Chariots of Fire (1981)

A drama based on the true story of two British athletes in the 1924 Olympics. Eric Liddell (Ian Charleson) is a devout Scottish Christian running to honour God, while Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross) runs to overcome prejudice about his Judaism. Their stories are told in parallel, until they converge.  

Nigel Havers, Ian Holm, John Gielgud also star.

The film hasn’t dated especially well, but the synth soundtrack by Vangelis is excellent and I like the fact that the sci-fi synth tones jar with the 1920s visuals. 

Overall, I was disappointed. I'd expected something much more stirring and inspirational. Instead, the drama seems flat and the middle of the film really sags. The slow-motion effect is wildly over-used, becoming clichéd and almost almost comical. And, unfortunately, when Harold wins his all-important race it’s filmed and directed in a way that seems oddly anticlimactic.

The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981)

Romantic drama adapted by Harold Pinter from the John Fowles novel and directed by Karel Reisz. 

Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons play two couples: one in Victorian times and one in the present day. They are different people but their relationships, then and now, have many parallels exploring the nature of obsessive love. 

I’m not entirely convinced that the interweaving of the two stories works. Both would have been enough for a film in themselves, and the present-day narrative is sketchier, meaning that motivations and character are less fleshed out. Also, it's distracting that the some of the same actors (but not all of them) appear in both stories, but in unrelated roles that I imagined would be connected. I would have hoped to see more of Penelope Wilton (who bafflingly only appears in one of the two tales), but that might just be because I like Penelope Wilton. 

Despite some tricksy aspects, it’s compelling and the acting is first rate. 

Escape from New York (1981)

It’s 1997 and Manhattan has been turned into a maximum-security prison because crime has risen by 400%. A convict named Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) is recruited by Lee Van Cleef to rescue the US President (Donald Pleasence), who is trapped there by a gangland boss (Isaac Hayes). 

It’s an exciting romp, blending action-thriller and sci- fi. The “futuristic” sets are generally impressive and the pace never lets up. Script-wise it’s fairly underwhelming, but then you probably wouldn’t watch it for the dialogue. 

Ernest Borgnine plays an irritating cabbie, while Harry Dean Stanton plays an engineer nicknamed "Brain".

Director John Carpenter provides the music himself, and it’s pretty good.

Das Boot (1981)

This masterpiece, written and directed by Wolfgang Petersen, details the experiences of the captain and crew of a German U-boat in 1941. 

Hugely atmospheric, it perfectly captures the claustrophobia of being on a submarine for weeks on end. It’s incredibly tense, too. Interludes of boredom for the crew alternative with highly charged action sequences. The seemingly endless moments in which the sub prowls the sea listening for movement and avoiding enemy depth charges are quite terrifying. 

The interior set is entirely convincing, and the scenes in which they run the length of the submarine are brilliantly shot. The external shots are noticeably less “real”-looking, but they still work.

Jürgen Prochnow is superb as the captain, bringing out a multi-dimensional aspect to his character. Herbert Grönemeyer as great as Werner, who has been sent to observe and document the mission. Klaus Wennemann is perfectly cast as the chief engineer – a sympathetic character, whose relationship with the captain is explored with sensitivity. Their understated performances make them easy to believe in and relate to. 

There are poignant moments, too. It’s heartbreaking when you see how many letters one of the crew has written to his sweetheart and not been able to send.

This director’s cut runs to over 200 minutes and is probably the best war film I have seen.

For Your Eyes Only (1981)

There are a few unusual things about this James Bond film. For a start you see the performer of the song in the title sequence – in this case Sheena Easton. Secondly, the film ends with Margaret and Dennis Thatcher taking a phone call from a parrot they believe to be James Bond. Impersonators Janet Brown and John Wells play the pair, and it’s a genuinely funny scene, but it’s certainly not what you expect from a film in this series.

For Your Eyes Only is slightly grittier than the daft Moonraker, and it’s one of the more watchable Roger Moore films.

Topol is easy to like as the nut-guzzling Milos Columbo, while Carole Bouquet is fairly good as Melina Havelock. Julian Glover is the unspectacular villain Aristotle Kristatos. The subplot about Bibi Dahl (Lynn-Holly Johnson), the young ice skater, is somewhat baffling and could have been cut entirely.

The skiing and rock-climbing sequences are fairly exciting, as is the underwater battle in a sunken ship filled with corpses. Also good to see Bond and his girlfriend pottering about in a submersible.

As if all that wasn’t enough, some of the action scenes are accompanied by funky music.

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Finally saw this on TV, 37 years after it came out. Disappointing. It’s a good-natured swashbuckling romp that veers on pantomime in places (daft running around and escape scenes, camp bald man who takes off his shirt to have a fight, a monkey who works for the Nazis), with cartoonish violence (like James Bond, Indiana Jones can be sprayed by machine-gun fire and never be hurt). There’s also queasily intrusive music by John Williams, who lazily recycles his themes from other films (including Star Wars). On the plus side, Harrison Ford is always watchable (he was at the height of his good looks) and Karen Allen is impressive as the love interest Marion Ravenwood. The ending is utterly preposterous, with the semi-realist narrative suddenly turning supernatural. As with all Steven Spielberg films except for Duel and Jaws, I couldn’t quite see what all the fuss was about.