Ain’t It Cool News has been posting a series of articles in honor of their 10th anniversary. These articles are focusing on the films from 1982 that made a difference in contributors’ lives.

Kicking it off right is 25 Years Ago – The Best Genre Year Ever, Part I: Nordling Remembers E.T.

This is so spot on. I too cried like a little girl as [b]E.T.[/b] was dying and Elliott was perking up. Okay, you can call me a pussy, but there was not a dry eye in the theater when I saw this the first time…or the second time…or the third. I won’t go into the whole story of the first time I saw this film since it so closely parallels the story above. But there are a few things that I recall so well. First, I saw this with my cousin Scott after my last day of 5th grade. This was the last day of school before the long summer and in September would come my adventure that was middle school (Scott is a couple years older than me). For me, this was sort of an “end of the innocence” moment that I think actually added to the lasting effect that E.T. had on my life.

Like Nordling, I too had seen Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Raiders of the Lost Ark and fallen in love with the films that Spielberg had created. And of course, we were all waiting for the third Star Wars movie that we knew would cap the trilogy and blow us away, but this was a whole summer away…forever in the eyes of an 11 year old.

I too was nuts about movies – crazy about the places they could take me and the things they could make me feel. This was also a time in my life when my understanding of the world around me was expanding. I was able to make some sense of politics and comprehend that we were on the edge of nuclear war – something that would really hit home the following year when War Games came to theaters and The Day After was aired on network TV – so the escape from reality was welcome.

Here’s a list of some of the films that I saw in 1982 and a short note about some of the more memorable ones:

• Blade Runner – I didn’t get it at the time, but this is now one of my favorites
• E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
• The World According To Garp – for some reason, I asked my mom to take me to see this but it was way over my head.
• The Elephant Man – I was obsesses with the Elephant Man, too
• Fast Times At Ridgemont High – My main thought was “Do kids really act like this?” Oh, and “what did Stacey have done at the clinic?”
• Poltergeist – this could be a separate posting in and of itself
• The Secret Of Nimh
• Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan – still the best of the Trek films
• Conan The Barbarian – My mom fell asleep at this one, but I loved every minute of it
• Creepshow – this started my Stephen King obsession
• The Dark Crystal – who doesn’t love Muppets?
• The Secret Policeman’s Other Ball – Monty Python did live shows?
• The Thing – who doesn’t love aliens that take over peoples’ bodies?
• First Blood
• Firefox
• Night Shift
• Pink Floyd: The Wall
• Tron – another obsession
• Enter The Ninja – this would be an obsession a few years later
• Young Doctors in Love
• Cellar Dwellers
• Airplane 2: The Sequel
• Android
• Beastmaster
• The Challenge
• Friday The 13th Part 3 – my sister brought Scott and I to see this and then she had the bright idea to take us out fishing at 11 o’clock at night
• Halloween 3
• Hear No Evil
• The Last American Virgin – I went with my sister to see this one too
• Rocky III
• The Slayer
• Swamp Thing

I could probably write something substantial about each of these, but I just don’t have the time. What an amazing year that was for movies!