The term "wholesome" can mean a few different things, but there's a consensus on something that's fun for the whole family and has an uplifting message. Contemporary cinema doesn't do a lot of that in comparison to other genres, but the popularity of fantastic tales and superhero stories comes close.
Netflix has a nice selection of wholesome movies from every era, including the iconic 1980s. It's hard to believe that these selections came from the same decade that gave us the National Lampoon movies, but somehow they did, and maybe it was just by the pureness of their nostalgic hearts.
7 Annie (1982)
What could be more wholesome than this sweet, musical, darling little ginger child dancing her way into the cold heart of a crusty old millionaire? This movie was made in response to a successful musical, and the on-screen adaptation was equally popular and featured some of Hollywood's biggest names in song, dance, and comedy at the time. Geoffrey Holder, Tim Curry, Bernadette Peters, and Carol Burnette are just a few examples.
The story could be a cross between Oliver! and Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, in which an adorable disadvantaged child is taken in by an eccentric for some kind of secretive or personal reason. Part of the appeal of Annie is the big city aesthetic, as her adventures take place amid the tall buildings and busy streets of New York.
6 Lean On Me (1989)
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The tough teacher that saves a troubled high school could have been its own genre in the 1980s, and one of the notable examples is Lean On Me. This is one of Morgan Freeman's earlier roles, and it's based on the real-life story of Joe Clark, a controversial teacher in a big city school.
Clark was determined to change the downhill spiral of this school, and this movie takes a dramatic look at his efforts to improve the overall grades enough to keep the school from being taken over by the state. The movie ends on a high note that doesn't exactly reflect reality, as Joe Clark did have to leave the school eventually, but that's not why people watch movies.
5 Hard Lessons (1986)
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Also known as The George McKenna Story, this is a movie about a real high-school principal in Los Angeles, and it was one of Denzel Washington's earliest roles. After he hit the big time, the movie was renamed and re-released under the title Hard Lessons and viewers can find this obscure and under-rated title on Netflix.
This is a TV movie, and that refers to the budget and quality. Even though the script is cliched, and the dialogue is rather corny, there are some real issues here and Washington's performance elevates the whole production with his gravitas and natural likeability.
4 When Harry Met Sally (1989)
When Harry Met Sally was a traditional rom-com in a lot of ways, but it broke the trend of the time that dictated all comedies for grown-ups had to be lewd, crude, and generally rated R. There are a few clever echoes of this in the movie, with Harry's frat-boy attitude at the beginning and Sally's fake orgasm in the diner as two examples.
Instead of jokes about glow-in-the-dark condoms, Harry and Sally take on a lot more than the age-old question, can men and women just be friends? They look at it honestly, too, and deal with the misconceptions from looking through the lens of vintage Hollywood romance or 1980s hookup culture.
3 Stand By Me (1986)
It's a coming-of-age story that's more like the memory of a wholesome movie, but that should be close enough. Stand By Me could be Stephen King's most popular on-screen movie adaptation, which is ironic because it's based on a short story he wrote that has virtually nothing in common with the film script other than the main character with a dead brother.
Based on the basic childhood joke of "you guys wanna see a dead body" but made real, this isn't a movie that romanticizes childhood, cross-country travel, or small-town life. Get ready to deal with the ugly side of all of this, but the conclusion is an uplifting one despite the realism that gets in the way.
2 Whispers (1980)
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It's about war, no doubt about it, but the quiet and retrospective aftermath as opposed to the immediate destruction. The setting itself is broken, but the message is whole, with plenty of hope and poetry along with haunting photos of empty cities and hollow ruins.
Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, is a city name synonymous with these horrors today, but in the 1980s there were plenty of people who remembered a different time. It was a tropical paradise until the civil war came and shattered an otherwise peaceful place. Watch it for the uplifting message for the future along with a warning for those who would say it can't happen where they live.
1 Steel Magnolias (1989)
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If Dolly Parton is in the cast, it's going to be the picture of wholesome, and she takes a lead role as Truvy Jones, owner and proprietor of the local beauty salon where this close-knit group of women spills their secrets. A variety of generations is represented by some of Hollywood's most venerated actors, including Olympia Dukakis, Shirley MacLaine, and Sally Field.
The story is both heartbreaking and uplifting, following the story of these women through the course of a year, and a lot can happen in just a few months. It's not too much of a spoiler to warn that not all of them make it, but there's always a legacy that true love leaves behind.