The 100 Project: The Top 10 Movies of 1989

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1989 ...

the number another summer (get down!)

Sound of the funky drummer

Music hitting your heart 'cause I know you got sooooooooul

(Brothers and sisters, hey)

Listen if you're missin' y'all

Swingin' while I'm singin'

Givin' whatcha gettin'

Knowin' what I know

While the Black bands sweatin'

And the rhythm rhymes rollin'

Gotta give us what we want (uh)

Gotta give us what we need (hey)

Our freedom of speech is freedom or death

We got to fight the powers that be

- The opening verse to "Fight the Power" by Public Enemy

That's all I've got. That's all I need.

My Top 10 Movies of 1989

• According to my Letterboxd account I've watched 50 films released during 1989.
• Of the 10 movies I saw in theaters that year, 4 made my top 10.
• 3 of my top 10 movies are sequels.
• 3 movies have a person of color as a protagonist.
• Unfortunately, none of them are women.

10. Pet Sematary

I first saw this on its opening weekend in a packed theater and had an amazing experience. I've seen at least a half dozen times since and I still have a blast with it. Did I see other "better" movies from 1989 that are not on this list? Sure. Do I have more fun with any of them? Nope. Not at all.

9. Back to the Future II

This might be the most polarizing choice for this year. I've found that people either hate this film with a passion, or believe that it's every bit as good as the original, if not better. I'm among the latter. I love how dark it gets and how it seamlessly weaves in strands from the first movie. It gets bonus points for predicting a good number of things in that part of the future we now call the past.

8. Major League

This is one of my favorite baseball films of all-time. I'm in stitches every time I watch it even though it sticks close to sports movie conventions. That doesn't matter when something is just funny as hell. Of course, whenever I hear the song "Wild Thing" I can't help but picture Charlie Sheen walking out of the bullpen rocking a pair of nerdy looking black specs.

7. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

I'll start by saying that I liked Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom but it was a far cry from Raiders of the Lost Ark. For this one, they introduced Sean Connery, went back towards a lighter tone, and voila, got something that might be better than Raiders.

6. Glory

The obvious appeal for me is that it touches on a much under-reported aspect of the Civil War, the involvement of Black soldiers. That was only enough to get me to start watching it. The story and the emotion the cast brought to it is what drew me in. Then, when Denzel defiantly takes a whipping, eyes welling up with every drop of pride and anger built up by all his ancestors and concentrated all of it into a single tear, it became my movie.

5. Harlem Nights

As a young'un I would wait until Mama Dell wasn't home and listen to her comedy albums. Among them were several by Richard Pryor and Redd Foxx. Then Eddie Murphy hit it big with albums of his own, the now legendary Delirious special on HBO, and his stand-up film Eddie Murphy Raw. And I had just discovered Robin Harris. All of them are in this movie and make me laugh right from the start. And none of them stand a chance whenever Della Reese is on the screen.

4. Lean on Me

Joe Clark hit the news a year or two earlier, so I was aware of him as I walked into the theater that night. By the time I left, Morgan Freeman was Crazy Joe, er uh Batman, I mean Joe Clark. Throw in a theme song by all-time great Big Daddy Kane, and I couldn't help but love it. Fun fact: this movie introduced me to the word expeditiously.

3. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

The franchise movie before this one, National Lampoon's European Vacation, was great (the Griswolds stuck in a roundabout will forever be funny). The movie before that one, National Lampoon's Vacation, was even better (whose heart didn't break when they got to Walley World?). But when Christmas falls apart? That's the funniest/saddest/funniest thing ever.

2. Batman

This was THE movie event of the year. Period. The Bat Symbol started going up all over New York City, and probably the world, about a year prior. I walked by at least two of them almost every single day. I was already a Bat-fan, and this was amplifying things to unhealthy levels. Thankfully, when I saw it, it did not disappoint.

1. Do the Right Thing

This movie came out 2 weeks after I had left for the Army. By the time I had enough time to see it, a year passed. I loved it, but didn't fully grasp it because I watched it in my company's game room, a room full of drunken soldiers trying to shoot pool, play ping pong, Galaga, and/or get laid while this was playing in the background. A couple more years passed before I finally got to see it in much better conditions. It completely blew me away. Along with all the things this movie is famous for, what made it stick to me more than anything is that this is New York, almost exactly as I experienced it. Every person with any screen time is exactly like someone I remembered vividly. No exception.

Honorable Mentions (alphabetically listed): Dead Poets Society, The Little Mermaid, Road House, sex, lies, and videotape, Tango & Cash, UHF, The War of the Roses

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