1983: A Viewer's Guide
by millsy | created - 12 Feb 2012 | updated - 6 days ago | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. The Right Stuff (1983)
PG | 193 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
The U.S. space program's development from the breaking of the sound barrier to selection of the Mercury 7 astronauts, from a group of test pilots with a more seat-of-the-pants approach than the program's more cautious engineers preferred.
Director: Philip Kaufman | Stars: Sam Shepard, Scott Glenn, Ed Harris, Dennis Quaid
Votes: 65,306 | Gross: $21.50M
2. Tender Mercies (1983)
PG | 92 min | Drama, Music
A broken-down, middle-aged country singer gets a new wife, reaches out to his long-lost daughter, and tries to put his troubled life back together.
Director: Bruce Beresford | Stars: Robert Duvall, Tess Harper, Betty Buckley, Wilford Brimley
Votes: 11,999 | Gross: $8.44M
3. The King of Comedy (1982)
PG | 109 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
A passionate yet unsuccessful comedian stalks and kidnaps his idol to take the spotlight for himself.
Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Robert De Niro, Jerry Lewis, Diahnne Abbott, Sandra Bernhard
Votes: 118,961 | Gross: $2.50M
4. Testament (1983)
PG | 90 min | Drama, Sci-Fi
The life of a suburban American family is scarred after a nuclear attack.
Director: Lynne Littman | Stars: Jane Alexander, William Devane, Rossie Harris, Roxana Zal
Votes: 7,207 | Gross: $2.04M
5. Local Hero (1983)
PG | 111 min | Comedy, Drama
An American oil company has plans for a new refinery and sends someone to Scotland to buy up an entire village, but things don't go as expected.
Director: Bill Forsyth | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Peter Riegert, Fulton Mackay, Denis Lawson
Votes: 26,678 | Gross: $5.90M
6. A Christmas Story (1983)
PG | 93 min | Comedy, Family
In the 1940s, a young boy named Ralphie Parker attempts to convince his parents, teacher, and Santa Claus that a Red Ryder Range 200 Shot BB gun really is the perfect Christmas gift.
Director: Bob Clark | Stars: Peter Billingsley, Melinda Dillon, Darren McGavin, Scott Schwartz
Votes: 168,573 | Gross: $20.61M
7. Never Cry Wolf (1983)
PG | 105 min | Adventure, Drama
A government researcher, sent to research the "menace" of wolves in the north, learns about the true beneficial and positive nature of the species.
Director: Carroll Ballard | Stars: Charles Martin Smith, Brian Dennehy, Zachary Ittimangnaq, Samson Jorah
Votes: 8,773 | Gross: $29.60M
8. Silkwood (1983)
R | 131 min | Biography, Drama, History
A worker at a plutonium processing plant is purposefully contaminated, psychologically tortured and possibly murdered to prevent her from exposing worker safety violations at the plant.
Director: Mike Nichols | Stars: Meryl Streep, Kurt Russell, Cher, Craig T. Nelson
Votes: 22,176 | Gross: $35.62M
9. El Norte (1983)
R | 141 min | Adventure, Drama
After their family is killed in a government massacre, siblings Enrique and Rosa flee Guatemala and embark on a perilous journey to "El Norte": the United States.
Director: Gregory Nava | Stars: Zaide Silvia Gutiérrez, David Villalpando, Ernesto Gómez Cruz, Alicia del Lago
Votes: 5,590
10. The Makioka Sisters (1983)
Not Rated | 140 min | Drama, Romance
The orphaned Makioka sisters look for a husband for their third sister, Yukiko, as the rebellious youngest sister, Taeko, is kept waiting her turn.
Director: Kon Ichikawa | Stars: Yoshiko Sakuma, Sayuri Yoshinaga, Yûko Kotegawa, Jûzô Itami
Votes: 1,718
11. Scarface (1983)
R | 170 min | Crime, Drama
In 1980 Miami, a determined Cuban immigrant takes over a drug cartel and succumbs to greed.
Director: Brian De Palma | Stars: Al Pacino, Michelle Pfeiffer, Steven Bauer, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio
Votes: 915,365 | Gross: $45.60M
12. Baby It's You (1983)
R | 105 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
In a 1966 New Jersey high school, Jill and new student Sheik from the other side of the tracks make their way in a first love romance.
Director: John Sayles | Stars: Rosanna Arquette, Vincent Spano, Joanna Merlin, Jack Davidson
Votes: 2,145 | Gross: $1.87M
13. The Ballad of Narayama (1983)
Not Rated | 130 min | Drama
In a poor 19th century rural Japanese village, everyone who reaches the age of 70 has to climb a nearby mountain to die. An elderly woman is reaching close to her cut-off age during her last days with her family.
Director: Shôhei Imamura | Stars: Ken Ogata, Sumiko Sakamoto, Tonpei Hidari, Aki Takejô
Votes: 9,098
14. The Dresser (1983)
PG | 118 min | Drama
Personal assistant Norman struggles to get deteriorating veteran actor Sir through a difficult performance of King Lear.
Director: Peter Yates | Stars: Albert Finney, Tom Courtenay, Edward Fox, Zena Walker
Votes: 5,691 | Gross: $5.31M
15. Danton (1983)
PG | 136 min | Biography, Drama, History
In 1793, as the Terror begins in France, Georges Danton, a champion-of-the-people, returns to clash against Maximilien Robespierre and his extremist party.
Director: Andrzej Wajda | Stars: Gérard Depardieu, Wojciech Pszoniak, Anne Alvaro, Roland Blanche
Votes: 7,767
16. Nostalghia (1983)
Not Rated | 125 min | Drama
A Russian poet and his interpreter travel to Italy researching the life of an 18th-century composer, and instead meet a ruminative madman who tells the poet how the world may be saved.
Director: Andrei Tarkovsky | Stars: Oleg Yankovskiy, Erland Josephson, Domiziana Giordano, Patrizia Terreno
Votes: 30,031 | Gross: $0.01M
17. Pauline at the Beach (1983)
R | 95 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Marion is about to divorce from her husband and takes her 15-year-old niece Pauline on a vacation to Granville. She meets an old love...
Director: Éric Rohmer | Stars: Amanda Langlet, Arielle Dombasle, Pascal Greggory, Féodor Atkine
Votes: 10,512
18. To Our Loves (1983)
R | 99 min | Drama, Romance
An erratic young woman's family desperately tries to prevent her increasingly erotic ways.
Director: Maurice Pialat | Stars: Sandrine Bonnaire, Maurice Pialat, Christophe Odent, Dominique Besnehard
Votes: 7,258
19. Rumble Fish (1983)
R | 94 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
Absent-minded street thug Rusty James struggles to live up to his legendary older brother's reputation, and longs for the days of gang warfare.
Director: Francis Ford Coppola | Stars: Matt Dillon, Mickey Rourke, Diane Lane, Dennis Hopper
Votes: 37,618 | Gross: $2.49M
20. Star 80 (1983)
R | 103 min | Biography, Drama
A successful young model finds trouble when her obsessive manager-turned-husband becomes dangerously jealous.
Director: Bob Fosse | Stars: Mariel Hemingway, Eric Roberts, Cliff Robertson, Carroll Baker
Votes: 8,130 | Gross: $6.47M
21. Angst (I) (1983)
Not Rated | 87 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller
A troubled man gets released from prison and starts taking out his sadistic fantasies on an unsuspecting family living in a secluded house.
Director: Gerald Kargl | Stars: Erwin Leder, Robert Hunger-Bühler, Silvia Ryder, Karin Springer
Votes: 13,435
22. Bad Boys (1983)
R | 123 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Chicago crime kid Mick O'Brien is sent to reform school after accidentally killing a rival's kid brother.
Director: Rick Rosenthal | Stars: Sean Penn, Reni Santoni, Jim Moody, Eric Gurry
Votes: 17,038 | Gross: $9.20M
23. Born in Flames (1983)
Not Rated | 79 min | Comedy, Drama, Sci-Fi
Set ten years after the most peaceful revolution in United States history, it presents a dystopia in which the issues of many groups - minorities, liberals, gay rights organizations, feminists - are dealt with by the government.
Director: Lizzie Borden | Stars: Honey, Adele Bertei, Jean Satterfield, Florynce Kennedy
Votes: 2,050
24. Brainstorm (1983)
PG | 106 min | Sci-Fi, Thriller
Researchers develop a system where they can jump into people's minds. But when people involved bring their personal problems into the equation, it becomes dangerous - perhaps deadly.
Director: Douglas Trumbull | Stars: Christopher Walken, Natalie Wood, Louise Fletcher, Cliff Robertson
Votes: 13,101 | Gross: $8.90M
25. Carmen (I) (1983)
R | 102 min | Drama, Music, Romance
A group of flamenco dancers are rehearsing a very Spanish version of Bizet's dramatization of Prosper Merimee's novella Carmen. The choreographer Antonio falls in love with Carmen, the main... See full summary »
Director: Carlos Saura | Stars: Antonio Gades, Laura del Sol, Paco de Lucía, Marisol
Votes: 3,558
26. Christine (1983)
R | 110 min | Horror, Thriller
A nerdish boy buys a strange car with an evil mind of its own and his nature starts to change to reflect it.
Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Keith Gordon, John Stockwell, Alexandra Paul, Robert Prosky
Votes: 92,329 | Gross: $21.20M
27. Confidentially Yours (1983)
PG | 110 min | Comedy, Crime, Mystery
After he's implicated in several murders, a real estate agent hides out from the cops while his intrepid secretary does some private investigating of her own to locate the killer.
Director: François Truffaut | Stars: Fanny Ardant, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Jean-Pierre Kalfon, Philippe Laudenbach
Votes: 7,488
28. The Dead Zone (1983)
R | 103 min | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
A man awakens from a coma to discover he has a psychic ability to foresee future events.
Director: David Cronenberg | Stars: Christopher Walken, Brooke Adams, Tom Skerritt, Herbert Lom
Votes: 77,227 | Gross: $20.77M
29. Dressed in Blue (1983)
Unrated | 96 min | Documentary
Several transvestite prostitutes that work the Madrid streets discuss their personal experiences. The camera follows their daily lives. The lid is also lifted on their personal histories.
Director: Antonio Giménez Rico | Stars: Lorenzo Arana, René Amor, José Antonio Sánchez, Francisco Pérez Cobos
Votes: 220
30. El Sur (1983)
Not Rated | 95 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
A woman reflects on her childhood relationship with her father, attempting to understand the depths of his despair and the truth of his myths.
Director: Víctor Erice | Stars: Omero Antonutti, Sonsoles Aranguren, Icíar Bollaín, Lola Cardona
Votes: 6,125
31. Entre Nous (1983)
PG | 110 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
A Jewish refugee marries a soldier to escape deportation to Germany. Meanwhile a wealthy art student loses her first husband to a stray Resistance bullet; at the Liberation she meets an actor, gets pregnant, and marries him.
Director: Diane Kurys | Stars: Miou-Miou, Isabelle Huppert, Guy Marchand, Jean-Pierre Bacri
Votes: 2,257
32. The Evil Dead (1981)
NC-17 | 85 min | Horror
Five friends travel to a cabin in the woods, where they unknowingly release flesh-possessing demons.
Director: Sam Raimi | Stars: Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, Richard DeManincor, Betsy Baker
Votes: 232,205 | Gross: $2.40M
33. Gorky Park (1983)
R | 128 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A Moscow police officer investigates a vicious triple homicide and stumbles upon a high-level international political conspiracy.
Director: Michael Apted | Stars: William Hurt, Lee Marvin, Brian Dennehy, Ian Bannen
Votes: 15,805 | Gross: $15.90M
34. The Keep (1983)
R | 96 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
Nazis are forced to turn to a Jewish historian for help in battling the ancient demon they have inadvertently freed from its prison.
Director: Michael Mann | Stars: Scott Glenn, Ian McKellen, Alberta Watson, Jürgen Prochnow
Votes: 14,278 | Gross: $3.76M
35. Last Night at the Alamo (1983)
Unrated | 81 min | Comedy, Drama
Cowboy, and assorted blue collar buddies, inneffectually try to save a true Texas Honky Tonk from closing for good.
Director: Eagle Pennell | Stars: Sonny Carl Davis, Lou Perryman, Steven Mattila, Tina-Bess Hubbard
Votes: 388
36. Lianna (1983)
R | 110 min | Drama, Romance
A happily married woman comes to realize herself of being a repressed lesbian after she has an affair with a female college professor, and then tries to come to terms with her newfound lifestyle.
Director: John Sayles | Stars: Linda Griffiths, Jane Hallaren, Jon DeVries, Jo Henderson
Votes: 1,824 | Gross: $1.50M
37. Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1983)
R | 123 min | Drama, War
During WWII, a British colonel tries to bridge the cultural divides between a British POW and the Japanese camp commander in order to avoid bloodshed.
Director: Nagisa Ôshima | Stars: David Bowie, Tom Conti, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Takeshi Kitano
Votes: 19,988 | Gross: $2.31M
38. My Brother's Wedding (1983)
Not Rated | 115 min | Drama
A man who has struggled personally has conflicts with his upwardly mobile lawyer brother and well to-do fiancee and is reluctantly to be the best man at their wedding.
Director: Charles Burnett | Stars: Everett Silas, Jessie Holmes, Gaye Shannon-Burnett, Ronnie Bell
Votes: 1,072 | Gross: $0.01M
39. Never Say Never Again (1983)
PG | 134 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
A S.P.E.C.T.R.E. agent has stolen two American nuclear warheads, and James Bond must find their targets before they are detonated.
Director: Irvin Kershner | Stars: Sean Connery, Kim Basinger, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Max von Sydow
Votes: 73,088 | Gross: $55.50M
40. Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983)
PG | 131 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy
After rescuing Han Solo from Jabba the Hutt, the Rebel Alliance attempt to destroy the second Death Star, while Luke struggles to help Darth Vader back from the dark side.
Director: Richard Marquand | Stars: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams
Votes: 1,120,384 | Gross: $309.13M
41. Risky Business (1983)
R | 99 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
A Chicago teenager is looking for fun at home while his parents are away, but the situation quickly gets out of hand.
Director: Paul Brickman | Stars: Tom Cruise, Rebecca De Mornay, Joe Pantoliano, Richard Masur
Votes: 99,716 | Gross: $63.50M
42. Sans Soleil (1983)
Not Rated | 100 min | Documentary, Drama
A woman narrates the contemplative writings of a seasoned world traveler, focusing on contemporary Japan.
Director: Chris Marker | Stars: Amilcar Cabral, Florence Delay, Arielle Dombasle, Riyoko Ikeda
Votes: 12,121 | Gross: $0.03M
43. Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983)
PG | 95 min | Fantasy, Mystery, Thriller
In a small American town, a diabolical circus and its demonic proprietor prey on the townsfolk.
Director: Jack Clayton | Stars: Mary Grace Canfield, Richard Davalos, Jake Dengel, Jack Dodson
Votes: 10,600 | Gross: $8.40M
44. Sprout Wings and Fly (1983)
Not Rated | 30 min | Documentary, Short, Music
A documentary about Tommy Jarrell, a fiddler from North Carolina. This films shows a bit of his current life and those around him and includes a lot of his Appalachian Old-Time music.
Directors: Les Blank, Cece Conway, Alice Gerrard | Stars: Tommy Jarrell, Julie Jarrell Lyons, Togie McGee, Edith Hicks
Votes: 266
45. Streamers (1983)
R | 118 min | Crime, Drama, War
Four young soldiers waiting to be shipped to Viet Nam deal with racial tension and their own intolerance when one soldier reveals he's gay.
Director: Robert Altman | Stars: Matthew Modine, Michael Wright, Mitchell Lichtenstein, David Alan Grier
Votes: 2,122
46. Style Wars (1983 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 69 min | Documentary, Music
A documentary that exposes the rich growing subculture of hip-hop that was developing in New York City in the late '70s and early '80s, specifically focusing on graffiti art and breakdancing.
Director: Tony Silver | Stars: Demon, Kase 2, Eric Haze, D. 5
Votes: 3,296
47. Sugar Cane Alley (1983)
PG | 103 min | Drama, History
Set in 1931, Sugar Cane Alley paints a rich impasto of native life under French colonial rules, filtered through the coming-of-age of a bright, sweetly opportunistic boy.
Director: Euzhan Palcy | Stars: Garry Cadenat, Darling Légitimus, Douta Seck, Joby Bernabé
Votes: 1,021
48. Terms of Endearment (1983)
PG | 132 min | Comedy, Drama
Follows hard-to-please Aurora looking for love and her daughter's family problems.
Director: James L. Brooks | Stars: Shirley MacLaine, Debra Winger, Jack Nicholson, Danny DeVito
Votes: 65,397 | Gross: $108.42M
49. Trading Places (1983)
R | 116 min | Comedy
A snobbish investor and a wily street con artist find their positions reversed as part of a bet by two callous millionaires.
Director: John Landis | Stars: Eddie Murphy, Dan Aykroyd, Ralph Bellamy, Don Ameche
Votes: 165,607 | Gross: $90.40M
50. Under Fire (1983)
R | 128 min | Drama, War
Three journalists in a romantic triangle are involved in political intrigue during the last days of the corrupt Somoza regime in Nicaragua before it falls to a popular revolution in 1979.
Director: Roger Spottiswoode | Stars: Nick Nolte, Ed Harris, Gene Hackman, Joanna Cassidy
Votes: 8,502 | Gross: $5.70M
51. Videodrome (1983)
R | 87 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A programmer at a Toronto TV station that specializes in adult entertainment searches for the producers of a dangerous and bizarre broadcast.
Director: David Cronenberg | Stars: James Woods, Debbie Harry, Sonja Smits, Peter Dvorsky
Votes: 102,844 | Gross: $2.12M
52. WarGames (1983)
PG | 114 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
A young man finds a back door into a military central computer in which reality is confused with game-playing, possibly starting World War III.
Director: John Badham | Stars: Matthew Broderick, Ally Sheedy, John Wood, Dabney Coleman
Votes: 110,589 | Gross: $79.57M
53. Zelig (1983)
PG | 79 min | Comedy
"Documentary" about a man who can look and act like whoever he's around, and meets various famous people.
Director: Woody Allen | Stars: Woody Allen, Mia Farrow, Patrick Horgan, John Buckwalter
Votes: 44,100 | Gross: $11.80M
54. Betrayal (1983)
R | 95 min | Drama, Thriller
An affair between a literary agent and his best friend's wife. The story unfolds in reverse-chronological order.
Director: David Hugh Jones | Stars: Jeremy Irons, Ben Kingsley, Patricia Hodge, Avril Elgar
Votes: 1,743
pending
55. In the White City (1983)
108 min | Drama
A Swiss sailor abandons his post during a stopover in Lisbon and takes up residence in a small hotel in the city.
Director: Alain Tanner | Stars: Bruno Ganz, Teresa Madruga, Julia Vonderlinn, José Carvalho
Votes: 1,405
pending
56. Heart Like a Wheel (1983)
PG | 113 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
Shirley Muldowney is determined to be a top-fuel drag racer, although no woman has ever raced them before. Despite the high risks of this kind of racing and the burden it places on her family life, she perseveres in her dream.
Director: Jonathan Kaplan | Stars: Bonnie Bedelia, Beau Bridges, Diane Delano, Ellen Geer
Votes: 1,580 | Gross: $0.27M
57. Strangers Kiss (1983)
R | 94 min | Drama
To help his actress girlfriend regain her confidence a Hollywood bigshot bankrolls a small budget film being made by a first-time producer and director pair. Despite the hand-to-mouth way ... See full summary »
Director: Matthew Chapman | Stars: Peter Coyote, Victoria Tennant, Blaine Novak, Dan Shor
Votes: 209
58. Man of Flowers (1983)
91 min | Drama
An eccentric elderly man tries to enjoy the three things in life that he considers real beauty: collecting art, collecting flowers, and watching pretty women undress.
Director: Paul Cox | Stars: Norman Kaye, Alyson Best, Chris Haywood, Sarah L. Walker
Votes: 655
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