There are a few decades in film history that have been as scrutinized as the 1980s, but to really understand the decade and its movies, it's going to take a couple of someone's who were there for it the first time around.

Drew McQueenie and Scott Weinberg are ready to review every major film of the decade, one month at a time. The look at what worked then, what endoers now, and how it felt to be there when it all went down. Turn back the calendar with us. It's the 80s all over. I'm gonna have to go back to the hotel.

I'm gonna have to go back to the hotel.

I'm gonna have to go back to the hotel. It's the 80s all over. The very first United Negro College fund was established. Bob Marley gave his final concert at the Stanley Theater in Pittsburgh. Chevy Chase famously called Kerry Grant a homo on the tomorrow show and got sued for it. The Big Thunder Mountain Railroad opened a Disneyland in Carl Sagan's Cosmos premiered on PBS. What happens in the first second of the next cosmic year depends on what we do here and now with our intelligence and our knowledge of the cosmos. Yet somehow we found time for the movies of a release in September of 1980. Hi everybody, welcome to 80s all over. I'm Drew McQueenie as always,

and I'm joined by my co-host, Scott Weinberg. Hi, I'm Scott Weinberg. How did I not know that about Chevy? He called Cari Grant a homo. I looked it up, and he played it off later as a joke, where he said, no, I was going to say homeowner. Yeah, he tried to play it down, but he meant it when when he said it the first time it was uh... it was kind of a big deal and

he did he got sued shitless by carry grand over it

uh... chevy say, homeowner. Yeah, he tried to play it down, but he meant it when he said it the first time. It was, uh, it was kind of a big deal. And he did. He got sued shitless by carry

grant over it. Oh, Chevy. I know. That was back when Chevy was that guy when he was just

nothing but trouble, man. So good news. No mistakes this month. We are not correcting any

mistakes. So no boners, no boners, we should have a song. Yes, we have no boners no boners we should have a song yes we have no boners this week but we do have a great list yeah Drew why don't you jump right in and start us off with a memorable and somewhat controversial Woody Allen film this was actually the first Woody Allen film I saw theatricallyically and it's called Star Dust Memories. Did anybody read on a front page of the Times that Matter is decaying? Am I the only one that saw that? The universe is gradually breaking down. It's not going to be anything left. I'm not talking about my stupid little films here. Charlotte Ramping. I'm a nobody with one life part. I manage to impress you just by sitting around and be doing shopping. Yeah, the understanding is not what I can fate my way through my situations. I gotta you, I'm fakingly attracted to you, so don't blow it. It was a major turning point. I think he was going through an evolution as a filmmaker and he had certainly pushed against the boundaries of what people thought of as a Woody Allen film by now. But with start-up memories, this is his Filini movie. This is him doing eight and a half. a movie about himself as a filmmaker, but also his relationship with his work and with his audience. The basic premises, a filmmaker attends a retrospective of his movies. And while he's there, he's sort of going backwards and forwards in time, remembering the actresses he was with and the people that were with him on the films and the production of them, throughout the film, there's a refrain that everybody keeps saying to him,

oh, I really liked your early funny work.

And I think this is that moment where Woody was wrestling with the fact that he wanted to be something more than that. Obviously as a kid, I liked Silly Woody Allen. I didn't get interiors. I didn't get this so much. I mean, this is still a comedy, but it's a dry kind of acidic comedy and I was more into everything you always wanted to know about sex and even

any haul has some very good silly bits. I was surprised to remember that I loved Annie Hall even as like a 10-year-old. That's not a movie for 10-year-olds. But start off memories I dug into in my 20s because back in the day, there was almost a backlash against this movie as if Woody Allen was talking shit about his fans. It is kind of an indictment of fan culture in a way. But I think it's also just as an artist, it's wrestling with the sense that I think Woody Allen loves early funny Woody Allen. I mean, those are terrific movies and there's certainly nothing to be ashamed of. You look at Love and Death, which I, that's my personal favorite of the comedy comedy. That's so funny. I love love and death. And even as a kid, I knew I didn't get half the references. I didn't get the Bergman. I didn't get the Dust Toyevsky. I didn't understand any of that stuff as a kid, but there is still so much broad, accessible silly stuff in love and death. It's a Mark's Brothers film. And I think he must love and respect those movies. This is that moment where you see him really openly wrestling with it, and I think he does it in the right way. I think that clearly by the end of this film, he has made peace with the fact that both of those filmmakers that he's talking about are him, the funny one and the more serious one, and I don't think there's ever a moment later in his career where he was one or the other, he continued to go back and forth and I think that was him making peace with the idea that both of those were who he is. And there is never enough Jessica Harper on film. Yeah, she's great. And what I like about the movie is that it does take swipes at the audience. As if to say, yeah, I make movies. I'm not always going to make the kind of movies that you love. I might make something that is very serious. I might make something that's very broad and silly. And why do I have to be pigeonholed? You can't blame a filmmaker for like expanding their horizons. And then only a guy like Woody Allen, or very few filmmakers, would have to make a movie about that transition. And that's what I think makes Stardust memories fascinating is that it's clearly about him in transition. Well, and it's got a lot of his familiar faces as well as people that he didn't work with often. I love Charlotte rambling in this. I think Tony Roberts who was kind of, he was the Jeffrey Lewis to Woody Allen's Clint Eastwood there for a while. He was his sidekick. I love Tony Roberts, coolest voice ever. If you really want to get into his career, I would consider this a pivotal movie that you kind of have to get your head around because it's for him. It was a huge, huge moment and certainly it still holds up. Underrated Woody Allen film, really of that era. You know, people will talk about Manhattan and Annie Hall

and blah, this one is highly underrated. Our next film, pure would it be okay if we call this the, you must see it for the one month, is that okay? Yes, this is the one that holds up, this is the one that is worth tracking down. If you dig up anything from this episode of 80s All Overs, We implore you to make it Tony Bill's touching, beautiful, honest, and funny My Bodyguard. You're dead to sure. My Bodyguard, but crazy idea. I like you to meet my Bodyguard. Anything you want to say to me, talk to him first. That led to a great friendship. This is a story of hallway horror. mayhem after math class, and the most important lesson you can learn out of school. That strength has nothing to do with science and everything to do with courage. One of them was short. One of them was strange. Together they were absolutely unbeatable. bodyguard. I adore this movie. I think first of all it's such an eccentric moment in the career of screenwriter Alan Ormesby. You know, Alan's early work was defined more by horror. Children shouldn't play with dead things. He wrote the cat people with Paul Schrader. He came out of that world. So my bodyguard is this left turn for him and is so well written and so well crafted and very much a 70s movie all the way down the line. Like for the way it's cast, the way it's directed, the way the humor works, it's got a heart, and yet it's a really simple hook of an idea. Chris Makepiece is a sensitive high school student who is being bullied by the evil Matt Dylan. So he hires the hulking Adam Baldwin to be his bodyguard. They strike up a tentative friendship, but then it goes off in a couple of darker directions that you might not expect, but then it kind of comes back. It has a great turn by Ruth Gordon. It has a couple of great moments from Martin Mall as Chris make pieces father. And it is just a joy. For my money, my bodyguard is one of the best movies of the year. I would agree with you.

I think it's one of those movies that when you walk into it, it does not seem like that's going to be a movie that would read to everybody the same way, but this is not a movie just 14-Agers. It is a great film about how you view other people and what merit they have and what worth they have. the way Adam Baldwin's characters played in this film, the way they peel him back.

I love that he's an urban legend before he shows up. Like they tell rumors of Ricky Linderman and there's the story of what he did and everything about him is this sort of mysterious, larger than life presence before he even really becomes a character. You think it's gonna be a movie about Chris Makepiece at his bully, Matt Dillon. And then you start to realize that, hey, this big hulking guy that you thought you just hired his muscle, he's a person too. Like just because you're the victim in a bullying incident, you're not the only human being in this equation. And they get into the idea that there's sort of a using going on. And I liked it. At no point is it an easy relationship between them. It's not a simple

transaction. It's not really a friendship. And the complicated way that continues to try to

define itself is better written than a lot of what we see right now in film. Now you're making me want. I haven't seen it in probably two years. And I'm just like, I would now I want to watch it again. I showed it to the boys and oh yeah what do your boys think of this? It's it's huge and it

helps that Chris make peace. I showed the meatballs already for any of us who grew up in the early

80s Chris make peace looked like the meatballs already for any of us who grew up in the early 80s

Chris make peace looked like he was gonna be a giant star It looked like he was gonna be a guy we saw for the next 25 years and he always looks like he's gonna cry and he was Such a great presence as a kid like that those early films and the way they cast him in this and in meatballs he is the reason that the films work in large part.

Like there's something about him that is so vulnerable and interesting.

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