My Best Directors for the 1980's

If I had given out the Oscars for Outstanding Direction in the 1980's:

1980: Robert Redford, Ordinary People

1981: Warren Beatty, Reds

1982: Steven Spielberg, E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial

1983: James L. Brooks, Terms of Endearment

1984: Roland Jaffe, The Killing Fields

1985: Steven Spielberg, The Color Purple

1986: Woody Allen, Hannah and her SIsters

1987: Adrian Lyne, Fatal Attraction

1988: Barry Levinson, Rain Man

1989: Woody Allen, Crimes and Misdemeanors

1980 Martin Scorsese, Raging Bull
1981 Steven Spielberg, Raiders of the Lost Ark
1982 Richard Attenborough, Gandhi
1983 Gregory Nava, El Norte
1984 Miloš Forman, Amadeus
1985 Akira Kurosawa, Ran
1986 Randa Haines, Children of a Lesser God
1987 Oliver Stone, Wall Street
1988 Oliver Stone, Talk Radio
1989 Spike Lee, Do the Right Thing

Nice to see some love for Oliver Stone's work on Talk Radio...such an underrated film that doesn't merit a lot of discussion on these boards for some reason.

1980: The Stunt Man, Rush
1981: Blow Out, De Palma
1982: The King Of Comedy, Scorsese
1983: The Right Stuff, Kaufman
1984: The Terminator, Cameron
1985: Witness, Weir
1986: Manhunter, Mann
1987: Full Metal Jacket, Kubrick
1988: Die Hard, McTiernan
1989: I don't know.

Nice to see some love for Blow Out and The King of Comedy, but I'm thinking about a lot of the films that came out in '81 and I have to wonder about De Palma. I liked the film, but De Palma wouldn't be anywhere on my radar for Oscar-worthy direction.

80 Martin Scorsese - Raging Bull
81 Brian De Palma - Blow Out
82 Ingmar Bergman - Fanny and Alexander
83 David Cronenberg - Videodrome
84 Sergio Leone - Once Upon a Time in America
85 Elem Klimov - Come and See
86 David Lynch - Blue Velvet
87 Bernardo Bertolucci - The Last Emperor
88 Terence Davies and Jennifer Howarth - Distant Voices, Still Lives
89 Spike Lee - Do the Right Thing