cade’s many films about teenagers finds five stu-
dents (Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall,
Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, and Ally Sheedy)
suffering Saturday detention in their school li-
brary.See alsomain entry.
Dreamchild(PHF Limited/Thorn EMI/Universal;
dir. Gavin Millar) Dennis Potter’s imaginative
screenplay has the inspiration forAlice’s Adven-
tures in Wonderland(1865) traveling to 1932 New
York to celebrate the centenary of the birth of
Lewis Carroll (Ian Holm). The film cuts between
the present, the past, and events from the novel.
Coral Browne plays the older Alice and Amelia
Shankley the younger, and Jim Henson designed
the Wonderland creatures.
Kiss of the Spider Woman.
Sugarloaf Films; dir. Hector Babenco) A political
prisoner (Raul Julia) and a homosexual (William
Hurt) share a prison cell in this adaptation of
Manuel Puig’s 1976 novel. Hurt won an Oscar for
his sensitive performance.See alsomain entry.
Lost in America(Geffen Pictures/Warner Bros.;
dir. Albert Brooks) Los Angeles yuppies David
(Brooks) and Linda (Julie Hagerty) sell every-
thing they own and hit the road to see America,
only to lose all their savings and find themselves
stranded in a small Arizona town. Brooks satirizes
the decade’s obsession with money and the con-
tinuing adolescence of baby boomers.
Out of Africa(Universal; dir. Sydney Pollack) Karen
Blixen (Meryl Streep) marries Baron Bor Blixen
(Klaus Maria Brandauer) for convenience in 1914
and moves to Kenya, only to fall in love with
hunter Denys Finch Hatton (Robert Redford).
This lush romantic drama, inspired by the writ-
ings of Isak Dinesen (Karen’s pseudonym), won
seven Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Direc-
tor, and Best Score (John Barry).
Prizzi’s Honor(ABC/Twentieth Century-Fox;
dir. John Huston) Veteran director Huston re-
bounded from a lengthy slump to make one of his
best and most entertaining films. Mafia hit man
Charlie Partanna (Jack Nicholson) falls for Irene
Walker (Kathleen Turner), not knowing she is
also an assassin. Nominated for eight Oscars, it
won only for the star-making turn of the director’s
daughter, Anjelica Huston, as Partanna’s spurned
lover.
The Purple Rose of Cairo(Orion; dir. Woody Allen)
Allen’s tender fantasy finds a frustrated woman
(Mia Farrow) escaping from her dismal 1930’s
life by going to films. One day, a character in a
film she has seen several times leaves the screen to
romance her.
Rambo: First Blood Part II(TriStar; dir. George Pan
Cosmatos) The pulpy sequel toFirst Blood(1982)
was a much bigger commercial success than the
more realistic original. John Rambo (Sylvester
Stallone) is released from prison and dispatched
to Vietnam to rescue American prisoners of war.
Witness(Paramount; dir. Peter Weir) An Amish boy
(Lukas Haas) witnesses a murder in the restroom
of a Philadelphia train station, and police detec-
tive John Book (Harrison Ford) links the crime to
a conspiracy within his department. Fleeing to
the Amish community, Book falls in love with the
boy’s widowed mother (Kelly McGillis). One of
the decade’s best thrillers won Oscars for the orig-
inal screenplay by William Kelley, Earl W. Wal-
lace, and Pamela Wallace and for Thom Noble’s
editing.1986
Aliens(Brandywine/Twentieth Century-Fox; dir.
James Cameron) The first sequel to Ridley Scott’s
Alien(1979) was an even bigger hit, with Ripley
(Sigourney Weaver) becoming a surrogate mother
to an orphan (Carrie Henn). Its special effects
won an Oscar.See alsomain entry.
Blue Velvet(De Laurentiis; dir. David Lynch) The
corrupt underbelly of suburbia is exposed as all-
American boy Kyle MacLachlan tries to protect
innocent Laura Dern and unstable Isabella Ros-
selini from an especially vicious Dennis Hopper,
in the best performance of his long career.See also
main entry.
Children of a Lesser God(Paramount; dir. Randa
Haines) A speech teacher (William Hurt) falls for
a difficult student (Marlee Matlin) in this adapta-
tion of Mark Medoff’s play. Matlin won an Oscar
as Best Actress.
The Color of Money(Buena Vista/Touchstone; dir.
Martin Scorsese) Paul Newman finally won an Os-
car in this sequel toThe Hustler(1961), which re-
counts how Fast Eddie Felson becomes a reluc-
tant mentor to an arrogant young pool shark
(Tom Cruise).
Crocodile Dundee(Rimfire Productions; dir. Peter
Faiman) Australian television personality Paul
Hogan, who also cowrote the screenplay, becameThe Eighties in America Entertainment: Major Films of the 1980’s 1079