1981: Overstreet's Favorite Films

Here is the current (but occasionally updated) list of my favorite films from 1981.

In order to understand the purpose and meaning of this list, please read my introduction to the Looking Closer Favorite Films lists here.

•

1981

1. Raiders of the Lost Ark
2. Chariots of Fire
3.  Das Boot
4.  The Great Muppet Caper
5. My Dinner with Andre
6.  Gallipoli
7.  The Road Warrior
8.  Time Bandits
9. The Gods Must Be Crazy
10.  The Fox and the Hound

• Dragonslayer
• Excalibur
• The Postman Always Rings Twice

As-yet Unseen or Unratable Films of 1981

A Thousand Little Kisses (Mira Recanati)
A Woman Alone (Agnieszka Holland)
Absence of Malice
An American Werewolf in London
Arthur
Beau Pere (Bertrand Blier)
Beloved Enemy (Alan Clarke)
Blind Chance (Krzysztof Kieslowski)
Blow Out (Brian De Palma)
Body Heat
Buddy Buddy (Billy Wilder)
Celeste (Percy Adlon)
Circle of Deceit
Condorman
Coup de torchon (Bertrand Tavernier)
Cutter’s Way (Ivan Passer)
Diva (Jean-Jacques Beineix)
Do You Remember Dolly Bell? (Emir Kusturica)
Eaux profondes (Michel Deville)
Elektra
Eijanaika (Shohei Imamura)
Escape from New York (John Carpenter)
Excalibur Arabic Series (Stan Brakhage)
Eye of the Needle (Richard Marquand)
Francisca (Manoel de Oliveira)
Gregory’s Girl (Bill Forsyth)
Harmful or Fatal If Swallowed (Manuel de Landa)
Heavy Metal
Hotel America
Kamilla (Vibeke Lokkeberg)
Kisapmata (Mike de Leon)
Knightriders (George A. Romero)
Le pont du nord (Jacques Rivette)
Lion of the Desert
Lili Marleen (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
Lola (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
Man of Iron (Andrzej Wajda)
Marianne and Juliane (Margarethe von Trotta)
Memoirs of a Survivor (David Gladwell)
Mephisto
Merry-Go-Round (Jacques Rivette)
Modern Romance (Albert Brooks)
Mommie Dearest
Montenegro (Dusan Makavejev)
Ms. 45 (Abel Ferrara)
Murder in Texas (William Hale)
On Golden Pond
Outland
Patakin (Manuel Octavio Gomez)
Pennies from Heaven (Herbert Ross)
Pixote (Hector Babenco)
Polyester (John Waters)
Possession (Andrzej Zulawski)
Prince of the City (Sidney Lumet)
Quest for Fire
Reds
Regularly or Irregularly (Abbas Kiarostami)
Rich and Famous (George Cukor)
Rocky
S.O.B. (Blake Edwards)
Scanners (David Cronenberg)
Smash Palace (Roger Donaldson)
Southern Comfort (Walter Hill)
Springtime in Greenland (John Paisz)
Temptation Island (Joey Gosiengfiao)*
The Aviator’s Wife (Eric Rohmer)
The Beyond (Lucio Fulci)
The Chosen
The Evil Dead
The Four Seasons
The French Lieutenant’s Woman
The Howling (Joe Dante)
The Melody Haunts My Reverie (Rajko Grlik)
The Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man
The Tree of Knowledge (Nils Malmros)
The Woman Next Door (Francois Truffaut)
They All Laughed (Peter Bogdanovich)
Thief (Michael Mann)
Three Brothers
Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man (Bernardo Bertolucci)
True Confessions (Ulu Grosbard)
Under the Rainbow
Why is the Sky Blue? (Mario O’Hara)*