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The History of American Cinema: 1987

15/1 -

Paramount Home Video enter into a deal with Pepsi Cola to include a 30-second advert for Diet Pepsi at the star of the video of Top Gun.   This version will sell for $3 less than the standard version. [ADD]

30/1 -

Woody Allen’s Radio Days, a nostalgic reminiscence about childhood and the role of the radio in the family home, is released. [ADD]

18/2 -

Orion Pictures announce that diminutive actor Danny DeVito is to direct the forthcoming comedy Throw Momma From the Train. [ADD]

27/2 -

Hollywood holds a centenary celebration to commemorate its birth in 1887 when it was christened by Harvey Henderson Wilcox. [ADD]

6/3 -

Richard Donner’s cop/buddy movie Lethal Weapon is released.   Mel Gibson plays a highly-strung Vietnam vet – the ‘lethal weapon’ of the title – who is partnered with black everyman Danny Glover to smash a drug trafficking ring.   Mitchell Ryan and Gary Busey play the bad guys. [ADD]

6/3 -

Barry Levinson’s Tin Men, set in the world of aluminium siding salesmen in 50s Baltimore, is released.   Danny DeVito and Richard Dreyfuss star. [ADD]

13/3 -

Joel and Ethan Coen’s second feature, the comedy Raising Arizona starring Nicolas Cage and Holly Hunter, is released. [ADD]

27/3 -

Bruce Robinson’s quirky British comedy Withnail and I premieres at the New York New Directors and New Films Festival.   Richard E. Grant and Paul McGann star as two out-of-work actors who leave their run-down flat in London to visit Withnail’s eccentric uncle Monty (Richard Griffiths) in the country. [ADD]

30/3 -

Oliver Stone’s Vietnam war film, Platoon, wins the Best Picture Award at the 59th Annual Academy Awards ceremony, while Stone picks up the Best Director Award. [MORE]

9/4 -

40s star Barbara Stanwyck receives an AFI Life Achievement Award. [ADD]

8/5 -

Francis Ford Coppola’s Gardens of Stone takes a less direct look at the Vietnam War by focusing on the men who tend the military cemetery in Arlington during the conflict. [ADD]

1/6 -

Director John Landis and four co-defendants are found not guilty by a Superior Court jury of any wrongdoing relating to the helicopter accident during the shooting of The Twilight Zone: The Movie in 1982 which killed actor Vic Morrow and two child actors. [ADD]

19/6 -

The U.S. Copyright Office decides to register colourised versions of black-and-white films. [ADD]

17/7 -

Dutch director Paul Verhoeven’s debut American film, Robocop, is released.   Peter Weller stars as a fatally wounded cop whose body parts are melded to a robotic body to turn him into the unstoppable Robocop of the title.   The film offers some clever insights into a society distorted by rampant capitalism and corporate greed. [ADD]

21/8 -

Emile Ardolino’s low-budget romantic film, Dirty Dancing is released.   Patrick Swayze stars as a dance instructor who romances Jennifer Grey at a Catskill summer resort in the early 60s. [ADD]

21/8 -

Jim McBride’s The Big Easy, in which DA Ellen Barkin and homicide detective Dennis Quaid clash over an investigation in the deep South.   John Goodman, star of the hit TV show, Roseanne, also stars. [ADD] 

28/8 -

John Huston dies of emphysema in Rhode Island at the age of 81, just before his last film, The Dead, is due to be screened at the Venice Film Festival. [ADD]

18/9 -

David Puttnam announces his resignation from his position as chairman of Columbia Pictures, following the Columbia-TriStar merger that resulted in the formation of Columbia Pictures Entertainment.   Victor A. Kaufman was appointed as the new company’s chief, thus reducing Puttnam’s influence as chairman and CEO. [ADD]

18/9 -

Adrian Lyne’s Fatal Attraction is released.   Glenn Close stars as a psychotic ‘bunny-boiler’ with whom married businessman Michael Douglas enjoys an ill-advised one-night stand. [ADD]

23/9 -

Bob Fosse collapses with a heart attack moments before he is due on stage at the Sweet Charity musical in Washington, echoing the fate of his alter-ego in the semi-autobiographical All That Jazz from 1979. [ADD]

16/10 -

German director Barbet Schroeder's Barfly, based on the experiences of celebrated drunk and writer Charles Bukowski, is released.   Mickey Rourke stars with Faye Dunaway. [ADD]

14/10 -

Silent movie star Lillian Gish celebrates her 90^th birthday. [ADD]

31/10 -

The major studios’ shares drop in value by approximately 20% following the stock market crash. [ADD]

25/11 -

Three Men and a Baby, Leonard Nimoy’s remake of Coline Serreau’s French hit Trois hommes et un cauffin (Three Men and a Cradle), is released.   Tom Selleck, Ted Danson and Steve Guttenberg star as the three men of the title, three bachelors who suddenly find themselves saddled with an abandoned baby. [ADD]

9/12 -

Steven Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun is released.   It follows the exploits of an English boy (Christian Bale) separated from his wealthy family when the Japanese invade the British areas of China at the outset of WWII.   John Malkovich, Miranda Richardson and Joe Pantoliano also star. [ADD]

11/12 -

Oliver Stone’s Wall Street, which comes to epitomise the materialism of the 80s, is released.   Michael Douglas stars as the ruthless financier Gordon Gekko, with Charlie Sheen as his protégé. [ADD]

18/12 -

The Last Emperor, Bernardo Bertolucci’s account of the life of Pu Yi, the last emperor of China who ended up as a peasant worker in the People’s Republic, is released.   John Lone stars as the adult Pu, with a supporting cast headed by Peter O’Toole and Joan Chen. [ADD]

18/12 -

Norman Jewison’s old-fashioned romance, Moonstruck, is released.   Cher stars as a widow who falls for temperamental baker Nicolas Cage after becoming engaged to his dull brother (Danny Aiello).   Vincent Gardenia and Olympia Dukakis provide support. [ADD]

23/12 -

Manic TV comedian Robin Williams establishes himself as a major star in Barry Levinson’s Good Morning, Vietnam.   Williams portrays real-life armed forces radio DJ Adrian Cronauer, broadcasting to the troops  on the battle front. [ADD]

31/12 -

Paramount enjoys a successful year with Beverly Hills Cop II, Fatal Attraction and The Untouchables accounting for 20% of total distribution takings. [ADD]

– The cost of preparing a ‘pan-and-scan’ version of a wide-screen movie for television is estimated at anything up to $8,000. [ADD]

– Elaine May’s Ishtar, which has the largest budget of any film directed by a woman, bombs at the box office.   Dustin Hoffmann and Warren Beatty star. [ADD]

– Dawn Steel becomes Hollywood’s highest ranking woman when she leaves Paramount to take up the presidency of Columbia Pictures. [ADD] 

Other Key American Films of 1987

Broadcast News (James L. Brooks) [ADD]

House of Games (David Mamet) [ADD]

Roxanne (Fred Schepisi) [ADD]

The Secret of My Success (Herbert Ross) [ADD]

Someone to Watch Over Me (Ridley Scott) [ADD]

Swimming to Cambodia (Jonathan Demme) [ADD]

The Witches of Eastwick (George Miller) [ADD]