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Is 1984 an all-time-great year for film? Absolutely! It could be a top-10 year or so for American movies. I mean, I haven’t even looked at the full list of films, and I already know that there are a few of my favorites that came out in 1984. No need to dilly dally!
Three of the top-four films in the box office? Oh, just Ghostbusters, Beverly Hills Cop, and Gremlins. Those are three classic comedies. Ghostbusters is one of the best ‘80s comedies, and that spans the entire decade. The other movie in the top four is Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. That’s maybe the worst Indiana Jones film, but it’s also an Indiana Jones film!
Romancing the Stone is a good adventure-based romantic comedy. Splash is fine. Police Academy was released. So was The Karate Kid. I don’t like either of those movies, but they started successful series. Clearly, 1984 was remarkable.
The reason one might not consider this one of the best movie years ever is that the Oscars were unremarkable. Amadeus won Best Picture, and the other nominees were The Killing Fields, A Passage to India, Places in the Heart, and A Soldier’s Story. Now, Amadeus is a solid winner. I’ve seen The Killing Fields once, in high school. I’ve heard of two other of those movies, and A Soldier’s Story was new to me. We did get a notable Oscar win from Haing S. Ngor for The Killing Fields. He was not a professional actor. That’s deeply impressive.
Outside of the top 10 at the box office and the Oscar movies, we had This is Spinal Tap, which basically birthed the mockumentary genre on the big screen. Sixteen Candles and The Natural came out, as did Top Secret! and The Muppets Take Manhattan, probably the best Muppets movie. The Terminator! The original A Nightmare on Elm Street!Ultimately, though, this is one last film I need to shout out. It’s a cult classic, but a big reason why, for me, 1984 is in the running for best movie year. Repo Man came out. It’s my favorite movie. It rules.
Yeah, 1984 was amazing for movies. It’s nice that, unlike back then, one need not wait for a movie to air on TV to catch it if you missed it in the theater.
