10 Films From '80s in Roger Ebert's Great Movies Collection (2025)

Roger Ebert

10 Films From '80s in Roger Ebert's Great Movies Collection (1)

By Ali Teske

Follow

Followed

Thread

Link copied to clipboard

Sign in to your Collider account

10 Films From '80s in Roger Ebert's Great Movies Collection (2)

Roger Ebert's expansive collection of Great Movies includes those from every decade until his death in 2013, and from every genre. The 1980s were a decade in cinema that featured enduring blockbusters, iconic characters, and narrative-driven movies, all of which had a massive influence on pop culture, from fashion to music to quotable lines audiences are still reciting over four decades later. While there are dozens of movies from the 80s that Ebert deemed four-star-worthy, not all of them he considered bestowing the badge of Great Movie honor on.

The best of the 1980s for Ebert included adaptations, franchise starters, eclectic comedies, and hair-raising horror. Where there was an emotionally taxing narrative, Ebert selected the opposite with feel-good and heartwarming movies that are just as worthy of praise among Oscar nominees and cult classics. The movies from the 80s that appear on Ebert's Great Movie list endured not only with moviegoers, but with Ebert as he revisited each movie decades later and still found the cinematic excellence within each of them.

10 'This is Spinal Tap' (1984)

Directed by Rob Reiner

10 Films From '80s in Roger Ebert's Great Movies Collection (3)

In his 2001 great movie review, Ebert called the mockumentary "one of the funniest movies ever made." This is Spinal Tap stars Rob Reiner in his directorial debut as Marty DiBergi, a fictional director following the titular English band as they embark on their first U.S. tour in half a decade. Deemed the loudest band, Spinal Tap consists of the star musicians, David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean), Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer), and Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest). The satirical story of rock bands and the music industry earned four stars from Ebert after its original release.

"There are two stories told in the film: the story of what the rock band Spinal Tap thinks, hopes, believes or fears is happening, and the story of what is actually happening. The reason we feel such affection for its members is because they are so touching in their innocence and optimism. Intoxicated by the sheer fun of being rock stars, they perform long after their sell-by date..."

Ebert praises Reiner's skill in front of and behind the camera, armed with editors who do the work to reveal what the script shouldn't about love triangles, failed piercings, and enormous comedic payoffs. The story is about authenticity, as the band members are unapologetically themselves and what happens to them is funny, not emotionally tortuous, even though their music is inherently bad. This is Spinal Tap takes home multiple accolades, being one of the best mockumentaries, the launching point for Reiner's directorial career, an iconic comedy, but for Ebert one of the best movies of the 1980s.

10 Films From '80s in Roger Ebert's Great Movies Collection (4)

This is Spinal Tap

R

Where to Watch

  • stream
  • rent
  • buy

Not available

*Availability in US

Release Date
March 2, 1984
Director
Rob Reiner
Cast
Rob Reiner, Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, Kimberly Stringer

9 'Planes, Trains, & Automobiles' (1987)

Directed by John Hughes

10 Films From '80s in Roger Ebert's Great Movies Collection (7)

For Ebert, Planes, Trains, and Automobiles became more than just a customary holiday viewing when he revisited the comedy for his great movie collection. The movie comes from the mind of "one of the most prolific filmmakers," John Hughes, about two traveling Chicago salesmen (Steve Martin and John Candy) of opposite personalities whose destinies are brought together in Manhattan as they race to get home for Thanksgiving. Candy's jovial performance as Del opposite Martin's uptight Neal with a Hughes script created something emotionally piercing than with just another comedy movie.

"The buried story engine of 'Planes, Trains and Automobiles' is not slowly growing friendship or odd-couple hostility (devices a lesser film might have employed), but empathy. It is about understanding how the other guy feels."

Ebert's review for his great movie collection recalls a moment he saw Candy alone in a bar and the conversation they had, the critic calling attention to Candy's depression and how he simply wanted to make people laugh, but Candy felt he tried too hard. Ebert thought of Del and how the acclaimed comedy tells a deeper story of emotional transformation that does away with complex, lofty themes and simply beelines for the heart of the characters and the audience.

10 Films From '80s in Roger Ebert's Great Movies Collection (8)
Planes Trains and Automobiles

R

Comedy

Drama

Director
John Hughes
Cast
Steve Martin, Michael McKean, Laila Robbins, Kevin Bacon, John Candy

Runtime
93 minutes

Watch on Paramount+

8 'The Color Purple' (1985)

Directed by Steven Spielberg

10 Films From '80s in Roger Ebert's Great Movies Collection (9)

In his original review, Ebert called The Color Purple the best movie of 1985; however, when he revisited the film for his great movie collection in 2004, he saw its flaws more clearly, but stuck to his original four-stars for the film's greatness and power to deeply move audiences. The feature is based on the novel by Alice Walker about a young African-American woman named Celie (Whoopi Goldberg) who endures 40 years of abuse, cruelty, and bigotry, dreaming of the day she escapes the South and is reunited with her sister in Africa.

"That’s what the movies offer: Escapism into lives other than our own. I am not female, I am not black, I am not Celie, but for a time during 'The Color Purple,' my mind deceives me that I am all of those things, and as I empathize with her struggle and victory I learn something about what it must have been like to be her."

Despite earning 11 Oscar nominations, The Color Purple didn't take home a single golden statue that night. Ebert praised Goldberg's performance, saying that "we lost a serious actress when Goldberg started playing nuns..." In his second review, Ebert was staunch in his belief that, despite the movie's shortcomings in single-vision depictions of African-American men and women, and too picturesque landscapes of the South, The Color Purple blessed audiences with Celie's humanity and became more than just a movie.

The Color Purple

g

Where to Watch

  • stream
  • rent
  • buy

Not available

Not available

*Availability in US

Release Date
December 18, 1985
Director
Steven Spielberg
Cast
Danny Glover, Whoopi Goldberg, Margaret Avery, Oprah Winfrey, Willard E. Pugh, Akosua Busia, Desreta Jackson, Adolph Caesar, Rae Dawn Chong, Dana Ivey, Leonard Jackson, Bennet Guillory, John Patton Jr., Carl Anderson, Susan Beaubian, James Tillis, Phillip Strong, Laurence Fishburne, Peto Kinsaka, Lelo Masamba, Margaret Freeman, Howard Starr, Daphaine Oliver, Jadili Johnson, Lillian Njoki Distefano, Donna Buie, Leon Rippy, John R. Hart, David Thomas

Main Genre
Drama

7 'The Shining' (1980)

Directed by Stanley Kubrick

10 Films From '80s in Roger Ebert's Great Movies Collection (12)

Not only is it one of Ebert's great movie selections from the 1980s, but The Shining is also one of his top choices for the best horror movies of all time. In a story of "isolated madness," the Torrance family moves to a mountainous hotel to care for the property during the wintry off-season; however, as their stay wears on, Jack (Jack Nicholson) begins to slip into madness, threatening his wife (Shelly Duvall) and son's (Danny Llyod) safety. Ebert's four-star, great movie review highlighted the adaptation's persistent themes of reliability and the psychological toll it takes on the characters.

"In a snowbound hotel, three people descend into versions of madness or psychic terror, and we cannot depend on any of them for an objective view of what happens."

The Shining is a notorious example of creative differences between the source material author, Stephen King, and filmmaker, Stanley Kubrick. The film version, in Ebert's opinion, challenges the idea of reality, madness, and how Kubrick's use of ghosts creates an up-for-interpretation ending that the critic called a "strangely disturbing."

10 Films From '80s in Roger Ebert's Great Movies Collection (13)
The Shining

R

Horror

Mystery

Thriller

Psychological

Where to Watch

  • stream
  • rent
  • buy

*Availability in US

Release Date
May 23, 1980

Director
Stanley Kubrick
Cast
Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers, Barry Nelson, Philip Stone

6 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' (1981)

Directed by Stephen Spielberg

10 Films From '80s in Roger Ebert's Great Movies Collection (19)

This iconic action-adventure film won four Oscars and four stars from Roger Ebert. The first of the franchise, Raiders of the Lost Ark is the story of archaeologist Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) as he races against the Nazis to recover the Ark of the Covenant. The success of the first film spawned an entire cinematic series with iconic music and a gruff hero fans cultivated an endearing love for. Ebert called the movie "just plain fun" in his republished 2000 great movie review.

"'Raiders of the Lost Ark' has all the qualities of an exuberant serial, plus a religious and political agenda. That Spielberg places his message in the crevices of the action makes it all the more effective. 'Raiders' may have an impersonal superstructure, but its foundations are personal, and passionate."

In considering Steven Spielberg's filmography exploring the era and destruction of the Nazi regime, like Schindler's List, Ebert argues that Spielberg contiues that same messaging. With a "parade of anti-Nazi symbolism and sly religious satire, as when a desperate Indy grabs the hood ornament of a Mercedes truck, and it snaps off," Raiders remains more than just an adventure film for those looking for it and the perfect Saturday afternoon serial for the other half.

10 Films From '80s in Roger Ebert's Great Movies Collection (20)
Raiders of the Lost Ark

PG

Adventure

Action

Where to Watch

  • stream
  • rent
  • buy

Not available

Not available

*Availability in US

Release Date
June 12, 1981
Director
Steven Spielberg
Cast
Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Alfred Molina, Paul Freeman, Ronald Lacey, John Rhys-Davies, Denholm Elliott

5 'My Neighbor Totoro' (1988)

Directed by Hayao Miyazaki

10 Films From '80s in Roger Ebert's Great Movies Collection (24)

This children's film elicited only smiles from Ebert in 1988 and in 2001 when he republished his review for the great movie collection. My Neighbor Totoro is the beloved anime tale from Studio Ghibli about two young girls, Satsuke (Dakota Fanning) and Mei (Elle Fanning), who explore the forest near their new home, befriending the curious creatures called Totoros. Praising director Hayao Miyazaki for his incredible resume of hand drawn animation movies, Ebert called his work "visually enchanting."

"Here is a children’s film made for the world we should live in, rather than the one we occupy. A film with no villains. No fight scenes. No evil adults. No fighting between the two kids. No scary monsters. No darkness before the dawn. A world that is benign."

My Neighbor Totoro allows for childish wonder and exploration without judgment from the onscreen adults, creating a safe haven for not only the young fictional characters, but for audiences as well. The conflicts of the movie are driven by matter-of-fact reality instead of as a ploy to create doom and gloom. This heartwarming tale of imaginative adventure remains one of Ebert's top choices for the best of the 1980s, an all-around great movie.

10 Films From '80s in Roger Ebert's Great Movies Collection (25)
My Neighbor Totoro

5+

Fantasy

Family

Where to Watch

  • stream
  • rent
  • buy

Not available

Not available

*Availability in US

Release Date
April 16, 1988
Director
Hayao Miyazaki
Cast
Dakota Fanning, Elle Fanning

4 'Body Heat' (1981)

Directed by Lawrence Kasdan

10 Films From '80s in Roger Ebert's Great Movies Collection (28)

A film noir that requires at least two screenings to full appreciate the narrative and performances onscreen, once through each character's perspective, Body Heat is a sizzling selection in Ebert's great movie collection. The movie stars Kathleen Turner and William Hurt as a pair of lovers who begin an affair during a scorching Florida heat wave that leads to Matty (Turner) asking Ned (Hurt) to murder her wealthy husband. In her big screen leading role, Ebert's great movie review called Turner "an intriguing original."

"Turner, who in her debut role played a woman so sexually confident that we can believe her lover (William Hurt) could be dazed into doing almost anything for her. The moment we believe that, the movie stops being an exercise and starts working."

Ebert criticized his fellow critics who dismissed Body Heat for being an unoriginal noir with performances that seemed to parody those of the 40s and 50s. He argued for the movie's self-awareness and its ferocious investment in its untested leading pair. Body Heat was one of the few movies that used strategically, and successfully, crafted an erotic narrative driven by weather.

10 Films From '80s in Roger Ebert's Great Movies Collection (29)
Body Heat

R

Release Date
August 28, 1981

Director
Lawrence Kasdan
Cast
William Hurt, Kathleen Turner, Richard Crenna, Ted Danson, J.A. Preston

Main Genre
Crime

Watch on Apple TV+

3 'Amadeus' (1984)

Directed by Milos Forman

10 Films From '80s in Roger Ebert's Great Movies Collection (30)

Despite its fear of enticing viewers who rarely listen to classical music to the box office, Amadeus became one of the greatest movies of the 1980s, just in Ebert's eyes. A period piece that playfully deviates from history follows the intense rivalry between the genius young composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Tom Hulce) and the older composer Antonio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham), who is well aware of his compositional shortcomings but remains envious of Mozart's music. Ebert called the 11-time Oscar-nominated film "a visual feast of palaces, costumes, wigs, feasts, opening nights, champagne, and mountains of debt."

"The movie’s success is partly explained, I think, by its strategy of portraying Mozart not as a paragon whose greatness is a burden to us all, but as a goofy proto-hippie...This is not a vulgarization of Mozart, but a way of dramatizing that true geniuses rarely take their own work seriously, because it comes so easily for them."

For Ebert, Amadeus is almost three hours of fun as it steers clear of the "dreary educational portraits we're used to seeing about the Great Composers. In both of his reviews, the meticulous critic gave the film four stars as it not only entertains with its full-circle range of emotions and lavish sets, but for its thought-provoking question of is it possible to be grateful for the happiness and success of someone else?

10 Films From '80s in Roger Ebert's Great Movies Collection (31)
Amadeus

R

Release Date
September 19, 1984

Director
Milos Forman
Cast
F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce, Elizabeth Berridge, Simon Callow, Roy Dotrice, Christine Ebersole

Main Genre
Biography

Buy on Prime

2 'Scarface' (1983)

Directed by Brian De Palma

10 Films From '80s in Roger Ebert's Great Movies Collection (32)

When he rewrote his review of Scarface in 2003 for the great movie collection, Ebert called it a movie that "has been absorbed into its imitators." The almost three-hour crime epic is the story of Cuban immigrant Tony Montana (Al Pacino) as he rises to prominence from a broke hustler killing for a green card to the biggest drug lord in Miami during the 1980s. The critic called out how modern audiences struggle to see the originality of the movie are the same ones who look at The Sopranos and underestimate the importance of The Godfather.

"The movie has been borrowed from so often that it’s difficult to understand how original it seemed in 1983, when Latino heroes were rare, when cocaine was not a cliche, when sequences at the pitch of the final gun battle were not commonplace."

The complete 180-degree reversal from Pacino's Michael Corleone in The Godfather matched with director Brian De Palma's "expansive, passionate...and cheerfully excessive" style made the movie. Ebert's later review called Pacino "a complete actor" with "an extraordinary range of styles." From the cinematography and music, to Pacino's performance, Scarface is one of the best movies from the 1980s, and one that deserves to be watched in its original form, Ebert calling the censored TV versions emasculating.

10 Films From '80s in Roger Ebert's Great Movies Collection (33)
Scarface

R

Where to Watch

  • stream
  • rent
  • buy

Not available

Not available

*Availability in US

Release Date
December 9, 1983
Director
Brian De Palma
Cast
Al Pacino, Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert Loggia, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Miriam Colon, F. Murray Abraham

Runtime
170 minutes

1 'Raging Bull' (1980)

Directed by Marin Scorsese

10 Films From '80s in Roger Ebert's Great Movies Collection (36)

Not only is this an 80s movie that's perfect from start to finish, but this boxing biography is the best of the decade from Ebert's great movie collection. Robert De Niro stars as middleweight champion Jake La Motta whose dominating violence inside the ring causes the downfall of his personal life outside the ring. Raging Bull is what Ebert called "the most painful and heartrending portrait of jealousy in the cinema" in its depiction of the real-life boxer's career.

"Scorsese broke the rules of boxing pictures by staying inside the ring, and by freely changing its shape and size to suit his needs–sometimes it’s claustrophobic, sometimes unnaturally elongated...The brutality of the fights is also new; LaMotta makes Rocky look tame."

Ebert's great movie review highlights the narrative excellence, but primarily Martin Scorsese's cinematic approach from the frame speeds, the creative use of special effects for sound, and the decision to film in black and white to make the droves of onscreen blood more digestible. Raging Bull isn't a movie about strategically winning the fight in the ring, rather losing the psychological one outside of it.

10 Films From '80s in Roger Ebert's Great Movies Collection (37)
Raging Bull

R

Where to Watch

  • stream
  • rent
  • buy

Not available

Not available

*Availability in US

Release Date
December 19, 1980
Director
Martin Scorsese
Cast
Robert De Niro, Theresa Saldana, Nicholas Colasanto, Joe Pesci, Cathy Moriarty

Main Genre
Biography

NEXT: 10 Movies From the 1990s in Roger Ebert's Great Movies Collection

  • Movie
  • Roger Ebert
  • Raging Bull

Follow

Followed

10 Films From '80s in Roger Ebert's Great Movies Collection (2025)
Top Articles
Latest Posts
Recommended Articles
Article information

Author: Nathanael Baumbach

Last Updated:

Views: 6530

Rating: 4.4 / 5 (75 voted)

Reviews: 82% of readers found this page helpful

Author information

Name: Nathanael Baumbach

Birthday: 1998-12-02

Address: Apt. 829 751 Glover View, West Orlando, IN 22436

Phone: +901025288581

Job: Internal IT Coordinator

Hobby: Gunsmithing, Motor sports, Flying, Skiing, Hooping, Lego building, Ice skating

Introduction: My name is Nathanael Baumbach, I am a fantastic, nice, victorious, brave, healthy, cute, glorious person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.