Stand by Me (1986)
QFS No. 194 - To start the year, we need to honor a favorite filmmaker of many of ours. The truly tragic and shocking death of the legendary filmmaker and actor Rob Reiner has been on the minds of many of us for the last several weeks now. And while it’s important to mourn him and the horrific way his life unexpectedly ended, it’s also essential we remember him for all the joy he brought to our lives. And what an incredible life.
The Warriors (1979)
QFS No. 178 -The Warriors is one in a line of post-apocalyptic New York films, John Carpenter’s Escape from New York (1981, QFS No. 61) being one of the preeminent in the subgenre which we saw a few years ago together. Throw in a little Soylent Green (1976), I Am Legend (2007), Cloverfield (2008), the terrible End of Days (1999) and top it off with this week’s selection and you’ve got yourself the makings of a viable subgenre.
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)
QFS No. 2 - As perhaps with you, “thunderdome” is my stand by phrase for anything that has no rules with chaos as its only governing principle and where destruction is the norm. It entered the zeitgeist after this film and entered our collective lexicon even if you haven’t seen the movie. Related point – if you come to our home you will see that we have our fenced-in children play area in our main room that we have dubbed “Baby Thunderdome.” No holds barred, very few rules and the only directive is “to survive.” So far, both children have. But for how long?