Leaving bleak behind

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Friday, June 23rd. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day. Good morning. I’m Myrna Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: What comes to mind when you think of movies from 1983? Quirky, upbeat soundtracks? Like this, from National Lampoon’s Vacation? The Ramones!

MUSIC: Hey ho, let’s go!

Well, it’s been 40 years since then, so let’s go! down memory lane.

MUSIC: Let’s go!

Here’s film reviewer Max Belz.

MAX BELZ: The 70s saw a long run of bleak movies.

MONTAGE: [Forget it, Jake. It’s Chinatown. It’s not personal, Sonny. It’s strictly business.]

But the 80s dawned with a new president and fresh optimism.

REAGAN: Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.

And the movies began reflecting that hopeful outlook.

SKYWALKER: Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You’re my only hope.

Three films that embody that 80s-era optimism turn 40 years old this year. If you need a break from the current fare at the theater, check out one of these classic movies from 1983.

MAC: You see, I don’t trust happiness. Never did, I never will.

The premise of Tender Mercies sounds despairing, but the story is one of redemption. Robert Duvall earned an Academy Award for his role as washed-up alcoholic country singer Mac Sledge who befriends a widow named Rosa Lee—played by Tess Harper.

ROSA LEE: Every night when I say my prayers and I thank the Lord for his blessings and his tender mercies to me, you and Sonny hit the list.

Rosa Lee hires Mac to help at her gas station while he sobers up. Thanks to her quiet care and love, Mac turns his life around and it’s not long before they are married.

ROSA: Would you sing the song you wrote to me?

MAC: Well, it’s no good.

ROSA: I sure would like to hear it.

Even though Mac resolves to reform his ways, he must reckon with the pain he sowed in his previous life as a star.

MUSIC: Maybe you’re the only dream I’ve ever had that’s come true.

The movie succeeds in painting this portrait without being sentimental.

Psalm 145 verse 9 (KJV) inspired the title of screenwriter Horton Foote's script: “The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.” Rosa Lee is a woman of dignity and Tender Mercies is a dignified movie.

MUSIC: [Jakarta by Maurice Jarre]

For our next movie, we go to Indonesia.

In The Year of Living Dangerously, Mel Gibson stars as Guy Hamilton, an Australian news reporter working in Jakarta in 1965. Hamilton and local photographer Billy Kwon document the final days before a coup d'etat. Political tensions mount between Communists and a nationalistic movement during the unsteady rule of president Sikarhno.

KWAN: Why don’t you tell them a true story, gentlemen. Why don’t you tell them that Sikarhno makes empty speeches and builds monuments to his vanity while his people are starving to death? Why don’t you tell them that he says eat rats!?

MAN: My dear Billy, you were the one who told us he was a great man.

KWAN: He was. He was. That’s why his betrayal is so hideous.

This national unrest is the background for a love story between Hamilton and British embassy worker Jilly, played by a blithe Sigourney Weaver.

KWAN: This is my special friend Jilly Bryant.

BRYANT: Hello.

KWAN: Guy Hamilton.

MAN: Drinks all around!

Paranoia and betrayal plague the characters while the large nation with its deep cultural identity considers the threats from within.

Will the Indonesian way of life endure the political chaos? The Year of Living Dangerously explores this question even as its main characters figure out whom they can trust.

Director Peter Weir, known for The Truman Show, weaves a hopeful, love story amidst the civil strife.

HAMILTON: You want to stick around here and wait for him?

BRYANT: No, thank you. I’ve interrupted you.

HAMILTON: Oh, I’m glad you did.

Finally, we have The Right Stuff.

MUSIC: [Breaking the Sound Barrier - Bill Conti]

This movie is based on the book by Tom Wolfe … and it may be the cheeriest tale of '83. It’s the epic story of the first crew of astronauts and their rapid rise to celebrity and heroism as part of Project Mercury.

NEWSREEL: At secret locations throughout America, 56 of our greatest pilots are at this very moment vying to be chosen as one of the first men to go into space.

The astronauts' story parallels the story of Chuck Yeager—played by Sam Shepherd. Yeager earned his place in history with his quest to break air speed records, first piercing the sound barrier in 1947.

YEAGER: Make another note here, wouldya? Must be something wrong with this old meter. Shows I’m off the scale.

He's a cowboy philosopher stuck out in the desert listening on the radio as his contemporaries' enter space and keep pace with the Russians.

MAN: That guy in the corner. Yeager’s his name. He’s some kind of war hero. Shot down five Germans in one day. They say he’s a natural born stick and rudder man. He’s the press liaison man for the Air Force, I think.

MAN 2: Do you know any problems with him?

MAN: Only one.

MAN 2: What’s that?

MAN: Holding him back.

Ed Harris plays the part of John Glenn. Glenn’s devotion to his wife Annie is an inspiring subplot.

JOHN: Annie, if you don’t want the vice president or the TV networks or anybody else to come into the house, then that’s it and I will back you up all the way one hundred percent on this and you tell them that. Ok?

ANNIE: [Giggles] Ok.

JOHN: Alright?

ANNIE: Yes.

At 192 minutes, The Right Stuff is pretty long, but it’s worth it. The movie seamlessly switches between newsreel footage and the original cinematography. The movie also captures some of the zaniness of Wolfe’s book, which caricatures the American press and politicians. One content caution: The Right Stuff earned a PG rating back in 1983, but the movie has some profanity that could get it an R rating today.

Nevertheless, it's an incredible story about American grit and ingenuity. A story with quite ordinary beginnings in the Mojave Desert to extraordinary results in space.

MUSIC: [Yeager’s Triumph]

I’m Max Belz.

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