The grainy feel is what you see in movies. This property is potentially difficult to define, but you know it when you see it. For example, when it comes to action movies, there may be a sense of realism in the action shown on screen. Perhaps there may be harshness or brutality in the violence. Or maybe things feel very grounded in the reality of the movie. It’s important to emphasize the “movie reality” part. This is because even action movies with a sci-fi tendency can feel gritty in ways that are different from realistic action/drama movies.
While the 1980s certainly had its share of bombastic, silly, over-the-top action movies, there were also titles that maintained a grounded feel and a certain tough nature. The films below are all significant in this regard, ranking among the best gritty action films released that decade.
10. “The Professional” (1981)
Director: Georges Lautner
Image via Gaumont
The Professional is one of the most underrated action movies of the 1980s, and it remains effortlessly cool, especially thanks to its charismatic star Jean-Paul Belmondo. Here he plays a secret agent who is betrayed by the government while on a mission overseas and must escape from where he is imprisoned before enacting his inevitable revenge.
Backed by the predictably wonderful Ennio Morricone score, The Professional is very stylish, overall fun, fast-paced, and unpredictable. It mines well-known tropes associated with the action, adventure, and thriller genres, but twists and blends them enough that the entire film feels uniquely quirky, yet grounded. , but has immense entertainment value for those who like to watch things that are never slow. – Action/revenge movie.
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9. “They Live” (1988)
Director: John Carpenter
Image via Universal Pictures
Although They Live has elements of science fiction and (light) horror, the film still feels surprisingly grounded in many ways, and generally vulgar in a good way. It maintains a dirty atmosphere. In the film, a man discovers a pair of sunglasses that can reveal certain truths about how the world is run, and begins trying to fight back in any way he can against Earth’s secret oppressors.
It’s fascinating to see a movie like this deal with big ideas while making what seems like a relatively limited budget work regardless. “They Live” runs the risk of coming off as cheesy if it weren’t for its satirical, darkly comedic tone. It’s a movie with a lived-in look and a feel that could be described as rough and tumble. And that extends to some of the action, especially the comically long and wonderfully candid one-on-one fight sequences that seem to go on forever.
They Live
Release date: November 23, 1988
Starring Roddy Piper, Keith David, Meg Foster, George Flower, Peter Jason, Raymond St. Jacques
runtime 93
8. “Violent Cop” (1989)
Director: Takeshi Kitano
Image provided by: Shochiku
Violent Cop is certainly a violent movie, and one of the grittiest Yakuza movies out there (this subgenre is already notable for being brutal and uncompromising). worth it). Well, this is a movie centered around a police officer, but he spends his time in the movie fighting yakuza and observing how one of his colleagues gets involved in organized crime.
Much of the movie is about showing how the police can be as brutal as they pursue criminals, and Violent Cop pushes this idea to some pretty alarming extremes. . Yet it’s restrained and understated enough that it doesn’t feel overdone, which adds to the sense of grittiness and quirky realism…somehow. Few other films directed by Takeshi Kitano are atmospherically similar, but this 1989 film is one of his best, and certainly one of his most memorable.
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7 “First Blood” (1982)
Director: Ted Kotcheff
Image courtesy: Orion Pictures
While some horror series start off atypically compared to their subsequent sequels, that phenomenon is perhaps less common in action-focused series. But then we got to the First Blood/Rambo movies, and the first in that eventual series was markedly different from its sequel, being a much more grounded drama first and foremost, and an action-packed second. /There is no doubt that it is a thriller movie.
First Blood is a film that features one of Sylvester Stallone’s greatest performances of all time, starring the tragic and troubled John Rambo as he attempts to escape from harassing law enforcement officers. This is the introductory part where we follow Rambo. This is the beginning of an extensive search mission, from which a fair amount of tension and “action” is generated, but overall a much more realistic and grisly affair than the sequel, which generally had much more action scenes and a much higher body count. It becomes.
Release date October 22, 1982
Director Ted Kotcheff
Screening time 93 minutes
6 “Thief” (1981)
Director: Michael Mann
Image courtesy of United Artists
Michael Mann knows how to make a gritty action movie, as exemplified by films like Heat (1995) and Collateral (2004). But he was also used to that kind of film from the time of his feature film debut. Because Thief is sleek, stylish, and understated, but not so much that it feels lacking in pulse or propulsion.
The movie is a great all-encompassing heist movie with a familiar setting, in which a professional safecracker named Frank (James Caan) devises a plan and scores enough to make the money of his lifetime. It depicts someone trying to achieve this. Thief oozes true-to-the-basics cool, and Mann ensures that the film has both style and a sense of life, and the whole thing is both boldly cinematic and down-to-earth raw. It has a great balance between things.
thief
Release date: March 27, 1981
Director Michael Mann
Running time 123 minutes
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5. “The Terminator” (1984)
Director: James Cameron
Image courtesy: Orion Pictures
Sure, The Terminator may feel like a science fiction movie first and foremost, and it could even be categorized as a slasher movie of sorts…but the action and thriller genres play a big role here too. I am. Director James Cameron balances all these genres to great effect on a modest budget, and the film revolves around an unstoppable cyborg assassin from the future and a woman destined to bear a son in the future. It’s a straightforward time travel story about an assassin (the target of an assassin). savior of humanity.
Although things have been bigger and more explosive since Terminator 2: Judgment Day, 1984’s The Terminator maintains a high level of grit thanks to its relatively rough presentation and limited scope. . The (similar) minimalism makes The Terminator feel all the more intense and somehow unbelievable, at least as far as time-travel movies are concerned, and it’s still a very exciting film 40 years after its original release. continues to be.
Release date October 26, 1984
director james cameron
Running time 107 minutes
4 “The Killer” (1989)
Director: John Woo
Image courtesy: Golden Princess Film Production
The Killer is a masterpiece of the heroic gore, about two people on opposite sides of the law risking their lives to live up to their own moral code. One is an assassin seeking redemption for the harm he caused to bystanders, and the other is a police officer who defies convention and rules in a relentless effort to bring down members of organized crime.
The pair clash before teaming up, but the results prove to be great throughout. Director John Woo has gone more extreme with other action classics like Hard Boiled and Face/Off, but there’s a certain authenticity and realism to The Killer. Masu. It’s still melodramatic, even a little operatic, but it works to deconstruct certain tropes, it has some brutally sad moments, it has some big action, but it also has an overall sad atmosphere. It’s at odds with the traditional action blockbuster/crowd-pleaser.
Release date: March 24, 1989
Starring Chow Yun-fat, Danny Lee, Sally Yeh, Kong Chu, Kenneth Tsang, Xin Huion, Win Cho Yip, Ricky Wong Chun-tong
Running time 111 minutes
3 “RoboCop” (1987)
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Image courtesy: Orion Pictures
Like “Terminator,” “RoboCop” has a variety of interesting genres. It’s satisfying as a bloody action movie set in a dystopian world, it can almost be defined as a superhero movie, and it’s also a deeply satirical movie that can be relatively funny in parts. Of course, at other points, especially when someone dies or is about to die, it can be quite frightening.
And while there’s certainly some sci-fi here, that doesn’t preclude the grittiness. RoboCop’s futuristic depiction of Detroit, so grimy and grimy that you can almost smell it from the screen, depicts how the people who live there are on both sides of the law and ultimately how violent they are. In some cases, there is no cutting corners at all. It’s fun, silly, exciting, creepy, and all at once.
robocop
Release date: July 17, 1987
Director Paul Verhoeven
Runtime 102 minutes
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2 “Die Hard” (1988)
Director: John McTiernan
Image courtesy of 20th Century Studios
While not as quick as First Blood in terms of getting wilder with sequels, the Die Hard series definitely escalated over time, becoming a lot dirtier than it started. However, the original Die Hard is still the best, very pleasant, and overall the most realistic and gritty of the series, with a very restrained premise. It almost feels like the action movie equivalent of a bottle movie.
John McClane, played by Bruce Willis, famous for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, ultimately seizes a chance inside a locked-down building to stop a group of terrorists occupying the place. Be the only person who has it. McClane feels that he is weak and that he is the hero who can get through whatever situation he finds himself in. Its underdog vibe, relatively grounded behavior, and the fact that people can and do sustain notable injuries, including the heroes, all help create it. “Die Hard” is a surprisingly laborious movie.
Release date: July 15, 1988
Runtime 132 minutes
1 “Live and Die in LA” (1985)
Director: William Friedkin
Just as William Friedkin arguably made the definitive gritty action/crime film of the 1970s with French connections, he also made some of the grittiest (and overall best) action/crime films of the 1980s. , made Living and Dying in LA. While it’s not a direct sequel to The French Connection, it feels like a spiritual follow-up, doing for Los Angeles what the 1971 film did for New York City.
To Live and Die in LA is an amazing, scary, dirty, fast-paced, brutal, and all-around exciting action movie that starts out as a revenge movie and becomes more morally complex as the story progresses. . It contains one of the best car chase sequences in movie history and follows an unpredictable roller coaster of a story. Of all the action movies from the 1980s, no movie screams “gritty” like “Live and Die in LA.” It qualifies as such a descriptor in almost every respect.
Live and Die in LA (1985)
Release date: November 1, 1985
Director William Friedkin
Runtime 116 minutes
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