MOVIEWEB CHOOSES DE PALMA'S SCARFACE AS THE DEFINING MOVIE OF THE 1980s
"Every decade has had its trademarks, its niches, and conventions," states Movieweb's Patrick Hayes in the intro to his article, The Defining Movies of Each Decade in Film History. "Whether it be the 1960s, which are associated with renewed hope and newfound cultural liberality, the 1990s and its technological developments and the invention of the internet, or the 2010s, when social media reinvented the way we live our lives. These cultural shifts, changes in attitude, and responses to world events are also reflected in film, with every decade representing something slightly (or totally) different from the last."
With that, Hayes proceeds with thoughtful choices for each of the previous decades of popular film: 1920s: Metropolis; 1930s: All Quiet on the Western Front; 1940s: Best Years of Our Lives; 1950s: 12 Angry Men; 1960s: 2001: A Space Odyssey; 1970s: The Godfather; 1980s: Scarface; 1990s: Pulp Fiction; 2000s: The Dark Knight; 2010s: The Social Network. Jarringly, for our current decade, he has chosen the not-very-good Adam McKay film Don't Look Up. "It's certainly not the best film of the decade so far," Hayes states, "but it's arguably the most defining." I would argue that this past year's Everything Everywhere All At Once would have been a much better choice for this slot.
In any case, here's what Hayes has to say about his choice of Scarface as the defining film of the 1980s:
Cocaine imports? In the 1980s?! No way. With Pablo Escobar’s vast white-powder-funded kingdom expanding by the day, President Nixon had famously declared a “war on drugs” 10 years earlier that was consequently failing. As sizable shipments of one of South America’s finest exports were washing up on US shores, Brian De Palma’s 1983 movie, Scarface was a timely depiction of the perils of both drug dealing and drug consumption in the States.Al Pacino plays Tony Montana a Cuban immigrant-turned-drug baron whose drug empire and intake grow rapidly. As his behavior becomes more erratic, and his enemies grow by the dozen, he soon finds himself in deep water. In many ways, his whole journey reflects the escalating greed, consumption, and materialism of another cocaine-fueled industry which defined the '80s: Wall Street.
Updated: Sunday, February 5, 2023 9:42 AM CST
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