An Update on Our Progress

Looks like '80s reviews are back on the menu, boys!!

314.

That’s how many movies were missing from my initial “final” list of ‘80s titles. I’ve been working on that list since the early research I did for ‘80s All Over, for something like seven years now, and there’s not a month that goes by that I haven’t done some kind of work on it to fine-tune it or dial in some new detail.

For this entire time, it’s just been a list in a document. I used that single document as the primary place where I put all my research. I’ve used all kinds of different documents to try to keep track of different things, and it’s started to get messy anyway just from my non-stop use of it. But about a month ago, some of the research I was doing led me to a reference to an obscure academic text about movies from the ‘80s, published in late 1990, and I wrestled with ordering it. Every copy I found was expensive, and I had no idea what was or wasn’t in the book. I’ve purchased dozens of books about the ‘80s over the last seven or eight years, and I’ve absorbed all of them as thoroughly as I could. It was amazing to me that there was a book that was so tied into the work I was doing and I’d never run across any mention of it before. Finding a place that had it was tricky, and finding a copy that was still in good shape even trickier.

Eventually, though, I got the book delivered to me, and I read through it. It was helpful, but it was also frustrating. There were more movies on their list than on mine, but I quickly learned that their list was not restricted to US theatrical release or to theatrical release of any kind. There were hundreds and hundreds of straight-to-video titles, tons of titles that only came out in the UK or Australia, and somehow, they were also missing hundreds of films that came out here, including almost every documentary and any foreign-language releases. I had to cross reference every single title in the book against every single title on my original list, which was compiled using newspapers, magazines, old editions of Screen World, online sources, and more. Then I had to cross reference them against my Plex server, where I had every single film from that initial list to see what I need to track down, and that process was so complicated and painstaking that I seriously considered ending the entire project.

One thing that helped was building a spread sheet. It is literally the first spread sheet I’ve ever built, and I learned a ton from doing it. I now have all 3212 films that I believe comprise my new final list in a spread sheet, where I’ve included alternate titles, release day, year, the MPAA rating if there is one, whether I’ve published a review for it yet or not, and whether I have a copy of the film available to watch. And after all of that, there were 314 films I determined I do not have at this time, and I am just now beginning the process of tracking all of them down. It will probably take a while, and I’m not sure I believe that they all exist anymore. I suspect there are a few titles I will never see, and maybe that’s okay. Maybe I have to accept that.

I have poured an insane amount of time and energy into this newsletter, which is really a dry run for the eventual books I would like to publish on each year of the decade. I feel like I’ll have to rewrite and polish most of the reviews in this series if I do ever put them out as a book, but that will be a joy compared to the sheer Sisyphean struggle of just getting all of the research nailed down. Forget about the writing. It’s the structural work, the behind the scenes grind, that really wears me down on this one, but I picked this topic and this project and I genuinely believe now that there is a need for a reference book that is going to do all of the things mine will with this decade. There is so much juice to be wrung from this particular fruit, and while I feel like this was a set back (I’m not sure I’ve even published 314 total reviews yet for this project, so it almost feels like I’ve been reset to zero, which is deeply discouraging), I also feel like I’ve gotten better at writing each issue of this thing and by the time I put the final touches on the last few reviews of 1989 (can’t wait to see you at the finish line, Kurt & Sly), I suspect I will be writing from a place of pure delirious joy at finally putting such a massive writing/research task to bed.

I am well aware that no one put a gun to my head and demanded I do this. No one owes me their subscription. You may hear that I plan to republish all of this and that might discourage you into waiting for the books. Please don’t. Your support is what’s going to get us to those eventual books, and I’d rather do this than a Kickstarter where I go away and work on something instead of presenting the whole thing to you as it is in progress. Right now, you are paying me to research and produce these reviews, and because you are doing that, I am able to spend enough time on this that there is a very real chance I will actually complete the task before the world collapses or before I drop dead.

Your support matters. Your enthusiasm matters. If you love this newsletter, tell people about it. Send them a few issues. Hell, buy them a gift subscription for a year. If that doesn’t convince them, nothing will.

I need to add at least 500 subscribers this year in order to keep this afloat. Evangelize if you like what you’re reading. The more of you there are, the more time I can spend on this particular project. I’m heading back in to finish October 1981 now, and we’ll just pick back up the schedule I’ve already discussed. For those of you who are new here, I’m going to alternate between moving forward from the end of ‘80s All Over and moving forward from the beginning of the decade. That means after October 1981, I’ll do July 1985, then November 1981, then August 1985. I’ll publish an ‘80s Roulette title every Sunday, too, because I love the way that allows us to jump around the entire decade.

It sounds chaotic… and it is, honestly. But it’s going to keep things interesting, and I hope that means you’ll keep reading. As always, thank you for your time and your attention.