10. THE YEAR OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY
54 LISTS | 4 TOP SPOTS Peter Weir | 115 mins | Drama/Romance/War Mel Gibson | Sigourney Weaver | Linda Hunt | Bembol Roco
“A conventionally plotted movie, told with a flair that transcends the predictability. Director Peter Weir again proves his enormous style and Mel Gibson and Sigourney Weaver give vitality to roles that might have been played by Clark Gable and Gene Terney in an earlier Hollywood. Linda Hunt is a front-runner for the best supporting actress Oscar.” – Philip Wuntch, Dallas Morning News
9. WARGAMES
58 LISTS | 1 TOP SPOT John Badham | 114 mins | Sci-Fi/Thriller Matthew Broderick | Ally Sheedy | John Wood
“This is a movie that not only anticipated a fad, but may have started one with its almost how-to-do-it lessons on illegally tapping into computers. The movie, though, is wonderful fun, whatever the repercussions. It has excitement, suspense, laughs and — practically a major breakthrough for Hollywood, at least in recent times — it depicts teen-agers as something better than terminal nerds. It also establishes young Matthew Broderick as an actor worth watching.” – Bill Hagen, San Diego Union-Tribune
8. SILKWOOD
73 LISTS | 1 TOP SPOT Mike Nichols | 131 mins | Biography/Drama/History Meryl Streep | Kurt Russell | Cher
“Mike Nichols resisted easy finger-pointing in telling the story of Karen Silkwood, who blew the whistle on the hazards faced by atomic workers in the Oklahoma factory in which she worked. Her 1974 death in a car crash remains unexplained to this day. Meryl Streep, summoning her considerable resourcefulness, makes Karen Silkwood seem anything but a nuclear Joan of Arc. She’s reckless, impulsive, raunchy, vulnerable, unforgettable. But her bosses don’t drool blood. They’re frightened, pathetic men, too afraid of not meeting their quotas to pay proper attention to safety.” – Jay Carr, Boston Globe
7. ZELIG
92 LISTS | 1 TOP SPOT Woody Allen | 79 mins | Comedy Woody Allen | Mia Farrow | Patrick Horgan
“Wood Allen’s remarkable creation of a fictional character who takes on the surroundings of wherever he finds himself in the real-life Roaring Twenties. Actual footage of such luminaries of the day as Babe Ruth and Scott Fitzgerald is spliced with diabolical wit and cunning, into a pixyish tale of Zelig, the little man who’s always there, and his psychiatrist lover Mia Farrow, who tries to figure out what it’s all about. A brilliant tour de force.” – Richard Freedman, Newhouse News Service
6. LOCAL HERO
95 LISTS | 4 TOP SPOTS Bill Forsyth | 111 mins | Comedy/Drama Burt Lancaster | Peter Riegert | Fulton Mackay
“Bill Forsyth, the Scottish filmmaker who knocked us over with ”Gregory’s Girl,” continues to demonstrate his most original, oddball comedy talents with ”Local Hero.” It’s about an impossibly powerful American oil man, played with loving understatement by Burt Lancaster, and what happens when he decides to buy an impoverished Scottish village. The cast of mostly British actors is superb, but I remember most clearly Denis Lawson, as an innkeeper; Jenny Seagrove, who plays a mermaid, and Peter Riegert, an American actor, who plays Mr. Lancaster’s factotum, an achiever with the soul of a poet.” – Vincent Canby, New York Times
5. TENDER MERCIES
100 LISTS | 6 TOP SPOTS Bruce Beresford | 92 mins | Drama/Music Robert Duvall | Tess Harper | Betty Buckley
“Robert Duvall’s finest performance, as Mac Sledge in “Tender Mercies,” set the quietly dramatic tone for this relatively simple story of a down-and-out country singer trying to put his life back in order. Director Bruce Beresford’s evocation of the independent East Texas spirit, as echoed in the best country music, gave Duvall a rich context in which to explore the loneliness and isolation of a rootless man trying to settle down.” – Michael Blowen, Boston Globe
4. THE RIGHT STUFF
101 LISTS | 10 TOP SPOTS Philip Kaufman | 193 mins | Adventure/Biography/Drama Sam Shepard | Scott Glenn | Ed Harris
“In the weeks before “The Right Stuff” was released last October, there was a lot of discussion about whether the movie would help John Glenn’s presidential candidacy. Maybe what they should have been asking was whether Glenn’s candidacy would hurt the movie. The best film of 1983 never lived up to the box-office expectations of its makers, and the reason might have been widespread confusion over what the movie was about. Here was this thrilling, spectacular story of the first Americans to break the sound barrier and to fly into space, and a lot of teen-agers (the film’s primary target audience) somehow thought it was about the presidential primaries.
That’s too bad. But it doesn’t affect the stature of Philip Kaufman’s movie, which was a daring blend of styles, from social satire to historical reconstruction to flat-out space opera. “The Right Stuff” was not only fun as a movie, it was also thoughtful, building on author Tom Wolfe’s perception that the U.S. space program involved a basic revision of our ideas about heroes. Instead of cowboys who value their independence (like the first test pilots), we got “team players” who were valued for their image.
There was another reason “The Right Stuff” was a milestone. More than any single movie since, perhaps, “The Magnificent Seven,” it serves as a showcase for a new generation of likely male movie stars. Among them were Ed Harris, as John Glenn, Scott Glenn, as Alan Shepard; Dennis Quaid, as Gordon Cooper; Fred Ward, as Gus Grissom, and playwright Sam Shepard, whose performance as test pilot Chuck Yeager continues his series of lone-wolf movie roles.” – Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
3. FANNY AND ALEXANDER
106 LISTS | 9 TOP SPOTS Ingmar Bergman | 188 mins | Drama Bertil Guve | Pernilla Allwin | Kristina Adolphson
“Ingmar Bergman’s “Fanny and Alexander” is the work of a great filmmaker at the peak of his talent. Although his weaknesses are evident in murky symbolism about the existence of God, and there’s some overdone Gothic horror toward the end, there is a rich exuberance and style to this magical, mystical tale of a theater family in a Swedish town in 1907 that few directors can match.” – Judy Stone, San Francisco Chronicle
2. THE BIG CHILL
110 LISTS | 7 TOP SPOTS Lawrence Kasdan | 105 mins | Comedy/Drama Tom Berenger | Glenn Close | Jeff Goldblum
“Inspired ensemble acting and one of the cleverest scripts since his own devilish “Body Heat” made Lawrence Kasdan’s film about a reunion of ‘60s survivors the most ambitious – and most consistently mature – American comedy of the year. (Wood Allen’s “Zelig” was probably No. 2.) The ending was a letdown, it’s true, but most of “Chill” was unfailing absorbing (to this ‘50s survivor, at least). And in its fine-tuned handling of mood in the wake of that problematic opening suicide, the film walked a tightrope between unforced pathos and bright, brittle humor that seemed gratifyingly close to the mark.” – David Baron, New Orleans Times-Picayune
1. TERMS OF ENDEARMENT
145 LISTS | 46 TOP SPOTS James L. Brooks | 132 mins | Comedy/Drama Shirley MacLaine | Debra Winger | Jack Nicholson
“Terms of Endearment catches at the emotions, piques the intellect and strikes sparks from the funny bone. In it, Shirley MacLaine demonstrates the powerful talent she has developed over the years in performing both musical and straight roles as well as the maturing experiences she has stored up and written about. She is the top of a pyramid of praiseworthy performances by Jack Nicholson, Debra Winger, John Lithgow and Jeff Daniels.” – Carole Kass, Richmond Times-Dispatch
Full List:
| R | Film | L | #1 | AR | L% | #1% | TCL | TCL1 | TCL% | TCL1% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Terms of Endearment | 145 | 46 | 2.9 | 74% | 33% | 84 | 23 | 69% | 29% |
| 2 | The Big Chill | 110 | 7 | 4.8 | 56% | 5% | 62 | 3 | 51% | 4% |
| 3 | Fanny and Alexander | 106 | 9 | 4.1 | 54% | 7% | 76 | 9 | 63% | 11% |
| 4 | The Right Stuff | 101 | 10 | 4.8 | 52% | 7% | 64 | 4 | 53% | 5% |
| 5 | Tender Mercies | 100 | 6 | 4.2 | 51% | 4% | 61 | 3 | 50% | 4% |
| 6 | Local Hero | 95 | 4 | 5.3 | 48% | 3% | 64 | 2 | 53% | 3% |
| 7 | Zelig | 92 | 1 | 6.3 | 47% | 1% | 56 | 0 | 46% | 0% |
| 8 | Silkwood | 73 | 1 | 6.6 | 38% | 1% | 53 | 0 | 44% | 0% |
| 9 | War Games | 58 | 1 | 7.1 | 29% | 1% | 28 | 0 | 23% | 0% |
| 10 | The Year of Living Dangerously | 54 | 4 | 6.1 | 27% | 3% | 26 | 2 | 21% | 3% |
| 11 | Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi | 53 | 0 | 6.1 | 27% | 0% | 22 | 0 | 18% | 0% |
| 12 | The Grey Fox | 47 | 1 | 6.4 | 24% | 1% | 26 | 1 | 21% | 1% |
| 13 | The King of Comedy | 43 | 3 | 5.7 | 22% | 2% | 28 | 2 | 23% | 3% |
| 14 | Risky Business | 43 | 0 | 6.3 | 22% | 0% | 22 | 0 | 18% | 0% |
| 15 | Never Cry Wolf | 42 | 0 | 5.4 | 22% | 0% | 28 | 0 | 23% | 0% |
| 16 | The Return of Martin Guerre | 42 | 1 | 5.7 | 21% | 1% | 27 | 0 | 22% | 0% |
| 17 | Under Fire | 38 | 0 | 6.5 | 19% | 0% | 20 | 0 | 17% | 0% |
| 18 | The Night of the Shooting Stars | 38 | 9 | 2.5 | 19% | 6% | 32 | 7 | 26% | 9% |
| 19 | Betrayal | 38 | 4 | 4.5 | 19% | 3% | 30 | 3 | 25% | 4% |
| 20 | The Dresser | 34 | 0 | 5.6 | 18% | 0% | 24 | 0 | 20% | 0% |
| 21 | Educating Rita | 34 | 1 | 6.1 | 17% | 1% | 16 | 0 | 13% | 0% |
| 22 | Yentl | 29 | 0 | 6.8 | 15% | 0% | 20 | 0 | 17% | 0% |
| 23 | Trading Places | 22 | 0 | 7.3 | 11% | 0% | 9 | 0 | 7% | 0% |
| 24 | Testament | 21 | 0 | 5.6 | 11% | 0% | 16 | 0 | 13% | 0% |
| 25 | Berlin Alexanderplatz | 19 | 8 | 2.6 | 10% | 7% | 17 | 8 | 14% | 10% |
| 26 | Star 80 | 19 | 1 | 4.9 | 10% | 1% | 14 | 1 | 12% | 1% |
| 27 | Rear Window | 18 | 2 | 3.5 | 9% | 2% | 12 | 1 | 10% | 1% |
| 28 | La Traviata | 18 | 0 | 5.8 | 9% | 0% | 12 | 0 | 10% | 0% |
| 29 | Pauline at the Beach | 16 | 0 | 6.5 | 8% | 0% | 14 | 0 | 12% | 0% |
| 30 | Say Amen, Somebody | 16 | 0 | 6.7 | 8% | 0% | 11 | 0 | 9% | 0% |
| 31 | Heart Like a Wheel | 15 | 0 | 7.3 | 8% | 0% | 11 | 0 | 9% | 0% |
| 32 | Rumble Fish | 13 | 1 | 5.5 | 7% | 1% | 5 | 1 | 4% | 1% |
| 33 | Scarface | 13 | 1 | 5.8 | 7% | 1% | 5 | 0 | 4% | 0% |
| 34 | Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence | 13 | 2 | 3.8 | 7% | 1% | 9 | 2 | 7% | 3% |
| 35 | Carmen (Saura) | 12 | 0 | 5.4 | 6% | 0% | 9 | 0 | 7% | 0% |
| 36 | Without a Trace | 12 | 1 | 7.1 | 6% | 1% | 7 | 1 | 6% | 1% |
| 37 | Danton | 12 | 0 | 7.6 | 6% | 0% | 9 | 0 | 7% | 0% |
| 37 | Monty Python's The Meaning of Life | 12 | 0 | 6.4 | 6% | 0% | 6 | 0 | 5% | 0% |
| 37 | A Christmas Story | 12 | 0 | 7.0 | 6% | 0% | 5 | 0 | 4% | 0% |
| 37 | Baby, It's You | 12 | 0 | 7.0 | 6% | 0% | 9 | 0 | 7% | 0% |
| 41 | All the Right Moves | 11 | 0 | 8.7 | 6% | 0% | 4 | 0 | 3% | 0% |
| 42 | The Draughtsman's Contract | 10 | 1 | 5.3 | 5% | 1% | 8 | 0 | 7% | 0% |
| 43 | Flashdance | 10 | 0 | 7.6 | 5% | 0% | 7 | 0 | 6% | 0% |
| 43 | The Dead Zone | 10 | 0 | 7.8 | 5% | 0% | 5 | 0 | 4% | 0% |
Lists Included 197 | Top Critics’ Lists Included 121
R Rank
L Total number of lists where the film was selected as one of the top 10 films of the year
AR Average position on ranked top 10 lists
#1 Total number of lists where the film was selected as the best film of the year
L% Percentage of total lists where the film was selected as one of the top 10 films of the year
#1% Percentage of mentions where the film was selected as the best film of the year
TCL Number of times that the film was selected as one of the top 10 films of the year on top critics’ lists
TCL1 Number of times that the film was selected as the best film of the year on top critics’ lists
TCL% Percentage of times that the film was selected as one of the top 10 films of the year on top critics’ lists
TCL1% Percentage of lists where the film was selected as the best film of the year on top critics’ lists