The 1980s was the age of the blockbuster, a time when stories and backdrops were getting bigger and more lavish by each passing year. The Indiana Jones and Star Wars franchises led the decade when it came to box office receipts, while sequels and prequels also guaranteed big bucks. In the eyes of both the film studios and the majority of mainstream movie-goers, the auteur-led New Hollywood of the 1970s was over. Excessive gore and special effects reigned supreme.
That said, the 1980s were also a good time for smaller, more character based films, in particular thrillers, even if many of them slipped through the viewing cracks of most cinema punters. The following ten films are stand out thrillers from that decade, films you may or may not have seen, but either way deserve more light shedding on them all the same.
1. Best Seller (1987)
Cop, based on James Ellroy’s Blood on the Moon, has James Woods in the role of hard-assed Police Detective Sergeant Lloyd Hopkins, who is trying to get to the bottom of a brutal murder in LA. The mystery leads him to the world of feminist literature, when he meets the owner of a poetry store and finds possible clues to the identity of the real killer, who in the mean time strikes again, and in an even more brutal fashion.
In the hands of another actor, he would have been the typical 80’s cop, the renegade with a mullet, the gun happy maverick repeatedly given stacks of paperwork to fill in after whacking some scumbag. But Woods makes the cop an individual; a maverick yes, but one who doesn’t really care about the personal consequences his actions will have. For him, work is life and life is work. Unable to separate the two, he loses his family, but keeps his focus on busting the killer.
He is not a wise-cracking hero, and this is no buddy cop movie of the breed that were all the rage at the time (even though there are some lovely interactions with Charles Durning, who plays his partner). No, this man is something of a lone wolf, totally single minded and intent on catching the bad guy. He ensures the film itself transcends the genre and becomes more of a character study than a police thriller. Woods turned down the lead in Oliver Stone’s Wall Street for this, so it was clear he was committed to the script and the part he was to make his own.
2. The Package (1989)
The Package is a murky tale of intrigue set during the Cold War. The Package of the title is none other than Tommy Lee Jones, a prisoner called Walter Henke, who must be transported from East Berlin to America by US Special Forces Sergeant Johnny Gallagher, played by Gene Hackman, where he will face a court martial. However, things do not go smoothly to plan and he proves to be a slippery customer, escaping at the airport. Only then do the complications mount, and Hackman ends up working against the clock to solve the mystery and save the life of a politician who is due to be assassinated.
A slick, smart, beautifully played thriller, The Package is directed with panache by Andrew Davis, who keeps the action coming while also leaving enough room for his cast to flesh out their roles. John Bishop’s script stays clear of cliches, though it also sticks to the rules of a good thriller. Indeed, the movie never lets you relax and become complacent as the twists and shifts in the plot arrive to take you by surprise.
The cast are great too. Hackman and Jones are marvellous in their roles, and there is a real thrill to be had in their interactions and the unfolding plot which reveals Jones’ character to be a much more dangerous figure than expected. There are also fine supporting turns from Joanna Cassidy, Dennis Franz and John Heard, the latter at his most villainous and slimy. Though it wasn’t a big hit at the time, it does have a healthy reputation as a solid entry in the paranoiac Cold War genre. That said, it definitely deserves more acclaim, as well as a decent Blu-ray release, too.
3. The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981)
Back in 1981, fresh off the combined backlash and acclaim of The Shining, Jack Nicholson teamed up with Bob Rafelson again for a remake of the classic noir thriller, The Postman Always Rings Twice. Bringing it into the 1980s, they turned up the heat, casting the sexy Jessica Lange as Cora, the diner worker who finds herself in a passionate affair with a seedy drifter, Frank, played by Nicholson. As the pair get closer, in more ways than one I might add, they plot to kill her husband, Nick (John Colicos), and after a botched first attempt, the adulterers eventually murder him and stage it as a car crash.
However, though the local prosecutor cannot prove they did the deed, he locks up Cora in a bid to stir up a confession, thus pulling them both in for the crime. When Lange comes out on probation, she finds Frank has been having an affair with Marge (Anjelica Huston), complicating further the fact she is pregnant. The tension mounts when a lawyer’s assistant called Kennedy (John P Ryan) blackmails them for $10,000. Against all odds though, the terrible twosome marry, though a blissful union is not on the cards.
Rafelson gets us inside the story and exposes the desperation of these unsavoury characters. David Mamet’s wonderful screenplay ensures the film is full of quotable dialogue, and though it runs for over two hours, it does not feel even over 90 minutes. The central strength to the film though is undoubtedly the acting. Lange is terrific as Cora, a deceitful but appealing vixen who could pull any man into her web of lies. Jack is excellent as Frank, one of the least glamorous and most beastly roles he’s ever played.
For me, The Postman Always Rings Twice is one of the best thrillers of its time. Its air of desperation, of seedy deprivation, makes it so you instantly mistrust and even dislike the two main protagonists. Their lust, uncontrollable and untameable, draws them closer together, even as they both realise, at one stage at least, that they don’t actually like each other as people. They are bad for each other, of that there is no doubt, but their intoxicated desire for one another pulls them closer, and in the end they have no one else and nothing else but each other. And that is what makes the finale all the more troubling. A weird part of you wants them to get away with it all, to have a happy ending and a fruitful married life, even if you know their union is going to be troubled and seedy, and they will surely get themselves into more deep water.
4. The Ninth Configuration (1980)
William Peter Blatty’s vastly underrated The Ninth Configuration is an electrifying experience, a film that lures you in with madcap comedy for its first half, and then delivers an unexpected sucker punch during its final chapters. The film takes place in a castle doubling as an asylum in the early 70s, near the end of the war in Vietnam, where a group of soldiers deemed insane are residing. Colonel Hudson Kane (Stacy Keach) is brought in to reside over the inmates. A Vietnam veteran himself, it slowly becomes clear that he may be the infamous Killer Kane of ‘Nam legend, and that he could be just as crazy as half the inmates appear to be.
Most of the time speaking in a flat tone, and acting very strangely indeed, he indulges the patients and encourages them in their wild eccentricities. One patient, Cutshaw (Scott Wilson), builds a rapport with Kane, and the two go into theological discussions about good and evil, about the existence of God, an almighty creator, against theories of evolution. When Cutshaw escapes from the castle one night, Kane follows him, and finds the emotionally fragile man being roughed around at a bar frequented by Hell’s Angels. It is here that Kane snaps into violence, reverting to his manic, demented former self of Vietnam legend.
The Ninth Configuration is a complex, multi-layered film, a study of faith, of the existence of god, of good and evil on the earth, of man’s inhumanity to his fellow man, blurring the line between so called sanity and madness, a deeply theological film in every sense. But importantly, it is also extremely entertaining and gripping, a ride into pure, unadulterated madness, a horror film without creatures, monsters and demons, but human beings, who are the most monstrous beings of all. Brilliantly written, excellently directed, and acted with perfection, The Ninth Configuration is as good as filmmaking gets – and then some.
5. Thief (1981)
Thief is one of the finest thrillers of the 1980s, a movie which doubles as an intriguing story and a carefully executed character study. Though James Caan had been one of the biggest American actors of the 1970s, wining public and critical acclaim with such films as The Godfather and Rollerball, in the latter part of the decade he suffered a bout of depression which dented his career. Following a personal tragedy, he also struggled through some substance abuse problems in the 1980s. That said, despite his demons, in the early part of the decade he did have one of his most important parts, in the seminal Thief.
Caan plays Frank, an experienced safe cracker who is hoping to escape his seedy criminal life. A flawless, note perfect performance, it highlighted his subtle grace as an actor, and his intense watch-ability. Indeed, even when he is doing very little in Thief, you can’t take your eyes off him.
Mann directs with care, the script (also by Mann) is subtle and raw, while the supporting performances from such greats as Tuesday Weld, Robert Prosky and Jim Belushi are all superb. While most movie lovers know Michael Mann for Heat, itself an undisputed classic, I feel more people should seek out Thief. Not only a fine film, it’s also proof of how deep and talented an actor James Caan really was,