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1986 was the best year in movie history. It just was, and this list will prove it. And before you get mad and start firing off angry missives in the comment section, remember, we’re just having fun here. Just relax and hear me out. You can yell at me later.
Some might say 1994 rules, with Pulp Fiction, Shawshank Redemption, and the Best Picture winner from that year, Forrest Gump. Okay, maybe not that last one. Others will say 1939 with Gone With the Wind, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, and The Wizard of Oz. Those people make a good point, but I’m sticking with 1986, and here’s my list of movies that prove it.
Platoon
You have to include the Oscar winner for Best Picture on this list. Unlike Forrest Gump, Platoon is an amazing movie. Unlike Gump, it depicts the war in Vietnam in a harrowing way and features incredible performances from Willem Dafoe, Tom Berenger, and Charlie Sheen, among others. It’s also director Oliver Stone at his very best.
Back to School
I love Rodney Dangerfield. His brand of humor and his incredible delivery are just so unique and hilarious, that there is truly no one like him. But it’s fair to say he didn’t make a ton of great movies. Sure, Caddyshack is a classic, filmed with memorable moments and lines, but that’s an ensemble. Back To School is mostly all about Rodney and it’s just hilarious.
Aliens
1986 really had some heavyweight films by some of Hollywood’s best directors, not the least of which was James Cameron‘s masterpiece, Aliens. It’s rare that a sequel outshines the first film, and as much as I love Alien, the sequel is better. It’s not as scary, but the action is non-stop, it’s got more humor, and the cast is fantastic.
Crocodile Dundee
While it’s true that Crocodile Dundee has kind of become a punchline for ’80s comedy, its likely if you don’t think it’s great, it’s because you haven’t seen it lately. It’s a sweet, funny, wholesome movie that doesn’t ask much of the viewer, but delivers big time in laughs and heartwarming moments.
Blue Velvet
The late David Lynch made some wild films, and Blue Velvet is one of the wildest. Kyle MacLachlan, Isabella Rossellini, Dennis Hopper, and Laura Dern all put in amazing performances in this neo-noir film that helped define Lynch’s unique style.
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
You can’t have a list of great movies in 1986 (or the ’80s in general) without including a John Hughes film. He wrote two movies released that year, one being Pretty In Pink. He directed the other, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. It’s a stone-cold classic and features some of Hughes’ funniest lines.
Labyrinth
What do you get when you combine one of the most creative minds in Hollywood in director Jim Henson with one of the most creative musicians of the 20th Century in David Bowie? Well, Labyrinth, of course. It’s a wild movie and while it’s far from perfect, and wasn’t a huge hit, it’s got some many memorable moments and characters that it’s the kind of movie that’ll stick with you for the rest of your life.
Stand by Me
In 1986, the world was pretty accustomed to Stephen King‘s adaptions scaring the pants off of us, but we (or I) weren’t ready for Stand By Me. It’s not scary, it’s just a simple, but incredible story about four kids who set off to find a dead body. It’s close to a perfect movie, in my opinion, and it certainly helps that the cast includes the likes of River Phoenix, Wil Wheaton, Jerry O’Connell, Corey Feldman, Kiefer Sutherland, John Cusack, and more.
The Mission
Robert De Niro’s The Mission is a very underrated religious movie that isn’t a complete slog to get through. It’s the opposite of a slog, in fact. It’s about as exciting as you can expect a movie about religion to be. It’s also a beautifully shot movie, with every scene catching your eye in one way or another.
Top Gun
If you weren’t around in 1986, or if you were living under a huge rock, you might not remember just how huge of a cultural event Top Gun was. It was a multi-media monster. The movie was huge, the soundtrack was huge, and there were even commercials on the VHS tape (for Pepsi), the first time that had ever happened. We look at the movie as a Hollywood classic today, but at the time, it was even more than that,
Big Trouble in Little China
Just remember what old Jack Burton always says, “1986 is the best year in movie history.” That includes the cult classic Big Trouble In Little China, a movie that includes some of Kurt Russell’s most iconic lines, and that is really saying something.
Hoosiers
If you like sports movies, well, 1986 gave us Hoosiers. It is one of, if not the best, sports movie of all time and it features some completely iconic performances from two of the best Hollywood stars ever, Gene Hackman and Dennis Hopper. Everyone loves a good underdog story and Hoosiers is simply the best one.
Sid And Nancy
Back in 1986, rock biopics weren’t nearly as ubiquitous as they are today. It took an amazing story for a movie to get made about a musician, and there is no more wild and crazy story than that of Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen. Gary Oldman is amazing as Vicious and Chloe Webb matches him beat for beat as the ill-fated Spungen. It’s one of the best rock bios ever made.
Highlander
There can be only one Highlander, just like there can be only one 1986. Over the years, Highlander has become one of the biggest cult classics of the era. While it was a critical and box office dud in 1986, it has since gone on to spawn an entire media franchise with multiple sequels, reboots, novels, and a TV show.
The Golden Child
There is a real argument to be made that Eddie Murphy was the funniest movie and TV star of the 1980s. With his classic lines on SNL and blockbuster movies like Beverly Hills Cop and Trading Places, it’s an easy argument to win. His 1986 release The Golden Child isn’t the best of the bunch, but it’s far from the worst, and even at worst, Murphy was still the funniest guy around in 1986.
Little Shop Of Horrors
Most people don’t think of the 1980s as a golden era for musicals, but that only shows how great 1986 was with the addition of Little Shop Of Horrors, probably the best and most unique musical of the decade. There are some wonderful performances from everyone involved and anything that includes a singing, man-eating plant gets my vote among the best ever.
The Fly
When it comes to horror classics, David Cronenberg’s The Fly has to be considered one of the best of the ’80s. The remake of a 1958 movie of the same title features one of Jeff Goldblum’s best performances, and it was one of the movies of the era that helped make him one of the most enduring stars in Hollywood history.
Short Circuit
Every great year in film history has to include some great movies for kids and in 1986, one of those greats was Short Circuit. It was a time when we still thought robots could be friendly and not all of them were out to destroy the world. Well, except for The Terminator, but that was 1984 so…
Pretty in Pink
Some of John Hughes’ best movies are the ones he wrote, but didn’t direct and Pretty In Pink is one of those. It’s a classic teen rom-com that captures so much of what makes a high school student in love so confusing. Hughes was a master at stuff like that.
The Name of the Rose
The Name of the Rose is a murder mystery hidden in a religious period piece and while it’s not for everyone, I promise if you take the time to watch it, you’ll love it. It’s one of Sean Connery’s best non-Bond performances and the rest of the cast around him is at the top of their game.
Children of a Lesser God
At the 1987 Oscars, Marlee Matlin became the first (and to date, only) deaf actor to win an Academy Award for her performance in Children of a Lesser God. The movie is not easy to watch, but it is immensely satisfying and worthy of anyone’s time.
Manhunter
Of all the movies based on books by Thomas Harris, like The Silence of the Lambs and Red Dragon, Mindhunter is the least memorable, I’ll admit that. Starring William Petersen and directed by Michael Mann (the most ’80s of directors), the movie did one very important thing, it introduced the character of Hannibal Lector, played here by Brian Cox, to the movie-going world. For that, it deserves recognition.
The Color of Money
The 1980s were all about the movies and the music and Martin Scorsese’s entry into the 1986 canon is a win on both fronts. Not only does it have memorable music moments like when Tom Cruise’s character hustles to the tune of “Werewolves of London,” it’s just a great movie, as you’d expect from a movie directed by Scorsese and starring Cruise and Paul Newman.
Iron Eagle
Believe it or not, Top Gun and Iron Eagle were both released in 1986. In fact, even though decades later we tend to think of Iron Eagle as a knock-off of Top Gun, it came out months before the Tom Cruise classic. That’s not to say it’s a better movie, but it has a certain charm that anyone who watched it growing up loves. It’s one of the more ridiculous situations a teenager ever ended up getting into in a movie, but it’s still great nostalgia.
Three Amigos!
Steve Martin, Chevy Chase, and Martin Short all teamed up for one of the goofiest comedies of all time in Three Amigos! While it’s true that it’s not as good a movie as many of us remember, there are still some seriously classic moments and memorable lines that mean it totally belongs on this list of why 1986 is great.
A Room With A View
A Room With A View is a little tricky to add to this list, as it was technically released for the first time in 1985, but that was for a one-off performance before it was widely released in early 1986. Because it qualified for the 1987 Oscars, I’m counting it here. It was, after all, it was nominated for eight Oscars (winning three) in 1987.
Hannah and Her Sisters
At the height of his career, Woody Allen was one of the most prolific filmmakers of all time. In the 1980s, he released at least one movie each year with the exception of 1982. In 1986, he wrote and directed one of his most beloved movies, Hannah and Her Sisters. Allen won the Oscar for Best Screenplay for it, and it remains one of his true classics.
Heartbreak Ridge
Yet another director with a classic on this list of great movies from 1986 is Clint Eastwood for his film Heartbreak Ridge. In the movie, Eastwood plays a gruff army commander who trains up a bunch of misfits into a strong unit. It’s very Eastwood.
Ruthless People
Ruthless People is a classic black comedy starring Bette Midler as a rich woman who gets kidnapped and soon finds out her husband (Danny DeVito) isn’t interested in paying her ransom. It’s funnier than it sounds, I promise.
9½ Weeks
9½ Weeks is one of the most legendary erotic dramas of all time. It helped make stars of Kim Basinger and Mickey Rourke and was one of the most talked about movies of the year. Looking back, it’s not aged all that well, but there are still some unforgettable moments.
One Crazy Summer
Director Savage Steve Holland made a couple of great movies in the 1980s. Better Off Dead, his best movie, came out in 1985 and he followed it up one year later with One Crazy Summer starring John Cusack and Demi Moore. It’s not as good as his first movie, but it’s still awesome, and it’s filled with the same kind of humor and great cartoon work.
Something Wild
Director Jonathon Demme is best known for The Silence Of The Lambs, but in the ’80s, he proved he was great at comedy too, with quirky movies like Swing Shift and Married to the Mob. Something Wild is his quirkiest and though it’s not as remembered as some of his other works, it’s still a classic.
Believe it or not, this isn’t even the complete list of classic movies released in 1986, making it the best movie year ever. I didn’t even have room for movies like Cobra, Raw Deal, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, The Transformers: The Movie, An American Tail, The Karate Kid Part II, and even a Francis Ford Coppola movie, Peggy Sue Got Married.