Siskel & Ebert: Best Movies of 1980 - American Gigolo, Being There, Best Boy, Kagemusha

In this episode, Siskel and Ebert look at the best films of 1980. These films include: American Gigolo, Being There, Best Boy, Coal Miner's Daughter, Kagemusha, Ordinary People, Raging Bull, The Black Stallion, The Blues Brothers, The Empire Strikes Back, The Great Santini, The Stunt Man and The Tree of Wooden Clogs.

[@crystalshaw8744]

Coal Miner's Daughter is one of my favorite movies.

[@OneThousandHomoDJs]

Blues Brothers is my all-time favorite. I couldn't respect someone who didn't like it.

[@walterclark3198]

1980 had some many great movies and now you go to the movies and it's a hit or miss. The movies just aren't the same.

[@TheVagolfer]

if you've never seen "Black Stallion", you missing out. Great cinematography, Mickey Rooney's best performance, and a great story, plus a beautiful Terri Garr.

[@sleong]

Black Stallion was awesome, I actually think Raging Bull is overrated.

[@exodia9817]

I remember Terri Garr more as Esme Hogget from the Babe movies

[@alanFconrad]

BEING THERE.....I loved that movie

[@sleuthentertainment5872]

Kagemusha! One of the greatest samurai movies of all time

[@bugsycline3798]

can we all just agree 1980 was one of the best years ever for film releases? Why can't we have quality like this now a days?

[@patrickshields5251]

S&E thinks it’s quite the contrary. They think that 1980 was a significant decline from the groundbreaking personal films of the 70s that were making their jobs so delightful. Having assessed their reviews one year at a time myself, I came to the conclusion that they were frustrated with the 80s in general. The New Hollywood movement ended when Heaven’s Gate tanked and bankrupted a major studio. Exploitation films reached saturation point, the indie film movement was in its infancy, and foreign films were nearly obliterated in North America. Directors had lessened their power. Experimentation and personal vision were discouraged. The major studios regained control they had lost in the late 60s. They both found it to be an artistically safe, unchallenging decade. It was a time when high concept, theme park moviemaking had been entrenched after the successes of Jaws and Star Wars and they were frustrated with the trend year after year. Their thumbs up reviews have slightly increased in the 90s with the indie film movement and the increased amount of foreign films. The 80s movie monoculture they covered is now dead.

[@johnbrennan4449]

1980 was no better or worse than any other year. It produced some great films, some good films, some average films, some mediocre films, some bad films & some terrible films. one can make that claim about every year during the entire history of cinema, beginning with 1931. not sure about any year before 1931.

[@BobHooker]

Money

[@debbieburris9453]

All GREAT FILMS!! Classics we look back on today for their filmmaking. Caddyshack is my all-time favorite comedy ❤️

[@obviously6thbeliever]

I'm watching this 42 years later and the nostalgia almost brings tears to my eyes. I know each of these movies well. I just think, 'Wow, John Lennon could have seen these films" (for my own reasons, Lennon's death coincided with a lot of changes in my life)

[@pariahpokemonwesbragg2904]

Sissy Spacek definitely deserved an award for emulating the siskel and ebbert theme in Coal Miners Daughter...the way she immitated all those instruments of their theme....just wow!!! Lol .jk, jk..

[@gilraybaker826]

Yes, it seemed a little jazzy and uptempo for Butcher's Hollow

[@Jbaxter85]

The Blues Brothers the best musical comedy ever & in the 80's. 👍🌟🌟🌟🌟 Other movies of 1980 Raging Bull Ordinary People The Black Stallion Airplane Private Benjamin American Gigolo Gloria The Great Santini Being There Coal Miner's Daughter The Shining Kagemusha

[@chrisfinch8637]

One of my favorite John Belushi movies of all time. However, can Joliet Jake Blues ever take down Bluto? Hell no!

[@gheller2261]

It's funny and makes no sense given what I typically like, but I have never once gotten through Blues Brothers.

[@alfje5492]

@@gheller2261 Give it another try, Blues Brothers might not be a great movie, but it's a lot of fun!

[@Comictalent]

In a 2 month stretch in summer 1980, The Empire Strikes Back, The Shining, Airplane, The Blues Brothers, and Caddyshack were all released. I really hope theatrical releases come back strong - I'll take that over streaming any day.

[@iluvmylovebirdandmybudgiet7729]

I live in Japan and went to the movies 6 times last summer when I went home...shocked the theaters were always almost empty even on 3.00 dollar day.....

[@robzilla730]

Summer '89 was pretty damn good, too. Batman, Ghostbusters 2, Lethal Weapon 2, Indiana Jones, The Abyss....

[@Comictalent]

@@robzilla730 Awesome summer! I remember also seeing Parenthood, Honey I Shrunk the Kids, When Harry Met Sally, Karate Kid III... lots of fun stuff.

[@theriddler8695]

Five classics! Great films!

[@robzilla730]

@@Comictalent Star Trek Final Frontier DID suck though! So did Pink Cadillac...

[@seranatus]

It's insane that America was capable of producing that much year over year. Now, lucky to have one great film a decade.

[@kkampy4052]

The Cab Calloway scene on stage is one of my all time favorite scenes of all movies.

[@TheJuRK]

Was Stanley Kubrick's The Shining ever reviewed by Siskel and Ebert on their show?

[@sejembalm]

2:59 The sub-moron copyright holders who complain of copyright violations that are CLEARLY fair use exceptions (criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research being examples). This is a movie review show and they are going to show film clips and even music from the films. The courts should have panels of people who clear genuine copyright complaints to go forward and fine the people who make specious complaints.

[@gilraybaker826]

Their small-minded nickel and dime refusal to let a smidgen of their songs be used effectively sterilizes new generations hearing the music and discovering it. In these days when 95% of sold music is retro, this is financial seppuku.

[@AndrewTubbiolo]

When I saw Risky Business I thought that this was the logical other end of "Ordinary People".

[@reneedennis2011]

Good point.

[@LoneCloudHopper]

The Shining, Empire Strikes Back, Raging Bull, the Elephant Man, and Airplane!

[@okay5045]

I loved this movie and the Aretha scene had people applauding in the theater.

[@reneedennis2011]

YUP.

[@Dohsoda]

1980 was a really good year for films! The Blues Brothers, Ordinary People and The Empire Strikes Back are fantastic films. I'll have to check out the others as they look really interesting.

[@abcd-efgh-i]

And the best of them all, Caddyshack.

[@patrickshields5251]

These guys didn’t think so. They’ve both considered the 80s to be the worst decade in the history of American cinema. The personal filmmaking in the 70s that was making their jobs so delightful have died out when Heaven’s Gate bombed and bankrupted a major studio. The indie film movement was in its infancy, and foreign films were nearly wiped out in North America. The era of the director was over. Personal filmmaking was discouraged. The major studios regained control they had lost in the late 60s. It was a frustrating decade. It was a time when high concept, crowd pleasing blockbusters were entrenched after Jaws and Star Wars and they were frustrated by the trend year after year. Their thumbs up reviews have slightly increased in the 90s with the rise of the indie film movement as well as the increasing amount of foreign films. The 80s movie monoculture is dead.

[@DS8379]

Blues Bros would be my number 1 but there were some amazing films that year. Wonder what my Chicago dudes thought of The Shining?

[@linkbiff1054]

Gene didn’t care for it. Roger loved it, eventually adding it to his Great Movies list

[@ricardocantoral7672]

The Shining received mixed reviews from many critics at the time and it actually earned a Razzie nomination. Roughly a decade passed before it was reappraised.

[@MzuMzu-nx1em]

Funny and useful to find out about hidden gems

[@gheller2261]

Gene and Roger would be offended, as am I, by the fact that the word epic has no meaning anymore because it is used to describe just about everything.

[@reneedennis2011]

Yup.

[@user-zb9lv3gh8s]

Epic comment!!!

[@Madstsone]

Video becomes surreal at 3:05.

[@steveprice2718]

Not surreal......... Sublime! Lol

[@TariqBusy]

Empire Strikes Back is the first movie I ever saw AT the movies. Father took me, and it was one of the few memories I had of him, for a long time. One of only two or three things that I remember from that year now. I still can't get into Deniro in Raging Bull, a little too much of a sociopath. Don't think that I have seen it all the way through in one sitting, ever. And Deniro is my all-time fave. Finally gotten around to seeing Ordinary People last year. The last "Chicago" '80s movie that I had not ever watched. It was a slog, barely got through it. Mary Tyler Moore was (ahem) a little too much of a sociopath. OTOH. I've saw the Blue Brothers like three years after its release on TV, and 100 times since. I am sentimental to the scene with Aretha, as I was able to visit this local diner as a kid, several times before the building was knocked down. I vaguely remember it now, but possibly the first time I had Corned Beef-on-rye was there. 1980 would be the year that LA officially surpassed Chicago in size, and something about that impending change made the city work harder to get movies there, funny thing. Much love and respect to the late Mayor Jane Byrne for starting a train of nearly 5 dozen films being shot in the city over the course of the 80s; with that statistic in mind.

[@user-zb9lv3gh8s]

Werent most 80's John Hughes films done in or around Chicago?

[@freemangriffin4953]

Tess was my best film of 1980. I am one of the rare people who dislikes Raging Bull.

[@branagain]

I dislike Raging Bull, too. Sure the acting is good but watching it is truly a miserable experience.

[@morgan8757]

@@branagain i dislike raging bull also

[@user-zb9lv3gh8s]

It was stressful to sit through, despite good performances and camera work.

[@polreamonn]

1980 was a cracking year for cinema.

[@kevinlang9792]

1. The Shining 2. Stalker 3. The Elephant Man 4. The Empire Strikes Back 5. Caddyshack 6. Coal Miner's Daughter 7. Ordinary People 8. The Ninth Configuration 9. Altered States 10.Dressed to Kill

[@consonantsandvowels1]

14:59 Blues Brothers

[@SB_whatevers]

You should just edit out the parts that are under copyright and that you cannot use.

[@MediaBuster]

How did they miss: 1. The Elephant man 2. The Shining 3. Stir Crazy 4. Airplane 5. Dressed to Kill 6. Melvin and Howard

[@emanuellawton7942]

"The Black Stallion" was released on October 17, 1979 and is considered a 1979 film not a 1980 film.

[@oobrocks]

Raging Bull is easily the best: in fact it's voted the best film of the decade

[@rickbrenner6079]

Raging Bull was so so good. When I first saw it in 1986, it floored me. It blew me away.

[@oobrocks]

Yes it’s amazing

[@65g4]

Kagemusha is a great movie

[@emanuellawton7942]

"Being There" actually came out in December 1979 and is considered a 1979 film not a 1980 film.

[@patrickshields5251]

They saw the movie in Chicago in 1980. Film distribution in Chicago tended to be iffy back then.

[@alanFconrad]

awesome film RIP Peter Sellers

[@emanuellawton7942]

@@patrickshields5251 They saw it too late to make their Best of 1979 list.

[@patrickshields5251]

@@emanuellawton7942 Like I said, film distribution in Chicago was iffy back then.

[@HC-cb4yp]

You can't look at this list and then tell me today's Hollywood is as vibrant and capable today. The superhero films and the woke BS have killed it.

[@user-zb9lv3gh8s]

What the hell is "woke" and why do you people blame everything bad in your life on it?

[@wessikes]

5 commercial breaks in 30 minutes are to many.

[@alcabane3125]

The Distinguished Gentleman is a 1992

[@gilraybaker826]

Wow, i bet people were falling over themselves to go see Tree of Wooden Clogs.

[@theriddler8695]

The Empire Strikes Back has had of course more staying power than all those films listed.

[@66Bunn]

I have to say, I agree with Gene’s list more that Roger’s. Then again, I always found myself agreeing with Gene mor often than Roger

[@rnw2739]

Roger Ebert there, correctly predicting the Oscar win of the superb Sissy Spacek.

[@pandaeyes42]

DISCO PANTS AND HAIRCUTS!!!

[@montysloungetv]

greatest bond song hamlisch/sager

[@TariqBusy]

Live and let Die is close though.

[@sylvesterquast9906]

Raging Bull is really one of most overrated movies ever

[@TariqBusy]

Seriously. It puts me to sleep. So does Ordinary People.

[@morgan8757]

i'm with you

[@branagain]

I soooo agree with you.

[@chrisfinch8637]

Maybe, but it did manage to give Robert DeNiro an Oscar, though. I’m just surprised he didn’t earn one for his performance in “Taxi Driver”, in which was indeed a classic, a lot more than Raging Bull.

[@reneedennis2011]

I haven't seen it.

[@roycegrubic2620]

um...how about a bigger TV? You're only using about 30% of the KZbin screen.

[@user-zb9lv3gh8s]

Gotta have room for that wallpaper!

[@arnoldlitke5084]

Siskel and Ebert this is what my mother watched every Saturday back in the 1980,s I was 12 years old in 1980 and I loved the movie the shinning. The weird thing is my mom never ever went to a movie in the theater . She waited a year to watch it on cable TV. She would make me run to the movie theater to buy her a large fresh buttered popcorn for her every Saturday so she can watch Siskel and Ebert! When a horror movie came on at 10:00 pm on week nights she would call me when I was already in bed and let me come down stairs to watch it with her, in other words she was a chicken but by me been there at age 12 13 14 15 she was able to make it through the horror movie.😜🪓🪓🪓🤣🤣🤣😂😂😂🗡️🤭🤭🤭👍

[@reneedennis2011]

Cool 😎 memories!

[@donpinkston5263]

Thanks for sharing those memories of your mom! She sounds like quite a character!

[@michaelkitchen4174]

blues brothers is the worst movie of the 80s considering what came after it but I do like the musical cut scenes and the un buttered toast part.

[@user-zb9lv3gh8s]

Well, you're welcome to your own opinion.

[@princenamor1939]

These guys were so pretentious...lol

[@user-zb9lv3gh8s]

Not really. It was a different time... This was the beginning of the yuppie era and the beginning of Reagan and the hyper-materialism that went with it. Pretense was a virtue.

[@jakovasaur]

Are there any actual film critics today outside of KZbin?

[@pacificblue3955]

i guess you had to plaster siskel & ebert's face on the screen to skirt around copyright infringements when they would show clips of the movies?

[@freddyfurrah3789]

American gigolo was boring.