“Killing Fields” chosen as top film for 1985

Press, 9 January 1986, Page 12

“Killing Fields” chosen as top film for 1985

The following Top 10 Films for 1985 were compiled from readers’ letters listing their favourite films for the year just ended: 1. “The Killing Fields.” 2. “Amadeus.” 3. “Witness.” 4. “Back to the Future.” 5. “Desperately Seeking Susan.” 6. “Once Upon a Time in America.” 7. “The Terminator.” 8. “A Passage to India.” 9. “Vigil.” 10. “Paris, Texas.”

It is no surprise to me that the two major winners of the Academy Awards for 1985, “The Killing Fields” and “Amadeus,” were also chosen by our readers as the two top films for the year. A variety of other excellent films also reached Christchurch during the past year, but it is significant that the top two were in that position right from the start of our readers’ survey, while the next eight followed considerably behind, with few votes to differentiate between them. In other words, this survey showed “Killing Fields” and “Amadeus” to be the undisputed leaders, with the next eight following in a tight bunch. Of these, it was particularly gratifying to see the New Zealand, “Vigil,” achieve a rating among other major movies like “A Passage to India” and “Paris, Texas.” | “Once Upon a Time ’ in America,” the gangster epic by an Italian director, Sergio Leone, and “Paris, Texas,” an American road story by Germany’s Wim Wenders, were the two major films with a European influence. The biggest breath of fresh air, however, came from “Desperately Seeking Susan,” a bright, counterculture comedy (with shades of our readers’ top film- for 1984, “Diva”), which had' the most original American screenplay for the year; It also is no surprise to see one of the year’s Ibng-est-running films, Robert Zemeckis’s “Back to the Future,” among the Top 10, although it was a slow starter in our readers’ nominations. "The Terminator,” with Arnold Schwarznegger as an indestructible robot, received a consistently high vote as the best sci-fi movie of the year, although “Lifeforce,” Vjhich started at the Carlton only a couple of weeks ago, also received

many votes. Over all, the survey proved to be fairly consistent with the public’s general taste as reflected in box office takings, with a few “arty” films thrown in for good measure. The survey result was also very similar to my own choice, only differing by my inclusion of “Le Bal” and “Brazil,” instead of “The Terminator” and “Vigil.” Other readers’ nominations which did not quite make it into the Top 10 were “Pale Rider,” “Birdy” and “The Cotton Club.” Kenneth Sheat, of Dunsandel, commented: “The Killing Fields” is my choice for top movie of the year — the only film I saw twice. It captured the events accompanying the fall of Cambodia to the Khmer Rouge brilliantly. The confusion and panic during the fall of Phnom Penh was particularly realistic. In dissent, Craig Brown, of Christchurch 1, considered “The Killing Fields” the most over-rated movie of the year. He said: Somehow, perhaps because it dealt with a serious issue and contained a nightmarish scene of cadavers and bones, people were conned into thinking that this movie said something, and said it well. Congratulations to both writters for airing their strongly felt opinions. I think both deserve a double pass to any cinema of their choice. So, please get in touch with me as soon as possible. Because of the limited space, I cannot use any more comments by readers this week. However, I would like to thank everyone who contributed to making the 1985 survey possible. I intend to publish other interesting comments from readers — about various films, Christchurch cinemas, and the state of the cinema industry — in this c01u4% next week.