Welcome to an exciting year-long project here at The Nerdy. 1981 was an exciting year for films giving us a lot of films that would go on to be beloved favorites and cult classics. It was also the start to a major shift in cultural and societal norms, and some of those still reverberate to this day.
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We’re going to pick and choose which movies we hit, but right now the list stands at nearly three dozen.
Yes, we’re insane, but 1981 was that great of a year for film.
The articles will come out – in most cases – on the same day the films hit theaters in 1981 so that it is their true 40th anniversary. All films are also watched again for the purposes of these reviews and are not being done from memory. In some cases, it truly will be the first time we’ve seen them.
This time around it’s August 6, 1981, and we’re off to see Heavy Metal!
Quick side note: Since we launched this series this year, we’ve discovered that Vintage Video Podcast is doing the exact same project with two differences: First, it’s audio (naturally), and second, they are doing every major film. We’ve listened to numerous episodes and it’s fun checking off their thoughts against my own. Check them out over at Vintage Video Podcast.
Heavy Metal
Heavy Metal, to sum it up succinctly, is awesome. That really is the entire review.
Based on the famed science fiction magazine of the same name, the stories are mostly adaptations of existing stories. The Loc-Nar was added as a framing device to string them together, and it worked perectly.
As animated films go, it is just perfection and such a high mark for adult animation. And if you have never seen it, it is indeed very much an adult film with multiple nudity moments and two sex scenes. It is clearly not a film for everyone, but if you think you can put up with the adult nature, then Heavy Metal is most definitely a must watch.
I honestly have no idea how many times I’ve watched this movie over the years, and I still enjoy it just as much.
The 1981 movie reviews will return on August 14 with Deadly Blessing and They All Laughed!
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