert best films of the 80s: 9. PLATOON · 8.

At the time of its release, Siskel praised the film's performances, and called the movie "a spiritual documentary that shows racial joy, hatred and confusion at every turn. Who Framed Roger Rabbit is more than just a technical marvel blending animation and live-action. It's an entertaining tribute to both film noir detective mysteries and hand-drawn animation.

It marked the only time Disney and Warner Bros. Robert Zemeckis' manic direction is on-point, and the film won three Oscars in technical categories, including Best Visual Effects. Richard Williams was awarded a Special Achievement Oscar for his animation work. My Dinner with Andre has earned an almost mythic reputation among film fans as one of the finest examples of presenting dialogue on-screen.

Set almost entirely at a restaurant table, the film features two old friends Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn who catch up over a dinner and exchange life stories.

Roger ebert best films of the 80s: House of Games ()

Directed with a thoughtful touch by celebrated French filmmaker Louis Malle, the independent film languished at the box office until Siskel and Ebert featured it on Sneak Previews and called it one of their favorite films of the year, giving it a boost in ticket sales and putting it on the radar of other movie fans. Siskel called the film's characters "some of the most interesting people I have ever known," and called the movie "reality crystallized.

The Right Stuff is a rousing look at the birth of America's space program, with great performances from no less than a dozen actors, all portraying real-life astronauts, their wives, and NASA personnel. A mix of high drama that never gets too corny or melodramatic, the film manages to tell an epic story by grounding it within the personal lives of those involved.

Director Claude Lanzmann's landmark documentary of the Holocaust, Shoahruns an incredible nine and a half hours long, and is composed entirely of interviews from survivors, and incredibly, even ex-Nazis who wouldn't go on camera but spoke through audio recordings. Siskel named it in his list and Ebert did not, saying he felt the gravity of the film put it in a different category than the usual Hollywood fare he considered for the list.

Siskel called the documentary the "greatest use of film in motion picture history, taking movies to their highest moral value. Robert DeNiro's Oscar-winning performance as real-life boxer Jake LaMotta is based on his autobiography, but director Martin Scorsese does him no favors.