Why 80s Movies Look and Feel Different 

I think one more notable aspect in the 80s, not just in movies, is the level of IMAGINATION. I was born in 77, and entering the 80s as a young kid there were so many things that inspired, scared and blew my mind. Aliens, robots, monsters, demons, ghosts, spaceships, fantasy lands, cool cars, jets, guns, gadgets, everything!

The 80s colors made the films so comfortable to watch. Nothing against films these days as there are some really nice looking films due to the colors, but often I see movies use colors wrong and it really takes away from the experience.

The 80s was special, unique, and magical.

The 80s and 90s were such a special time. Perhaps I’m a bit biased having been born in 1980, but I really feel like the movies and the music were unmatched.

One of the things that made 80s movies so magical is the fact that when they were released there was no internet. It may sound like a strange statement, but back then a new Hollywood movie was not "a thing *some people* were talking about" (like today), but "THE thing *everyone* was talking about" because they weren't bombarded with millions and millions of different pieces of information 24-7 on their smartphones/computers. As an example, whenever a new Rocky movie came out it was something every boy at my school here in Denmark knew about, and when a new episode of Dynasty or Dallas was shown on television is was something all adults could talk about for the simple reason that there really wasn't anything else to talk about (regarding television entertainment). Back then you had millions of people watching *the same thing* every day in contrast to today where you have millions of people watching equally many *different things* every day. For the same reason movies were a HUGE thing and very much regarded as pieces of art, hence why so much effort were put into them.

I firmly believe the best years in cinema history spanned from 1975-1995. Great video.

I wasn't born in the 80s, I was born in the 70s and grew up in the 80s. That nostalgia Hits different when you're a teenager in the 80s.

Nothing beats the 1980s. So glad I was alive to experience the whole decade.

Something about them just felt so much better, they have a passion that you just don’t see anymore in most movies nowadays. Edit: I don’t mind the graininess BC I think it adds to the fantastic atmosphere that most 80s films have.

Movies from the 80’s and early 90’s gives you a great nostalgic feeling especially if your childhood was around those times because the world was not ruled by internet, cell phones, and social media.

There was something very special and cinematic about the story telling in the 80s. In the 90s everything did feel bigger on a cinematic scale. But 80s movies were simultaneously big and unassuming. A weird but wonderful combination. But this is why someone like Freddie Kruger were so much more frightening in the 80s than in the 2000s. Gosh, Micheal Jackson's Thriller still freaks me out more than any thriller movie of today!

One thing I have noticed from early 80s movies that shot on location in cities is that the street lamps have a blue or green tint to them. That all changed when there was a national push to change street lamps to a warm color as it was believed that the blue and green colors where a factor in increased crime. That blue green look is pretty unique.

I was born in mid-1979 and grew up in the 80’s and 90’s. Although obviously from a kid’s perspective, it was truly a great time to be alive in my opinion, and really feel sorry for people who grew up after it. I also in my adult life got my degree in film and video production and chose it for my career. Putting any technical ideas aside, I think what made so many 80’s movies great was one thing. They were real. And let me explain what I mean by that. First off, effects were pretty much all done practically and optically. There were just a few short bits of cgi by the late 80’s with things like morphing such as in “Willow”. But the 80’s also I feel pretty much just tried to be itself. Today we have a million movies and TV shows trying to replicate or recreate things from the 80’s. Squeezing out a sequel to an 80’s movie from decades ago rarely is a good idea. But similarly, scripts seem unoriginal to me today too. While movies were always somewhat to make money too, today they are COMPLETELY about that. Studios used to be willing to try new things and take a risk that it would fail in the 80’s. Today, movies pretty much HAVE to be guaranteed to make money. And that’s why you see so many comic book and superhero movies, sequels and spin-offs, remakes, and movies driven by one famous actor. It’s less about art and the craft of making cinema, and more about squeezing another penny out of a franchise that should have been allowed to go out on a high note. Some cases in point are Star Wars, the Indiana Jones trilogy, or the Terminator franchise. Among others. But the 80’s had great 80’s music in it because…it was the 80’s. Whereas today people put 80’s music in them as a throwback, or simply because music today (in my opinion) isn’t as good. Another huge problem are people’s basic motivations. Actors or musicians in the 80’s did what they did because they loved their craft. Sure they wanted to make money too, but their intentions were pretty pure I think, and a lot of their backgrounds to learn to do what they did were more tradition. Today I think actors and musicians don’t actually want to BE actors or musicians. They simply want to BE one thing; famous. And that’s not very admirable, nor should it be why you want to get into anything.

Finally someone talks about this! I've always noticed a stark difference in the general "look" of 1980s film that nobody else does.

I was born in the late 70's so I absorbed a lot of film in the 80's and nothing compares. Even sequels to hits of the 80's weren't always able to recapture it or moved on from it changing the dynamic in ways that weren't always as pleasing.

I was born in the 2000s and I can say I missed a lot 😔🙂

I was born in 1977 and I was an 80s kid. It was a magnificent decade.

For me, what makes 80s movies look unique is how they move their camera, so simple yet effective

Bro as somebody who was a child of the 70s and teenager of the 80s, you pretty much nailed it. I could totally say that from my experience both 80s movies and music entertainment etc...there was a very positive and upbeat atmosphere even the horror films. Great analysis.

Very good video! Film grain and color palette I think are huge contributors. A lot of movies today use very stylized color palettes, often de-saturating the darker colors, such as black, to give the illusion of "realism" (a la The Dark Knight/Early MCU movies). In the real world, we're used to colors having their full saturation, which the 80s often did. I bet camera placement and editing also factor into the 80s style. Today you can place the "camera" anywhere you want. While that's cool, it can impact how the audience relates to it. The 80's had its limitations where the camera could go, but it almost always was in a position a human can relate to and easily access. As for editing, Top Gun and Footloose are great examples of the "MTV movie" trend at that time, cutting between story/dialogue scenes and action/dance scenes set to the pop music of the day. Also, most politics in movies then were subtle and had nuance, so the audience wasn't put off by it. People often comment how the 80s was just pure fun and didn't get political, which isn't true. We just don't notice it, because it's not crudely overt, the way it is in today's movies. Final point I'll make, there's also directing style. The 70's gave directors far more license to tell the stories they wanted and some of the best directors were making some of their best films at that time. There's a youthful hunger from the directors of that time, to make compelling and meaningful films. The 80s is sort of the cream of the crop of that era in film making. There's a distinct voice coming from that time in US history, that I don't think can be replicated, without feeling a tad artificial.

My friend’s father was born in 66 and class of 84, so he was a teen and young adult in the 80s. Even from him, a young adult, I heard stories of how amazing the 80s were and I could see it was as amazing as it looked in the pop culture, and I understand why he misses the 80s so much.

The 80's were pretty unique and interesting to live through.

The 80s make you feel like you're living in a fantasy. The modern day makes you feel like you're living in reality.

I'm Gen X (b. 1975) and i gotta say going through my childhood and early teens in the 80's was pretty awesome..... we had the tail end of Punk (which to a kid was just the most colorful and fun looking genre) the start of Sampling and Industrial (which was a much more influential sub-genre that never gets the credit it deserves).....one thing you missed in your video that i think is an important identifier of 80's movies is that this period was the time of the "Latchkey Kids" ie the Babyboomers (Gen X's Parents) were all either divorced or both mum and dad were at work leaving us kids to fend for ourselves this is a running theme in much of the media of that time ie music / tv and film

I was born in 92 but I absolutely love everything about the 80s from the epic movies to the music High Energy Hits I don't even bother to go today's cinemas simply because all the movies showing are absolute trash they are not thrilling or entertaining watching an 80s movie is an experience.

The sets actors and extras looked a lot more vibrant, people looked healthy happy and sexy somehow, and grainy analog is so much easier on the eye.

There is also some psychological component missing today, present in the 80s. In the 80s, the West was basically winning against the East. Now, that may sound strange, but the Cold War was an issue for a long time in movies, and as the 1980s rolled on, the West was basically winning and knew it. So the easiness of living in the West was seeping into pop culture media as well. While you would still get your occatinal Rocky IV or Rambo III, most movies where more about how to enjoy being capitalist, rich and right about Communism being wrong and malfunctioning.

There are many reasons as to why the 80s aesthetic and feel is so iconic to the point that it has created a whole phenomenon of its own that often leads to the longing of a period that was extraordinarily creative whether it was a big Hollywood film or a smaller independent film. Modern films are so devoid of style, charm, creativity and idiosyncrasy that if the best that Hollywood can give you is Hulk losing so much of his testosterone that he is walking around taking selfies with other people and Thor turning into a fat Big Lebowski wannabe playing Fortnite, the nostalgia for periods like the 80s intensifies enormously. The music actually varied more during this period than most with a mixture of synthesizers, orchestral, saxophone and guitars whether it be a music score or a soundtrack. They offered and amplified a lot of the aesthetic and feel as they were so artistically expressive and imaginative that they become synonymous with the films themselves in a way that no modern film can get close to replicating. Even when you ask friends and even strangers about what music themes from a film pops up in their mind, at the very least 70-80% (no pun intended) of them come from the 80s. As far as the sound is concerned, I will argue that it's a huge mistake to say that sound has gotten 'better'. Yes, Digital has a lot of conveniences in terms of being easier to use and offers a thousand different ways to manipulate the sound levels but that doesn't mean that it is superior to Analog. Digital may have surround sound that includes a thousand speakers haha, but the biggest problems with the format is that the sound is more artificial, actually contains lesser frequencies and tons of current films not having a genuine midrange to the sound, which often leads to a hybrid of being mixed too low with even dialog at times being way too quiet and then the action sequences start to occur and they are so loud that they instantly motivate you to turn the volume down. Analog in many ways can be proven to be better and more organic sounding even if most of the Analog audio formats weren't technically as sophisticated if that makes sense. Yes, you may not have had a 7.1 or Atmos equivalent for Analog and plenty of films weren't always mixed the best, but the format does actually contain higher frequencies and some sense of being more true to life and having a scale and a soul that you will simply not get with digital. And some of the the six channel mixes that came out of 70MM are some of the absolute most powerful and dynamic audio experiences of all time Colour and cinematography actually had significantly better reproduction than Digital does, but a lot of 80s movies actually didn't always have natural palettes. In many instances, a lot of VHS' and DVDs used elements that were not the same as the prints that would be made for theatres. Many 80s films were in fact more colourful upon their initial release than many of the the home video versions due to using analog equivalants of colour correction process, which still technically has the best dynamic range of colour to this day and played a huge role in giving those films their character and vibrancy in terms of the image. Old school 35mm may not be as seemingly clear and as sharp as digital, but it does have a much more tangible and less artificial image that can really bring locations and worlds to life in a convincing way that Digital also cannot do. And of course, the peak of super advanced practical effects before the days of CGI. That decade had mixture of hyper real, stylized and advances special effects like never before and just like the other aspects mentioned will never be replicated again. The extreme charisma that a lot of the actors had stood out as well in a way that you don't see anymore either. Many of the actors that try to be charismatic these days end up phony and not likeable, where as in the 80s it was a incredible time for a screen chewing movie star to inspire audiences to want to be like them. At the end of the day, the 80s was simply a great time for pop culture and you know that you will never reach that peak again when half of Hollywood's recent 'films' are milking off of the brand recognition of those classics and often spit on their legacy. But no matter what dumb garbage they do, we still always have those classics.

Practical effects had that realness that the actors could interact with. My favorite practical effect that doesn’t get talked about nearly as much as it should be, was the rotating room in ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’

The reason 80s movies evoke a feeling of nostalgia even in 90s kids is because those movies were still popular in the 90s so they still played a major role in our childhoods

Color & lighting definitely plays a big role but film stock also plays a large role in their look and feel. Prior to digital cinematography, when every movie was shot on film (I almost wrote 'when every film was shot on film' because I'm so used to calling them films), the film industry (as in the production of actual film stock) was huge. And over the decades there'd be new advancements in its production and so you'd get a different look and feel to films as the decades went on. I actually really miss movies shot on film. Maybe its just because its what I grew up watching. But the subtle grain in the film, along with quality of light captured on film (not to mention the lighting production you mention here vs the post production color grading) just give everything a much more human feel to me.

One of my guilty pleasures are action movies from the 80s and even 90s, which have a unique style about them. Lots of real explosions, blood squibs, and just raw action, that isn't overdone to the levels of Michael Bay. Commando is a perfect example of a fun, cheesy action movie, that screams the 80s (the credits song kicks ass, haha).

Anemoia - A noun used to describe the nostalgia you feel for a time you never lived in. I lived through the 80's and I never thought the movies and especially the music would have aged as well as they have. I never thought anything from our era would be remembered as fondly as Back to the Future, or Indiana Jones or neon clothing or checkered vans has.

In 80s synthesisers where not at all in their infancy. That is the reason why they suddenly got used so much. Take like latest Korg models Minilogue or Opsix, one is analog other is FM. That stuff was already in 80s. Infact MIDI technology got introduced in 1982 with Prophet 600 which replaced analog communication interfaces CV inputs and outputs with digital way of communicating between devices like sequencers and synth. Synth that you hear in Bladerunner was from late 70s. What was not up-to-date was samplers.Those became usable to the level of high definition in 90s.

The 80s is the only decade that gives people, who haven't even seen and remembered the decade, nostalgia.

I loved loved loved the 80’s, and still do. The movies felt so sincere somehow! Anyway, great video. Thanks for making it!

Ridley & Tony Scott had alot to do with the way 80s movies look & feel. And John Hughes' love of music made 80s movies cool.

I'm gonna make my own film inspired by the movies from the 80s. Your video will definitely be useful so thanks. You just earned yourself a new subscriber this video was amazing you are underrated.

I just found your channel and it’s amazing! I’ve never seen someone be able to describe the “feel” of something so adequately. I think I’m of the same generation as you, but I agree about the feeling the 80s gives even though I didn’t live through it.

Few piece of music touch the 80s nostalgia magic of the Neverending Story soundtrack ✨💥

So many genres were booming in the 80s. It seems that they made a movie for every trend no matter how niche. Action was perhaps the most popular b/c it was being widely distributed by both Hollywood & Hong Kong. Beyond the stars, the action directors were also legendary: James Cameron (Aliens), Paul Verhoeven (RoboCop), John McTiernan (Die Hard), George Miller (The Road Warrior), Steven Spielberg (Raiders of the Lost Ark), John Woo (The Killer), Jackie Chan (Police Story), etc...

When Terminator 2 came out (1991), it was obvious it wasn't an 80's movie. It also used blue color scheme in its filming (the blue light when John Connor and Terminator creates a narrative that you're now in the realm of the Terminator and your choices are limited in his custody).

My high school and university was the 80s decade. I miss it so much!

I really like movie or film look from the 70’s, to the early REALLY early 2000’s. Not because of, nostalgia. (i never really watched, lots of old movies as a young kid.) But because it works well with movies, especially mature movies. Or movies that don’t, rely on lots of CGI. For example action movies like die hard or Terminator, or dark fantasy movies like Conan. I like the pre digital grainy upbeat, warm look. (Especially scenes that play in early, morning or dawn) and the, analog grain and 35mm film. As well the coloration and upbeat yet also gritty feeling is so nice to look at. The same i would say even goes for music videos, imo especially rap and metal and rock music videos. Idk i just think considering to re use old styles of filming, back is just something i would do. especially for certain genres. Also the cinematography, imo adds a lot too. To me it’s basically the perfect movie aesthetic, if there was a basic movie look to derive from it be that.

This was a great video! You deserve more views and subs!

Love this type of content such a cool video idea holy AWESOME JOB

wow amazing analysis great work

A+ Great job! Quality video!

i was born in the late 70's so lived my childhood at the peak of this era. i was a massive movie fan especially when VHS stores started to pop up everywhere and i couldnt get enough of it.i surpose not having aware of whats happening else where in the world and watching these movies where its always evil vs good and the good always wins with a bang made me have hope in life. I really feel that the expansive knowledge of the internet has given kids nowasday too much unessasery nformation whats going on in the rest of the world and itsvery overwhelming and stressful.

Fantastic - proud to be in the first 100 subscribers 😊

Excellent video. Well thought out, researched, analyzed, and presented. Thank you.

another great video!!

I’m also a 90s born child but I am a retro 80s lover. One other aspect of 80s movies I love that made them very distinctive was the classic musical montage. I don’t remember any 90s movies doing it although I could be wrong. It just made the movies more fun. Not all of them had them for sure but it was a very 80s thing.

The 80s movies had a sense of optimism to them, even their dark dramas. They also had clear lines between right and wrong and good evil. This may come out of raganism and the closing of the cold war, but they just were a much more enjoyable experience.

Super cool video dude, This is a fun series.

It wasn't just on screen. I still recall the late 80s and there was an 'atmosphere ' in the real world: from cigarette smoke in the air almost everywhere to distinctive sound of the CRD TV's and just a more relaxed tone in general. Life was certainly less intense and more chilled. I guess the 70s were even more that way but I wasn't around.

Don't know if anyone has mentioned this already, but another distinct part of 80s movies is a hazy look from what I think is a heavy use of smoke machines, and which made light beams from light source quite visible. Another part of that same whole would be characters being back-lit in those environments, giving them a quite bright rim lighting, shining through their big hair and on the edges of the clothes. The feel of the music wasn't just the use of synths either, but more memorable adventurous scores. Even if the movies used acoustic instruments, the film scores were just more playful and memorable, compared to today where they tend to be more atmospheric and not so memorable.

God damn I love the 80s, especially Michael Jackson.

Every time I see a video about the 80s, it reminds how great it was back then, and how much the world sucks today.

Just found your channel. Excellent vid!

Each decade has good… and bad… movies. And each decade’s movies (and architecture… and fashions… and music… and, and, and…) have a distinct *feel.* And nostalgia for one’s past is a helluva intoxicant…

Awesome video, dude

Born in 1990, I grew up watching all the 80s classics and am now very nostalgic for them. I hope to carry them on for the next generation as alot of them I consider to be timeless and worth remembering :)

Thank you. I see what you mean about not using colour grading and deriving colours from the environment/lighting. That is a great nugget of truth for me, thank you for making this neat video!

One of the quiet background elements that defines 80's film is the final bows taken by Greatest Generation filmmakers and audiences. Raiders of the Lost Ark, for example, benefits from the cinematography of Douglas Slocombe, who had been working on films since the 40's. Likewise, the box office was split between cheap shlock like the output of Cannon Films, and big blockbusters with star power like Stallone/Schwarzenegger action films - the industry was moving towards the model of filmmaking that got refined in the 90's, but still retained grindhouse influences, and so a lot of 80's film feels more raw not just in the camera but also in the scripts and editing. Modern 80's-influenced aesthetics tend to distill the camera effects and graphics, but not the storytelling; physical cut and splice editing changes the kind of story you tell because you are less likely to make a lot of fine-grained edits. VHS rentals also grew rapidly during the 80's - at first the use-case of VHS was mostly to record whatever was on the TV, but by the end of the decade "movie night" might mean going to Blockbuster, and therefore the types of films being made started to consider home market demographics, making films for audiences to buy and rewatch, vs movies to watch once on a rental. A lot of 80's movies were first experienced by 90's Millennials because someone's parents had it, or a teacher wheeled in the AV cart one day.

I love the ‘80s! That was my time and I actually worked as an usher at d Sherman Oaks Pacific 4 Theaters (where Fast Times… was filmed). It was a great time with so many great movies! I love classic movies from the 30s thru the 70a, but the 80s hold a special place in my heart. They tackled important issues but also entertained us - CGI has taken things to the next level, but to me it’s overkill. Long live the 80s!!

Thanks for the video, I've been running an 80s based role playing game but always looking for inspiration and you pinned down a lot of good points

Excellent video!

I actually theorize that it’s the cinematography. next time you watch an 80s movie pay attention to how long the camera sticks on the actor during any given shot. On average, the camera sticks on actors longer in the 80’s films than modern ones. While only probably a few extra minutes per film, I believe this difference is enough for viewers to “connect” with them more human to human. This connection is what makes the characters and world feel more real, it also just opens the viewer up to enjoy their time more similarly to how you have more fun doing something with a friend than alone.

One thing we also have to remember about our nostalgia for 80's movies in the way they looked and sounded is how we consumed them. Heck I was born in 79, so while I did see a few movies in the 80's on the big screen (Batman, Ghostbusters, TMNT to name a few), most people younger than me around here has never seen an 80's movie when it was originally released on theater screens. We mostly saw them on VHS, which lets face it, did horrors to the visuals and the audio. But that is what we are mostly nostalgic about. Yes, today we can get our 4K UHD Blu-Rays of Blade Runner digitally remastered editions preserving film grain and all that. But its still going to be a digitization of what the original was. Its not watching the actual Blade Runner film print being projected right in front of us in all its analog glory! Just saying that the 80's look we love is the 80's look we think we remember, but its been altered by the mediums that which we more frequently enjoyed these films.

Here before 10k followers. This guy is going places. I appreciate your view on film culture!

One thing that helped was that 80s style had a tendency to make people look big. Big starter jackets, big sunglasses, big hats, big helmets, big suits with big shoulderpads, and of course, big hair. That helped all the characters feel larger than life.

This was great! Long live the 80s!

the thing i love about 80s movies is the blue nights they had. thats what i think of when i think of 80s movie look and feel

So off topic, but I have never heard anyone in RU-vid to lightly press the like button.😭 love it

You could also throw in the difference in film stock and the lenses available to filmmakers in the 80s. Like you said, a lot of the look was decided in camera, so film stock and lens choices would have influenced this more than anything else.

A top tier decade for pop culture

Nice video. Good job!

the grain and color are my favorite features of 80's or older movies, they are mesmerizing!

Great video

The synthesizer in the 80s was what dubstep was in the 2010s.

Great point of view👍

epic as usual~

I grew up with 80s movies mostly river phoenix ones but goonies and mannequin obviously I was born in 1995 but I get nostalgic with those films I saw ghostbusters afterlife the other day and again that was a very nostalgic trip down memory lane because I watched the cartoon as a kid on fox kids and the film I did cry a little bit at egon it was just this very emotional goodbye to Harold ramis because I loved his character and I loved it 💔❤

Stranger things almost nails the 80s..

A great video!

Now I'm gonna go on an 80s movie marathon!

Eastman Kodak and Fuji were also producing higher-contrast film in the 80s than in the 70s and 90s. It was a stylistic choice. As for the grain, that was from higher-speed films becoming more common. Most movies were previously shot on 50-100 ISO where 400 became common in the 80s. One particularly grainy filmstock from Eastman Kodak was 5295. Personally, I think film reached its peak quality in the mid 2000s.

Seen some of your videos and love them! Got yourself a new subscriber! Keep them up, big things will happen!

Cool video, bro! It's too bad you missed the '80s, because they were excellent. The best part about this video is your voice, and the likeability of it. Keep up the great research, and work.

Something special about the 80's.......

Another thing about 80’s movies is that they were awesome, and not woke garbage.

80s cinematography was so stylish, especially thanks to Michael Mann's Style

Thank you for a great video. I love movies from the 80s.

Todays movie are too realistic if that makes any sense. The have more of a news station or documentary feel vs a movie. Most of its the tone and colors and also the sound tracks don't seem as good. Like everything was more dramatic back then.

The 80s & 90s there was a lot of dark tones and vibrant colours which made you get lost in the movie, these days they only use the same lame dead yellowish tone in everything now or they highent up the contrast and everything looks light.

Just stumbled across your video. I'm a child of the 80s and a teenage of the 90s. So you being a 90s kid it's definitely interesting hearing your take on why 80s movies feel the way they do. I like how you delved more into techical aspects of how movies were made and thus creating that 80s feel. One phenomenon I've noticed is when there is an overlap from decade to decade where certain movies feel out of place in that decade. 2 examples i can think of are 1982's Mazes & Monsters and 1990's Men at Work. Mazes & Monsters feels more like 1970s movie and Men at Work feels like an 80s movie. Obviously because of production times versus actual release date contributes to this phenomenon but I thought you'd find that interesting.

Dude! You nailed it. Spot on.

Love vintage moviess

0:15 - 0:21 I was born in the 2000s and I can relate to this