sauce07

What do you guys think are the most influential films on society here in the United States. I'm looking for films that have inpacted society in a serious way, along the lines of "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner" that brought a lot of questions about racism to the forefront, or even "Easy Rider" With the counter-culture movement.

Perkinsun Dzees

Well, documentary-wise you have to include FAHRENHEIT 9/11 which helped cause Bush's defeat (in my dreams).

I think Oliver Stone's PLATOON ushered in a wave of Vietnam war movies and was hailed as groundbreaking in the "truthful" way it portrayed the life of the soldier.

PHILADELPHIA brought the whole AIDS issue into mainstream entertainment.

sauce07

yeah philadelphia was added to my list here (i'm writing a paper that is due tomorrow), i think Platoon did more for the film side, not society

wendersfan

Birth of a Nation

Third Baseman

Star Wars

Never know who your daddy is, or if you're sleeping with your sister.

sauce07

Star Wars influenced film more than anything. yes star wars influenced society but not in the way that i'm looking for. Star Wars made the motion picture industry bigger than anybody could ever dream, besides that evil genius lucas, but as for society i don't think you could compare it to Farhenheit 9/11 for getting people excited about change(i know he failed but it did have an impact)

PopcornTreeCt

Anytime this topic comes up there's only ever a few significant replies. This time it is no different.

RagingBull80

Do The Right Thing

Boyz 'N The Hood

Not sure if you can call them an influence on society but they did kind of define/start a culture and a slew of rip-off films.

sauce07

I would def. add these to my list and possibly Higher Learning as well. these films brought a lot of issues to the table and people watched.

Talkin2Phil

Deep Throat- porn moved to the suburbs and became a date movie-instrumental in ‘legitimizing’ porn resulting in the billion dollar industry of today.

Most titles listed in this thread and others like it just really reflect the changes and attitudes that were already taking place, these movies just helped to galvanize the transformation and bring it to the masses.

Star Wars, please it’s a cultural phenomenon, it did not change society.

Abob Teff

Saving Private Ryan. With this movie we gained a new respect for our silent veterans. This helped to spark the grassroots creation of monuments to our few remaining unsung heroes.

I really feel that this carries over now in the way we view our soldiers today. Two generations ago patriotism ran high, but our soldiers came home and nothing was said for a long time. A generation ago patriotism was non-existant; we blamed and (further) tortured the unfortunate souls who were used as pawns in a political fiasco. Now we may not agree with the cause, but we distinguish the soldiers from the politician's agendas.

I have told this story before, but it's worth repeating. I worked in a theater when SPR was released. Standing at the door as the show let out (our practice was to thank the guests) was a very painful experience for me. To see these men, any one of whom could have been my grandfather, as he never spoke of it either, coming out of the theater was downright harrowing. The men who made it through the movie (many did not) would leave with tears flowing, looking as pale as the ghosts that had just revisited them, shell shocked by events five decades gone . . . I was not able to stand at the door past the third screening. I did not feel worthy to stand in their presence.

Myster X

The Matrix Trilogy

sauce07

April Fools

IanH

Movies that stirred some national debate or discussion:


Schindler's List

JFK

Thelma and Louise

9 to 5

Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

The Grapes of Wrath

Roots (yeah, its a TV Mini-Series but it can't be ignored)

Ezekiel 25:17

I know it's probably not quite the impact you were looking for, but I believe Jaws caused quite a stir at the time it came out. It hurt tourism for a while. I think I heard cases of where some people were practically afraid to take a bath after seeing the movie.

sauce07

yeah i was thinking about that but i feel that jaws along with psycho affected society for a very brief time due to people being scared, i don't feel they impacted society all that much

jfoobar

Jaws.

Terrell

I'd have to answer none. No film, no matter how powerful, ever changed society. It takes more than 2 hours of moving images put to sound in order to really change society.

Apone

Most of the films that are qualified into this category are rather a cultural phenomenon or a progressive movement of film industry like Jaws and Star Wars. I can only think of "Triumph of the Will" which influenced and changed our society.

Superboy

Fight Club - Ah, the voice of angry, frustrated, disenfranchised youth.

Reality Bites - Indeed it does.

Office Space - Everyone under 30 went "HUH!?", and everyone over 30 went "SOMEONE FINALLY UNDERSTANDS!!!"

...pretty much any movie that deals with the frustrations of average people.

Dimension X

I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)

ShagMan

I can't think of a single title that "changed society"... that's tough to do with a 2 hour film??

Luther Heggs

Splash

Convinced about 10 million people to name their daughters "Madison."

wendersfan

Once again I mention DW Griffiths' Birth of a Nation, a film that directly caused the formation of the modern Ku Klux Klan.

Cygnet74

there's something to be said for the cumulative effect on society. criminal behavior has been influence by a number of specific films that inspired the means by which the crimes were commited...

Natural Born Killers - 18-year-old Leroy Linn received a life sentence for killing Diane McLaren and Sandra Veason and dubbed himself "a natural born killer".

The Basketball Diaries - Columbine.

A Clockwork Orange - 18-year-old Pete Roland and his "ultraviolence stick" used to beat in the brains of his victim.

Child's Play - the death of 2-year-old James Bulger by two eleven year olds that watched the film repeatedly before committing the murder.

Heat - "The Crew" drew inspiration from the film to plan $1 million in robberies.

Warlock - 14-year-old Sandy Charles was fascinated with the horror movie Warlock and watched it 10 times before he murdered a 7-year-old boy. Mutilations done to the child mirrored incidents depicted in the movie.

The Crow - a pair of teens dressed like characters in the movie were arrested and charged with arson after six vehicles were torched in a 12-hour period.

The Program - A 21-year-old man died after imitating a scene in which young men prove their team spirit by lying in the middle of a busy highway. After a string of similar deaths in the US, Touchstone Pictures cut the scene from the film's video release.

Basic Instinct - a soldier accused of sexually assaulting his ex-wife attributed his inspiration to a violent sex scene in the movie.

A Nightmare on Elm Street - A 13-year-old boy told police that watching Freddy Krueger ripping blouses off women inspired him to sexually assault his 10-year-old step-sister.

Silence of the Lambs - Brian Allender admitted killing Cheryl Anne Joe in by beating her to death and cutting out her sexual organs. The jury heard testimony that he decided to seek the prostitute after watching the movie.