Sometimes, when in doubt about what to watch on the TV, we just need that cozy movie full of warmth attached to it. With the cold weather we have been getting, 1980s movies feel like the perfect blanket. They are funny, warm, and approach good moral or social topics. So here are my top five romcoms from the 80’s you must watch before you die.
Dirty Dancing- ‘’Nobody puts Baby in a corner.’’
For starters, a perfect movie to watch no matter the season is Dirty Dancing, this movie is so fun to watch because it is set during summer yet there is a certain heartwarming tone to it. We follow Frances (Jennifer Grey), also known as ‘’Baby’’ and Johnny (Patrick Swayze). He is a dancer at the resort Baby, and her family are spending the summer at the resort, and she comes from a rich family that is only looking for family time. At first, they don’t like each other, but when Johnny’s dance partner Penny, suffers life-altering news, she needs time away from dancing; thus, leading to Baby to becoming his partner while Penny is out to rest. This movie talks about social class, morals, and ultimately sacrificing things to be with the one you love.
Footloose- ‘’There’s a time to weep… and a time to dance. And this is our time!’’
In this movie, we follow Ren (Kevin Bacon), who is a teenager who just moved to a town where music and dancing are forbidden due to a tragedy from the past. The problem is that dancing is part of who Ren is; the movie is about restoring the town and the families in it through dancing, changing their thoughts about enjoying music and dance.
Grease – ‘’Summer loving had me a blast, Summer loving happened so fast.’’
The next movie follows Sandy (Olivia Newton-John) and Danny (John Travolta), who meet on a summer vacation in Florida; they have the perfect summer romance, but part ways towards the end of the summer. Turns out Sandy is starting a new school year at a new school, which coincidentally is the same school Danny attends. While Sandy is cute and innocent, Danny acts tough and different from when they met. Their story is about the struggle to be who you are vs. who you think you should be to fit in, all wrapped in a witty musical that includes friendship, peer pressure, love, and acceptance.
16 Candles – ‘’Happy Birthday Samantha… make a wish.’’
This movie is about a teenage girl named Samantha Baker (Molly Ringwald) who wakes up on her 16th birthday, and has to endure her whole family forgetting it’s her day due to her older sister’s wedding preparations. In the movie, she navigates her crush on popular senior Jake Ryan (Michael Schoeffling) while constantly trying to dodge Ted (Anthony Michael Hall), who is pining for her. Among all that mess, the movie has at its core a sweet message about love and family.
Tuff Turf – ‘’Life isn’t a problem to be solved. It’s a mystery to be lived.’’
This movie is about Morgan Hillers (James Spader) moving to a new town. He moves from Connecticut to Los Angeles and ends up going to a rough high school led by a local gang, their leader being Nick Hauser (Paul Mones). Both the boys are rebellious and wild in their own way, yet there is something different and challenging in Morgan; to his disadvantage, he starts falling for Nick’s girlfriend Frankie (Kim Richards). Now he has to prove himself to this girl and a school that only ever knew toughness. The movie approaches the topic of embracing who you are, standing up for yourself and others, and lastly, not settling under social norms to pressures from people who don’t know you.
The Breakfast Club – ‘’Each of us is a brain, and an athlete, and a basket case, a princess, and a criminal.’’
This movie is a classic, set in a high school where 5 students (Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez and Ally Sheedy) get detention on the same Saturday. It is in this way that they get to know more about each other, how no one has a perfect life, and how they form their own little bond by listening to one another.
