10 Most Rewatchable Movies Of The 1980s
VHS tapes we all played to death.
Taste went on hiatus during the 1980s, but that didn't extend to the movie industry. This was an era of renaissance for the popcorn-accompanied blockbuster, a time when the cinematic auteurs of the previous decade took a backseat and directors who put entertainment first stepped up to the plate.
The '80s was also the age of the VHS tape, a new dawn for home entertainment, and as a result filmmakers churned out movies with heaps of rewatch value in the hope that they would become the next must-have cassette.
Many of these films are broadcast endlessly on television, and while you may roll your eyes every time your see them on the programming planner, the temptation to tune in and sit through them from the 100th time is often irresistible.
There are many things that make a movie rewatchable. The smartest comedies are loaded with hidden gags you only notice after a dozen sittings, and some films were integral to our childhoods, a time everyone needs to escape to every now and then.
So many cassette tapes from the '80s were played until they disintegrated, and this bunch were the most compellingly replayable of all.
10. RoboCop
Paul Verhoeven's sci-fi masterpiece RoboCop is worthy of infinite repeat viewings because it satirised the 1980s more effectively than any other movie. It shot capitalism, consumerism and right-wing politics in the head and took a subtle swipe at Hollywood's increasingly action-focused values in the process.
On top of that, Alex Murphy's cybernetically-enhanced comeback is a story of triumph, the tale of a man who returns from oblivion to smite those who put him there, reclaiming a trace of his humanity along the way. The audience revels in his ultimate victory whether witnessing it for the first time, or the fiftieth.
RoboCop is also a movie laden with metaphor, from its prominent Christ symbolism to its shrewd deconstruction of post-modern society, and it takes a number of rewatches to truly appreciate everything Verhoeven has to say.
This movie is more culturally relevant and poignant than a film called RoboCop has any right to be. No matter when you revisit it, its impact barely diminishes.