Quintessential Decade Movies

PyroChamber

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When you think about decades like the 70s, 80s, and the 90s; is there one movie made during those periods that you think define them as a whole?

Like how some may say that Saturday Night Fever defined the 70s.
 
Reality Bites/ Singles in the 90's

St Elmo's Fire/Pretty In Pink/Ferris Buller for the 80's

Easy Rider for the 60's


I don't think there's one movie that can define this decade yet
 
Off the top of my head

1950s: Rebel Without a Cause
1960s: Easy Rider
1970s: Saturday Night Fever
1980s: Wall Street
1990s: American Pie
 
It's hard to narrow down to one, so, how about 4 for each decade?

1950s: Sunset Blvd/Rebel Without a Cause/Ben-Hur/Bridge on the River Kwai

1960s: West Side Story/Lawrence of Arabia/Psycho/The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

1970s: Saturday Night Fever/The Godfather/Star Wars/Jaws

1980s: Raiders of the Lost Ark/Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back/Ferris Bueller's Day Off/The Terminator

1990s: Pulp Fiction/Forrest Gump/Silence of the Lambs/The Matrix

2000-2009: The Lord of the Rings/No Country for Old Men/Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon/The Dark Knight

-TNC
 
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70's for me would have to be The Warriors... and the other decades? I'm still thinking... lol
 
70's - Halloween, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Warriors, Enter The Dragon

80's - Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday The 13th, Transformer: The Movie, G.I. Joe: The Movie, Tron, E.T., The Wizard, Terminator, Robocop

90's - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, The Lion King, Mortal Kombat, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie, Terminator 2, Toy Story

2000's - Spider-Man, X-Men, Lord of the Rings, Matrix Trilogy, Casino Royale, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Final Fantasy: Advent Children, Resident Evil: Degeneration, Ice Age, Madagascar, Ali, Ray
 
When you think about decades like the 70s, 80s, and the 90s; is there one movie made during those periods that you think define them as a whole?

Like how some may say that Saturday Night Fever defined the 70s.

I think you need to be more clear about what you are looking for. I was under the impression you wanted a movie that "defined" a decade, not list of movies that people liked.
 
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I think you need to be morre clear about what you are looking for. I was under the impression you wanted a movie that "defined" a decade, not list of movies that people liked.
That is what I meant.
 
That is what I meant.
lol. Well, that has to be to an extent, because a movie could be your favorite, but it may not be a memorable part of what made that particular decade in cinema significant or influential.

BTW, for the 2000s, I took out Memento and put in Crouching Tiger. Memento was a great film, very influential, but I think Crouching Tiger made a broader impact across the board for the early decade.

-TNC
 
60s: 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Good The Bad And The Ugly,
Dr. Strangelove, and Goldfinger.

70s: Alien, Apocalypse Now, A Clockwork Orange, The Deer Hunter,
Dirty Harry, The Godfather Part 1 and 2, One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest, and Mean Streets.

80s: Aliens, Blade Runner, Born On The Fourth Of July, Brazil, Die Hard, Casualties Of War, Empire Of The Sun, Full Metal Jacket, Hamburger Hill, Come & See, The King Of Comedy, Midnight Run, Platoon, Predator, Scarface, The Shining, Tango & Cash, The Terminator, The Thing and
The Untouchables.

90s: Braveheart, Casino, Falling Down, GoldenEye, Goodfellas, La Haine, Heat, In The Line Of Fire, JFK, Jurassic Park, Leon, Primal Fear, Pulp Ficition, Reservoir Dogs, Ronin, Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List,
The Silence Of The Lambs, Terminator 2: Judgement Day and Unforgiven.

00s: 28 Days Later, The Assaination Of Richard Nixon, Batman Begins,
The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Ultimatum, Children Of Men, Cloverfield, Dawn Of The Dead, Dead Man's Shoes, Donnie Darko, Equilibrium, Gladiator, Gran Torino, The Grey Zone, Hot Fuzz, Hotel Rwanda, Munich, Mystic River,
The Pianist, Shaun Of The Dead, Tropic Thunder, Downfall, Zodiac,
The Dark Knight.
 
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70s: Dazed and Confused

Yeah it was released in the 90s, but it's the most realistic take on any decade in my opinion. And I was born in 1989, so I didn't actually live in the 70s, but a lot of it seems very true to what my parents have told me haha

80s: Breakfast Club/Ferris Beuller's Day Off
90s: American Pie
00s: Not sure, but Superbad was a realistic take on the decade.

It seems to me that the movies dealing with teens (that are actually good movies) are most likely to define a decade.
 
80's: Empire Strikes Back, Terminator, Aliens, Robocop, Empire Strikes Back.
 
I think a lot of posters are missing the point of the thread.

I think he's trying to ask what movie defined everyday life or society of that particular decade. Not what movies were popular and important part of that decade, hence the Saturday Night Fever reference he/she made.

Star Wars was great, but does space battles sum up the 70's?

Anyways let's see here....

70's - Without question Saturday Night Fever. How do you think of the 70's without thinking of disco.

80's - I think you could point to any number of the John Hughes films, Pretty in Pink, Ferris Bueller, etc. Maybe Heathers too. Also the great Real Genuis!!!!

90's - I'd have to go with the first American Pie maybe. That summed up teen life of that era pretty good. Also Tom Hank's You've got Mail.

00's - Judd Apatow's films like Superbad, 40 Year Old Virgin and so on are a good indicators of what the decade is like. I'd even say Iron Man as well because of some of it's social references like War, Terrorism, Myspace, Media and so forth.
 
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1990s: Clueless and Friday



Both movies capture and remind me of very different attitudes of the 1990s. Clueless, however, not only captured the 90s, it influenced the 90s.
 
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1980's: Blade Runner, The Terminator - Future noir/cyberpunk look made it's way to music and fashion as well.

1990's: Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Fight Club, The Matrix - The dialogue and themes of the first three influenced men from 10 to 50, funnily enough things ended with future noir/cyberpunk makings it's way into mainstream again.

2000's: Group A: Spider-Man, LOTR, Pirates, Twilight and PG-13 films that would've (and should've) been R in the past and Group B The Dark Knight, Rambo and 300 - Group A reflects the softcockerization of people today. It's expected that men have to cry and show feelings and get manicures and crap like that. Group B reflects either the scant remenants of a time past or that Christian Bale may well emerge as a messiah for the rest of us retrosexuals.
 
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Boy, I can hardly stand 80's movies. Dated in a very bad way. I mean, movies from the 70's are dated aswell, but in a good way. Most 80's movies are just obnoxiously dated. I guess most people here like 'em because they get some sort of nostalgia kick out of it. Not me. I wasn't born in the eighties.
 

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