40 Favorite Films of 1982
by Blue_Leaf | created - 07 Dec 2014 | updated - 30 Apr 2015 | PublicMost definitely my favorite year in film of the 1980's. I believe this list is one of my most eclectic of all. Mainstream, sleepers, independents, foreign, and obscure all find their way to this list of favorites.
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1. The Atomic Cafe (1982)
Not Rated | 86 min | Documentary, History
Disturbing collection of 1940s and 1950s United States government-issued propaganda films designed to reassure Americans that the atomic bomb was not a threat to their safety.
Directors: Jayne Loader, Kevin Rafferty, Pierce Rafferty | Stars: Paul Tibbets, Harry S. Truman, W.H.P. Blandy, Brien McMahon
Votes: 4,534 | Gross: $0.02M
Top 1000
2. Blade Runner (1982)
R | 117 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
A blade runner must pursue and terminate four replicants who stole a ship in space and have returned to Earth to find their creator.
Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, Edward James Olmos
Votes: 822,698 | Gross: $32.87M
Top 1000
3. Burden of Dreams (1982)
Not Rated | 95 min | Documentary
A documentary following German auteur Werner Herzog as he deals with difficult actors, bad weather and getting a boat over a mountain, all in an effort to make his film Fitzcarraldo (1982).
Director: Les Blank | Stars: Werner Herzog, Klaus Kinski, Claudia Cardinale, Jason Robards
Votes: 8,127
4. Cat People (1982)
R | 118 min | Fantasy, Horror, Thriller
A woman who was orphaned from a young age finally reunites with her older brother. Matters start to go awry when she slowly discovers the true nature of her family.
Director: Paul Schrader | Stars: Nastassja Kinski, Malcolm McDowell, John Heard, Annette O'Toole
Votes: 23,891 | Gross: $7.00M
5. Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (1982)
PG | 109 min | Comedy, Drama
A fan club of die-hard James Dean fans meet on the 20th anniversary of his death and reconnect, opening old wounds and facing new ones.
Director: Robert Altman | Stars: Cher, Karen Black, Sandy Dennis, Sudie Bond
Votes: 5,162 | Gross: $0.84M
6. Deathtrap (1982)
PG | 116 min | Comedy, Crime, Mystery
A Broadway playwright puts murder in his plan to take credit for a student's play.
Director: Sidney Lumet | Stars: Michael Caine, Christopher Reeve, Dyan Cannon, Irene Worth
Votes: 15,431 | Gross: $19.28M
7. Diner (1982)
R | 110 min | Comedy, Drama
A group of college-age buddies struggle with their imminent passage into adulthood in 1959 Baltimore.
Director: Barry Levinson | Stars: Steve Guttenberg, Mickey Rourke, Kevin Bacon, Daniel Stern
Votes: 22,810 | Gross: $14.10M
8. The Draughtsman's Contract (1982)
R | 108 min | Comedy, Drama, Mystery
A young artist is commissioned by the wife of a wealthy landowner to make a series of drawings of the estate while her husband is away.
Director: Peter Greenaway | Stars: Anthony Higgins, Janet Suzman, Anne-Louise Lambert, Hugh Fraser
Votes: 11,078
9. The Entity (1982)
R | 125 min | Drama, Horror
A woman is tormented by an invisible being.
Director: Sidney J. Furie | Stars: Barbara Hershey, Ron Silver, David Labiosa, George Coe
Votes: 18,254 | Gross: $13.28M
10. E.T. (1982)
PG | 115 min | Adventure, Family, Sci-Fi
A troubled child summons the courage to help a friendly alien escape from Earth and return to his home planet.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Henry Thomas, Drew Barrymore, Peter Coyote, Dee Wallace
Votes: 437,303 | Gross: $435.11M
11. Fanny and Alexander (1982)
R | 188 min | Drama
Two young Swedish children in the 1900s experience the many comedies and tragedies of their lively and affectionate theatrical family, the Ekdahls.
Director: Ingmar Bergman | Stars: Bertil Guve, Pernilla Allwin, Kristina Adolphson, Börje Ahlstedt
Votes: 67,472 | Gross: $4.97M
Top 1000
12. Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)
R | 90 min | Comedy, Drama
A group of Southern California high school students are enjoying their most important subjects: sex, drugs and rock n' roll.
Director: Amy Heckerling | Stars: Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judge Reinhold, Robert Romanus
Votes: 115,675 | Gross: $27.09M
13. Fitzcarraldo (1982)
PG | 158 min | Adventure, Drama
The story of Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald, an extremely determined man who intends to build an opera house in the middle of a jungle.
Director: Werner Herzog | Stars: Klaus Kinski, Claudia Cardinale, José Lewgoy, Miguel Ángel Fuentes
Votes: 38,557
14. Frances (1982)
R | 140 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
The story of Frances Farmer's meteoric rise to fame in Hollywood and the tragic turn her life took when she was blacklisted.
Director: Graeme Clifford | Stars: Jessica Lange, Jonathan Banks, Bonnie Bartlett, James Brodhead
Votes: 8,558 | Gross: $5.00M
15. Gandhi (1982)
PG | 191 min | Biography, Drama, History
The life of the lawyer who became the famed leader of the Indian revolts against the British rule through his philosophy of nonviolent protest.
Director: Richard Attenborough | Stars: Ben Kingsley, John Gielgud, Rohini Hattangadi, Roshan Seth
Votes: 240,156 | Gross: $52.77M
16. The Grey Fox (1982)
PG | 92 min | Biography, Drama, History
When an aging, but gentlemanly stagecoach robber is released from prison, he decides to go to Canada to become a train robber.
Director: Phillip Borsos | Stars: Richard Farnsworth, Jackie Burroughs, Ken Pogue, Wayne Robson
Votes: 2,489
Top 1000
17. The King of Comedy (1982)
PG | 109 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
A passionate yet unsuccessful comedian stalks and kidnaps his idol to take the spotlight for himself.
Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Robert De Niro, Jerry Lewis, Diahnne Abbott, Sandra Bernhard
Votes: 119,071 | Gross: $2.50M
Top 1000
18. Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains (1982)
R | 87 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
The media and disaffected teens mistake the acerbic rants of an obnoxious teenage punk rocker as a rallying cry for the women of America, launching her and her talentless group to national stardom.
Director: Lou Adler | Stars: Peter Donat, Diane Lane, Marin Kanter, Laura Dern
Votes: 3,042
19. Liquid Sky (1982)
R | 112 min | Sci-Fi, Thriller
A small, heroin seeking UFO lands on a Manhattan roof, observes a bizarre, drug addicted fashion model and sucks endorphin from her sexual encounters' brains.
Director: Slava Tsukerman | Stars: Anne Carlisle, Paula E. Sheppard, Susan Doukas, Otto von Wernherr
Votes: 6,856
Top 1000
20. Made in Britain (1982 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 76 min | Crime, Drama
After being sent to a detention center, a teenage skinhead clashes with the social workers, who want to conform him to the status quo.
Director: Alan Clarke | Stars: Tim Roth, Terry Richards, Bill Stewart, Eric Richard
Votes: 7,611
Top 1000
21. Missing (1982)
PG | 122 min | Biography, Drama, History
When an idealistic American writer disappears during the Chilean coup d'état in September 1973, his wife and father try to find him.
Director: Costa-Gavras | Stars: Jack Lemmon, Sissy Spacek, Melanie Mayron, John Shea
Votes: 23,349 | Gross: $14.00M
22. Moonlighting (1982)
PG | 97 min | Drama
Nowak (Irons), a Polish contractor, leads a group of workmen to London so they can provide cheap labor for a government official based there. Nowak must manage the project and the men as ... See full summary »
Director: Jerzy Skolimowski | Stars: Jeremy Irons, Eugene Lipinski, Jiri Stanislav, Eugeniusz Haczkiewicz
Votes: 3,521
23. My Favorite Year (1982)
PG | 92 min | Comedy, Drama
An aging, dissolute matinee idol is slated to appear on a live TV variety show in 1954, and a young comedy writer is tasked with the thankless job of keeping him ready and sober for the broadcast.
Director: Richard Benjamin | Stars: Peter O'Toole, Mark Linn-Baker, Jessica Harper, Joseph Bologna
Votes: 10,483 | Gross: $20.12M
24. The Night of the Shooting Stars (1982)
R | 107 min | Drama, Fantasy, Romance
In 1944, the residents of a small Italian town under Axis control flee their homes to seek out the liberating Allied forces.
Directors: Paolo Taviani, Vittorio Taviani | Stars: Omero Antonutti, Margarita Lozano, Claudio Bigagli, Massimo Bonetti
Votes: 4,647
25. Personal Best (1982)
R | 128 min | Drama, Sport
The intertwined lives and loves of three highly ranked athletes striving for the national team; Chris bounces between the beds of male coach Terry and her female friend, competitor, and role model Tory.
Director: Robert Towne | Stars: Mariel Hemingway, Scott Glenn, Patrice Donnelly, Kenny Moore
Votes: 3,211 | Gross: $5.67M
26. Pink Floyd: The Wall (1982)
R | 95 min | Drama, Fantasy, Music
A confined but troubled rock star descends into madness in the midst of his physical and social isolation from everyone.
Director: Alan Parker | Stars: Bob Geldof, Christine Hargreaves, James Laurenson, Eleanor David
Votes: 85,362 | Gross: $22.24M
27. The Plague Dogs (1982)
PG-13 | 103 min | Animation, Adventure, Drama
Two dogs escape from a laboratory and are hunted as possible carriers of the bubonic plague.
Director: Martin Rosen | Stars: John Hurt, Christopher Benjamin, James Bolam, Nigel Hawthorne
Votes: 8,801
Top 1000
28. The Return of Martin Guerre (1982)
Not Rated | 112 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
In medieval France, some villagers challenge a man's claim of identity when he (as he says) returns home from some time in the army.
Director: Daniel Vigne | Stars: Gérard Depardieu, Nathalie Baye, Maurice Barrier, Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu
Votes: 4,819 | Gross: $0.02M
29. Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip (1982)
R | 82 min | Documentary, Comedy
Richard Pryor performs his stand-up comedy act on the Sunset Strip.
Director: Joe Layton | Stars: Richard Pryor, Gene Cross, Julie Hampton, Jesse Jackson
Votes: 4,403 | Gross: $36.30M
30. Shoot the Moon (1982)
R | 124 min | Drama
A mother of four is abandoned by her husband for a younger woman. Husband, wife and children struggle to survive the seemingly inevitable divorce.
Director: Alan Parker | Stars: Albert Finney, Diane Keaton, Karen Allen, Peter Weller
Votes: 3,058 | Gross: $9.22M
31. The Snowman (1982 TV Movie)
G | 26 min | Animation, Adventure, Family
On Christmas Eve, a young boy builds a snowman that comes to life and takes him to the North Pole to meet Father Christmas.
Directors: Jimmy T. Murakami, Dianne Jackson | Stars: David Bowie, Raymond Briggs, Mel Smith
Votes: 16,829
Top 1000
32. Sophie's Choice (1982)
R | 150 min | Drama, Romance
Sophie is the survivor of Nazi concentration camps, who has found a reason to live with Nathan, a sparkling if unsteady American Jew obsessed with the Holocaust.
Director: Alan J. Pakula | Stars: Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Peter MacNicol, Rita Karin
Votes: 52,721 | Gross: $30.04M
33. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
PG | 113 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
With the assistance of the Enterprise crew, Admiral Kirk must stop an old nemesis, Khan Noonien Singh, from using the life-generating Genesis Device as the ultimate weapon.
Director: Nicholas Meyer | Stars: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan
Votes: 129,175 | Gross: $78.91M
34. Tenebrae (1982)
R | 101 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
An American novelist visiting Rome to promote his latest book is stalked and harassed by an obsessed fan who is committing a string of murders that appear to be tributes to his work.
Director: Dario Argento | Stars: Anthony Franciosa, Giuliano Gemma, John Saxon, Daria Nicolodi
Votes: 27,401
35. The Thing (1982)
R | 109 min | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
A research team in Antarctica is hunted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of its victims.
Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, Keith David, Richard Masur
Votes: 466,310 | Gross: $13.78M
36. La Traviata (1982)
G | 109 min | Drama, Music
Violetta meets Alfredo and quickly falls for him. After the lovers run away together, they live in bliss for a short time. However, Alfredo's father, Giorgio, starts to interfere, concerned... See full summary »
Director: Franco Zeffirelli | Stars: Teresa Stratas, Plácido Domingo, Cornell MacNeil, Allan Monk
Votes: 1,510 | Gross: $3.78M
37. The Verdict (1982)
R | 129 min | Drama
An outcast, alcoholic Boston lawyer sees the chance to salvage his career and self-respect by taking a medical malpractice case to trial rather than settling.
Director: Sidney Lumet | Stars: Paul Newman, Charlotte Rampling, Jack Warden, James Mason
Votes: 45,948 | Gross: $54.00M
38. Veronika Voss (1982)
R | 104 min | Drama
Partially based on the life of Sybille Schmitz, who found fame under the Nazi regime, but whose career was destroyed afterward. Veronika Voss is a once prominent UFA actress, kept by her doctor, who raises suspicion in a sports journalist.
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder | Stars: Rosel Zech, Hilmar Thate, Cornelia Froboess, Annemarie Düringer
Votes: 7,783
39. Victor/Victoria (1982)
PG | 134 min | Comedy, Music, Romance
A struggling female soprano finds work playing a male female impersonator, but it complicates her personal life.
Director: Blake Edwards | Stars: Julie Andrews, James Garner, Robert Preston, Lesley Ann Warren
Votes: 23,626 | Gross: $21.93M
40. The World According to Garp (1982)
R | 136 min | Comedy, Drama
A struggling young writer finds his life and work dominated by his unfaithful wife and his radical feminist mother, whose best-selling manifesto turns her into a cultural icon.
Director: George Roy Hill | Stars: Robin Williams, Mary Beth Hurt, Glenn Close, John Lithgow
Votes: 29,063 | Gross: $29.71M
41. White Dog (1982)
PG | 90 min | Drama, Horror
A trainer attempts to retrain a vicious dog that's been raised to attack black people.
Director: Samuel Fuller | Stars: Kristy McNichol, Christa Lang, Vernon Weddle, Jameson Parker
Votes: 10,792
42. The Year of Living Dangerously (1982)
PG | 115 min | Drama, Romance, War
A young Australian reporter tries to navigate the political turmoil of Indonesia during the rule of President Sukarno with the help of a diminutive photographer.
Director: Peter Weir | Stars: Mel Gibson, Sigourney Weaver, Linda Hunt, Bembol Roco
Votes: 22,863 | Gross: $10.28M
43. Yol (1982)
PG | 107 min | Drama
When five Kurdish prisoners are granted one week's home leave, they find to their dismay that they face continued oppression outside of prison from their families, the culture, and the government.
Directors: Serif Gören, Yilmaz Güney | Stars: Tarik Akan, Serif Sezer, Halil Ergün, Meral Orhonsay
Votes: 14,503
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