The Eighties in America - Salem Press (2009)

with great daring, and featuring a bravura perfor-
mance by Robert De Niro,Raging Bullset a 1980’s
standard for serious American filmmaking. Other
commercially risky projects followed.The King of Com-
edy(1983), a dark comedy about celebrity culture,
presents another obssesive personality: a crazed fan
(again played by Robert De Niro) who captures a
television star, portrayed in a surprisingly restrained
performance by Jerry Lewis. Next, Scorsese brought
his usual paranoia to a common 1980’s figure—the
yuppie—when he dramatized a misplaced uptown-
er’s terrifying night in lower Manhattan inAfter
Hours(1985).
Updating and expanding the 1961 Robert Rossen
classicThe Hustler, Scorsese’sThe Color of Money
(1986) again centered on a male world of compe-
tition and exploitation. Paul Newman, who had
played young pool shark “Fast Eddie” Felson in the
original, reprised his role. Twenty-five years older,
Felson in Scorsese’s film acts as mentor to a cocky
newcomer played by Tom Cruise. After numerous
postponements, Scorsese worked in the late 1980’s
to complete his dream project,The Last Temptation of
Christ(1988). The controversial film was, surpris-
ingly, produced by Universal Pictures. Following the
provocative novel by Nikos Kazantzakis, Scorsese
and screenwriter Paul Schrader presented a human,
sexual, confused Christ who is redemed through suf-
fering. The film sparked controversy, protests, and
threats and was pulled from distribution by the stu-
dio. Scorsese ended the decade with “Life Lessons,”
a modest short about an artist and his obssessive
loves that was released as part ofNew York Stories
(1989), a three-part feature that also included shorts
directed by Woody Allen and Francis Ford Coppola.
Although Scorsese received two Oscar nominations
and numerous directing awards in the 1980’s, the
Academy Award eluded him.

Impact Scorsese’s ability to secure financial back-
ing for innovative projects that resisted popular
trends made him an influential bridge figure be-
tween mainstream and independent filmmaking in
the 1980’s. Moreover, along with Allen, Steven Spiel-
berg, and George Lucas, Scorsese contributed to
a significant reconception of the nature of film
auteurism in general and American filmmaking in
particular. In 1989, a poll of American and interna-
tional film critics rankedRaging Bullthe best film of
the decade.

Further Reading

Nicholls, Mark.Scorsese’s Men: Melancholia and the

Mob.North Melbourne, Vic.: Pluto Press, 2004.

Stern, Lesley.The Scorsese Connection.Bloomington:

Indiana University Press, 1995.

Thompson, David, and Ian Christe, eds.Scorsese on

Scorsese.Boston: Faber & Faber, 1996.

Carolyn Anderson

See also Academy Awards; Film in the United

States;Last Temptation of Christ, The;Raging Bull;

Spielberg, Steven.

Sequels

Definition Narrative work that represents the

continuation of a story begun in an earlier work

During the 1980’s, as blockbusters became increasingly im-

portant to Hollywood’s financial model, movie sequels be-

gan to drive the film industr y’s profits. Because large-scale

sequels tended to be easier to promote effectively as “event”

films, they were among the most financially successful films

of the decade, although they were often less successful with

professional critics.

The 1980’s opened withSuperman 2(1980), bring-

ing Christopher Reeve back to the big screen for a se-

quel to the blockbusterSuperman: The Movie(1978).

The sequel proved popular enough to inspire two

more,Superman 3(1983) andSuperman 4: The Quest

for Peace(1987). The original movie had been a big-

budget version of a comic book whose protagonist

heretofore had been relegated to inexpensive movie

serials, a television series, and the low-budgetSuper-

man and the Mole Men(1951). By 1989, Superman’s

comic-book cohort Batman received a similar big-

budget movie treatment. That film’s success not only

led toBatmansequels but also legitimized the adap-

tation to major motion pictures of other comic book

characters with appropriate sequels, a trend which

would continue.

Another 1980 sequel wasThe Empire Strikes Back,

the second installment in George Lucas’s trend-

settingStar Warstrilogy. The final work of the trilogy,

Return of the Jedi, followed in 1983. Three prequels

would later be made as well. TheStar Warsfilms were

deliberately designed in the style of 1950’s movie se-

rials, in which a short chapter would be released

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Sequels The Eighties in America