Was 1982 the ultimate year for sci-fi films?

SF Weekly posted this excel­lent obser­va­tion piece yes­ter­day that 1982 was was one of the great­est years for sci-fi films. Look­ing at the list of major sci-fi films from that year, I’d have to say I agree:

• The Sword and the Sor­cerer  (April 23)
• Conan the Bar­bar­ian  (May 14)
• Pol­ter­geist  (June 4)
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan  (June 4)
• E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial  (June 11)
• Blade Run­ner  (June 25)
• The Thing  (June 25)
• The Secret of NIMH  (July 2)
• Tron  (July 9)
• Creepshow  (Novem­ber 12)
• The Last Uni­corn  (Novem­ber 19)
• The Dark Crys­tal  (Decem­ber 17)

Mind you, I was only a year old in 1982 so it wouldn’t be until much later when I came to fully appre­ci­ate many of the films on this list, but I was indoc­tri­nated early on with E.T , The Secret of NIMH (which used to scare the hell out of me) ‚ The Last Uni­corn , Pol­ter­geist , and of course Jim Henson’s visual effects mas­ter­piece The Dark Crys­tal , to which I owe some of my ear­li­est mem­o­ries of movie watching.

The SF Weekly arti­cle I linked above, which speaks of film­mak­ers’ big, ambi­tious ideas col­lid­ing with Regan val­ues to give us one of the most mem­o­rable years of sci-fi films, is really a fan­tas­tic read and a bit of a film his­tory lesson.

Other films from 1982 that didn’t make SF Weekly’s list that I think deserve an hon­or­able mention:

• The Beast­mas­ter (August 20)
• Time Mas­ters (March 24, France)
• Flight of Drag­ons (August 3)

That’s right, I’m not ashamed to admit I love The Beast­mas­ter  in all its cheesy, animal-talking, oiled-chest glory. I have fond mem­o­ries of watch­ing the film with my Dad on lazy Sun­day after­noons when they’d air it on TBS or some other crappy chan­nel, and I also had (dare I say it?) a bit of a child­hood crush on Marc Singer. That aside, The Beast­mas­ter had some really unique ideas (for its time), a fan­tas­tic score by Lee Holdridge, and great-looking visu­als. And for you male types,   Tanya Roberts was extremely easy on the eyes. As sci-fi and fan­tasy films go, I think it’s sadly under­rated .

I do NOT, how­ever, ever rec­om­mend watch­ing The Beast­mas­ter 2: Through the Por­tal of Time , unless doing so is part of ful­fill­ing your life’s goal to watch all of the worst movies ever made.

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