Discuss The Empire Strikes Back
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This film and films in the early 1980's in general
posted by Benton12STAFFMOD on August 29, 2020 at 10:38 AM
One critic wrote that this film doesn't quite have the heart or humor of the first Star Wars. I agree. But in most ways it is even better than SW:ANH Better performances, even more visual imagination, characters come out swinging instead of being introduced. But the SW:ANH was the original.
Now to films around 1980 to1982 just in general. I remember the era. It was somehow boring a time for films. Many movies at that point were called trashy but that really is not it. In 1969 'Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice' was released and that was considered a dirty movie. Movies had had lots of nudity and profanity for over 10 years by the early 80's.That was ok. It was again boring the way many movies were put out in the first years of that eighth decade. By the mid-80's it all got worse--movies became vapid in feeling!
Reply by movie_nazi
on September 3, 2020 at 10:02 AM
I always pegged the 1980s as a slow decade for good films. The reliance on profanity, nudity, extreme depictions or violence/gore had run its course and people had forgotten had to be innovative with their storytelling. I must go ahead and say that of course there are exceptions but overall the 80s sucked for films.
Reply by Benton12
on September 3, 2020 at 10:44 AM
No. That is not it at all. Nudity of women was perfectly welcome to stay. The problem is the realism-made movies in 1980 like 'Stir Crazy' were hindered by the film's non-ability to really dazzle us. Why we're going to see cinema so robbed of the great charms of movies made before 1966?The film of the early 70's were graphically realistic with nudity and violence but still had charm and style. But by 1980 that charm was completely gone. But next movies by 1985 would get all vapid and that is far worse no charm.
Reply by Benton12
on September 3, 2020 at 11:03 AM
Many theatrical films of the early 80s looked better suited to cable TV. Heck, why would people want to go out to see charm-free big screen junk and even pay for it? Even when a movie like 'The Blues Brothers' had great visual benefits playing on the big screen it still was not worth the price of admission. 1980 seems pure, complete gold compared to entertainment and life today.
Reply by Benton12
on September 3, 2020 at 11:06 AM
Two years before there was a TV show called Beretta. No nudity or profanity and violence was not very graphic. But Baretta too had no charm just about at all. The last seven words of the last sentence was movies of 1980 save for 'Empire Strikes Back'.
Reply by movie_nazi
on September 3, 2020 at 11:53 AM
You're right and I expressed myself wrong in my previous post. What I meant to say was whereas in the late 60s and 70s the adding of graphic violence and nudity was simply used as an add-on tool to tell the story, by the 1980s they thought they could simply rely on the gimmick of T&A or a guy shooting everything is sight to pack the theaters.
Reply by Benton12
on September 3, 2020 at 3:27 PM
Well. More by the mid-1980's they thought of the shooting everything in sight to pack a theater (like with mid-80's Rambo films starting in 1985 or a Chuck Norris film at that time like 'Invasion USA'). Actually there's nothing at all wrong with having beautiful women in a movie either. What, then, exactly am I saying was wrong with the films by 1980? Lousy feelings! You simply did not feel by 1980 that you were watching anything warmhearted and was destined to be a classic. Back in the early 60's and earlier one often got warm, good feelings by watching a movie in theaters. By the first year of the 80's that feeling was rather all gone. As I finish up writing this and close it up will say that practically every movie made in 1980 is many times superior to any film we can make today.