1981 Top Ten List

  • The Aviator's Wife (Eric Rohmer)
  • Raiders of the Lost Ark (Steven Spielberg)
  • Modern Romance (Albert Brooks)
  • Cutter's Way (Ivan Passer)
  • Vernon, Florida (Errol Morris)
  • The Decline of Western Civilization (Penelope Spheeris)
  • Southern Comfort (Walter Hill)
  • Eye of the Needle (Richard Marquand)
  • Body Heat (Lawrence Kasdan)
  • The Road Warrior (George Miller)

    • Additional 1981 Films By Rating

  • Thief (Michael Mann)
  • Roar (Noel Marshall and Friends)
  • Blow Out (Brian De Palma)
  • Scanners (David Cronenberg)
  • Knightriders (George A. Romero)
  • Das Boot (Wolfgang Petersen)
  • Zoot Suit (Luis Valdez)
  • My Dinner With Andre (Louis Malle)
  • They All Laughed (Peter Bogdanovich)
  • Ms. 45 (Abel Ferrara)
  • Son of the White Mare (Jankovics Marcell)
  • Pennies From Heaven (Herbert Ross)
  • Roadgames (Richard Franklin)
  • The Postman Always Rings Twice (Bob Rafelson)
  • Lola (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
  • A Short Working Day (Krzysztof Kieslowski)
  • The Evil Dead (Sam Raimi)
  • Possession (Andrzej Zulawski)
  • The Howling (Joe Dante)
  • Taps (Harold Becker)
  • Eijanaika (Shohei Imamura)
  • Reds (Warren Beatty)
  • The Woman Next Door (François Truffaut)
  • The Loveless (Kathryn Bigelow & Monty Montgomery)
  • Time Bandits (Terry Gilliam)
  • Man of Iron (Andrzej Wajda)
  • Downtown 81 (Edo Bertoglio)
  • Trances (Ahmed El Maanouni)
  • S.O.B. (Blake Edwards)
  • Dark Night of the Scarecrow (Frank De Felitta)
  • Excalibur (John Boorman)
  • The French Lieutenant's Woman (Karel Reisz)
  • Le Pont du Nord (Jacques Rivette)
  • Coup de torchon (Bertrand Tavernier)
  • Faster, Faster (Carlos Saura)
  • History of the World Part I (Mel Brooks)
  • Escape From New York (John Carpenter)
  • Polyester (John Waters)