80s Movies: Flashdance

What a feeling we got watching Flashdance for the very first time back in 1983. This film had a profound impact on 80s style and altered the public’s perception of dancers and women, and specifically of women dancers. Oh, and it’s one of the best 80s classic movies.

Like many 80s movies, the film came with a theme song (“Flashdance… What a Feeling” by Irene Cara) that rocked up the charts and became one of the iconic hits of the decade.

Flashdance also changed the face of the musical, ushering in a filmmaking style in which music and dance is heavily featured but the performers don’t break out into singing at random points throughout the film. Instead, Flashdance gave us a more realistic twist on what a musical could be. And unlike most musicals, the film opted for gritty dance performances over traditional corny musical numbers.

80s Movies, Music, and Dance

Music and dance were essential components of many 80s movies. You had to have the big theme song, which got plenty of radio play and made soundtrack sales.

Some films were lucky enough to slip a few additional hits onto the soundtrack. Flashdance was one such film as the Flashdance Original Soundtrack also boasted hit song “Maniac” by Michael Sembello. Both the title track and “Maniac” reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1983, the year the film was released.

The dance numbers in the film were modeled after music videos, which were a relatively new phenomenon back in the early 80s.

80s Movies and Success

Flashdance marked the first collaboration for producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, who would go on to to make other 80s movies that were blockbusters like Top Gun and Beverly Hills Cop.

When Flashdance first came out, the critical reviews were poor, but audiences loved it, and it became a box office smash, earning over $100 million.

Soon, girls were mimicking the fashion of the film, ripping their sweatshirt collars off and wearing them hanging off one shoulder, as is depicted in the movie’s poster. One particular performance in the movie, to the song “Maniac,” became iconic and has since been parodied, spoofed, and even attributed in a 2003 Jennifer Lopez music video.

In time, Flashdance came to symbolize 80s movies, packed with hot hits, cool fashion, and plenty of dance, plus a great storyline and highly sympathetic characters.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!