Watch With Us loves the flicks of the Eighties — from teen classics like Sixteen Candles to iconic action-thrill rides like The Terminator, it’s undeniable that the ’80s were a fantastic 12 months for cinema.
We love returning to this decade time and time again, and we put together an inventory of three ’80s movies he can’t help but revisit.
Our first pick is Paris, Texas, an epic, arthouse road drama starring Harry Dean Stanton and Nastassja Kinski that can rip your heart out.
We also highlight Dead Poets Society if you happen to’re on the lookout for the right feel-good watch.
Emerging from the West Texas desert is an unkempt man named Travis Henderson (Dean Stanton), who appears to be unable to talk. When he’s found after fainting in a convenience store, a physician phones his estranged brother Walt (Dean Stockwell), who awkwardly reunites with the sibling who had been missing for 4 years. Things only turn out to be stranger when Travis is reunited together with his young son, Hunter (Hunter Carson), and together they embark on a road trip to seek out Travis’ wife, Hunter’s mother, Jane (Nastassja Kinski).
Profound, melancholic and visually stunning, Paris, Texas reigns as a permanent cult classic. The film thoughtfully explores themes about loneliness, love and redemption, expressed with deep emotional nuance through Stanton’s haunting performance as Travis. Cinematographer Robby Müller captures a neon-drenched urban Americana and the expansive desert that surrounds it, using shades of red and blue to evoke the characters’ emotional states.
English teacher John Keating (Robin Williams) begins work at the distinguished Welton Academy, an all-boys prep school that’s iconic for its long-standing traditions and rigorous standards. While a Welton alumnus himself, Keating utilizes unorthodox methods to show his students, encouraging them to “seize the day” and live life to the fullest regardless of the overbearing pressures they face from the varsity and their parents. Together, a gaggle of scholars, including Neil Perry (Robert Sean Leonard) and Todd Anderson (Ethan Hawke), take Keating’s teachings to heart as they learn to embrace their individualism.
Dead Poets Society is a feel-good classic, led by a scene-stealing turn by Williams. The movie’s final “O Captain! My Captain!” scene is iconic, but when that’s the one a part of the film you’re acquainted with, then it is advisable get to educating yourself. Dead Poets Society is a moving coming-of-age story about discovering your true sense of self and learning to challenge rigid institutions of authority. At the top of the day, the film is a heartwarming, mainstream movie-making at its absolute best.
Based on Thomas Harris’ novel Red Dragon, of the identical universe as The Silence of the Lambs, Manhunter precedes the story of Clarice Starling and Buffalo Bill by specializing in FBI criminal profiler Will Graham (William Petersen) and his hunt for the elusive “Tooth Fairy” killer, Francis Dollarhyde (Tom Noonan). Called out of early retirement, Graham enlists the assistance of notorious, convicted serial killer and cannibal Hannibal Lecter (Brian Cox) to raised understand the best way Dollarhyde thinks. Soon, Graham finds himself in a twisted game with Dollarhyde, Lecter and a nosy reporter named Freddy Lounds (Stephen Lang).
Years before Hannibal made the character of Will Graham a beloved television icon through his portrayal by Hugh Dancy (and five years before Anthony Hopkins would prove to be a more memorable Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs), the characters of Red Dragon were first put to the silver screen in Michael Mann‘s seminal neo-noir. Incredibly stylized and superbly acted, Manhunter might be essentially the most underrated gem of the Hannibal Lecter-verse, yet it’s easily among the best, with its unique synth soundtrack, moody atmosphere and powerful psychological thrills.