Christmas Movies of 1983

We take at our last look back at Christmas movie releases with the year 1983. That year was another interesting year as 12 films were released that season and while there were six solid hits there were also 6 major flops, a few one of them quite surprising. The list also produced two films that got some Academy Award nominations but none for Best Picture which seems to almost be a given nowadays.

Christmas of 1983 brought films from box office stars Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds. Mel Brooks made his first and only movie while not directing. One of Stephen King's most popular novels was made by a horror film master. Al Pacino, Meryl Streep and Gene Hackman starred in movies while John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John teamed up for the first time since Grease in 1978.

Here are the movies released at Christmas, twenty-five years ago, in alphabetical order. As usual I hope they bring back fond memories of your own movie going experience or remind you of one long forgotten.

CHRISTINE (Columbia; Director - John Carpenter) This was a brilliant idea. Take one of the better novels by the king of horror writers and have the (at the time) king of horror directors direct it and the results should be beyond amazing. Christine turns out to be less then amazing but still is a gripping, well acted thriller by Halloween director John Carpenter about a nerdy high schooler who buys a car that turns out to be haunted and turns the kid from nerd to cool. On top of that those that have made trouble for the nerd soon find themselves at the mercy of the car named Christine. Keith Gordon gives a terrific performance as the nerd turned cool guy who soon finds his car is his whole life, his whole being. While not a classic Christine is utterly watchable and should satisfy fans of King and Carpenter. The film received mixed reviews but made only $21 million, well under what was expected.

D.C. CAB(Universal; Director - Joel Schumacher) Basically a big screen version of the television hit Taxiconcerns a group of cab drivers and the rundown cab company for whom they are employed. Told in a multi-character story lines much line 1976's Car Wash(also written Schumacher, this film's writer/director), the film fails to find more then one or two interesting characters out of a dozen with little or nothing for them to do. Gary Busey and Mr. T led the cast which should have been a huge tip off and apparently it was as the film only made $16 million while being roundly booed by critics.

GORKY PARK(Orion; Director - Michael Apted) One of the best of the film offerings that Christmas was this tense thriller starring William Hurt as a Moscow policeman relentlessly pursuing the perpetrator of a triple homicide in Moscow's Gorky Park. Soon Hurt discovers there is more to the triple homicide and that perhaps it is in his best interest not to find the killer. Hurt is supported by Brian Dennehy as an American cop with his own agenda, Lee Marvin as a ruthless American businessman who may know more then he conveys and the lovely Joanna Pacula (whatever happened to her?) as Hurt's love interest who may not be what he thinks. This is a deep, multi-layered thriller that demands an audiences complete attention and rewards the viewer with an exceptionally well written film. The critics were very mixed, some called it "one of the best of 1983" while others condemned its confusing story. Perhaps audiences had too much to choose from as it barely hit $16 million in gross that Christmas.

THE KEEP(Paramount; Director - Michael Mann) One of the most eagerly awaited films that Christmas was this supernatural thriller from the highly acclaimed director of 1981's Thief. What audiences got was a confusing mess of a movie with a story line so complicated you find yourself throwing in the towel halfway through and hoping to find something of merit the rest of the way. The Keeptells the complicated story, set in WWII, of Nazis assigned to guard a mysterious fortress and how an unknown force is released and roams the walls. Soon the Nazi's are forced to turn to a Jew for help to contain and destroy the Keep. Trust me you will never, ever figure all that out from watching the movie. Director Mann offers some beautiful photography that is washed out by scene after scene of confusion. Critics ripped the film apart and the film would end up being the biggest loser of the Christmas, 1983 season with a gross just over $4 million.

THE MAN WHO LOVED WOMEN (Columbia; Director - Blake Edwards) This film was thought to be a sure fire hit with director Edwards (10; S.O.B.; Victor/Victoria) helming an adult sex comedy (based on the hit French film from Francois Truffaut) and starring Burt Reynolds, one of the biggest stars in Hollywood, yet somehow despite some good notices the film never found an audience. Reynolds stars as a sculptor with a penchant for bedding any woman who will have him and his attempts to seek out counseling with a psychiatrist (Julie Andrews) whom he starts to fall in love with. Edwards fills his films with his usual sight gags and a hysterical sub-plot with Kim Basinger as a spoiled rich married woman who seduces Reynolds on a trip over and over again with the danger of being caught just around the corner. Unfortunately that story is not the main one which is less funny but very sexy. The reviewers were not kind to the film most likely due to them comparing it with Truffaut's classic but for those uninitiated in the Truffaut circle, Edwards' version is most entertaining. The film bombed with only $11 million in gross.

SCARFACE (Universal; Director - Brian DePalma) This now cult classic gangster film made big headlines in the fall of 1983 when it was announced director DePalma was going to have to cut some extreme violence from this film to avoid an X rating. By the time the film opened some three months later young adult men were primed for a violent time at the movies and weren't let down. Al Pacino starred as the title character in this remake of the 1932 Howard Hughes film as a Cuban refugee who comes to America and becomes a top drug lord. Along the way he begins dealing with paranoia, drugs, police, women and his own ego in an attempt to keep his empire at the top. The film is now scene as a classic but in 1983 the reviews were quite mixed though the film still took in $45 million which is made all the more impressive by the fact that its three-hour running time limited the number of shows per day the film could run.

SILKWOOD (20^th Century Fox; Director - Mike Nichols) The most critically acclaimed film of the Christmas season also announced a return to early form for director Nichols. Here Meryl Streep stars in the true story of a woman who worked at an Oklahoma nuclear power plant and began blowing the whistle on dangerous practices in the facility which led to her untimely and mysterious death. Cher co-starred as Silkwood's best friend and showed true acting chops. Kurt Russell also starred as Silkwood's love interest doing his best to support his woman despite the existing dangers. The film was nominated for 5 Academy Awards (Best Actress; Supporting Actress; Director, Screenplay and Editing) and made a solid $35 million at the box office.

SUDDEN IMPACT (Warner Bros.; Director - Clint Eastwood) Clint Eastwood resurrected his most famous film role, "Dirty" Harry Callahan, for a fourth time and the first time in seven years and came away with the biggest hit of the Christmas season. The film follows the same guidelines as the others with Harry defying superiority while trying to track down a killer and audiences were as enthralled as ever. The film also became famous for a one line remark that soon became enormously popular in pop culture, "Make My Day." A film like this is always critic proof and sure enough the reviews were noticeably underwhelming but the film still made $68 million.

TO BE OR NOT TO BE(20^th Century Fox; Director - Alan Johnson) Perhaps the oddest film of the Christmas, 1983 season was director Mel Brooks' one and only foray into a starring role for which he was not the director. Odder was Brooks' choice of material, a remake of a classic 1942 Ernst Lubitsch comedy with Jack Benny and Carole Lombard. And perhaps the oddest choice of all was Brooks picking his longtime choreographer to make his directorial debut. Brooks stars as a bad stage actor in Germany trying to deal with the war, a philandering wife and a handsome Polish soldier who will help them escape but has eyes for the wife. Anne Bancroft, Tim Matheson and Charles Durning, who was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in a brief role, co-star. The film received mostly negative reviews and earned a paltry $13 million.

TWO OF A KIND(20^th Century Fox; Director - John Herzfeld) Another eagerly anticipated movie was this comedy re-teaming John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John in this comedy about God being fed up with humans and ordering the destruction of the planet. Three angels beg Him for a chance to find two good people in the world and He agrees that if they are found He will spare Earth. Now does any of this sound even remotely believable? Throw in the fact that the angels (Charles Durning, Beatrice Straight, Scatman Crothers) pick as their two good souls an inventor (Travolta, in one of his worst performances)struggling to survive and planning to turn to a career as a criminal and a bank teller (Newton-John) who has robbed her own bank right behind her boss' back. Olivia Newton-John as a thief? What IS the movie world coming to? The movie's sole contribution was Newton-John's catchy (and hit) single Twist Of Fate. Needless to say the movie got destroyed by critics but the curious overcame those reviews at first and the film made a respectable but far lower then expected $24 million - all in the first two weeks. Once word hit the street about this stinker it disappeared off of the box office radar.

UNCOMMON VALOR(Paramount; Director - Ted Kotcheff) The sleeper hit of the Christmas season was this Vietnam War drama with Gene Hackman as a former military man who assembles a team (ala Dirty Dozen) to go back to look for missing POW's, particularly Hackman's son. It was a simple and straightforward action film from the director of First Bloodand the film received high praise from Vets who called it the "best film about the war ever made." Critics were mixed in their reviews but audiences sought the film out and helped it to a gross of just over $32 million.

YENTL (MGM/UA; Director - Barbra Streisand) Singer Streisand returned to the epic type of musical that made her career and also stepped into the director's chair for the first time to tell the story of a woman who poses as a man to further her studies and meets a man with whom she falls in love with and a woman whom falls in love with her. Streisand peppers the moving epic with giant musical numbers including a grand finale taken right out of Funny Girl. Streisand was criticized by some, even lambasted while being praised by others for the bold move. The film received 5 Academy Award nominations (Supporting Actress; Art Direction and two of its songs, Papa Can You Hear Me; The Way He Makes Me Feel) and won for Best Song Score. Older audiences embraced this film and made it a nice hit having grossed $40 million.