October 5, 2025 • 24 mins
In this episode, I spoke with author John Malahy regarding his book " Rewinding The ’80s: Cinema Under the Influence of Music Videos, Action Stars, and a Cold War". The movies were flying blind in 1980. “New Hollywood” was over and the era of auteur-driven, personal films that had defined moviemaking since the late ‘60s came to a symbolic end withHeaven’s Gate (1980), replaced by a new world of multiplex blockbusters supported by massive marketing campaigns.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Let's go.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Hello everyone, and welcome back to another edition of Forgotten Hollywood,
and I'm your host, Doug Hess. Now, if you're tuning
in Forgotten Hollywood for the first time, what I do
on this podcast is take you down memory lane and
share with you pieces of Hollywood that you may or
may not know about. And today we have a very
special guest with us today, John Malahai, and he is
here to talk about his book, Rewinding the Eighties Cinema
(00:28):
under the influence of music, videos, action stars, and a
Cold War. John, Welcome to Forgotten Hollywood.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Thank you, Doug great to meet you this morning.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Well, it's a pleasure for you to be here with us,
and thank you for taking time out of your I
can't even talk to busy schedule to be with us
and share a little bit about what the book's about
with our listeners. And what we do always with anytime
we have an author along is allow them to kind
of tell the story of what the book's about in
their own words. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Well, this book is a full overview of the eighties
films the whole decade. It goes through different topics and genres,
from you know, action movies to teen comedies to music
to independent cinema. I have a chapter on the Cold
War because I think that's a really interesting element of
films in this time period. I go through different sidebars
(01:21):
on you know, world cinema, different topics like the birth
of CGI, product placement, merchandising, the PG thirteen rating, the
Oscars and the Razzies and much more. And that really
the idea behind the book was to confront this notion
that the eighties were sort of a lesser decade of cinema,
(01:42):
you know, the nineteen seventies and that New Hollywood period
really get sort of mythologized, I think, but the eighties
are often kind of dismissed as the more you know,
corporatized Hollywood films that are you know, more lacking in
ideas or risk averse or or you know, you get
franchise films or techie horror films or whatever it is,
(02:04):
you know, things trying to sell soundtracks and happy meals.
But really I think there's a lot to enjoy to appreciate,
especially forty years on. And yeah, and I actually start
with the first two chapters actually on like major filmmakers
of the era, the ones who first really struggled who
were big in New Hollywood, like Squarsese and Coploa and
(02:26):
those people, and see how their careers sort of worked
out in the eighties with this new, you know, corporatized
environment and a public that I think had shifted a
bit since the nineteen seventies. And then I go into
people like the Spielberg's and the Lucases, and you know,
people who either had financial success or artistic success in
(02:47):
the eighties Cronenberg, Jonathan Demi, Rob Reiner, all sorts of
people like that. Trying to get the full scope and
encourage people to see these movies again because they really
do deserve the spotlight.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Think No, I totally agree, and I'm probably one of
the uh, the one of the odd had guys out
because I really love the eighties and what some of
those movies are. One of my favorite movies from the
eighties is Wall Street from nineteen eighty seven with Michael Douglas.
Won the Academy Award for that. But I think a
(03:21):
lot of those movies, you know, really play into what
you were talking about, whether it was corporate greed or
talking about really being ran by the studios for lack
of a better word. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Well, and to your point, I think today again for
forty years on forty five and some kinds and people
think of these films as classics, and I wanted to
kind of shine a lot on them too because and
I worked at This book is put out by Turner
Classic Movies. They're one of the partners on it. I
used to work for TCM full time. I kind of
do projects for them here and there these days, but
(03:56):
I had been pushing for many years for them to start,
you know, sort of plant the flag in this decade
because you know, often the network gets talked about in
terms of, you know, the golden age of cinema, a thirties, forties, fifties,
which makes perfect sense. But these movies are classics now,
I think, especially for people who grew up watching the
(04:16):
teen movies of the era or what have you. Films
like Wall Street, I think, or Working Girl or those
those movies that speak to sort of the the greed
is Good era of the eighties I think have their
own place too, so and there's all sorts of you know,
there's all sorts of different stories that I've been able
to tell through that decade, and it's a really diverse
(04:38):
and interesting and and yeah, even I would say even
the flops of the era now, or the ones that
we think of as sort of like you know, misfires
or just campy or whatever, have their own kind of
value at this point, this far on. So I was
really excited to write. It's funny every chapter I written
(04:59):
this book, I just want to to stop and go
watching all the movies. Like I't so excited that. Yeah,
there's so much that I think can be pulled out
of this decade and appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
No, I totally agree with you. And you know, during COVID,
I remember my youngest son and I actually there wasn't
as you know, wasn't releasing any new movies, but a
lot of these movie theaters were having older movies, and
we actually went back and we watched on the big
screen Ghostbusters and The Empire Straits back and it was
(05:29):
really cool to be able to take my son, he
was in middle school at the time, to go back
and watch some of those movies. I remember seeing in
the movie cinema on the big screen. Yes, TV and
DVDs and vhs that those are great, but there's nothing
like sitting in the cinema and watching it on the
big screen.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
And I think we've seen a sort of a revival
of eighties music and style and a lot of stuff
on TV. I mean, from Stranger Things to you know,
reboots of all sorts of like eighties TV shows and
stuff that are coming back. I think people are interested.
I think younger people are interested, which is kind of cool.
(06:13):
I still consider myself young, but I was born in
the eighties, so maybe I'm not. But anyway, it's fun
to see the sort of revival. And you know, there
wasn't really a book like this that I was trying
to find other things that I could use as sort
of a guide to, like I want to do something
a little different, but there wasn't much outside of like,
(06:33):
you know, there's books on you know, nostalgic films, and
there's action cinema. There's you know, there's some academic books
actually that I wound up sort of basing it more on,
just because they had more of an overview. But it
was hard to find something like an easy to read
sort of guide to eighties films, and so that was
one of the other goals for the book.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Yeah, you know, you were talking about some of the placements,
and I think that was very interesting. I was just
watching Portergeist from nineteen eighty two the other night. Obviously
here we are getting ready to go into October, and
I came across that movie and I read your book
(07:16):
and I knew we were getting ready to do this podcast,
and so you start looking at things differently from the eighties,
and it was just kind of funny. Et is another
great example that comes to mind of all the product
placements that was in that film or in those films
that at the time when I was watching it, it
(07:37):
probably right shared with me, but not the way when
did you go back and you're actually trying to look
and spot things.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Yeah, well, you know they had whole companies set up too.
You know, the brands would go to these companies and
say this is what I want to spend put the
in films essentially, right and so, and there are other
interesting things like you know, Coca Cola had purchased Columbia
Studio in the early eighties and owned them for many years,
and then you wound up seeing things like PEPSI show
(08:06):
up and a lot of films like Back to the
Future or what have you. And but yeah, yeah, it
was a big time for product places. Man. The other
thing I mentioned risky business a lot throughout the book,
and that's another one that has like you know, from
the cars to the sunglasses. Conkers had many sunglasses in
the eighties. I ever remember. It's it's funny how much
(08:28):
of like art and commerce were linked in these things too,
and merchandising as well, because everything, you know, they started
realizing the pop soundtracks were a very lucrative sort of
ancillary revenue source. And I mentioned you know, happy mailboxes
and action figures and all that stuff, and you know,
(08:48):
it may have had a little bit of adverse effect
on some of the way the films were made a
little bit, but you know, I think it's a really
interesting little artifact of the time too, and it continued
to this day.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Oh absolutely, one of us. We'll talk a little bit about.
You have a chapter in there on the Cold War.
And there's some great movies that come to mind anytime
I'm watching TV and I see Overstoon film I just
(09:21):
lost my train.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Platoon Plato.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Yeah, Platoon, that's just a tough film for me to
pass over, even though I've seen it a million times.
And then we have, you know, war Games is another
one that's out there. First Blood that comes out there
that comes to mind, and then with the Wolverines with
(09:45):
all the.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Red yeah, yeah, well you know, and yeah, there were
so many. As I was planning the book, there were
so many different little topics like that that came out
and they was they was connected through being all related
to geopolitics in some way or you know, just the
stuff that was going on at the time. And so
I made a whole chapter on the Cold War and
(10:10):
it starts off with a movie called Reds the Warren
Baties epic from the early eighties, just because I think
it's fascinating that a movie studio would finance that. But
Paramount stepped in and did it, and it's a really
great movie about the Russian Revolution and all that. But
then I go into like, you know, Vietnam films, because
those were really starting to come to the service the
(10:30):
late seventies, with like The Deer Hunter and Coming Home
and the Pot clubs Now and it sort of led
into stuff like Platoon, which was made by Oliver Stone
who had actually been there, and you know, that's always
considered one of the more authentic portrayals of that environment,
and even people like Stanley Cooprick were making Vietnam films
(10:51):
and stuff, so that really fascinating aspect. But then you
get into Rambo, you get into a Rocky, you get
into the Space Race. I included things like The Right Stuff,
which is about the early Space Race and the development
of the program. I actually go into like Soviet film
a little bit. I wanted to see what people were
(11:12):
doing on the other side, you know, and it was
an interesting time because it was I mean, it was
not a great time to be in the Soviet Union,
I don't think, but they did start seeing some loosening
of restrictions artistically in the last half the decade. And
that was also true for places like East Germany. I have,
you know, a couple of paragraphs about East German film
(11:33):
when they're and you know, Polish film and all that stuff.
I think it's totally fascinating. And then some of the
like directors like Andrew Zulawsky this nol Possession. This is
sort of a horror movie. I don't know, I remember
if I in cluared in my actual horror section or not,
but it's basically about you know, a divorce or you know,
(11:54):
a marriage on the rocks, essentially right next to the
Berlin Wall, and it has some really interesting parallel between
like geopolitics and this personal story that goes down some
really interesting avenues. I encourage everyone to see that movie.
But yeah, I try to include as much that you
know that that chapter is a good microcosm for my
attitude for the whole book, which is to be as
(12:16):
broad and ecllectic and inclusive as possible.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
So well, and what's really interesting is, you know, you
have Top Gun there in the eighties, and then here
we are in what twenty three some forty two years later,
whatever it was that math is and people are still
kind of gravitating to that, to that film in that
that topic was really yeah, sing to me.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
Yeah, there's a lot of films like that. I mean, Ghostbusters.
They keep making those movies too. It's another example of
how the eighties are still mind for content and stuff.
But yeah, I think people are just really inspired, and
you know, those are really like joyous films in a
certain way. I think Top Gun too. It's funny. That's
(13:03):
a good example of an eighties sort of Reagan era
patriotism that that didn't really exist as much in the
decade before. That was really an eighties invention in terms
of that style on that sort of film, And yeah,
and I think we're sort of still sort of yearning
for that a little bit. And American life today in
(13:25):
the last twenty years has been all over the place,
and I think people are hungry for that kind of
like spirit a little bit too. So I think that
helps explain that.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Yeah. Absolutely, interims that, Oh, John, did anything surprise you
during the writing and the research of this book.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Yeah, I mean I would say that I made a
lot of discoveries, you know, and this book was sort
of a personal exploration for me. I was alive in
the eighties, but I wasn't like going to the movies,
you know, that much until the very end, and it
was you know, you know, a little Mermaid or whatever
that is. But so I was I was really trying
to dig in and see as much as I could again,
(14:04):
and just you know, it's things like especially the international
stuff that I just hadn't connected with before. There's some
really cool things happening, and like like I have a
sidebar on France and the cinema Deluxe movement with films
like Diva and stuff like. It's really cool. The stuff
that you would see made in the States too, in
(14:27):
a certain way, you could see it being made here.
Sort of action, music oriented, youthful films, crime films and stuff.
They're really cool sort of visual style to them. And again, yeah,
I guess all the Eastern European stuff and how it's
sort of working in dialogue with some of the stuff
(14:48):
being made in the West. Bollywood. I include a section
on Bollywood because I knew nothing about Bollywood in the
eighties and it was at that point the biggest film
ministry in the world. You know, we don't really watch
the the movies that much anymore, but some of them
are available and I was able to watch several things,
and you know, those are those are That's a fascinating
(15:08):
time and film industry. I was really things, I guess.
And going back to that original chapter about people who
struggled during the decade, it was the extent to someone
the extent to which someone like like Coppola, who was,
you know, master of the craft, still working today, are
still making really interesting things today, clearly a dreamer and
(15:34):
an innovator and a showman, right, and the extent to
which he could have such struggle was remains to me
pretty shocking because he was making, you know, the film,
his film Won from the Heart from nineteen eighty two,
he had he had just made Apocalypse Now and it
was this sort of runaway production, and I think he
(15:54):
he made One from the Heart in a sort of
the story behind the scenes is that he had purchased
a movie studio to sort of control all the aspects
of the movie making, right, which is this sort of
grandiose idea, you know, trying to compete with the likes
of Yeah, and it just kind of falled apart because
the movie doesn't well. But so he takes these amazing
(16:18):
risks and it just sort of fumbles, you know, and
then he spends the rest of the decade kind of
working that off. I knew the outlines of that story,
but really digging into it and seeing honestly, some really
great movies by him in that decade, and yet he
struggled so much. That was that was shocking. And the
other I will say, the other thing is that it
(16:38):
was a time when and this isn't really the case anymore,
it was a time when movie studios were really financing
some interesting films. And we were talking about the seventies
as a time of you know, singular artistic vision and stuff,
but you know, studios were financing video drome and do
the right thing, and so really there's some stuff to
that I don't think would necessarily be made today by
(17:00):
major studios. So that was kind of nice to say, honestly.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Yeah. Well, I also think I think of a film
like Tutsi in nineteen eighty two that was kind of
ahead of its time, and in a way is kind
of amazing that it got made where it's today. Nobody
would think anything about that. They'd be like, oh, it's
another movie coming out, but really was kind of ahead
of its time and it was a great film. And
(17:28):
there's another one that when it's on it's just kind
of hard to pass up because I just great acting.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
Just watched that last week actually, as it were, you know,
and that thing I wanted to do a whole chapter on,
like women in the workplace, not just you know, Tutsi
is an interesting example because it is that a woman
in the work I don't know man, right, yeah, but
it shines a light on that, you know, and then
(17:57):
there's like I mentioned Working Girl, you know, Baby Boom,
mister Mom. There's some of these interesting films that are
dealing with gender politics in the eighties. I wound up
sort of threading that through other sections. But I think
that's a that was a really interesting thing to come
across too, and to explore a little deeper.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Well. And a lot of those were comedies, you know,
in the way that they addressed it, but they didn't
may get in trouble for seeing this, but they really
didn't dress it head on. They dressed it and through
a comedy where they were trying to get theage across,
but they wasn't really in your face when they said it,
if that means.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Yeah, and some really engaging actresses, you know, like I
really think like Diane Keaton and Baby Boom, great performance,
you know, amazing. Yeah, I mean some of these I
think they're interesting today just because they were so entertaining
and so funny, and they remain both sort of provocative
(18:56):
and hilarious.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
So yeah, absolutely we don't really get to see that
today to some degree, at least that's my opinion. I mean,
don't get Yeah, some great comedies out there, I'm not
saying that, but some of them I think today are
just comedies to make you laugh, where some of the
ones in the eighties were comedies, but they made you
(19:19):
think and there was a kind of a message or
a purpose behind them.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Yeah. I feel like one of the weird things about
movies today is that the great middle has sort of
fallen out. You know, those movies, movies like TUTSI that
were big budget films with stars about ideas and also
really funny. Those either wind up on television as TV shows,
or they're made independently and show up at film festival
or something. It's not not quite the same environment as
(19:45):
we have today, unfortunately. But yeah, some great studio films
in the eighties.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
One, John, I know we are getting closer on the time,
but any films that you know, we've talked about a
lot of films here, and most of those are the
big ones that we all remember, But any that you
would suggest that our listeners would watch that maybe have
phone under the radar or during your research you thought,
was this is a good one for people to kind
(20:12):
of revisit.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Oh yeah, I mean I had so many discoveries on this.
I would say one that always comes to mind is
William Friedkin's movie To Live and Die in LA. I
don't know how popular that is or how much people
know about this movie. But he's another guy who had
had a huge run in the seventies. He made French
Connection and Want of Lascar. He made The Exorcist, which is,
(20:35):
you know, probably the sameest thing. And he struggled, and
he made some really great films, but I don't think
they were they they flew under the radar that in
the eighties. And this is a movie To Live and
Dine in La. It's mid eighties and it's set in
Los Angeles, beautifully shot, another sort of crime film, great
car chase sequence in the middle of it. I think
(20:56):
they actually are going backwards on the interstate or something
really cool cast great, great mystery. I recommend that one
for something truly eighties. I always like to mention, like,
what is the most eighties movie. There's a few on
my list, but one of them I watched recently called
Heavenly Bodies. You know of this film, it's like an
(21:18):
aerobics film essentially. It's actually a Canadian film, I believe,
but about essentially about rival sort of workout groups in
a TV show. It's it's kind of a wacky plot,
but it's got all these amazing sort of well, it's
got a lot of amazing style and music and all
(21:39):
that stuff, but it's it's the very it's a very
eighties film. And there's another movie called Liquid Sky that
gets talked a lot about that has that sort of
eighties few pop quality to it. Yeah, there's you know,
and then there's stuff like, you know, i'd never seen
the movie Alligator before, which is this the monster movie
(21:59):
from night written by John Sales about a giant alligator
in Chicago. You know, there's stuff like that that I
definitely recommend for a certain viewer.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
You know. Yeah, yeah, well it may be a good
movie to watch here we are getting ready to go
into October. It's a great film for that. You know.
One of the things we didn't really talk about is
some of the fascinating horror films of the eighties as
well that came out in terms of that. But I
(22:30):
know we're running close here on time. But maybe that's
a good reason for somebody to pick up the book,
is to read more about some of this. We just
tipped the tip tip of the iceberg on here, but
strongly encourage our listeners to go out and get a
copy of Rewinding the Eighties Cinema under the influence of
music videos, Action Stars, and Cold War. It's out October seventh,
(22:56):
and we want to thank our friends at Running Press,
the publisher of this book, John Great book. I love
the eighties, and as soon as I saw this topic,
I'm like, I've got to get a copy of the
book and talk to you because I just love the
eighties and it's a wonderful book. And like I said,
we just hit the tip of the iceberg on this Definitely.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
It was great to talk to you, and I love
talking about this book. I loved writing it and I
hope people enjoy it when I read it again. It's
out October seventh. There is an audiobook version too, if
you like that or a new book. So yeah, check
it out.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Yeah, definitely check it out. It's fascinating and eighties was
just a I'd like to say if it was a
magical time, not only with movies but also music, but
also grew up in that era, so I'm probably a
little biased.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
Well no, I think you're totally right. You're on the money.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Yeah, join again. Thank you so much and for coming
on spending some time with us, and again to our
our listeners, rewinding the eighties cinema under the influence of
music videos, action stars in Cold War, John, thank you
so much for coming on spending a few minutes with
us today.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
Thank you, Doug,
Let's go.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Hello everyone, and welcome back to another edition of Forgotten Hollywood,
and I'm your host, Doug Hess. Now, if you're tuning
in Forgotten Hollywood for the first time, what I do
on this podcast is take you down memory lane and
share with you pieces of Hollywood that you may or
may not know about. And today we have a very
special guest with us today, John Malahai, and he is
here to talk about his book, Rewinding the Eighties Cinema
(00:28):
under the influence of music, videos, action stars, and a
Cold War. John, Welcome to Forgotten Hollywood.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Thank you, Doug great to meet you this morning.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Well, it's a pleasure for you to be here with us,
and thank you for taking time out of your I
can't even talk to busy schedule to be with us
and share a little bit about what the book's about
with our listeners. And what we do always with anytime
we have an author along is allow them to kind
of tell the story of what the book's about in
their own words. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Well, this book is a full overview of the eighties
films the whole decade. It goes through different topics and genres,
from you know, action movies to teen comedies to music
to independent cinema. I have a chapter on the Cold
War because I think that's a really interesting element of
films in this time period. I go through different sidebars
(01:21):
on you know, world cinema, different topics like the birth
of CGI, product placement, merchandising, the PG thirteen rating, the
Oscars and the Razzies and much more. And that really
the idea behind the book was to confront this notion
that the eighties were sort of a lesser decade of cinema,
(01:42):
you know, the nineteen seventies and that New Hollywood period
really get sort of mythologized, I think, but the eighties
are often kind of dismissed as the more you know,
corporatized Hollywood films that are you know, more lacking in
ideas or risk averse or or you know, you get
franchise films or techie horror films or whatever it is,
(02:04):
you know, things trying to sell soundtracks and happy meals.
But really I think there's a lot to enjoy to appreciate,
especially forty years on. And yeah, and I actually start
with the first two chapters actually on like major filmmakers
of the era, the ones who first really struggled who
were big in New Hollywood, like Squarsese and Coploa and
(02:26):
those people, and see how their careers sort of worked
out in the eighties with this new, you know, corporatized
environment and a public that I think had shifted a
bit since the nineteen seventies. And then I go into
people like the Spielberg's and the Lucases, and you know,
people who either had financial success or artistic success in
(02:47):
the eighties Cronenberg, Jonathan Demi, Rob Reiner, all sorts of
people like that. Trying to get the full scope and
encourage people to see these movies again because they really
do deserve the spotlight.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Think No, I totally agree, and I'm probably one of
the uh, the one of the odd had guys out
because I really love the eighties and what some of
those movies are. One of my favorite movies from the
eighties is Wall Street from nineteen eighty seven with Michael Douglas.
Won the Academy Award for that. But I think a
(03:21):
lot of those movies, you know, really play into what
you were talking about, whether it was corporate greed or
talking about really being ran by the studios for lack
of a better word. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Well, and to your point, I think today again for
forty years on forty five and some kinds and people
think of these films as classics, and I wanted to
kind of shine a lot on them too because and
I worked at This book is put out by Turner
Classic Movies. They're one of the partners on it. I
used to work for TCM full time. I kind of
do projects for them here and there these days, but
(03:56):
I had been pushing for many years for them to start,
you know, sort of plant the flag in this decade
because you know, often the network gets talked about in
terms of, you know, the golden age of cinema, a thirties, forties, fifties,
which makes perfect sense. But these movies are classics now,
I think, especially for people who grew up watching the
(04:16):
teen movies of the era or what have you. Films
like Wall Street, I think, or Working Girl or those
those movies that speak to sort of the the greed
is Good era of the eighties I think have their
own place too, so and there's all sorts of you know,
there's all sorts of different stories that I've been able
to tell through that decade, and it's a really diverse
(04:38):
and interesting and and yeah, even I would say even
the flops of the era now, or the ones that
we think of as sort of like you know, misfires
or just campy or whatever, have their own kind of
value at this point, this far on. So I was
really excited to write. It's funny every chapter I written
(04:59):
this book, I just want to to stop and go
watching all the movies. Like I't so excited that. Yeah,
there's so much that I think can be pulled out
of this decade and appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
No, I totally agree with you. And you know, during COVID,
I remember my youngest son and I actually there wasn't
as you know, wasn't releasing any new movies, but a
lot of these movie theaters were having older movies, and
we actually went back and we watched on the big
screen Ghostbusters and The Empire Straits back and it was
(05:29):
really cool to be able to take my son, he
was in middle school at the time, to go back
and watch some of those movies. I remember seeing in
the movie cinema on the big screen. Yes, TV and
DVDs and vhs that those are great, but there's nothing
like sitting in the cinema and watching it on the
big screen.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
And I think we've seen a sort of a revival
of eighties music and style and a lot of stuff
on TV. I mean, from Stranger Things to you know,
reboots of all sorts of like eighties TV shows and
stuff that are coming back. I think people are interested.
I think younger people are interested, which is kind of cool.
(06:13):
I still consider myself young, but I was born in
the eighties, so maybe I'm not. But anyway, it's fun
to see the sort of revival. And you know, there
wasn't really a book like this that I was trying
to find other things that I could use as sort
of a guide to, like I want to do something
a little different, but there wasn't much outside of like,
(06:33):
you know, there's books on you know, nostalgic films, and
there's action cinema. There's you know, there's some academic books
actually that I wound up sort of basing it more on,
just because they had more of an overview. But it
was hard to find something like an easy to read
sort of guide to eighties films, and so that was
one of the other goals for the book.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Yeah, you know, you were talking about some of the placements,
and I think that was very interesting. I was just
watching Portergeist from nineteen eighty two the other night. Obviously
here we are getting ready to go into October, and
I came across that movie and I read your book
(07:16):
and I knew we were getting ready to do this podcast,
and so you start looking at things differently from the eighties,
and it was just kind of funny. Et is another
great example that comes to mind of all the product
placements that was in that film or in those films
that at the time when I was watching it, it
(07:37):
probably right shared with me, but not the way when
did you go back and you're actually trying to look
and spot things.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Yeah, well, you know they had whole companies set up too.
You know, the brands would go to these companies and
say this is what I want to spend put the
in films essentially, right and so, and there are other
interesting things like you know, Coca Cola had purchased Columbia
Studio in the early eighties and owned them for many years,
and then you wound up seeing things like PEPSI show
(08:06):
up and a lot of films like Back to the
Future or what have you. And but yeah, yeah, it
was a big time for product places. Man. The other
thing I mentioned risky business a lot throughout the book,
and that's another one that has like you know, from
the cars to the sunglasses. Conkers had many sunglasses in
the eighties. I ever remember. It's it's funny how much
(08:28):
of like art and commerce were linked in these things too,
and merchandising as well, because everything, you know, they started
realizing the pop soundtracks were a very lucrative sort of
ancillary revenue source. And I mentioned you know, happy mailboxes
and action figures and all that stuff, and you know,
(08:48):
it may have had a little bit of adverse effect
on some of the way the films were made a
little bit, but you know, I think it's a really
interesting little artifact of the time too, and it continued
to this day.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Oh absolutely, one of us. We'll talk a little bit about.
You have a chapter in there on the Cold War.
And there's some great movies that come to mind anytime
I'm watching TV and I see Overstoon film I just
(09:21):
lost my train.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Platoon Plato.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Yeah, Platoon, that's just a tough film for me to
pass over, even though I've seen it a million times.
And then we have, you know, war Games is another
one that's out there. First Blood that comes out there
that comes to mind, and then with the Wolverines with
(09:45):
all the.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Red yeah, yeah, well you know, and yeah, there were
so many. As I was planning the book, there were
so many different little topics like that that came out
and they was they was connected through being all related
to geopolitics in some way or you know, just the
stuff that was going on at the time. And so
I made a whole chapter on the Cold War and
(10:10):
it starts off with a movie called Reds the Warren
Baties epic from the early eighties, just because I think
it's fascinating that a movie studio would finance that. But
Paramount stepped in and did it, and it's a really
great movie about the Russian Revolution and all that. But
then I go into like, you know, Vietnam films, because
those were really starting to come to the service the
(10:30):
late seventies, with like The Deer Hunter and Coming Home
and the Pot clubs Now and it sort of led
into stuff like Platoon, which was made by Oliver Stone
who had actually been there, and you know, that's always
considered one of the more authentic portrayals of that environment,
and even people like Stanley Cooprick were making Vietnam films
(10:51):
and stuff, so that really fascinating aspect. But then you
get into Rambo, you get into a Rocky, you get
into the Space Race. I included things like The Right Stuff,
which is about the early Space Race and the development
of the program. I actually go into like Soviet film
a little bit. I wanted to see what people were
(11:12):
doing on the other side, you know, and it was
an interesting time because it was I mean, it was
not a great time to be in the Soviet Union,
I don't think, but they did start seeing some loosening
of restrictions artistically in the last half the decade. And
that was also true for places like East Germany. I have,
you know, a couple of paragraphs about East German film
(11:33):
when they're and you know, Polish film and all that stuff.
I think it's totally fascinating. And then some of the
like directors like Andrew Zulawsky this nol Possession. This is
sort of a horror movie. I don't know, I remember
if I in cluared in my actual horror section or not,
but it's basically about you know, a divorce or you know,
(11:54):
a marriage on the rocks, essentially right next to the
Berlin Wall, and it has some really interesting parallel between
like geopolitics and this personal story that goes down some
really interesting avenues. I encourage everyone to see that movie.
But yeah, I try to include as much that you
know that that chapter is a good microcosm for my
attitude for the whole book, which is to be as
(12:16):
broad and ecllectic and inclusive as possible.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
So well, and what's really interesting is, you know, you
have Top Gun there in the eighties, and then here
we are in what twenty three some forty two years later,
whatever it was that math is and people are still
kind of gravitating to that, to that film in that
that topic was really yeah, sing to me.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
Yeah, there's a lot of films like that. I mean, Ghostbusters.
They keep making those movies too. It's another example of
how the eighties are still mind for content and stuff.
But yeah, I think people are just really inspired, and
you know, those are really like joyous films in a
certain way. I think Top Gun too. It's funny. That's
(13:03):
a good example of an eighties sort of Reagan era
patriotism that that didn't really exist as much in the
decade before. That was really an eighties invention in terms
of that style on that sort of film, And yeah,
and I think we're sort of still sort of yearning
for that a little bit. And American life today in
(13:25):
the last twenty years has been all over the place,
and I think people are hungry for that kind of
like spirit a little bit too. So I think that
helps explain that.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Yeah. Absolutely, interims that, Oh, John, did anything surprise you
during the writing and the research of this book.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Yeah, I mean I would say that I made a
lot of discoveries, you know, and this book was sort
of a personal exploration for me. I was alive in
the eighties, but I wasn't like going to the movies,
you know, that much until the very end, and it
was you know, you know, a little Mermaid or whatever
that is. But so I was I was really trying
to dig in and see as much as I could again,
(14:04):
and just you know, it's things like especially the international
stuff that I just hadn't connected with before. There's some
really cool things happening, and like like I have a
sidebar on France and the cinema Deluxe movement with films
like Diva and stuff like. It's really cool. The stuff
that you would see made in the States too, in
(14:27):
a certain way, you could see it being made here.
Sort of action, music oriented, youthful films, crime films and stuff.
They're really cool sort of visual style to them. And again, yeah,
I guess all the Eastern European stuff and how it's
sort of working in dialogue with some of the stuff
(14:48):
being made in the West. Bollywood. I include a section
on Bollywood because I knew nothing about Bollywood in the
eighties and it was at that point the biggest film
ministry in the world. You know, we don't really watch
the the movies that much anymore, but some of them
are available and I was able to watch several things,
and you know, those are those are That's a fascinating
(15:08):
time and film industry. I was really things, I guess.
And going back to that original chapter about people who
struggled during the decade, it was the extent to someone
the extent to which someone like like Coppola, who was,
you know, master of the craft, still working today, are
still making really interesting things today, clearly a dreamer and
(15:34):
an innovator and a showman, right, and the extent to
which he could have such struggle was remains to me
pretty shocking because he was making, you know, the film,
his film Won from the Heart from nineteen eighty two,
he had he had just made Apocalypse Now and it
was this sort of runaway production, and I think he
(15:54):
he made One from the Heart in a sort of
the story behind the scenes is that he had purchased
a movie studio to sort of control all the aspects
of the movie making, right, which is this sort of
grandiose idea, you know, trying to compete with the likes
of Yeah, and it just kind of falled apart because
the movie doesn't well. But so he takes these amazing
(16:18):
risks and it just sort of fumbles, you know, and
then he spends the rest of the decade kind of
working that off. I knew the outlines of that story,
but really digging into it and seeing honestly, some really
great movies by him in that decade, and yet he
struggled so much. That was that was shocking. And the
other I will say, the other thing is that it
(16:38):
was a time when and this isn't really the case anymore,
it was a time when movie studios were really financing
some interesting films. And we were talking about the seventies
as a time of you know, singular artistic vision and stuff,
but you know, studios were financing video drome and do
the right thing, and so really there's some stuff to
that I don't think would necessarily be made today by
(17:00):
major studios. So that was kind of nice to say, honestly.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Yeah. Well, I also think I think of a film
like Tutsi in nineteen eighty two that was kind of
ahead of its time, and in a way is kind
of amazing that it got made where it's today. Nobody
would think anything about that. They'd be like, oh, it's
another movie coming out, but really was kind of ahead
of its time and it was a great film. And
(17:28):
there's another one that when it's on it's just kind
of hard to pass up because I just great acting.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
Just watched that last week actually, as it were, you know,
and that thing I wanted to do a whole chapter on,
like women in the workplace, not just you know, Tutsi
is an interesting example because it is that a woman
in the work I don't know man, right, yeah, but
it shines a light on that, you know, and then
(17:57):
there's like I mentioned Working Girl, you know, Baby Boom,
mister Mom. There's some of these interesting films that are
dealing with gender politics in the eighties. I wound up
sort of threading that through other sections. But I think
that's a that was a really interesting thing to come
across too, and to explore a little deeper.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Well. And a lot of those were comedies, you know,
in the way that they addressed it, but they didn't
may get in trouble for seeing this, but they really
didn't dress it head on. They dressed it and through
a comedy where they were trying to get theage across,
but they wasn't really in your face when they said it,
if that means.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Yeah, and some really engaging actresses, you know, like I
really think like Diane Keaton and Baby Boom, great performance,
you know, amazing. Yeah, I mean some of these I
think they're interesting today just because they were so entertaining
and so funny, and they remain both sort of provocative
(18:56):
and hilarious.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
So yeah, absolutely we don't really get to see that
today to some degree, at least that's my opinion. I mean,
don't get Yeah, some great comedies out there, I'm not
saying that, but some of them I think today are
just comedies to make you laugh, where some of the
ones in the eighties were comedies, but they made you
(19:19):
think and there was a kind of a message or
a purpose behind them.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Yeah. I feel like one of the weird things about
movies today is that the great middle has sort of
fallen out. You know, those movies, movies like TUTSI that
were big budget films with stars about ideas and also
really funny. Those either wind up on television as TV shows,
or they're made independently and show up at film festival
or something. It's not not quite the same environment as
(19:45):
we have today, unfortunately. But yeah, some great studio films
in the eighties.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
One, John, I know we are getting closer on the time,
but any films that you know, we've talked about a
lot of films here, and most of those are the
big ones that we all remember, But any that you
would suggest that our listeners would watch that maybe have
phone under the radar or during your research you thought,
was this is a good one for people to kind
(20:12):
of revisit.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Oh yeah, I mean I had so many discoveries on this.
I would say one that always comes to mind is
William Friedkin's movie To Live and Die in LA. I
don't know how popular that is or how much people
know about this movie. But he's another guy who had
had a huge run in the seventies. He made French
Connection and Want of Lascar. He made The Exorcist, which is,
(20:35):
you know, probably the sameest thing. And he struggled, and
he made some really great films, but I don't think
they were they they flew under the radar that in
the eighties. And this is a movie To Live and
Dine in La. It's mid eighties and it's set in
Los Angeles, beautifully shot, another sort of crime film, great
car chase sequence in the middle of it. I think
(20:56):
they actually are going backwards on the interstate or something
really cool cast great, great mystery. I recommend that one
for something truly eighties. I always like to mention, like,
what is the most eighties movie. There's a few on
my list, but one of them I watched recently called
Heavenly Bodies. You know of this film, it's like an
(21:18):
aerobics film essentially. It's actually a Canadian film, I believe,
but about essentially about rival sort of workout groups in
a TV show. It's it's kind of a wacky plot,
but it's got all these amazing sort of well, it's
got a lot of amazing style and music and all
(21:39):
that stuff, but it's it's the very it's a very
eighties film. And there's another movie called Liquid Sky that
gets talked a lot about that has that sort of
eighties few pop quality to it. Yeah, there's you know,
and then there's stuff like, you know, i'd never seen
the movie Alligator before, which is this the monster movie
(21:59):
from night written by John Sales about a giant alligator
in Chicago. You know, there's stuff like that that I
definitely recommend for a certain viewer.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
You know. Yeah, yeah, well it may be a good
movie to watch here we are getting ready to go
into October. It's a great film for that. You know.
One of the things we didn't really talk about is
some of the fascinating horror films of the eighties as
well that came out in terms of that. But I
(22:30):
know we're running close here on time. But maybe that's
a good reason for somebody to pick up the book,
is to read more about some of this. We just
tipped the tip tip of the iceberg on here, but
strongly encourage our listeners to go out and get a
copy of Rewinding the Eighties Cinema under the influence of
music videos, Action Stars, and Cold War. It's out October seventh,
(22:56):
and we want to thank our friends at Running Press,
the publisher of this book, John Great book. I love
the eighties, and as soon as I saw this topic,
I'm like, I've got to get a copy of the
book and talk to you because I just love the
eighties and it's a wonderful book. And like I said,
we just hit the tip of the iceberg on this Definitely.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
It was great to talk to you, and I love
talking about this book. I loved writing it and I
hope people enjoy it when I read it again. It's
out October seventh. There is an audiobook version too, if
you like that or a new book. So yeah, check
it out.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Yeah, definitely check it out. It's fascinating and eighties was
just a I'd like to say if it was a
magical time, not only with movies but also music, but
also grew up in that era, so I'm probably a
little biased.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
Well no, I think you're totally right. You're on the money.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Yeah, join again. Thank you so much and for coming
on spending some time with us, and again to our
our listeners, rewinding the eighties cinema under the influence of
music videos, action stars in Cold War, John, thank you
so much for coming on spending a few minutes with
us today.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
Thank you, Doug,
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