Reminiscing about my favorite 80's era movies

The Hump Day Hot Topic!

Summertime invokes so many memories from childhood, perhaps none more than the movies that helped pass the time between the last day of school—and the first day of the next school year—movies that are now on demand via any number of streaming services like HBO-Max, Netflix, or Hulu. 

When it comes to nostalgia, being a member of Generation X (born 1965-82), my friends and I spent our long summer days riding bikes, playing ball, or swimming at a local pool or creek—which was followed by evenings spent playing Atari or watching movies on what was then known as Home Box Office (HBO). Or, deeper into the 1980's, Showtime, Cinemax, or rented movies played on the family VCR.

These days, while the Covid pandemic has all but robbed me of one of my favorite pastimes—movie watching at a cineplex—I have found myself watching (and re-watching) the following classics that transport me straight back to my youth in North Florida:

The Star Wars Trilogy

While Star Wars: "A New Hope" debuted in 1977, its sequel, "The Empire Strikes Back," was released in 1980—the same spring that my family moved to Florida from Oxon Hill, Maryland.

Now, I agree with critics who proclaim "Empire" as the best Star Wars film of all time, and with 1983's "Return of the Jedi" providing a satisfying conclusion to the original trilogy, whenever I hear the snare drums and brass signaling the opening notes of the 20th Century Fox theme—followed by the Lucasfilm logo—my heart still skips a beat like I'm five, eight, or 11-years-old!

Somewhere in Time

Never heard of it? This 1980 film about time travel not only satisfied the science nerd in young Hobbs, but it revealed my budding romantic side as it starred Jane Seymour as Elise Mckenna, a stage actress circa 1912 who falls in love with playwright Richard Collier (played by the late Christopher Reeve), a man who travels back from 1980 to that earlier era to win her love. The film also starred the late Christopher Plummer as William Fawcett Robinson, Mckenna's manager who tries to break up the young couple’s relationship.

Now, if you're wondering how a boy grew to love such a film, well, there was only one TV that had HBO on it in the Hobbs house during the summer of 1981. Meaning, on days when rain or extreme heat forced us inside, I was forced to "share" the TV with my teenage sisters (who LOVED) this film. I found myself bored one afternoon and sitting among my siblings and, well, I got hooked on it, too—and keep it in regular rotation 😆.

Poltergeist

So, I absolutely LOVE Horror movies now, but such was not always the case because in 1982, when I went to watch Poltergeist with my siblings and godbrother Mike Bouldin, I was "shook," as the kids say today, for many, many months afterwards.

A Steven Spielberg masterpiece, the film stars Craig T. Nelson and Jobeth Williams as the heads of a yuppie family that soon learns that their suburban neighborhood is REALLY haunted. In fact, I was so "shook" by the toy clown scene that when I got home that evening, my large Darth Vader went deep into the garage for about a solid year 😆.

Grease II

I was too young to watch the original Grease back in 1978, but HBO played Grease II just about every single day during the summer of '82 and by the time school started that August, I could have been a Black "T-Bird" as I knew almost all of the lines and all of the lyrics of every song small screen. 

Starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Maxwell Caufield, Grease II didn't receive the critical acclaim of the original, but it had me and every boy and girl in my neighborhood laughing as we sang lyrics that were WAY over our maturation level 😆. 

Rocky III

Confession: I went through a stage in the late 1970's when I wanted to be Apollo Creed, Rocky's opponent in the 1976 original and the 1978 sequel. While I thought Apollo was the smoothest Black dude on the planet, I initially didn't have much love at all for Clubber Lang, played by Mr. T, after Clubber insulted Apollo before beating the brakes off of Rocky in the film's first fight. 

But Apollo would soon train Rocky to fight "like a colored fighter," as Rocky's irascible and racist brother-in-law Paulie (Bert Young) surmised and, well, the results worked; Rocky beat Clubber in the rematch, and "Eye of the Tiger," the movie’s theme song played by the rock group Survivor, became one of the iconic songs of the 80's. 

Purple Rain

I was already a fan of the late Prince Rogers Nelson by the time Purple Rain debuted in the summer of '84 and, having just turned 12-years-old, I was at that in-between stage of being an annoying little boy—and growing into a young man. 

But I was still very much a little boy to my parents…

Purple Rain was the first "R" rated film that I saw in the movie theater, and while I didn't have either of my parents’ permission to go see it, I did have their permission to hang out with my big cousins Lee (then 18) and Eric (15) Williams, which led them to buy me and my cousin Charles Christopher (12) tickets to see Ghostbusters—right before sneaking us into Purple Rain 😆. Our 12-year-old selves watched at rapt attention as we enjoyed music from Prince, Morris Day and the Time, and instantly crushed on Apollonia Kotero, Prince's on screen love interest! 

Breakin’

There were few kids in America who weren't transfixed on break dancing and poppin' during the Summer of '84 and like most, I spent a great deal of my time getting fat, colorful shoe laces for my Nikes, tearing up cardboard boxes to practice any number of spins, and watching myself "pop" in the mirror with a broom—all in my effort to imitate Turbo, the real dancing star of the movie Breakin’. 

While I cringe a tad when I watch the movie now because the dialogue was rather corny 😆, when the different crews start "serving" each other on film, well, it remains magical! 

Platoon

As you know, I have always been a history buff and I have always enjoyed watching movies that depict the nature of war. Most war movies that I enjoyed in my youth, like the The Longest Day and The Big Red One, were rather tame about showing the horrors of war. But, Platoon, arguably Oliver Stone's masterpiece, spared no quarter, so much so that my father, a Vietnam veteran who rarely spoke about what he saw and did in arms, casually mentioned over breakfast that the film was the closest thing to being back "in the bush."

A star studded cast that included Tom Berenger, Willem Defoe, Keith David, Johnny Depp, and Charlie Sheen, the psychological battles between the men in service were as gut wrenching as the brutality that was masterfully captured by Stone.

Fatal Attraction

10th grade. Christmas Day '87. After opening gifts and eating until we were nearly in a diabetic stupor, my sisters and cousins rode out to the old Capitol Cinemas to watch Fatal Attraction, a movie deemed a "thriller" by the critics that starred Michael Douglass as Dan Gallagher, a married man who engages in an affair with Glen Close (Alex Forrest). 

Well, to 15-year-old Hobbs, when Close/Forrest says "I'm not going to be ignored, Dan" after she tells him that she is pregnant (and he tries to break it off), her words frightened me in a way unseen since Poltergeist shook me back in '82 😆

Dirty Dancing

Ok, remember when I wrote above that the 9-year-old romantic Hobbs started paying attention to Somewhere in Time back in '81 and got hooked? Well, 16-year-old Hobbs was visiting his then girlfriend during the summer of '88, and after speaking to her parents, I was told that she had just popped Dirty Dancing, the hit movie starring the late Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey, into the VCR. When I looked and asked "are you serious," she laughed and said "I think you'll like it"...and she was right!

A coming of age story set in the 1960's, by the time football practice started for me that August, I must have watched Dirty Dancing at least four more times on the VCR before it was time to go back to school!

To be clear, the above 10 films are not the only great 80's movies that stay on repeat, as films like A Soldier's Story, the Indiana Jones trilogy, Batman, St. Elmo's Fire, Gallipoli, Scarface, Funny Farm, Full Metal Jacket, Coming to America, and The Color Purple also stay in heavy rotation. But the above ones instantly jar my memories of the lazy, hazy days of summer in Florida, back when HBO and a VCR were all that I needed to get by 😆.

What movies take you back to your childhood days? Feel free to shoot me an e-mail or leave a message below with your faves!