The Most Nostalgic Movie of Every Year of the ’80s, Ranked
It’s safe to say that there’s a fair bit of nostalgia for the 1980s, and it’s been that way since the 2010s. Synthpop made something of a return during said decade, and the 1980s was also very much celebrated in Stranger Things and the first movie in the It duology. But also, some things and trends cycle every 20 years, so nostalgia for the ‘80s, in some ways, might’ve been felt even earlier.
Anyway, nostalgia is a bittersweet emotion, and involves longing for the past, be it remembering it fondly (sweet) or wishing current times felt like those times did (more bitter). There’s nostalgia for the ‘80s, and you can sometimes feel it even if you weren’t personally around back then, with many of the movies from that decade making such a feeling more prominent. Some movies people likely feel nostalgia for are featured below, one for every year, while others are arguably even more nostalgic because said films covered a kind of nostalgia for certain decades that occurred prior to the 1980s. Nostalgiaception, if you will.
10
‘The Blues Brothers’ (1980)
Honestly, The Blues Brothers is a surprisingly wholesome film, even if it’s also a chaotic one that has no problem feeling excessive and pretty ridiculous. It’s a comedy/action/crime movie, and also a musical at the same time, featuring a ton of R&B and soul music while telling a story about two brothers trying to save their old orphanage from shutting down by raising money through a charity concert.
Bad language aside, it’s easy to enjoy at any age, since The Blues Brothers feels a bit like a live-action cartoon and the humor is broad, while the quality of the action is surprisingly strong and overall impressive. It’s hard not to feel nostalgic for it if you watched it in your formative years, and the fact that it also features lots of well-known musicians (most of them well-established many years before The Blues Brothers) also adds a further sense of nostalgia.
9
‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ (1981)
Like The Blues Brothers, Raiders of the Lost Ark isn’t 100% kid-friendly, but it is the kind of movie that’s basically the coolest thing ever if you are a kid and watch it. And, honestly, if you watch it as a teenager or an adult, it’s still effortlessly cool and entertaining, being about as definitive as action/adventure movies get, and feeling like one of Steven Spielberg’s very best films, too.
The premise here is simple, following Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) as he tries to find the Ark of the Covenant before a bunch of Nazis can get their hands on it and use it for nefarious purposes. It’s got all the ingredients needed to be a classic, and Raiders of the Lost Ark is itself nostalgic for film serials that were popular in decades past (particularly adventure serials of the 1930s and 40s).
A movie that’s all about childhood and growing up, while also focusing on an alien (as the title promises), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial feels exceptionally bittersweet when watched as an adult, and 40+ years on from its initial release. It’s another Spielberg film, but more of a family one, revolving around a young boy helping a lone alien reconnect with his fellow extra-terrestrials after he’s accidentally left on Earth.
Spielberg really understands how to capture a sense of childhood wonder here, and his sentimental side – which is a bit much in some other films – is perfectly utilized here, because something like E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial should be sweeping and sentimental. It’s a beautiful and endearing film in just about every way, and while you might not feel personally nostalgic for the early 1980s, this movie will inspire nostalgic feelings about your own childhood, whenever that was; it’s pretty much guaranteed.
7
‘The Right Stuff’ (1983)
As The Right Stuff is all about the Space Race, it naturally casts its eye back in time, covering events from the 1950s and the early 1960s, leading up to the U.S. putting its first astronauts into space. There’s a lot of care gone into recreating what was, at the time, two or three decades in the past, and nowadays, there’s extra nostalgia, since The Right Stuff also feels old-fashioned in a cinematic sense.
But it’s old-fashioned in a good way, being the sort of heartfelt and bold epic you don’t see as much of anymore. Also, to its credit, The Right Stuff isn’t just blindly nostalgic about the past, because it’s a nuanced film that wants to gently satirize elements of the Space Race while also highlighting the accomplishments achieved during such a time in history. It’s a movie that bites off a lot, but with a three-hour runtime and the steady hand of underrated director Philip Kaufman, all of it gets chewed.
6
‘The Karate Kid’ (1984)
The Karate Kid is another hard-to-resist movie, because while yes, it is technically cheesy, it’s also so sincere and undeniably heartfelt that it gets a pass. It’s a movie that’s supposed to be enjoyed by kids, after all, but it’s one of those great family movies that’s more than just for kids. If you watch it when you’re older, it’s likely to be nostalgic, and it could be inspiring regardless of one’s age.
It’s also a good entry point into movies that deal with martial arts; not a true martial arts movie in the sense of having a ton of action, but it is about learning, you know, karate, and covering the basics of what said martial art involves philosophically. The sequels and follow-ups are a bit all over the place quality-wise, but the original The Karate Kid remains an absolute classic.
5
‘Back to the Future’ (1985)
It feels almost too obvious to pick, but yes, Back to the Future is remarkably nostalgic. It looks back on the 1950s, from the 1980s, with a fair amount of nostalgia, but not blind nostalgia. The approach here is similar to The Right Stuff, recreating the time and place well, and with fondness, but also with a certain amount of comedy to highlight things that might’ve changed for the better.
But the film involves time travel, and so the whole “going back to the past” thing feels especially literal here, hence it feels like an obvious pick when talking about nostalgic 1980s movies. And when watched decades later, Back to the Future feels endearingly like the sorts of mass-appeal blockbusters that were popular back in the 1980s, having that always-welcome Spielbergian feel… though Robert Zemeckis directed this one. And when he was at his best – like here – he wasn’t too far off from Spielberg, who instead executive-produced Back to the Future.
4
‘Stand by Me’ (1986)
Some of the best movies based on Stephen King stories don’t belong to the horror genre, Stand by Me included. This one is a coming-of-age drama that’s about four young boys (played by Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, and Jerry O’Connell) learning about a dead body located somewhere beyond the boundaries of their hometown, so they set out to find it, morbidly determined to know what it will look like.
It’s a strange premise for a film, but it’s also something that’s mostly about the journey, rather than the destination, with the former leading to self-discovery and maturing, in typical coming-of-age movie fashion. Stand by Me is also book-ended with scenes of one of the boys, now grown up (and played by Richard Dreyfuss), looking back on the whole ordeal, and this naturally intensifies the nostalgia inherent to this film, both narratively and thematically.
3
‘Planes, Trains and Automobiles’ (1987)
Planes, Trains and Automobiles, outside of that one scene with the f**k-ton of swearing, is an oddly perfect family movie. It is, after all, a movie about one man (Steve Martin) going through a series of disastrous events while trying to get home to his family for Thanksgiving, initially clashing with another man (John Candy) he ends up sharing much of the journey with, but then an odd friendship develops.
By the end, Planes, Trains and Automobiles becomes about finding a family-like bond with someone in unusual circumstances, and in a way that’s not nearly as cheesy as that summary might make it sound. It’s just a good-hearted movie that feels a bit like the cinematic equivalent of a warm hug, and that warmth goes a long way toward making Planes, Trains and Automobiles feel oddly nostalgic, too.
2
‘Cinema Paradiso’ (1988)
A movie about being in love with movies, and having such a passion pretty much define an entire life, Cinema Paradiso is hard to resist if you consider yourself a big film fan. It’s also a movie where much of the story is framed in a way comparable to Stand by Me, with a middle-aged man looking back on his childhood, but Cinema Paradiso also explores this character’s life as a young adult, and with further scenes that take place during middle age, too.
It’s a sweeping and romantic movie, with an all-time great Ennio Morricone score, and the way Cinema Paradiso concludes is also especially powerful. It evokes a certain time and place exceptionally well, and nostalgia is baked into the film’s structure and narrative, ensuring the whole thing is a super potent tearjerker in more ways than one.
1
‘Field of Dreams’ (1989)
A movie with a massive amount of heart that also succeeds in being both a sports movie and a fantasy one, Field of Dreams involves a man (Kevin Costner) becoming determined to make a baseball diamond out of his cornfield. He’s told to from a mysterious source, and then the past returns to the present, somehow, and baseball players who passed long ago start to come back and play there.
Which might all sound kind of ridiculous, but Field of Dreams makes it work, with Costner’s charismatic lead performance really helping sell the whole thing. Like some of the previously mentioned ‘80s movies, this one does very much feel like it was released during the decade in question (in good/endearing ways), and the narrative at the film’s core is also one that evokes feelings of nostalgia, particularly so for anyone who has a fondness for baseball.
Field of Dreams
- Release Date
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May 5, 1989
- Runtime
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107 minutes
- Director
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Phil Alden Robinson
- Writers
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Phil Alden Robinson
