The 10 Best ’80s Drama Films

When someone mentions the cinema of the 1980s as a peculiar and essential part of film history, they commonly refer to the more bombastic films that characterized the decade and made it an iconic era. Spielberg became the most important storyteller in the world, horror was capitalized upon through franchises, and home media became a reality. However, shouldn’t drama as a genre play a valid role in the conversation?

In the 1980s, drama features were mostly mistaken for being too artsy and non-commercial. If we look back in time, the ’80s seem to be a bit of a slump for dramatic and sober films that were mostly only heard about during award seasons. To remedy this, we jumped on the DeLorean, took a trip back in time, and dug around the bins to find the best drama films from the 1980s.

10 Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980)

Michael Apted’s Coal Miner’s Daughter follows the life of country music singer Loretta Lynn, starting from when she was a teenage girl in a poverty-stricken family. Her father, Ted Webb, is a coal miner raising eight children in Butcher Hollow, and Loretta sees her only way out is to begin a family of her own when she’s a minor. Married at the age of 15, and a mother of four by 19, Loretta becomes a music sensation after singing in honky-tonk bars. The rest is music history.

One of the Best Biographies in Cinema History

Coal Miner’s Daughter is an extremely honest biography based on the memoir by Lynn herself. It doesn’t pull any punches when depicting the harsh relationship between the singer and Doolittle (it was very abusive, outside of the whole “marrying a minor” fact) and Lynn’s eventual stardom.

It was nominated for seven Academy Awards, with Sissy Spacek taking the Best Actress award that night for the lead role. It’s still regarded as an underrated biopic that stands above other musical biographies based on the same old formula about stardom being too much to bear.

9 Once Upon a Time in America (1984)

Based on Harry Grey’s book, The Hoods, Once Upon a Time in America tells the stories of Noodles and Max, two street kids living in the Lower East Side. When they blackmail a police officer, they become best friends and form a gang of their own.

Eventually, growing up in an underworld where laws are broken as religion turns them into full-blown gangsters in New York’s sphere of organized crime. This is the most underrated crime epic that often gets put in second place when compared to The Godfather.

The Best Crime Drama of the 1980s

Directed by Sergio Leone in his final work as a director, Once Upon a Time in America stars Robert De Niro and James Woods as Noodles and Max. Originally made as a six-hour epic, the film suffered through many cuts and editions before it saw its well-deserved release.

But in 1984, it was a commercial flop that Warner Bros. forgot about quickly, not even campaigning for it at the Academy Awards. If you decide to watch it, stay away from the theatrical version of 139 minutes and instead try to find the original 269-minute cut. It’s well worth your time.

8 Fanny and Alexander (1982)

Fanny and Alexander, Ingmar Bergman’s exceptional period drama, follows two siblings as they deal with the horrible loss of their father. The year is 1907, and Emilie, Fanny, and Alexander’s mother decide to remarry. She chooses a local bishop by the name of Edvard. As he becomes the children’s stepfather, Edvard decides to lock the siblings in their bedroom and becomes an abusive man. When Emilie finds out about the man she took to care of them, it will be too late.

A Poignant Family Drama That Will Never Leave Your Mind

Bergman’s film is semi-autobiographical and was intended to be his final feature. Because of this, he went all in with creative control, resulting in a 312-minute cut that many believe is one of the longest films in history. The great thing about all the editions is that they all work to some point. Weirdly, it’s also a very uplifting film that will make you think about your very own family dynamics.

It was nominated for six Academy Awards and won four of them. You will find a perfect score for it on Rotten Tomatoes, and it’s one of the highest-rated 1980s films in all review aggregators. You can stream Fanny and Alexander on Max.

7 The Right Stuff (1983)

Philip Kaufman’s The Right Stuff takes audiences back to 1957, when the Soviets were able to launch Sputnik. The United States Government recruits test pilots to train them as astronauts to participate in Project Mercury, the first human spaceflight program that NASA created. The film is told from the perspective of the test pilots who were brave enough to participate in a program that existed for political reasons and where science was secondary.

American History Exceptionally Done

Based on the book of the same name by Tom Wolfe, The Right Stuff was a Warner Bros. bomb that didn’t make a dent at the box office in 1983. However, it’s still one of the best sci-fi films of the 1980s without the adventure and fantasy elements that characterized the more prominent films of the decade (it was released the same year as Return of the Jedi). Nevertheless, critics loved it and the film’s title was mentioned eight times at the Oscars, and it won four Academy Awards.

6 Testament (1983)

Testament follows the Wetherly family, who live in a California suburb. The father works in San Francisco, and on a regular work day, he’s expected to come home for dinner. Suddenly, the TV shows are interrupted by an emergency broadcast. Nuclear bombs have blown up, and when the family tries to hide, a flashing light floods their home.

What follows is their struggle for survival, as all communications are dead, no one knows what’s going on, and bodies start dropping one by one. Yes, this sounds like a horror movie, but we assure you it’s not.

A Horrific Testimony That Will Break Your Heart

The 1983 film, by Lynne Littman is one of the bleakest drama experiences of the 1980s. Testament followed along the lines of films like Threads, which showed what the world would turn to in a nuclear disaster.

While the other films are more graphic in essence, Testament is a pure drama told from the perspective of a mother trying to hold everything together, even when her children start dying slowly. Jane Alexander was nominated for an Academy Award for her very realistic performance. You can stream Testament on Kanopy.

5 Amadeus (1984)

Amadeus takes viewers to the prime era of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the prodigious but poorly-behaved composer living in Vienna in the late 1700s. It depicts Antonio Salieri’s confession of murdering Mozart out of spite and envy, and the film follows their entire relationship.

Salieri, a court composer, idolizes Mozart but is disappointed at the virtuoso’s inability to behave normally. Ultimately, Salieri can’t understand how God would provide Mozart with such a gift, and the film expands on the theory of the murder.

The Fascinating Depiction of Sin

Miloš Forman’s direction of Peter Shaffer’s script is a fascinating film that perfectly portrays dynamics slightly described in history books. It’s entirely fictional, but it’s a period drama that doesn’t have to be historically accurate to be interesting and realistic.

In fact, it was so effective as a historical approach that many now believe this is the official version of the events. It was critically acclaimed and won eight Oscars (including Best Picture and Best Director) out of the ten it was nominated for. In terms of biopics that ruled at the Oscars, this is one of the best.

4 Do the Right Thing (1989)

Spike Lee’s exceptional drama Do the Right Thing follows the collision between the African-American and Italian-American communities on a very hot summer in Brooklyn. Told from the perspective of Mookie, a pizza delivery guy with his own issues to handle, Do the Right Thing is a perfect portrayal of how racism poisons social dynamics to the point of an inevitable explosion in a very hostile environment.

Do the Right Thing is Still Relevant as Ever

Truly one of the films that best portrays New York’s culture, Do the Right Thing was the film that put Spike Lee on the map as a visionary storyteller that didn’t only make Black comedies. His commentary through film was strong enough to make the film divisive and incendiary between those who didn’t agree with his views. It was nominated for two Academy Awards and critics still hail as one of the most important films of the 1980s.

3 Cinema Paradiso (1988)

Cinema Paradiso (also known as Nuovo Cinema Paradiso) follows the lives of Salvatore and Alfredo, a boy and a projectionist living in a small town in Sicily in the aftermath of World War II.

Salvatore, or Toto, as most people call him, is fascinated with films, and Alfredo understands him and teaches him to project films. As years pass and tragedy strikes, they both part ways. But ultimately, the natural course of life will be secondary to their passion for the big screen.

A Love Letter to Cinema Itself

One of the most beautiful films about the act of admiring cinema as an experience, Cinema Paradiso, was Giuseppe Tornatore’s groundbreaking film that saw Italy’s film industry immediately grow after the positive reception. It won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and its ending is a heartwarming experience that will make you believe in the power of legacy and films and will make you shed a few tears.

Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket follows a group of Marines going through intensive training in a boot camp location in South Carolina under the leadership of a loud and abusive instructor. As they eventually head to Vietnam, they’re shown as mindless products of a system where they’re trained to kill and nothing else.

Told from the perspective of “Joker,” the film is a jarring depiction of military cynicism as seen by a filmmaker whose takes on the theme were always non-traditional.

Stanley Kubrick’s Modern Take on the Concept of War

The film is a war drama, as seen by a modern Kubrick, who wasn’t afraid to add his commentaries in the form of satire and dark comedy. However, there’s nothing funny about its bleak portrayal of military culture. It was nominated for an Academy Award, and it features the great Vincent D’Onofrio in one of his best performances ever. The critical acclaim was proportional to one of Kubrick’s best box office performances.

1 Stand By Me (1986)

Stand By Me tells the stories of Gordie, Vern, Chris, and Teddy as they go on the mission of a lifetime in 1959. They hear a boy has gone missing, and they embark on a journey to find the body and become local heroes. It’s a beautiful coming-of-age drama that mixes themes of maturity, teenage issues, and Gordie’s own inability to cope with death.

A Perfect Coming-of-Age Film

Based on Stephen King’s novella The Body, and one of the best adaptation of his works, Stand By Me is a Rob Reiner joint with enough spirit and wit to make you forget everything else for a couple of hours.

It was nominated for an Academy Award and is widely considered to be one of the films that defined the 1980s, a decade when all films tended to be gigantic and ambitious. Reiner’s heartwarming adventure will fill your heart upon every rewatch.