In the spirit of Oscar week and with my obsession with the 80's, I have decided to go back and look at how the Academy Awards honored (or failed to honor) the classic films of the 80's generation. Now I am not talking about just movies that happen to have been released between 1980 and 1989, but those films that I truly identify as "80's movies." What I found was that there was very little Oscar representation by true 80's movies which is not all that surprising. I will go year by year and call any interesting awards and/or nominations out as we go.
1980 - The only film worth mentioning in this year is The Empire Strikes Back. Though considered much, much more than just an 80's film, my memories still take me back to that decade. This movie won the Oscar for Sound and received a Special Achievement Award for Visual Effects. It was also nominated for Art Direction and Original Score.
1981 - Again not necessarily thought of as an 80's movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark is the only film that comes close for me. This movie won the Oscar for Sound, Visual Effects, Film Editing and Art Direction plus received a Special Achievement Award for Sound Effects Editing. It was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Cinematography and Original Score.
1982 - Now we start to get a couple more classic 80's films show up. Rocky III received a nomination for Original Song with "Eye of the Tiger." Tron received nominations for Sound and Costume Design. ET: The Extra Terrestrial won Oscars for Sound, Visual Effects, Sound Effects Editing and Original Score while also being nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Cinematography and Film Editing.
1983 - Return of the Jedi received a Special Achievement Award for Visual Effects while also being nominated for Art Direction, Original Score and Sound. Flashdance won the Oscar for Best Original Song with "Flashdance...What a Feeling" by Irene Cara. It also received another nomination for Best Original Song with "Maniac" as well as Cinematography and Film Editing. War Games did not win any awards, but was nominated for Best Original Screenplay, Cinematography and Sound.
1984 - Prince's Purple Rain won an Oscar for Original Song Score yet was not even nominated for Best Original Song. Pat Morita was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role as "Mr. Miyagi" in The Karate Kid. Footloose received a Best Original Song nomination for both "Footloose" and "Let's Hear it For the Boy." Ghostbusters received nominations for Best Original Song and Visual Effects. Romancing the Stone received a nomination for Film Editing. Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom won an Oscar for Visual Effects and was also nominated for Original Score. Impressively, both Beverly Hills Cop and Splash received nominations for Best Original Screenplay.
1985 - This year did not produce very much. Don Ameche won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for Cocoon which also won for Visual Effects. Back to the Future won the Oscar for Sound Effects Editing and also received nominations for Best Original Screenplay, Sound and Best Original Song for "The Power of Love" by Huey Lewis & the News.
1986 - Top Gun won the Oscar for Best Original Song with Berlin's "Take My Breath Away" while also receiving nominations for Film Editing, Sound and Sound Effects Editing. The Karate Kid Part II received a Best Original Song nomination for "Glory of Love" by Peter Cetera. Crocodile Dundee surprisingly was nominated for Best Original Screenplay. Stand By Me only was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay, but somehow lost to A Room With a View.
1987 - The next two years would have several nominations. Dirty Dancing won the Oscar for Best Original Song with "(I've Had) The Time of My Life." Michael Douglas won the Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his "Gordon Gekko" in Wall Street. Moonstruck won the Oscar for Best Actress in Leading Role (Cher), Best Supporting Actress (Olympia Dukakis) and Best Original Screenplay. It was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Supporting Actor. RoboCop received a Special Achievement Award for Sound Effects Editing while also being nominated for Film Editing and Sound. Beverly Hills Cop II's "Shakedown" was nominated for Best Original Song as was "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" from Mannequin. Throw Momma From the Train received a Best Supporting Actress nomination for Anne Ramsey. Fatal Attraction received nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actress in a Leading Role as well as Best Supporting Actress, but failed to win any of them.
1988 - Rain Man won the Oscar for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Dustin Hoffman won for Best Actor in a Leading Role. It was also nominated for Art Direction, Cinematography, Film Editing and Original Score. As mentioned in my last issue, Kevin Kline was awarded the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role in A Fish Called Wanda which also received nominations for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. Who Framed Roger Rabbit won Oscars for Film Editing, Visual Effects and Sound Effects Editing while also receiving nominations for Art Direction, Cinematography and Sound. Tom Hanks was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role for Big which was also nominated for Best Original Screenplay. Coming to America received nominations for Costume Design and Makeup. Die Hard received nominations for Film Editing, Sound, Visual Effects and Sound Effects Editing. Beetlejuice was nominated for Makeup. Bull Durham received a nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Working Girl received nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress in a Leading Role (Melanie Griffith), two for Best Supporting Actress (Joan Cusack and Sigourney Weaver) and Best Original Song, but like Fatal Attraction the year before did not win a single one.

So many amazing movie memories during this decade, yet so little critical recognition. I am not going to include 1989 because that really began a transition into the 90's. As you can see, there were not a lot of true classic 80's movies represented. Many of the films listed above are probably not even considered in that category, but these are the movies I felt were close enough. With all of the incredible music, I am really surprised that there were not more nominations and wins for Best Original Song during the 80's. Based on this lack of Oscar credit, I decided to create my own set of awards to present to the classic 80's flicks. Tune in tomorrow to see who gets my nominations and which categories I have come up with to honor. It should be fun especially for you 80's fans.

That will wrap up this issue of Kickin' it. Like I said, tomorrow will be the Old School 80s Movie Awards, so make sure you check back to see those. Thank you for reading and be sure to click on the Archives to make sure you have not missed a single issue of Kickin' it Old School. Peace and much love.

Check this out: Here is some more interesting trivia...

>More than half of the coastline of the entire United States is in Alaska.

>Amazon: The Amazon River pushes so much water into the Atlantic Ocean that, more than one hundred miles at sea off the mouth of the river, one can dip fresh water out of the ocean. Also, the volume of water in the Amazon river is greater than the next eight largest rivers in the world combined and three times the flow of all rivers in the United States.

>Brazil: Brazil got its name from the nut, not the other way around.

>Canada: Canada has more lakes than the rest of the world combined.

>Ohio: There are no natural lakes in the state of Ohio, every one is manmade.

>Antarctica: Antarctica is the only land on our planet that is not owned by any country. Ninety percent of the world's ice covers Antarctica. This ice also represents 70% of all the fresh water in the world. However, Antarctica is essentially a desert. The average yearly total precipitation is about two inches. Although covered with ice, Antarctica is the driest place on the planet, with an absolute humidity lower than the Gobi desert.

>Damascus, Syria: Damascus was flourishing a couple of thousand years before Rome was founded in 753 BC, making it the oldest continuously inhabited city in existence.

>Rome, Italy: The first city to reach a population of 1 million people was Rome, in 133 B.C. There is a city called Rome on every continent.

>Siberia: Siberia contains more than 25% of the world's forests.

>Sahara Desert: In the Sahara Desert, there is a town named Tidikelt, which did not receive a drop of rain for ten years. Technically though, the driest place on Earth is in the valleys of the Antarctic near Ross Island. There has been no rainfall there for two million years.

Quote of the day: "If you think you're too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito in the room." -Anita Roddick

Download this: "Don't Dream It's Over" by Crowded House - Classic 80's tune that still holds up amazing today