Welcome to an exciting year-long project here at The Nerdy. 1982 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 four dozen.
Yes, we’re insane, but 1982 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 1982 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 September 3, 1982, and we’re off to see Concrete Jungle.
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.
Concrete Jungle
Whenever I hear a movie is part of the “women in prison” (WiP) sub-genre of films, I just immediately roll my eyes. Imagine my surprise when I found myself actually engrossed in Concrete Jungle.
The film follows Elizabeth (Tracy Bergman) as she becomes an unsuspecting drug mule for her boyfriend, Danny (Peter Brown). She gets caught and sent to prison where she quickly has to learn to survive in a world she doesn’t understand.
The WiP staples are usually tons of nudity and salacious scenes. While there is one insanely stupid prison yard fight towards the end which turns into mud wrestling, the rest of the film is played fairly straightforwardly and you find yourself rooting for Elizabeth.
If you’re curious about WiP films, you can enter this one pretty safely, but it certainly isn’t what you will find from the rest of the films in this style. And it’s certainly not a great film, but I didn’t walk away questioning my life choices (for once).
And the best news, if you look around on certain popular video sites, you can watch it for free if you like.
1982 Movie Reviews will return on Sept. 10 with Endangered Species and Starstruck!
