CRITICS WENT GUNNING FOR STALLONE IN ’85

For millions of moviegoers, 1985 was the year Rocky and Rambo punched, stabbed, hacked and machine-gunned their way to box-office glory. But Sylvester Stallone failed to vanquish one enemy--American film critics.

As the year fades into memory, the critics have extracted their ritual revenge--choosing the 10 best and worst.

We surveyed 75 newspaper and magazine reviewers and tallied their votes for best and worst movies of the year.

By nature, critics are an unruly lot. Best nominations for such obvious choices as “Prizzi’s Honor” and “Purple Rose of Cairo” vied with such unlikely selections as “The Black Cauldron” and “Ballad of Billie Jean.” Plus there were scattered ballots for Dustin Hoffman’s interpretation of “Death of a Salesman,” French TV, educational slide shows and Jean Renoir’s 1937 classic, “Le Grande Illusion.”

Critics disputed almost everything that happened at the movies--even the nature of the year itself.

“One sorry year for movies,” noted Catherine Rambeau (pronounced “Rambo”--no relation) of the Detroit Free Press.

“More worthwhile offerings than we’ve had in years,” countered the Pittsburgh Press’ Ed Blank.

“The year of the great famine,” lamented The Times’ Sheila Benson.

“A year well-spent at the movies,” opined Susan Stark of the Detroit News.

“What kind of year?” asked Joe Leydon of the Houston Post. “Don’t ask.”

“I think it was a good year for the movies,” answered Henry Edgar of the Newport News, Virginia. “I had no trouble finding 10 best (films).”

Michael Ventura of the L.A. Weekly had some kind of trouble--he found only four titles worthy of year-end honors. By contrast, Eleanor Ringel of the Atlanta Constitution expanded her list to a generous 33 entries (all “wonderful”).

The year offered more releases--about 400 in major markets--than any season since 1970. The problem, as Vincent Canby of the New York Times cautioned, was that “quantity did not increase the chances of quality.”

Some other observations on the state of film criticism, 1985:

Despite their hostility to Stallone, the taste of most critics really didn’t diverge much from the general public. Sure, critics shunned popular carve-’em-ups and unusually vacuous teen comedies, but they still cheered along crowd-pleasers like “Back to the Future” (the year’s top-grossing picture), “Witness,” “The Color Purple” and “Cocoon.”

Critics like to champion the esoteric import. Not many writers went so far as the Boston Globe’s Jay Carr, who listed six foreign-directed films on his 10 best list--and only one made in Hollywood--but most of those surveyed noted at least a couple. Kerry Drake of the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle managed only one non-U.S. film but maybe not everything got to Wyoming.

Sometimes critics are defensive about their foreign proclivities. “I’m as American as the next person,” insisted Mahar, after opting for favorites like “Utu” (New Zealand), “Comfort and Joy” (Scotland) and “Man of Flowers” (Australia). Martin Moynihan of the Albany Times-Union proudly reclaimed his first-ever “all-American list of films,” then kicked it off with “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” which was directed by Brazilian Hector Babenco.

Non-U.S. films that scored high in the survey include Akira Kurosawa’s epic “Ran,” the multinational production of “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” “The Official Story” from Argentina, Bertrand Tavernier’s “A Sunday in the Country” and “Himatsuri.”

The Brits did well: “Plenty,” “Wetherby,” “Dance With a Stranger,” “The Shooting Party,” “The Emerald Forest,” “A Private Function” and “Brazil.”

The critics from the hinterlands may not have the same array of alternatives as the metropolitan muckamucks but they adjust. Joan Bunke of the Des Moines Register admitted that several of the 10 best nominees hadn’t played at her home: “I saw them on trips to New York.” On the other hand, the Big City scribes may not have seen “Def-Con 4,” which played Des Moines and wormed its way onto Bunke’s worst list. “Half of my worst list probably only played out here,” Bunke explained. “They try this stuff here and figure if we gag on it, they know it’s a loser.”

It was an exceptional year for documentaries, according to the critics. “Streetwise,” “7-Up” and “28-Up,” and “George Stevens: A Filmmaker’s Journey” all rated hosannas. “Shoah,” a 9 1/2-hour meditation on the Holocaust, finished among the top dozen vote-getters in this poll. “Heimat,” a 15 1/2-hour (fictional) story from Germany, also attracted a share of votes--indicating that critics, unlike most audiences, don’t mind the occasional marathon sitting. After all, they get paid for it.

It was a banner year (another banner year) for Steven Spielberg. Though he attracted a plethora of “worst” votes for his producership of “Goonies,” the effect was balanced by many plaudits for directing “The Color Purple” as well as for producing both “Young Sherlock Holmes” and “Back to the Future.”

Several critics also doubled their praise for David Hare, who wrote the screenplays for “Plenty” and “Wetherby”--directing the latter--as well as for Meryl Streep, who played in “Plenty” and “Out of Africa.” Other double-winners embraced by critics include directors Robert Altman (with a trickling of votes for “Secret Honor” and “Fool for Love”) and Australian Paul Cox (for “Man of Flowers” and “My First Wife”).

There was plenty of fierce debate. “Prizzi’s Honor” may have been the overwhelming best choice--but Stephen Hunter of the Baltimore Sun described John Huston’s wry piece of work as “senile and dithering.” “Spider Woman” was on more than a third of the best lists--but that didn’t deter Paul Attanasio of the Washington Post, who banished it to the year’s worst list, the only one to do so.

The most controversial turned out to be “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure.” Depending on the local point-of-view, Paul Reubens’ oddball comedy was either the absolute worst (according to Carole Kass of the Richmond Times Dispatch) or a best, “a New Wave cross between Jerry Lewis and Harry Langdon,” said Lou Lumenick of the Bergen County (N.J.) Record.

“Year of the Dragon” ranked as one of the best by Ed Blank of the Pittsburgh Press--but Corinne F. Hammett of the Baltimore News-American described it as “an excessively violent tale with cardboard characters and lurid visual effects which signify nothing.” Dean of the profession, Andrew Sarris of the Village Voice liked “To Live and Die in L.A.” enough to award it a Top 10 niche--but in the same issue compatriot David Edelstein consigned it to the year’s scrap heap. Other movies that went both ways: “Agnes of God,” “White Nights,” “Silverado,” “Pale Fire,” “Jagged Edge,” “Into the Night” and “A Chorus Line.”

As usual, critics are not immune to parochial bias. Paul Johnson of the Arkansas Gazette was alone in elevating the Disney studio’s “One Magic Christmas” to the Top 10, but he explained his curious choice: “We call it Mary Steenburgen’s movie around here.” (She grew up in Arkansas.)

As for those movies that received but solitary, courageous votes:

“Volunteers”--Eleanor O’Sullivan, Asbury Park Press.

“Macaroni”--Joe Leydon, Houston Post.

“Ballad of Billie Jean”--Karen Arnold, Macon News and Telegraph.

“Perfect”--Nat Segaloff, Boston Herald.

“Revolution”--Ventura, L.A. Weekly.

Neither “Rocky” or “Rambo” received a single best vote. In a year when more than 125 pictures received at least one best vote from at least one critic, that in itself is quite a distinction.

CONSENSUS BEST 10

Compiled from a survey of 75 movie critics

1. “Prizzi’s Honor” 48 lists

2. “Purple Rose of Cairo” 44

3. “Witness” 39

4. Tie: “The Color Purple” and 33

“Kiss of the Spider Woman” 33

6. “Back to the Future” 30

7. “Ran” 29

8. Tie: “Out of Africa” and 28

“After Hours” 28

10. “Shoah” 20

Honorable mention: “Lost in America” (18), “The Official Story” (17), “Cocoon” (14), “Blood Simple” (14) and “Mask” (14), “Killing Fields” (13), “Desperately Seeking Susan” (12), “Plenty” (11), “The Emerald Forest” (10) and “The Breakfast Club” (10).