KSR Best Movie Ever Bracket (Post 1980 Edition)

OK it is that time of year again…as we head into the Dog Days of Summer, thoughts turn to topics that don’t solely include UK Sports. And with that in mind, the radio show begins the summer Bracket chatter with our first ever attempt to pick the KSR Radio Best Movie Bracket Contest. Now we have thought about undergoing such an endeavor in the past, but a number of things have gotten in the way, most importantly the fact that not everyone has seen every movie. So with that in mind, I tried to limit the scope to pick the KSR Best Movie under these criteria:

1. All Movies Since 1980

Look I know people love Casablanca, On the Waterfront, Citizen Kane and a host of other movies from another generation. That is nice. And it is very likely that the 1970s produced the best decade of movies of all-time. But I am looking for a contest that virtually everyone can participate in…the 1980s seemed like a good starting point.

2. Movie Must Be Well-Known and Watched by Many

I am in no way going to try and argue that these are the BEST movies since 1980. There have undoubtedly been many that have higher quality than most on this list and I could do a complete different bracket with just the movies that I prefer. But I wanted to pick movies tha most everyone has seen, and thus this list seems to work best.

3. No Comedies Are on the List

I realized as I began that comedies are hard to compare to other movies…how is “Billy Madison” like “Schindler’s List?” It isn’t. So we will do those in another bracket at another time. Where a movie could have a couple of labels (like “Lost in Translation”), I went with what I thought was the best description.

So the 64 movies below are what I have come up with…there are very few superhero movies because I haven’t seen many of them and am not really into them (sorry). Movies with many sequels, even the good ones, are combined into one listing. The 64 below make up my first stab at the list…the radio show tomorrow will give people a chance to replace one movie off the list with another one if they can make a good case for it. My guess is a few will be able to, so once that is finished, we will have the final list to put into a bracket for the shows on Thursday and Friday. The list below is not in any order beyond decades and wont be the four brackets. Let the movie watching begin:

Indiana Jones
ET
Star Wars
Back to the Future
Die Hard
Rocky
Batman
Platoon
Top Gun
Braveheart
Do the Right Thing
Karate Kid
Goonies
Gremlins
Full Metal Jacket
Terminator

Titanic
Raging Bull
Con Air
Forrest Gump
Shawshank Redemption
Pulp Fiction
Blair Witch Project
Boyz N the Hood
Fight Club
Good Will Hunting
Matrix
Usual Suspects
Saving Private Ryan
Fargo
Goodfellas
Seven

Lord of the Rings
Departed
Traffic
There Will be Blood
Gladiator
Hurt Locker
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Dark Knight
Lost in Translation
Almost Famous
Cast Away
No Country for Old Men
Tombstone
Avatar
Gangs of New York
Walk the Line

Scarface
Field of Dreams
Heat
Jurassic Park
Silence of the Lambs
Boogie Nights
Harry Potter
Kill Bill
American Psycho
Gravity
Zero Dark Thirty
Nightcrawler
Wolf of Wall Street
Gone Girl
Schindler’s List
The Shining