Movies I saw at the Stardust Theatre in Maple Ridge, 1979-1985

There used to be a movie theatre right downtown in Maple Ridge, in the area on Lougheed near 224th where there is now a Dairy Queen with a bigger parking lot than it needs. That parking lot used to be the Stardust, a single-screen theatre where I had my first theatrical experience - a traumatizing, terrifying, mind-altering experience known as The Wizard of Oz (those flying monkeys fucked me RIGHT up, and Mom and Dad had to take me, about five, out of the theatre because I was crying too hard in fear for poor Dorothy. No shit, it probably made me the horror movie fan I am today). As far as I know, that was my first theatrical film experience - which I have written about previously - but I finally thought, hey, I should list the other movies I saw at the Stardust. The Wizard of Oz was not first run, but the rest of these were; honorable mention goes out to An American Werewolf in London, which I tried to get into back in 1981, having already seen it with my Dad, but I was only 13 and didn't tell lies, so they wouldn't let me in. If there are others, I've forgotten them, but this may in fact be a complete list: 

The One and Only 78 - Rude Henry Winkler star vehicle, lot of kids went because we liked the Fonz, but my friends behaved badly and it pissed me off. Probably the first time I said something along the lines of  "Shut up so I can watch the movie!" 

Every Which Way but Loose 78 - haven't seen it since. I announced on Facebook that my first theatrical Eastwood experience was Pale Rider, but I was just wrong.

...And Justice for All 79 - first experience of Al Pacino? Liked it. Watched it with my Mom again a couple years before she died, liked it then, too, but she liked it more.

Kramer vs. Kramer 79 - Didn't really care about it, haven't seen it since

Escape from Alcatraz, 79 - not only was Pale Rider not the first Eastwood I saw theatrically, it wasn't the second, either. It's possible I saw this at Lougheed Mall but more likely the Stardust, since - why travel out of town, when you have a theatre that's in walking distance? 

The Octagon 1980 - shitty Chuck Norris movie. I didn't know better than to see it, but I don't remember liking it, even at age 12.

Hangar 18 80 - is this any good? Completely forget. Area 51 UFO movie starring Darren McGavin. I was a Kolchak fiend on the latenite teevee, so that's probably why I went, but the film is fog and whispers now. 

Popeye 80 - My first Altman!? (It's funny, because I thought I'd seen Nashville and Streamers on VHS, but we didn't have a VHS player in 1980, I don't think. So it might be I started here. Weird.

Ordinary People 80 - one of my first "favourite films," great character drama, still very fond of it tho' it's pretty mean to the Mom.

Fatso 80 - totally rude, forgettable Dom Deluise comedy. 

Brubaker 80 - probably my first encounter with Robert Redford and Yaphet Kotto, I remembered the maggot scene years later. It had some grittiness to it. Might watch this again, it holds up, though it gets a bit feelgood

 
...All the Marbles 81 - Almost forgot this one! Great Peter Falk role in a tale of tag team lady wrestlers, was surprised how good it was. 

Honky Tonk Man 82 - yep, Pale Rider wasn't even my third theatrical Eastwood. I knew Marty Robbins from my Dad's record collection but wanted to hear El Paso or something. 

Big Chill 83 - Another movie I was obsessed with as a kid, one of my most-viewed films ever, actually - still love it. I have never seen a film that so skillfully interweaves theme through a story with so many characters without feeling really contrived. Saw it before it played the Stardust, I think, on a foray into Vancouver, and saw it many times on VHS, but I am almost certain when it opened in Maple Ridge, having already screened elsewhere for a few weeks, I went to see it. Remember telling Phil Balcaen, my science teacher, that I went. He'd been to Woodstock.  

The Outsiders 83 - I remember coming out of the theatre and really noticing that my visual field had changed, like I had a hangover from the gorgeous magic hour cinematography. First time I remember having that experience. 

Maybe Jaws? - Pretty sure there was an anniversary screening of Jaws that I went to at the Stardust, probably the 10th anniversary in 1985. It felt like an "old movie" back then. 

Pale Rider, 1985 - If in fact I saw this at the Stardust, it was the last film I saw there, because pretty soon they were closing it down and demolishing it. The article I linked above doesn't specify when. 

Other titles that I saw theatrically, but maybe not at the Starlight, include Whose Life is it, Anyway, The In-Laws, Neighbors, Buddy Buddy, and Gremlins - pretty sure I caught all of those first run, but I was also sometimes going by bus to cinemas at Coquitlam and Lougheed Mall (now both also long-defunct) and even catching the bus to Vancouver now and then. Plus somewhere in there we got a VCR (1982? I remember Star Wars had just come out and that came out on home media in 1982, so that makes sense). But I'm fairly confident that I've gotten most of my Stardust experiences down here. I miss that theatre!

Good friends who want to comment are invited to list their own early theatrical experiences.