The eighties were a decacade of both very good and very bad fantasy films. I suppose that it's best to focus on the best, though, so here are the best fantasy films of the 80s.

1. Ladyhawke, directed by Richard Donner (1985). Ladyhawke is a magnificent film. It is a fable about a man who is a wolf at night, and the lady he loves who is a hawk during the day. The two are joined by a rascally thief and a failed cleric who assist them in breaking the curse. Yes, it has a really cheasy eighties soundtrack, but so do most of the films here. And the special effects are pretty timid by today's standards. What it does have, in delicious excess, is talent. Pfeiffer is luminous and tragically understated. Hauer is his big, bad ol' heroic best. But the standout performance is given my Matthew Broderick, the man whio looks like he's perpetually seventeen years old. His Phillippe Gaston, "The Mouse," is a very unique and memorable character. His debates with God, his unshakable faith and his whimsical bravado are the brilliant high points of this wonderful film.

2. Willow, directed by Ron Howard (1988). Ron Howard is at his best, here, with a film about a would-be diminutive wizard who rescues a baby with the help of a rascal. They face incredible odds, pig-headed bluster, an evil witch that rivals mailficent, and some brownies who are anything but helpful. The special effects are pretty decent, and the screenplay, penned by no other Lucas himself. Val Kilmer is very good as a swashbuckler, not at all bogged down by his sometimes effeminate performances (like in the Batman film or in the Morrison bio-pic). Billy Barty also stands out as an old wizard.

3. Filed of Dreams, directed by Phil Robinson, (1989). This is a gentle and insightful film about faith and inspiration. Costner is sensitive as a man driven by an absurd compulsion to build a baseball field, for, "If you build it, they will come."

4. Highlander, directed by Russell Mulcahy (1986). "There can only be one," became a franchise of sequels and tv series. This film is gritty and its special effects are the minimalist variety favored by the new age of directors coming out of the mean seventies. Christopher Lambert's accent is hard to follow, and he seems the most unbelievable Scott of all time. Only slightly more preposterous is Seon Connery as a spaniard. But the swordplay is terrific, and the villain, played by Clancy Brown, is monstrous! Monstrously good, at least.

5. Conan the Barbarian, directed by John Milius (1982) and Conan the Destroyer, directed by Richard Fleicher (1984). These two films exceded the glorious muscle-epics of the 40's in their testosterone swordplay and their muscle-bound drunkenness. But aside from some unintentional humor, these films have little to recommend them aside from a significantly quirky cast. Their plots are disjointed and adrenaline-driven scripts of a really dumb role-playing game. But there is a lot in these films that would appeal to a cult fan or MST3000. The Governator, Ahr-nold Schwartenegger is a phenomenally bad actor, but he is such a caricature of a warrior, that he fits the role he is playing ideally. The greatest flaw, to many minds, in these films is the way they digress from Howard's vision.

There were many other fantasy films made in the 80s, but these 5 are a perfect representation of what this sad decade had to offer. It was a mishmash of pessimism and frolick, excess and paucity. It was fueled on evangelistic fervor and cocaine-hallucinations. It was, above all, a time when we were so happy we wept.

Learn more about this author, John Devera.
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