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American Cinema of the 1980s S C R E E N AMERICAN CULTURE / AMERICAN CINEMA D E C A D E S Each volume in the Screen Decades: American Culture/American Cinema series is an anthology of original essays exploring the impact of cultural issues on film and the impact of film on American society. Because every chapter presents a discussion of particularly significant motion pictures and the broad range of historical events in one year, readers will gain a systematic and progressive sense of the decade as it came to be depicted on movie screens across North America. We know that our series represents just one approach to the growth of the American cinema: to organ- ize by decades establishes somewhat artificial borders and boundaries, and each author’s thematic choices are but one way to understand the culture of a particular year. Despite such limitations, this structure contextualizes the sprawling progres- sion of American cinema, especially as it relates to historical and cultural events. We hope that these books, aimed at scholars and general readers, students and teachers, will shed valuable new light on, will provide a better understanding of, American culture and film history during the twentieth century. LESTER D.FRIEDMAN AND MURRAY POMERANCE SERIES EDITORS Ina Rae Hark, editor, American Cinema of the 1930s: Themes and Variations Wheeler Winston Dixon, editor, American Cinema of the 1940s: Themes and Variations Murray Pomerance, editor, American Cinema of the 1950s: Themes and Variations Lester D. Friedman, editor, American Cinema of the 1970s: Themes and Variations Stephen Prince, editor, American Cinema of the 1980s: Themes and Variations American Cinema of the 19 8 0 s Themes and Variations EDITED BY STEPHEN PRINCE RUTGERS UNIVERSITY PRESS NEW BRUNSWICK, NEW JERSEY LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA American cinema of the 1980s : themes and variations / edited by Stephen Prince. p. cm. — (Screen decades) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN–13: 978–0–8135–4033–7 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN–13: 978–0–8135–4034–4 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Motion pictures—United States—History. 2. Motion pictures—United States—Plots, themes, etc. I. Prince, Stephen, 1955– PN1993.5.U6A8578 2007 791.430973’09048—dc22 2006021861 This collection copyright © 2007 by Rutgers, The State University Individual chapters copyright © 2007 in the names of their authors All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permis- sion from the publisher. Please contact Rutgers University Press, 100 Joyce Kilmer Avenue, Piscataway, NJ 08854–8099. The only exception to this prohibition is “fair use” as defined by U.S. copyright law. Visit our Web site: http://rutgerspress.rutgers.edu Manufactured in the United States of America For my parents C O N T E N T S Acknowledgments ix Timeline:The 1980s xi Introduction:Movies and the 1980s 1 STEPHEN PRINCE 1980 Movies and the New Woman 22 JOANNA E.RAPF 1981 Movies and Looking Back to the Future 43 DIANE NEGRA 1982 Movies and Other Worlds 63 WARREN BUCKLAND 1983 Movies and Reaganism 82 ALAN NADEL 1984 Movies and Battles over Reaganite Conservatism 107 RHONDA HAMMER AND DOUGLAS KELLNER 1985 Movies and Political Landscapes 126 CHRISTINA BANKS AND MICHAEL BLISS 1986 Movies and Fissures in Reagan’s America 145 LEGER GRINDON 1987 Movies and the Closing of the Reagan Era 167 JACK BOOZER 1988 Movies and Images of Reality 188 DERON OVERPECK 1989 Movies and the American Dream 210 JENNIFER HOLT Select Academy Awards,1980–1989 233 Works Cited and Consulted 239 Contributors 245 Index 247 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The editor wishes to thank the contributors to this volume. Their enthusiasm for the project and good will helped to bring this book forward in a timely fashion. Working with each of the contributors was a very pleasurable experience. Thanks also to Leslie Mitchner, Lester Friedman, and Murray Pomerance for their support and participation in the production of this volume. ix