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Celebrating both the biggest hits and the most obscure releases of 1980s cinema, focused primarily around exploring the narratives of under‑seen distributors, niche genres, and overlooked classics.
Episodes
Friday Dec 24, 2021
Friday Dec 24, 2021
On this episode, film critic and historian Edward A. Havens III takes his Wayback Machine back forty years, to look back at the movies you could have seen after Christmas dinner in 1981.
Read the rest of this entry »Thursday Dec 09, 2021
Thursday Dec 09, 2021
This episode continues an irregular series that takes a look back at a minor cinematic phenomenon that happened more often in the 1980s than in any other decade: the one-time-only distribution company.
Read the rest of this entry »Thursday Nov 25, 2021
Thursday Nov 25, 2021
This episode begins an irregular series that will take a look back at a minor cinematic phenomenon that happened more often in the 1980s than in any other decade: a one-time-only distribution company.
Read the rest of this entry »Thursday Nov 11, 2021
Thursday Nov 11, 2021
On this very special episode of the podcast, we discuss the life, career, and death of Alan Smithee, one of the most prolific filmmakers of the 1980s... who never actually directed a film, or, really, ever even existed. It's a twisted tale of incompetence, greed, and saving face.
Read the rest of this entry »Thursday Oct 28, 2021
Thursday Oct 28, 2021
In this very special episode, we do something that only 13,948 other podcasts have already done or are in the process of doing this week: taking a look back at the Halloween movies.
Read the rest of this entry »Thursday Oct 14, 2021
Thursday Oct 14, 2021
In this episode, we discuss the career of one of the best filmmakers to come out of 80s cinema: Scottish filmmaker Bill Forsyth.
Oh, you've never heard of him? Or you're only familiar with one of his films? Join us on a cinematic journey through the career of a filmmaker who regularly revisited themes of loneliness, isolation, and alienation, and made them hilarious, touching, and poignant.
Read the rest of this entry »Thursday Aug 19, 2021
Thursday Aug 19, 2021
On this very special episode of The FilmJerk Podcast, we talk not about a specific movie or filmmaker or actor or distribution company, but of a moviegoing concept that was huge in the 1980s but has all but disappeared from the movie-going landscape: the dollar house. AKA the discount house, the bargain house, and the second run theatre.
Wednesday Jul 21, 2021
Wednesday Jul 21, 2021
As we conclude our multi-part miniseries, The United Film Distribution Company, one of the first distributors to be operated by a motion picture exhibition company, has become Taurus Entertainment, and will go on one of the worst runs of film releases any distribution company has ever had.
Read the rest of this entry »Thursday Jul 08, 2021
Thursday Jul 08, 2021
We continue our multi-part miniseries on The United Film Distribution Company and Taurus Entertainment, one of the first distributors to be operated by a motion picture exhibition company. This week, we talk about several of their biggest successes, including Mark L. Lester's Class of 1984, Richard Hiltzik's Sleepaway Camp, and the Gone With the Wind of zombie movies, George A. Romero's Day of the Dead.
Read the rest of this entry »Wednesday Jun 23, 2021
Wednesday Jun 23, 2021
We begin a multi-part miniseries on The United Film Distribution Company and Taurus Entertainment, one of the first distributors to be operated by a motion picture exhibition company, who teamed with filmmaker George A. Romero to produce and/or distribute several of his most popular and enduring movies, including Dawn of the Dead and Creepshow.
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