Sony Studios in Culver City, formerly MGM Studios, located just up the street from my house. Photo courtesy of videoblocks.com
GIVING HOMAGE TO FOUR ACCLAIMED FILMS THAT MADE AN IMPACT WHEN RELEASED IN 1989
Being the movie fan that I am; I don’t think I’m quite up to 100% “buff” status just yet,
I realized a while ago that 1989, much like 1939 with legendary releases like The Wizard of Oz, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington and Gone With The Wind, was a golden year for the movie industry as Hollywood saw quite a few films that were so critically acclaimed that they are very fondly remembered and loved to this day.
I was a student a UCLA in 1989, and not only remember the movies that I’m about to give shout-outs to well, I make it a point to try and watch them whenever they appear on HBO, Starz, Turner Classic Movies, or one of the other cable channels.
I won’t waste any more time; I’ll list six of the films that came out exactly thirty years ago this year – can’t believe it’s been that long – that hold a particular place in my heart in alphabetical order…
Image courtesy of tvguide.com
BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY
Release Date: December 20, 1989
Director: Oliver Stone
Writers: Ron Kovic, Oliver Stone
Starring:
- Tom Cruise
- Willem Dafoe
Budget: $17.8 Million
Box Office: $161 million
Awards:
- ACADEMY AWARDS – Best Director, Best Film Editing
- GOLDEN GLOBE AWARDS – Best Motion Picture; Drama, Best Actor; Drama, Best Director, best Screenplay
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwNNUVbdfzI
An official trailer for “Born On The Fourth of July”, courtesy of YouTube (click on the link).
In my humble view, this is the quintessential American movie.
If or whenever anyone from another country asks me how I feel America is really like, or what American culture truly is deep down, I show them this movie.
Ditto to all those pronounced “Love it or leave it” types who sees the United States as a place that’s every bit as good as Heaven if not better; I strongly suggest and encourage those folks to see this film about Ron Kovic, the Vietnam War veteran – who I had the pleasure to meet once – who was paralyzed and went from being an extremely gung-ho Marine who you couldn’t say anything bad about America to, to an anti-war activist.
To this day I still feel that Tom Cruise, who played Kovic, was robbed of the Best Actor Oscar that year; thirty years later this is, without a doubt, still his best role.
Image courtesy of imdb.com
DEAD POETS SOCIETY
Release Date: June 2, 1989
Director: Peter Weir
Writer: Tom Schulman
Starring:
- Robin Williams
- Ethan Hawke
- Robert Sean Leonard
Budget: $16.4 million
Box Office: $235.9 million
Awards:
- ACADEMY AWARD – Best Original Screenplay
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vi0Lbjs5ECI
My favorite scene in “Dead Poets Society” when the students are admonished to “Carpe Diem – Seize the Day!” Courtesy of YouTube (click on the link)
Like in more or less all of his films, Robin Williams was absolutely brilliant as the non conformist prep school English teacher who encouraged his students to “Seize the day, boys! Make your lives extraordinary!”
Dead Poets Society also did an excellent job in showing how all these kids from wealthy families are so pressured into becoming what their fathers want them to be, rather than what they wanted to be.
So much so that one of those young guys, played by Robert Sean Leonard, upon finding out that he was being sent to military school because he was interested in acting commits suicide.
Talk about shattering the notion of the grass being greener on the other side of the fence!
I was watching the scene where Robin, who played the teacher Mr. Keating, was telling his students to “Seize the day” just now, and it made me realize how much I miss that man, who was an incredible actor and very funny; I certainly hope and pray that’s he’s resting in piece.
Image courtesy of redbubble.com
DO THE RIGHT THING
Release Date (U.S.): July 21, 1989
Writer/Director: Spike Lee
Starring:
- Spike Lee
- Danny Aiello
- Ossie Davis
- Ruby Dee
- John Turturro
- Giancarlo Esposito
- Samuel L. Jackson
- Rosie Perez
- Martin Lawrence
Budget: $6 million
Box Office: $37.3 million
Awards:
- LOS ANGELES FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION – Best Film, Best Supporting Actor, Best Director, Best Music
- NEW YORK FILM CRITICS CIRCLE – Best Cinematography
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ny631yQ-DM
The official trailer for “Do The Right Thing”, courtesy of YouTube (click on the link)
Thirty-three years after his first film, She’s Gotta Have It,
I still consider this, along with his classic biopic Malcolm X, Spike Lee’s masterpiece.
Whoever thought the state of race and race relations were okay after the Civil Rights Movement, with all the marches, the “I Have A Dream” type speeches, and the laws ending blatant discrimination and segregation, would have their convictions shattered with this movie as it graphically depicted how things really were in too many places in this country – Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in this case – and, considering the current climate in this era of our President-Who-Must-Not-be-Named (I continue to refuse to state his name in this blog), still are.
The fact that Spike used a pizzeria on a block in “Bed-Stuy” on an extremely hot day to depict the rising racial and ethnic tensions, which culminated in a police-induced death and a subsequent riot where Sal’s Pizzeria, where Spike’s character Mookie worked and where the tensions began over Sal, played by Danny Aiello, refusing to include prominent blacks on his “Wall of Fame” at his pizzeria, was burned down, was brilliant.
And Public Enemy’s classic”Fight The Power”, along with Al Jarreau’s “Never Explain Love”, which closed the movie, added the perfect touch.
Image courtesy of pinterest.com
GLORY
Release Date: December 14, 1989
Director: Edward Zwick
Writer: Kevin Jarre
Starring:
- Matthew Broderick
- Denzel Washington
- Morgan Freeman
- Cary Elwes
- Andre Braugher
Budget: $18 million
Box Office: $26.8 million
Awards:
- ACADEMY AWARDS – Best Supporting Actor (Denzel Washington), Best Cinematography, Best Sound
- GOLDEN GLOBE AWARDS – Best Supporting Actor, Motion Picture (Denzel Washington)
- GRAMMY AWARDS – Best Instrumental Composition Written For a Motion Picture or Television
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hVrYRqeT5M
The official trailer for “Glory”, courtesy of YouTube (click on the link)
Quite simply, in my book this is the best dramatic Civil War film ever made.
It depicted a part of that essential period of American history that I, as someone who got his bachelor’s degree in history from UCLA, was shamefully unaware of;
The vital contributions that African-Americans made to preserve the Union and end slavery as Glory tells the story of the first all-Black Civil War regiment, the 54th Massachusetts, who went through the usual bigoted hell and eventually earned much respect when they stormed Fort Wagner on the South Carolina coast and (SPOILER ALERT!) lost over half of their men, including the main characters.
And speaking of main characters, Glory signaled the making of Denzel Washington, who played the ex-slave turned soldier Trip as he most deservedly won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor and used that vehicle to launch a stellar career in film.
I would certainly recommend Glory for showing in high school and college history classes.
Image courtesy of pristineauction.com
HEATHERS
Release Date: March 31, 1989
Director: Michael Lehmann
Writer: Daniel Waters
Starring:
- Winona Ryder
- Christian Slater
- Shannen Doherty
Budget: $3 million
Box Office: $1.1 million
Awards: None
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEeQpejFbYA
The official trailer for “Heathers”, courtesy of YouTube (click on the link).
This is one of two teen movies that I remember very fondly,
And I find it incredible that they’re celebrating thirty years since their release!
In the case of this particular film featuring Winona Ryder and Christian Slater, two big names from that time, plus a pre-Beverly Hills, 90210 and Charmed Shannen Doherty, I had the pleasure of actually seeing a tiny part of Heathers filmed!
Some of the scenes were filmed at John Adams Middle School in Santa Monica, where I was a noon aide while attending Santa Monica College across the street. I was walking with a few students and saw below us on the grass Shannen filming a scene, shushing the kids with me while she was saying her lines.
Of course the fact that Heathers was a different kind of teen film, featuring a popular girl who was sick of being such hooking up with a new kid who, in an eerie precursor to the killings at places like Columbine High School (can’t believe it’s been twenty years since that tragedy), off the queen bee mean girl Heather and the football jocks for making all those not like them – the so-called “nerds”, etc. – while making them look like suicides, was very interesting to me as although it didn’t do so well at the box office, I count this film as one of the best teen movies.
Along with this one made during the same year…
Image courtesy of originalfilmmart.com
SAY ANYTHING…
Release Date: April 14, 1989
Writer/Director: Cameron Crowe
Starring:
- John Cusack
- Ione Skye
- John Mahoney
- Lili Taylor
- Eric Stoltz
- Jeremy Piven
- Joan Cusack
Budget: $16 million
Box Office: $21.5 million
Awards: None
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se_eSeEAoX0
The official trailer to “Say Anything”, courtesy of YouTube (click on the link).
Along with Heathers and Less Than Zero, which came out in 1987, I consider this vehicle with John Cusack’s Lloyd Dobler romancing Ione Skye’s perfect combination of brains and beauty, “…a brain trapped in the body of a game show hostess” valedictorian Diane Court, my favorite teen films from the 80s.
Which of course were my teen and young adult years.
The most memorable scene from the movie to me?
Like pretty much everybody else, it was Cusack holding his boombox high over his head while it was blasting Peter Gabriel’s classic “Your Eyes”.
I liked Eric Stoltz’ turn as the graduation party host, and I wished I had a friend like Lili Taylor while I was in high school.
Most of all, I think this movie gave guys who weren’t big time athletes or who looked like Brad Pitt hope that they could get a girl as perfect as Diane Court to want them.
That, I think, is the lasting legacy of this movie.
As always, whether you agree with these choices or not,
I hope this list of now-thirty year old movies induces pleasant memories.
Spike Lee with Ossie Davis in a scene from “Do The Right Thing.” Photo courtesy of thefilmspectrum.com
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