best of 1980

by KnutGaertner | created - 02 Oct 2011 | updated - 11 Jan 2017 | Public
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1. Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

PG | 124 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy

82 Metascore

After the Rebel Alliance are overpowered by the Empire, Luke Skywalker begins his Jedi training with Yoda, while his friends are pursued across the galaxy by Darth Vader and bounty hunter Boba Fett.

Director: Irvin Kershner | Stars: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams

Votes: 1,379,225 | Gross: $290.48M

2. The Shining (1980)

R | 146 min | Drama, Horror

68 Metascore

A family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where a sinister presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from both past and future.

Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers

Votes: 1,106,072 | Gross: $44.02M

3. Airplane! (1980)

PG | 88 min | Comedy

78 Metascore

After the crew becomes sick with food poisoning, a neurotic ex-fighter pilot must safely land a commercial airplane full of passengers.

Directors: Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker | Stars: Robert Hays, Julie Hagerty, Leslie Nielsen, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Votes: 260,963 | Gross: $83.40M

4. The Blues Brothers (1980)

R | 133 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy

60 Metascore

Jake Blues rejoins with his brother Elwood after being released from prison, but the duo has just days to reunite their old R&B band and save the Catholic home where the two were raised, outrunning the police as they tear through Chicago.

Director: John Landis | Stars: John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Cab Calloway, John Candy

Votes: 214,404 | Gross: $57.23M

5. Cannibal Holocaust (1980)

Unrated | 95 min | Adventure, Horror

22 Metascore

During a rescue mission into the Amazon rainforest, a professor stumbles across lost film shot by a missing documentary crew.

Director: Ruggero Deodato | Stars: Robert Kerman, Francesca Ciardi, Perry Pirkanen, Luca Barbareschi

Votes: 61,114

6. Raging Bull (1980)

R | 129 min | Biography, Drama, Sport

90 Metascore

The life of boxer Jake LaMotta, whose violence and temper that led him to the top in the ring destroyed his life outside of it.

Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Robert De Niro, Cathy Moriarty, Joe Pesci, Frank Vincent

Votes: 380,070 | Gross: $23.38M

7. The Elephant Man (1980)

PG | 124 min | Biography, Drama

78 Metascore

A Victorian surgeon rescues a heavily disfigured man who is mistreated while scraping a living as a side-show freak. Behind his monstrous façade, there is revealed a person of kindness, intelligence and sophistication.

Director: David Lynch | Stars: Anthony Hopkins, John Hurt, Anne Bancroft, John Gielgud

Votes: 258,356

8. Caddyshack (1980)

R | 98 min | Comedy, Sport

48 Metascore

An exclusive golf course has to deal with a flatulent new member and a destructive dancing gopher.

Director: Harold Ramis | Stars: Chevy Chase, Rodney Dangerfield, Bill Murray, Ted Knight

Votes: 127,146 | Gross: $39.85M

9. Flash Gordon (1980)

PG | 111 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

58 Metascore

A football player and his friends travel to the planet Mongo and find themselves fighting the tyranny of Ming the Merciless to save Earth.

Director: Mike Hodges | Stars: Sam J. Jones, Melody Anderson, Max von Sydow, Topol

Votes: 61,506

10. Friday the 13th (1980)

R | 95 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller

22 Metascore

A group of teenage camp counselors attempt to re-open an abandoned summer camp with a tragic past, but they are stalked by a mysterious, relentless killer.

Director: Sean S. Cunningham | Stars: Betsy Palmer, Adrienne King, Jeannine Taylor, Robbi Morgan

Votes: 157,379 | Gross: $39.75M

11. The Fog (1980)

R | 89 min | Horror, Thriller

55 Metascore

An unearthly fog rolls into a small coastal town exactly 100 years after a ship mysteriously sank in its waters.

Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Adrienne Barbeau, Jamie Lee Curtis, Janet Leigh, John Houseman

Votes: 82,953 | Gross: $21.38M

12. Dressed to Kill (1980)

R | 104 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery

74 Metascore

A mysterious blonde woman kills one of a psychiatrist's patients, and then goes after the high-class call girl who witnessed the murder.

Director: Brian De Palma | Stars: Michael Caine, Angie Dickinson, Nancy Allen, Keith Gordon

Votes: 48,193 | Gross: $31.90M

13. The Changeling (1980)

R | 107 min | Horror, Mystery

70 Metascore

After the death of his wife and daughter in a car crash, a music professor staying at a long-vacant Seattle mansion is dragged into a decades-old mystery by an inexplicable presence in the mansion's attic.

Director: Peter Medak | Stars: George C. Scott, Trish Van Devere, Melvyn Douglas, Jean Marsh

Votes: 39,983

14. Superman II (1980)

PG | 127 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

83 Metascore

Superman agrees to sacrifice his powers to start a relationship with Lois Lane, unaware that three Kryptonian criminals he inadvertently released are conquering Earth.

Director: Richard Lester | Stars: Gene Hackman, Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, Ned Beatty

Votes: 114,595 | Gross: $108.19M

15. Ordinary People (1980)

R | 124 min | Drama

86 Metascore

The accidental death of the older son of an affluent family deeply strains the relationships among the bitter mother, the good-natured father and the guilt-ridden younger son.

Director: Robert Redford | Stars: Donald Sutherland, Mary Tyler Moore, Judd Hirsch, Timothy Hutton

Votes: 56,665 | Gross: $54.80M

16. Fame (1980)

R | 134 min | Drama, Music, Musical

58 Metascore

A chronicle of the lives of several teenagers who attend a New York high school for students gifted in the performing arts.

Director: Alan Parker | Stars: Eddie Barth, Irene Cara, Lee Curreri, Laura Dean

Votes: 24,683 | Gross: $0.12M

17. The Big Red One (1980)

R | 113 min | Drama, War

77 Metascore

A hardened sergeant and the four core members of his infantry unit try to survive World War II as they move from battle to battle throughout Europe.

Director: Samuel Fuller | Stars: Lee Marvin, Mark Hamill, Robert Carradine, Bobby Di Cicco

Votes: 21,386

18. Prom Night (1980)

R | 92 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller

45 Metascore

At a high-school senior prom, a masked killer stalks four teenagers who were responsible for the accidental death of a classmate six years previously.

Director: Paul Lynch | Stars: Leslie Nielsen, Jamie Lee Curtis, Casey Stevens, Anne-Marie Martin

Votes: 20,914 | Gross: $14.80M

19. Eaten Alive! (1980)

Not Rated | 92 min | Adventure, Horror

A young woman teams up with a mercenary to find her missing sister in the jungles of New Guinea where they find that a deranged leader of a religious cult has located his commune in an area inhabited by cannibals.

Director: Umberto Lenzi | Stars: Robert Kerman, Janet Agren, Ivan Rassimov, Mel Ferrer

Votes: 4,596

20. City of the Living Dead (1980)

Not Rated | 93 min | Horror

A reporter and a psychic race to close the Gates of Hell after the suicide of a clergyman caused them to open, allowing the dead to rise from their graves.

Director: Lucio Fulci | Stars: Christopher George, Catriona MacColl, Carlo De Mejo, Antonella Interlenghi

Votes: 19,347

21. Maniac (1980)

18+ | 87 min | Crime, Drama, Horror

22 Metascore

A psychopathic man goes on a killing and mutilation spree in New York City.

Director: William Lustig | Stars: Joe Spinell, Caroline Munro, Abigail Clayton, Kelly Piper

Votes: 20,193

22. The Dogs of War (1980)

R | 102 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

56 Metascore

Mercenary James Shannon, on a reconnaissance job to the African nation of Zangaro, is tortured and deported. He returns to lead a coup.

Director: John Irvin | Stars: Christopher Walken, Tom Berenger, Colin Blakely, Hugh Millais

Votes: 9,424

23. The Stunt Man (1980)

R | 131 min | Action, Comedy, Drama

75 Metascore

A fugitive stumbles onto a movie set just when they need a new stunt man, takes the job as a way to hide out and falls for the leading lady while facing off with his manipulative director.

Director: Richard Rush | Stars: Peter O'Toole, Steve Railsback, Barbara Hershey, Allen Garfield

Votes: 10,450 | Gross: $7.06M

24. The Mirror Crack'd (1980)

PG | 105 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller

47 Metascore

Miss Jane Marple comes to solve the mystery when a local woman is poisoned and a visiting movie star seems to have been the intended victim.

Director: Guy Hamilton | Stars: Angela Lansbury, Tony Curtis, Rock Hudson, Geraldine Chaplin

Votes: 9,433

25. Seems Like Old Times (1980)

PG | 102 min | Comedy, Romance

58 Metascore

Wrongfully accused of a bank robbery, a writer seeks the help of his ex-wife, who is now married to the soon-to-be Attorney General of California.

Director: Jay Sandrich | Stars: Goldie Hawn, Chevy Chase, Charles Grodin, Robert Guillaume

Votes: 10,796 | Gross: $44.00M

26. Little Lord Fauntleroy (1980 TV Movie)

103 min | Drama, Family, Romance

An American boy turns out to be the long-lost heir of a British fortune. He is sent to live with the cold and unsentimental Lord, who oversees the trust.

Director: Jack Gold | Stars: Ricky Schroder, Alec Guinness, Eric Porter, Colin Blakely

Votes: 5,254

27. The Last Hunter (1980)

95 min | Action, Drama, Thriller

During the Vietnam war, an American soldier gets trapped behind enemy lines. A squad of his buddies sets out to rescue him.

Director: Antonio Margheriti | Stars: David Warbeck, Tisa Farrow, Tony King, Bobby Rhodes

Votes: 1,039

28. Patrick Still Lives (1980)

92 min | Crime, Horror, Sci-Fi

Five people receive an anonymous letter revealing a secret of theirs and inviting them to come stay at a mansion that houses a clinic run by a corrupt doctor who experiments on the brain of his comatose son.

Director: Mario Landi | Stars: Sacha Pitoëff, Gianni Dei, Mariangela Giordano, Carmen Russo

Votes: 958

29. Inside Moves (1980)

PG | 113 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

63 Metascore

Handicapped after an unsuccessful suicide attempt, a man finds common ground in the troubled souls at a local dive bar.

Director: Richard Donner | Stars: John Savage, David Morse, Diana Scarwid, Amy Wright

Votes: 2,281

30. Kagemusha: The Shadow Warrior (1980)

PG | 162 min | Drama, History, War

84 Metascore

A petty thief with an utter resemblance to a samurai warlord is hired as the lord's double. When the warlord later dies the thief is forced to take up arms in his place.

Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Tatsuya Nakadai, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Ken'ichi Hagiwara, Jinpachi Nezu

Votes: 38,163

31. Altered States (1980)

R | 102 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller

58 Metascore

A psycho-physiologist experiments with drugs and a sensory-deprivation tank and has visions he believes are genetic memories.

Director: Ken Russell | Stars: William Hurt, Blair Brown, Bob Balaban, Charles Haid

Votes: 38,622 | Gross: $19.85M

32. The Gods Must Be Crazy (1980)

PG | 109 min | Adventure, Comedy

73 Metascore

A comic allegory about a traveling Bushman who encounters modern civilization and its stranger aspects, including a clumsy scientist and a band of revolutionaries.

Director: Jamie Uys | Stars: N!xau, Marius Weyers, Sandra Prinsloo, Louw Verwey

Votes: 59,441 | Gross: $30.03M



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