4. Saturday Night Fever (1977)
This is John Travolta’s breakout role as Tony Manera, a working-class guy from Brooklyn who becomes the king of the dance floor every weekend at the disco. It is only while dancing that Tony can earn the adoration of others and thus feel any sense of self respect.
There is a dance contest, but the plot isn’t all dancing—a gang fight, a terrible accident, an old girlfriend, and a shiny new girlfriend from Manhattan all figure into major life changes for Tony. Set to the music of the Bee Gees, Saturday Night Fever defined the beginning of the late-’70s disco era. Surprisingly, John Badham’s adept direction helps the film stand up to viewing by a 2020s audience.
5. Ghostbusters (1984)
The Ghostbusters ensemble cast cut their comedy chops on Saturday Night Live. Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, and Harold Ramis star as parapsychologists by day and ghost hunters by night. Set in New York City, it is a lighthearted mix of comedy, horror, and action that became an immediate blockbuster with spinoffs into a multimedia goldmine of sequels, videos, comics, games, and theme parks.
6. Wall Street (1987)
Conceived and directed by Oliver Stone as a tribute to his stockbroker father, Wall Street epitomized the late-1980s NYC corporate raider culture where finance guys became immensely wealthy by buying up and dismantling underperforming companies.
Michael Douglas won an Oscar for his portrayal of slick corporate raider Gordon Gekko, while Charlie Sheen portrays the young but upwardly mobile Bud Fox, a junior stockbroker climbing the ladder armed only with his wits and cunning. Many twists and turns later, who will get what’s coming to him?
7. Do the Right Thing (1989)
Spike Lee wrote, directed, and starred in this iconic movie that explores the tensions between the African American and the Italian American communities living and working side by side in a Brooklyn neighborhood. Lee plays Mookie, who works delivering pizzas for Sal, played by Danny Aiello.
Sal keeps a “wall of fame” in the pizzeria populated by Italians and when asked by a customer to include African Americans on his wall he refuses. Tension erupts into violence and a beloved neighbor is killed. What will it take to create understanding and restore peace and harmony?
