1982: The Greatest Geek Year Ever!, 2023.
Directed by Roger Lay Jr.
Featuring Ron Howard, Paul Schrader, John Sayles, Amy Heckerling, Henry Winkler, William Shatner, Sean Young, Joanna Cassidy, Keith David, Cameron Crowe, Michael Deeley, Lisa Henson, Dean Devlin, Bruce Campbell, Dee Wallace, Felicia Day, Susan Seidelman, Roger Corman, Barry Bostwick, Marc Singer, Bryan Fuller, Leonard Maltin, and Mike Medavoy.
SYNOPSIS:
Get ready for warp-speed nostalgia with 1982: The Greatest Geek Year Ever!, a nearly three-hour documentary about what was arguably one of the greatest years for cinema in general, and genre films in specific. MVD Rewind has brought it to home video in a Blu-ray edition that includes plenty of extra footage, a San Diego Comic Con panel, and a pair of commentary tracks. Highly recommended.
“Nostalgia is a dangerous thing.” A friend made that comment a while back in a Discord server for our writers group. Specifically, we were talking about Ready Player One, a novel we both found lacking, but I didn’t get a chance to ask him to elaborate on that notion.
He tends to want to cut against the grain as much as possible, though, so I’d imagine that was his typical knee-jerk reaction to anything that becomes trendy. And, yes, nostalgia for the 80s has become oh-so-trendy in recent years.
Which brings me to 1982: The Greatest Geek Year Ever!, a wonderful documentary about a year that brought us so many great movies, including E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, The Thing, The Dark Crystal, Blade Runner, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Tron, and so much more.
Lest you think this documentary is all about genre movies from 1982, however, it also focuses on Fast Times at Ridgemont High (I agree with the assessment that that movie was more than just a romp aimed at horny teenagers), Tootsie, An Officer and a Gentleman, Gandhi, Missing, 48 Hrs., and other movies that had varying degrees of gravitas and/or humor.
Was it truly the greatest geek year ever? Well, I find it interesting that a year in which a Star Wars movie wasn’t released could have that title, but it was still a damn fine 12 months for theatergoers. I was 12 years old at the time, so I was the prime age for so many of that year’s genre films, and I later discovered a lot of 1982’s non-genre films on my own. (One oversight I recently rectified: I watched The Year of Living Dangerously for the first time; it’s another film that gets a few minutes of time in this documentary.)
As you can see from the list of people interviewed for this documentary above (and there are many more beyond that, including several film critics who also grew up in that era), this is an exhaustive look at that year. It originally aired as the four-part Greatest Geek Year Ever: 1982 on The CW in July 2023, and now it’s available on Blu-ray, courtesy of MVD Rewind Collection.
This documentary is well worth a watch for anyone who wants to indulge in a bit of nostalgia (in a dangerous way, I suppose, if my friend was reading this). While it does touch on subjects that have been discussed to death, such as the infamous E.T. videogame for the Atari 2600 and the question of how much Steven Spielberg was involved in the filming of Poltergeist, it also finds its way into little nooks and crannies you may not have known about before.
For example, there’s a wonderful story about Orson Welles recording a radio commercial for Conan the Barbarian and refusing to read the part about the rating before being tricked into reading it anyway. They even give some love (you could argue, too much love) to the goofy, ridiculous movie Megaforce and get star Barry Bostwick to go along with the joke.
1982: The Greatest Geek Year Ever! runs two hours and 45 minutes, so you’ll definitely have your fill of nostalgia by the time it’s done, but this Blu-ray disc also includes 40 minutes of deleted and extended scenes, along with nearly 17 minutes of fans talking about their favorite movies from that year.
In addition, there’s a great 28-minute panel from the 2022 San Diego Comic Con, along with two commentary tracks, one with director/producer Roger Lay, Jr. and writer/producer Mark A. Altman, and the other with Altman and producers Scott Mantz and Thomas P. Vitale. Given what a labor of love this documentary had to be, both commentaries are worthwhile listens.
The trailer rounds out the platter, and MVD even tossed in a mini poster, double-sided sleeve artwork, and a slipcover.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Brad Cook
