Movies of 1981
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- DirectorHugh HudsonStarsBen CrossIan CharlesonNicholas FarrellTwo British track athletes, one a determined Jew and the other a devout Christian, are driven to win in the 1924 Olympics as they wrestle with issues of pride and conscience.
- DirectorMark RydellStarsKatharine HepburnHenry FondaJane FondaNorman is a curmudgeon with an estranged relationship with his daughter Chelsea. At Golden Pond, he and his wife nevertheless agree to care for Billy, the son of Chelsea's new boyfriend, and a most unexpected relationship blooms.
- DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsHarrison FordKaren AllenPaul FreemanIn 1936, archaeologist and adventurer Indiana Jones is hired by the U.S. government to find the Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis can obtain its awesome powers.
- DirectorWarren BeattyStarsWarren BeattyDiane KeatonEdward HerrmannA radical American journalist becomes involved with the Communist revolution in Russia, and hopes to bring its spirit and idealism to the United States.
- DirectorIstván SzabóStarsKlaus Maria BrandauerIldikó BánságiKrystyna JandaIn early-1930s Germany, a passionate stage actor faces a dilemma: renounce his apolitical stance and comply with the Reich's doctrine, or face oblivion. But, Faustian bargains never end well. What is the price of success?
- DirectorMarkus ImhoofStarsTina EngelHans DiehlMartin WalzDuring World War II, Switzerland severely limited refugees: "Our boat is full." A train from Germany halts briefly in an isolated corner of Switzerland. Six people jump off seeking asylum: four Jews, a French child, and a German soldier. They seek temporary refuge with a couple who run a village inn. They pose as a family: the deserter as husband, Judith as his wife, an old man from Vienna as her father, his granddaughter and the French lad, whom they beg to keep silent, as their children. Judith's teenage brother poses as a soldier. The fabrication unravels through chance and the local constable's exact investigation. Whom will the Swiss allow to stay? Who gets deported?
- DirectorAndrzej WajdaStarsJerzy RadziwilowiczKrystyna JandaMarian OpaniaA few years after the events of Man of Marble (1977), a journalist investigates Mateusz Birkut's son Maciek Tomczyk, now an activist leading a shipyard strike.
- DirectorKôhei OguriStarsTakahiro TamuraMariko KagaNobutaka AsaharaIn post-War Japan, a boy from a noodle store-owning family befriends a neighboring boy living in poverty.
- DirectorFrancesco RosiStarsPhilippe NoiretMichele PlacidoVittorio MezzogiornoThree men face their mother's death.
- DirectorArnold SchwartzmanStarsElizabeth TaylorOrson WellesSimon WiesenthalOrson Welles and Elizabeth Taylor compassionately narrate this harrowing documentary about Jewish persecution in Nazi Germany, which soon turned into a notoriously industrious plan to wipe them from existence.
- DirectorJim BurroughsStarsJim BurroughsThe film chronicles the Mariel boatlift in 1980 and follows a year in the life of Cuban refugees.
- DirectorKen BurnsStarsPaul RoeblingJulie HarrisArthur MillerThis documentary chronicles the world-famous Brooklyn Bridge in New York City. The difficult construction process is described in interesting detail; later parts of the film interview current notables who describe the effects that the Brooklyn Bridge has had upon New York society and beyond.
- DirectorMary BenjaminStarsHelen Caldicott
- DirectorGlenn SilberTeté VasconcellosStarsEnrique AlvarezJohn A. BushnellTerence CookeExamines the origins of the civil war in El Salvador and the US involvement in it, echoing memories of the prior Eastern Asia wars and America involved conflicts in Korea and Vietnam.
- DirectorNigel NobleStarsAmy IsraelA chorus of 4th- and 5th-graders at the Brooklyn Friends School and a chorus of elderly retirees at a Brooklyn Jewish seniors' center combine to give an annual joint concert. Practicing separately for several months while communicating only as pen pals, they eventually meet for a rehearsal prior to their concert. The children's various preconceptions about older people, as well as the seniors' approach to aging and their young co-performers, are a principal focus.
- DirectorObie BenzStarsEdward AsnerCarlos FuentesPeggy HealeyA close examination of American military intervention in Nicaragua, Guatemala, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Chile and El Salvador.
- DirectorDick YoungStarsJoel CragerDrought, desert, famine. Half the world's population must daily take a thirsty journey in search of water for survival, a search made even more difficult because the water they do find will almost certainly be contaminated.
- This film features interviews with a number of hearing-impaired women, often in their homes, where the lighting is unusually dark.
- DirectorRoland HalléOwner-builders share the experience of building their own homes. The different phases of construction provide a background for the more human issues: stress, confidence, and control of one's own life.
- DirectorShelley LevinsonStarsDidi ConnPatrick DollaghanRodney SaulsberryBadly scarred in a childhood accident, Violet boards a bus in North Carolina on a pilgrimage to Oklahoma to visit a TV preacher, the one that heals. On the bus, she meets two soldiers on their way to Fort Smith.
- DirectorClare PeploeStarsFrances LowRik MayallPeter EyreTwo couples - one with all the riches that dreams are made of, the other with only dreams and schemes - are brought together by the plotting of the poorer couple. A pair of newlyweds wander through the city streets, bickering about their poverty, until they are distracted by the opulent home of a lawyer. Impulsively, the couple makes off with the lawyer's vehicle for one night of extravagant indulgence.
- DirectorJohn N. SmithStarsKathleen McAuliffeSharon O'NiellEric Patrick GodfreyWith the father away, an Irish immigrant family struggle to survive their first winter in the Canadian wild.
- DirectorFrédéric BackThe industrialization of Montreal (Canada), as seen from the point of view of a rocking-chair.
- DirectorJanet PerlmanCinderella has to stay home while her evil stepsisters go to the ball. You know the rest except everyone here is a penguin (even the mice that become the "horses") and the lost slipper is more like a swimming flipper.
- DirectorWill VintonStarsJames Earl JonesThe film is based on a poem by James Weldon Johnson depicting the power of the southern black American preacher's telling of the biblical creation story.