The Humanity of Movies from the 1980s

I often discuss the negative impacts that pop culture media can have on people's attitudes and opinions.

But, if entertainment can propagate harmful ideas, then it stands to reason that it can also have positive effects on our lives.

So in this video, I want to focus on media that fosters empathy and solidarity.

Now admittedly, that's a pretty broad category, so to narrow it down,

I'll be highlighting a handful of my favorite movies from my most formative years: the 1980s.

Looking at Hollywood today, it's pretty clear that the 1980s are back in a big way.

The current nostalgia craze is largely driven by Hollywood's obsession with remakes,

reboots, sequels, and loving homages to popular 80s franchises.

The apex of this wave of nostalgia comes in the form of the novel turned blockbuster 'Ready Player One'.

PARZIVAL (WADE): "I was born in 2025.

But I wish I'd grown up in the 1980s."

Ernest Cline's book, and by extension the film,

is built around a long list of superficial and rather ostentatious references

to geeky pop culture entertainment.

As a boy who grew up in the 1980s,

most of the media that's name-dropped in Ready Player One I remember well.

The Goonies, Gremlins, Weird Science, Tron, Back to the Future; I watched them all.

But thinking back to my childhood,

the cinematic moments that had the most profound impact on me and my emotional development,

weren't necessarily from the most popular or iconic movies.

The movie scenes that left the biggest impression on my young mind

were unapologetically sappy and sentimental.

ANNE-MARIE: "Goodbye Charlie. I love you."

They're the moments that still put a lump in my throat; the ones that make my eyes water and my heart swell.

ROCKBITER: "They look like big, good, strong hands, don't they?"

Movie critic Roger Ebert once said that movies are empathy-generating machines.

By which he meant that we as viewers identify with the characters on the screen,

and that helps us understand experiences and perspectives other than our own.

Movies can also affirm the human spirit by showing us examples of what empathy and solidarity look like.

Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings or emotions of others.

Now, it's important to note that empathy

isn't just feeling bad for the misfortunes of other people; empathy is about feeling what others are feeling.

Solidarity is when people from diverse backgrounds find a common cause,

and then work together to achieve social change.

You can think of solidarity as empathy put into collective action.

So with those two definitions in mind, here's my personal list of 5

lesser-known movies from the 1980s that helped shape our humanity.

'The Journey of Natty Gann' chronicles the adventures of a young woman and her canine companion

as they hop freight trains from Chicago to Washington State in a quest to find her father.