Movies Best Director of the 80s

[The Good The Bad The HBK]

Which Director had the best 4 film run in the 80s?


1. Spielberg - Raiders of the Lost Ark, ET, Temple of Doom, Last Crusade

2. Carpenter - The Thing, Escape From NY, Big Trouble in Little China, They Live

3. Hughes - Ferris Bullers Day Off, The Breakfast Club, Planes Trains & Automobiles, Uncle Buck

4. Zemeckis - Romancing the Stone, Back to the Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Back to the Future II

5. Reiner - This is Spinal Tap, Stand By Me, The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally

6. Cameron - Piranha II, The Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss

7. Scorsese - Raging Bull, King Of Comedy, After Hours, The Color of Money

8. Landis - The Blues Brothers, An American Werewolf in London, Trading Places, Coming To America

9. Donnor - Superman II, The Goonies, Lethal Weapon, Leapon Weapon II

10. De Palma - Dressed To Kill, Blow Out, Scarface, The Untouchables

11. Stone - Platoon, Wall Street, Talk Radio, Born on the Fourth of July

For me it's between Carpenter & Hughes.

 

[cmw43]

People are really voting Speilberg based on ET and the three Indiana Jones?

For me it's a real damn tough list with some GOAT contenders but it comes down to Reiner, Cameron and Carpenter.

Personally I give it to Reiner for variety, basically invented the mokumentary with Spinal Tap, Stand By Me might be the GOAT coming of age story and also a Stephen King adaptation and when Harry Met Sally is an almost perfect romcom and that's not evening mentioning Princess Bride.

 

[Fedorgasm]

I voted Landis but after looking at zemeckis' resume in that decade alone, I think it might be him.

 

[Highway99]

Carpenter, Hughes and Woody Allen.

 

[mixmastermo]

Which Director had the best 4 film run in the 80s?


1. Spielberg - Raiders of the Lost Ark, ET, Temple of Doom, Last Crusade

2. Carpenter - The Thing, Escape From NY, Big Trouble in Little China, They Live

3. Hughes - Ferris Bullers Day Off, The Breakfast Club, Planes Trains & Automobiles, Uncle Buck

4. Zemeckis - Romancing the Stone, Back to the Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Back to the Future II

5. Reiner - This is Spinal Tap, Stand By Me, The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally

6. Cameron - Piranha II, The Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss

7. Scorsese - Raging Bull, King Of Comedy, After Hours, The Color of Money

8. Landis - The Blues Brothers, An American Werewolf in London, Trading Places, Coming To America

9. Donnor - Superman II, The Goonies, Lethal Weapon, Leapon Weapon II

10. De Palma - Dressed To Kill, Blow Out, Scarface, The Untouchables



For me it's between Carpenter & Hughes.

Why do you hate Tim Burton?

 

[Sweater of AV]

Have to give it to Hughes. Those four movies are absolute classics. Scorsese and Cameron (in spite of Piranha II) round out the top 3. After that, it's Carpenter, Spielberg and Zemeckis.

 

[dc007]

Marty

 

[The Good The Bad The HBK]

Why do you hate Tim Burton?

He only had 3 films so he didn't qualify

 

[Fedorgasm]

Can't believe spielbeef is winning this.

Thought Indy fans considered Temple of Doom to be garbage, and ET is a sappy snooze fest.

 

[Law Talkin’ Guy]

Kind of torn between multiple people here: Spielberg, Carpenter, Zemekis, Cameron and Hughes are all super heavy hitters for the 80s. Fuck it, I’m voting Zemekis.

 

[Madmick]

Spielberg, Spielberg, Spielberg.

 

[Takes_Two_To_Tango]

Hughes or Spielberg. Tough call, but I'd give it to Hughes, he was the 80s director pretty much.

 

[moreorless87]

Carpenter I would say in terms of number of quality films, everything he did that decade was good to great and he had a film out every year bar 89, stuff like The Fog and Christine still I think a bit underrated even today.

if you want to get arty maybe Peter Greenaway, 80's pretty neatly covers the best of his career for me from Draftsman's Contract to Cook, Thief, Wife.etc

 

[HARRISON_3]

For John Hughs’ I’d swap out Planes Trains and Automobiles and Uncle Buck for Sixteen Candles and Pretty in Pink (sorry John Candy, I still love you)

That’s a really great list.

I’d go Hughes or Zemeckis for really capturing the 80’s.

Hard to vote against Trading Places and Color of Money, though.

 

[HARRISON_3]

Romancing The Stone is such a fun one, too.

 

[Woldog]

Hayao Miyazaki.

 

[Zer]

It's a strong lineup but I went with Carpenter

Another great one is Hayao Miyazaki - Nausicaa, Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service

 

[Kowboy On Sherdog]

As a kid in the 80's... Zemeckis

 

[jeff7b9]

People are really voting Speilberg based on ET and the three Indiana Jones?

For me it's a real damn tough list with some GOAT contenders but it comes down to Reiner, Cameron and Carpenter.

Personally I give it to Reiner for variety, basically invented the mokumentary with Spinal Tap, Stand By Me might be the GOAT coming of age story and also a Stephen King adaptation and when Harry Met Sally is an almost perfect romcom and that's not evening mentioning Princess Bride.

You could argue that all those Reiner films are "Genre defining" or arguably genre peak form films.

And they are different genres.

That's pretty fucking incredible.
And he did it with less special effects and budget as opposed to a lot of the action films that rely on explosions and shit.

All those films still pretty damn strong cultural relevance 40 years later.


"This one goes to 11"

"I'll have what she's having."

 

[ufcfan4]

You could argue that all those Reiner films are "Genre defining" or arguably genre peak form films.

And they are different genres.

That's pretty fucking incredible.
And he did it with less special effects and budget as opposed to a lot of the action films that rely on explosions and shit.

All those films still pretty damn strong cultural relevance 40 years later.


"This one goes to 11"

"I'll have what she's having."

yeah Reiner has directed some iconic films to the extent that I feel he is underrated as a filmmaker. Did some really good stuff in the 90s too with A Few Good Men and The American President.

He and Ron Howard deserve a lot of credit. It isn’t easy to make that transition from actor to director and they did it impressively, helming good films right off the bat.