Best Movies of 1984

9. The Cotton Club

40 LISTS | 1 TOP SPOT
Francis Ford Coppola | 129 mins | Crime/Drama/Music
Richard Gere | Gregory Hines | Diane Lane

“- It cost too much ($47 million) and yes, it does appear patched together, but Francis Coppola’s curious, furious fusion of gangster epic and eye-popping dance make for a highly entertaining film. Coppola got one of Richard Gere’s best performances, and created two of the year’s more unforgettable characters in those played by Gregory and Maurice Hines.” – Pat Taggart, Cox News Service

9. COUNTRY

Country

40 LISTS | 1 TOP SPOT
Richard Pearce | 105 mins | Drama
Jessica Lange | Sam Shepard | Wilford Brimley

“Sometimes the things that are most deeply felt need the least explanation, as the drama of small, independent farmers battling foreclosures on their properties illustrated. Beautifully acted by Jessica Lange and Sam Shepard, the film reached for the heart and achieved its mark.” – Joyce J. Persico, Trenton Sunday Times

8. THIS IS SPINAL TAP

This is Spinal Tap

41 LISTS | 0 TOP SPOTS
Rob Reiner | 84 mins | Comedy/Music
Rob Reiner | Michael McKean | Christopher Guest

“The most inventive film of the year would have to be Rob Reiner’s caustic satire, This Is Spinal Tap. Told in the form of a “rockumentary” about a fictitious British heavy-metal band in its declining years, it’s a scathing sendup of one pompous rock cliche after another.” – Rick Lyman, Philadelphia Inquirer

7. BROADWAY DANNY ROSE

Broadway Danny Rose

43 LISTS | 1 TOP SPOT
Woody Allen | 84 mins | Comedy
Woody Allen | Mia Farrow | Nick Apollo Forte

“Woody Allen working in miniature — nothing cosmic here — and at the top of his craft. Here’s Danny Rose (played by Allen), agent to has-beens in the making: He handles the woman who plays water-filled wine glasses, the couple who make balloon animals (“You should open with the dachshund and build to the giraffe”) and the man with the ice- skating penguin dressed as a rabbi. And here’s Tina Vitale (Mia Farrow), a gal from New Jersey with sights set so low that when she calls another woman “a cheap blonde” you can hear the envy in her voice. Naturally, it’s a love story — Woody Allen is always at his best when he’s in love — with the mob, bad comedians and worse lounge acts in close support. No self- examination, no big therapy gags in this one. Allen wasn’t out to prove a point, just to have a good time. A reminder that Allen can make pure entertainment any time he wants.” – Bill Cosford, Miami Herald

6. A SUNDAY IN THE COUNTRY

A Sunday in the Country

46 LISTS | 3 TOP SPOTS
Bertrand Tavernier | 90 mins | Drama
Louis Ducreux | Michel Aumont | Sabine Azéma

“Everyone’s heard of Jean Renoir, but who recalls the likes of this beguiling French movie’s fictional Monsieur Ladmiral, the French Impressionist who didn’t make the grade? Director Bertrand Tavernier details his spiritual plight when, in the autumn of his life, his very different son and daughter visit him at his country estate. The result is utterly lovely and loving.” – Roy Proctor, Richmond Times-Dispatch

5. A PASSAGE TO INDIA

A Passage to India

55 LISTS | 8 TOP SPOTS
David Lean | 164 mins | Adventure/Drama/History
Judy Davis | Victor Banerjee | Peggy Ashcroft

“Fourteen years after the fiasco of ”Ryan’s Daughter,” director-writer David Lean has made a brilliant comeback with this literate, pictorially grand, sometimes stately screen adaptation of the classic E. M. Forster novel, about a nasty confrontation between East and West in British India in the early 1920’s. The film, like the novel, has an appreciation for the kind of narrative drive, vivid characters and events that one rarely sees any more. The splendid cast is headed by Victor Banerjee, as a young, earnest Indian doctor whose life is almost wrecked by some well-meaning English tourists; Judy Davis, the Australian actress (”My Brilliant Career”), as the instrument of the doctor’s torture, and Peggy Ashcroft, the great English dame who plays Forster’s most winning – and mysterious – character, Mrs. Moore. Though the physical scale of the film is huge, the intimate aspects of the story never get lost in all of the exotic scenery, as happened with Mr. Lean’s ”Doctor Zhivago.” ”A Passage to India” is the best thing Mr. Lean has done since ”The Bridge on the River Kwai” and ”Lawrence of Arabia.”” – Vincent Canby, New York Times

4. THE KILLING FIELDS

The Killing Fields

74 LISTS | 10 TOP SPOTS
Roland Joffé | 141 mins | Biography/Drama/History
Sam Waterston | Haing S. Ngor | John Malkovich

“To be sure, this film which opens in San Antonio in February, gains much of its power from merely presenting the gruesome reality in Cambodia in the mid-1970s, when that nation became little more than a giant death camp in which three million of its seven million inhabitants were killed by Communist-led forces. But beyond that tragedy, “The Killing Fields” is a story of friendship.” – Gene Siskel, Chicago Tribune

3. A SOLDIER’S STORY

A Soldier's Story

79 LISTS | 3 TOP SPOTS
Norman Jewison | 101 mins | Crime/Drama/Mystery
Howard E. Rollins Jr. | Adolph Caesar | Art Evans

“This powerful study about an all-black platoon and how it deals with stateside racism in 1944 was the best Hollywood had to offer in 1984. Directed and produced by Norman Jewison and based on Charles Fuller’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, the film offered crisp, non-cliched dialogue, top-notch ensemble acting and an unforgettable performance by Adolph Caesar as the platoon leader. A Columbia Pictures release.” – Joseph Bensoua, Daily Breeze

2. PLACES IN THE HEART

Places in the Heart

79 LISTS | 10 TOP SPOTS
Robert Benton | 111 mins | Drama
Sally Field | Lindsay Crouse | Ed Harris

“An indication of how good writer-director Robert Benton’s nostalgic and beautiful celebration of the human spirit is may be found in the fact that release of “The River” was rescheduled to avoid conflict with “Places in the Heart,” since the themes are similar.
Sally Field is absolutely brilliant as the Great Depression-era widow desperately struggling to keep her home and family together in small-town Texas. When great screen actresses are being discussed, Field definitely deserves to be included, if not at the top of the list, certainly in the top three.
Not that she labors alone in “Places in the Heart.” The cast has been chosen with great care and wisdom, from the two youngsters who play Field’s children to the remarkable John Malkovich and Danny Glover, Ed Harris, Lindsay Crouse and Amy Madigan.
It’s a touching, deeply moving piece of work, climaxed by Benton’s bold and dazzling epilogue of the American Dream as it might be in a more perfect society. It’s a great movie, an American masterpiece.” – Bill Hagen, San Diego Union-Tribune

1. AMADEUS

Amadeus

100 LISTS | 23 TOP SPOTS
Milos Forman | 160 mins | Biography/Drama/History
F. Murray Abraham | Tom Hulce | Elizabeth Berridge

“This Milos Forman work is a tremendously gorgeous movie celebrating the musical genius of Mozart. It’s also a wonderful drama about man’s relationship with God. F. Murray Abraham, a veteran character actor, is just right as Antonio Salieri, a prominent 18th century composer who confronts Mozart’s music and decides he must destroy this loathsome upstart to protect the general community of artists from being consigned to worthlessness. Tom Hulce, one of the young stars of Animal Hous e, plays Mozart, giving the wild and obscene youth enough charm to make you believe he was selected by God to be His flute on earth. In all respects, Amadeus is one of the all-time great movies.” – George Williams, Sacramento Bee

Full List:

RFilmL#1ARL%#1%TCLTCL1TCL%TCL1%
1Amadeus100232.858%22%34949%21%
2Places in the Heart79104.246%10%26237%5%
3A Soldier's Story7935.446%3%23033%0%
4The Killing Fields74104.142%10%28340%7%
5A Passage to India5584.431%8%22431%10%
6A Sunday in the Country4635.026%3%23333%7%
7Broadway Danny Rose4314.225%1%16123%2%
8This Is Spinal Tap4106.724%0%19027%0%
9The Cotton Club4014.323%1%21030%0%
9Country4015.023%1%609%0%
11Splash3815.922%1%15021%0%
12Choose Me3535.120%3%14020%0%
13Ghostbusters3424.920%2%12217%5%
14El Norte3325.519%2%11016%0%
15Stranger Than Paradise3205.118%0%15021%0%
16The Natural3116.218%1%7010%0%
17Paris, Texas3134.618%3%15121%2%
18Stop Making Sense3106.018%0%14020%0%
19Romancing the Stone2904.817%0%406%0%
20Careful, He Might Hear You2945.017%4%11116%2%
21Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes2815.716%1%12017%0%
22The Gods Must Be Crazy2905.816%0%203%0%
23Bizet's Carmen2805.016%0%12017%0%
24Under the Volcano2625.815%2%9013%0%
25All of Me2607.815%0%12017%0%
26Entre Nous2404.314%0%9013%0%
27Gremlins2307.113%0%8011%0%
28Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom2217.013%1%7010%0%
29Once Upon a Time in America2235.313%3%11316%7%
30Moscow on the Hudson1817.110%1%7110%2%
31Repo Man1815.910%1%8011%0%
32The Karate Kid1706.210%0%507%0%
33L'Argent1643.19%4%10314%7%
34Purple Rain1507.09%0%609%0%
35The Brother From Another Planet1506.69%0%507%0%
36Starman1416.18%1%203%0%
36The Pope of Greenwich Village1415.98%1%304%0%
38Beverly Hills Cop1408.18%0%406%0%
39Tightrope1305.08%0%101%0%
39Racing With the Moon1306.48%0%304%0%
41After the Rehearsal1342.47%4%527%5%
42Comfort and Joy1206.37%0%507%0%
43A Nos Amours1232.77%3%7110%2%
44Birdy1216.07%1%507%0%
4519841224.07%2%527%5%
46A Private Function1207.07%0%7010%0%
47The Ballad of Narayama1114.86%1%619%2%
48Sugar Cane Alley1106.26%0%304%0%
49The Times of Harvey Milk1109.06%0%304%0%
50Secret Honor1106.46%0%10014%0%

Lists Included 173 | Top Critics’ Lists Included 70

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

 

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