The Right Stuff
Directed by Philip Kaufman
1983
It answers the only question that matters about the space race, which is why anyone would climb in: test pilots, astronauts, and the real Chuck Yeager tending bar in a cameo.
★ 7.1
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1983
Showing 11 films from 1983
The King of Comedy
Directed by Martin Scorsese
1983
It flopped and now looks like prophecy: De Niro plays a man who believes fame is owed to him, and Scorsese refuses to let you laugh comfortably.
★ 6.9
Scarface
Directed by Brian De Palma
1983
No film has been quoted by more rappers: De Palma and Stone made a Miami cocaine epic so excessive that it turned into a genuine American myth.
★ 6.9
Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
Directed by Richard Marquand
1983
The trilogy sticks its landing: the speeder chase through Endor still moves better than most digital work made since, and the whole climax runs on puppets, models and matte paintings.
★ 6.6
The Big Chill
Directed by Lawrence Kasdan
1983
The soundtrack went platinum six times over and defined how a generation wanted to remember itself: old college friends reassemble for a funeral and spend the weekend auditing what they became.
★ 5.9
Trading Places
Directed by John Landis
1983
A regulation passed in 2010 is nicknamed after this film: two rich brothers bet a dollar on whether a broker and a hustler can swap lives, and Eddie Murphy runs away with it.
★ 5.4
Terms of Endearment
Directed by James L. Brooks
1983
A mother and daughter argue on the telephone across three decades, and James L. Brooks makes it enormous: nobody else has moved this fluently between a joke and a gut punch.
★ 5.4
A Christmas Story
Directed by Bob Clark
1983
American television runs it for twenty-four straight hours every Christmas: Jean Shepherd narrates his own childhood, and it is honest enough about children to stay genuinely funny.
★ 4.8
Risky Business
Directed by Paul Brickman
1983
Tom Cruise became a movie star in one scene in his underwear: Tangerine Dream scores a suburban comedy that is much colder and stranger than its reputation suggests.
★ 4.7
The Outsiders
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
1983
Coppola cast almost every young male star of the coming decade before any of them were famous: Tom Cruise, Patrick Swayze, Matt Dillon and Rob Lowe, filmed in Tulsa like a fever dream.
★ 3.9
Tender Mercies
Directed by Bruce Beresford
1983
Robert Duvall wrote and sang his own songs, then took Best Actor for the quietest work of his life: a broken country singer stops drinking at a Texas motel and stays.
★ 2.8