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Best 80s Movies Ranked

The definitive ranked guide to the highest-rated films of the 80s. Uncover iconic classics, critically acclaimed gems, and audience favorites.

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Scooby-Doo's A Nutcracker Scoob Poster

#1. Scooby-Doo's A Nutcracker Scoob (1984)

★ 9.0/10 68 votes

The evil is set to damper another Christmas season for the children's home. Can the Scooby gang warm his heart?

My Partner Poster

#2. My Partner (1982)

★ 8.9/10 72 votes

The story of the friendship between a truck driver and a shoeshine boy who occasionally becomes his assistant when they travel together from the agro-industrial area of Santa Cruz to the high Andean basin of La Paz in a truck named "Mi Socio".

Zübük Poster

#3. Zübük (1980)

★ 8.5/10 73 votes

This is the story of the politician named Zübük. He gets expelled from the political party that he is a member of, due to corruption. The journalist Yaşar wants to make a news story about his case and investigates Zübük's doings. Yaşar gets baffled at the sly tricks Zübük played on his village people. In the end, he feels sorry about Zübük's present situation, however, as things happen he becomes aware that Zübük has been tricking him.

Queen: Live at Wembley Stadium Poster

#4. Queen: Live at Wembley Stadium (1986)

★ 8.5/10 181 votes

One of the world's biggest bands returns to the scene of their Live Aid triumph (one year earlier in 1985) to play all their greatest hits in front of a packed Wembley Stadium.

Grave of the Fireflies Poster

#5. Grave of the Fireflies (1988)

★ 8.5/10 6,933 votes

In the final months of World War II, 14-year-old Seita and his sister Setsuko are orphaned when their mother is killed during an air raid in Kobe, Japan. After a falling out with their aunt, they move into an abandoned bomb shelter. With no surviving relatives and their emergency rations depleted, Seita and Setsuko struggle to survive.

Cinema Paradiso Poster

#6. Cinema Paradiso (1988)

★ 8.4/10 5,034 votes

A filmmaker recalls his childhood, when he fell in love with the movies at his village's theater and formed a deep friendship with the theater's projectionist.

Twenty Years Later Poster

#7. Twenty Years Later (1984)

★ 8.4/10 77 votes

Eduardo Coutinho was filming a movie with the same name in the Northeast of Brazil, in 1964, when there came the military coup. He had to interrupt the project, and came back to it in 1981, looking for the same places and people, showing what had ocurred since then, and trying to gather a family whose patriarch, a political leader fighting for rights of country people, had been murdered.

The Empire Strikes Back Poster

#8. The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

★ 8.4/10 19,071 votes

The epic saga continues as Luke Skywalker, in hopes of defeating the evil Galactic Empire, learns the ways of the Jedi from aging master Yoda. But Darth Vader is more determined than ever to capture Luke. Meanwhile, rebel leader Princess Leia, cocky Han Solo, Chewbacca, and droids C-3PO and R2-D2 are thrown into various stages of capture, betrayal and despair.

Once Upon a Time in America Poster

#9. Once Upon a Time in America (1984)

★ 8.4/10 6,298 votes

A former Prohibition-era Jewish gangster returns to the Lower East Side of Manhattan over thirty years later, where he once again must confront the ghosts and regrets of his old life.

Stop Making Sense Poster

#10. Stop Making Sense (1984)

★ 8.4/10 403 votes

A concert film documenting Talking Heads at the height of their popularity, on tour for their 1983 album "Speaking in Tongues." The band takes the stage one by one and is joined by a cadre of guest musicians for a career-spanning and cinematic performance that features creative choreography and visuals.

Back to the Future Poster

#11. Back to the Future (1985)

★ 8.3/10 22,688 votes

Eighties teenager Marty McFly is accidentally sent back in time to 1955, inadvertently disrupting his parents' first meeting and attracting his mother's romantic interest. Marty must repair the damage to history by rekindling his parents' romance and - with the help of his eccentric inventor friend Doc Brown - return to 1985.

Dead Poets Society Poster

#12. Dead Poets Society (1989)

★ 8.3/10 13,126 votes

At an elite, old-fashioned boarding school in New England, a passionate English teacher inspires his students to rebel against convention and seize the potential of every day, courting the disdain of the stern headmaster.

Michael Jackson's Thriller Poster

#13. Michael Jackson's Thriller (1983)

★ 8.3/10 808 votes

A night at the movies turns terrifying when Michael and his date are attacked by zombies.

They Don't Wear Black Tie Poster

#14. They Don't Wear Black Tie (1981)

★ 8.3/10 75 votes

Otavio is an idealistic union leader trying to organize workers at a factory to resist the company's exploitative practices. His son, Tião, one of the employees, is more of a realist and doesn't want to risk losing his job by striking. This clash of perspectives puts the father and son at odds. Fortunately, Tião's mother, Romana, is on hand to act as a moderator between the two opinionated men.

Shoah Poster

#15. Shoah (1985)

★ 8.2/10 228 votes

Director Claude Lanzmann spent 11 years on this sprawling documentary about the Holocaust, conducting his own interviews and refusing to use a single frame of archival footage. Dividing Holocaust witnesses into three categories – survivors, bystanders, and perpetrators – Lanzmann presents testimonies from survivors of the Chelmno concentration camp, an Auschwitz escapee, and witnesses of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, as well as a chilling report of gas chambers from an SS officer at Treblinka.

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