Movie Influence on Society

General examples or specific stories. It could be influence to people with power (Watching a war movie then deciding it's a good idea to go to war)... or with countries, or the general population --- vague, inaccurate (or accurate), etc., regardless if the movie is true or not (The Birth of a Nation) in its depiction... Culturally with "Reefer Madness" - I know some people who still believe this (and other things).

I find it amusing how many people come to believe that "Edelweiss" by Rodgers and Hammerstein is the national anthem of Austria. If I'm not mistaken an American military band once played the song when the President of Austria visited during the 1980's.

Almost reminds me of how Rocky Balboa got rid of the USSR

I read this in a movie book (Can't remember which one), but it was mentioned that after "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" that the criteria to have someone committed was a little tougher.. And then a few years later with President Reagan, it didn't surprise me that some local and state mental hospitals were closed down after cuts to social programs.

Do you mean if someone watches a current war movie they change their opinion about war being a bad thing; or do you mean if Trump watched a current war movie and decided to bomb Syria and Afghanistan, and go after the fat boy in North Korea?

I(f the former, Charlie Wilson's War gave me a totally different outlook of America's involvement in that war.
If the latter I would not be the least bit surprised but that would be as idiotic as watching Hannibal then going out and killing people for being 'rude', then eating them.

It could work either way... Depending on the movie, maybe someone with power could be swayed if they were on the fence otherwise. I read that Nixon watched "Patton" a lot, considered it his favorite (I posted the link in a thread I started)

But it could also influence the general public.... Not many people read (no one in my nuclear family has ever read a book), but I think every single person has watched a movie, and I think it could be used positively. Music had that effect.. For example, The Beatles. At first, the lyrics didn't mean that much, or were very neutral, but with the influence of psychedelic drugs (weed, LSD) Lennon really started writing, and THAT influenced many bands and artists.

I think I understand what you mean, matt. Good thing Ronld Reagan watched Sound of Music every day in that case.

Suddenly(1954) and The Manchurian Candidate (1962) are both accused of maybe influencing Lee Harvey Oswald to assassinate President Kennedy. Sinatra was soo embarrassed of Suddenly, he tried to buy the copyright and completely bury the film.

Is "Suddenly" a good movie? (I liked The Manchurian Candidate).

LOL @ "The Sound of Music" every day -- I have yet to see the movie as an adult, but I'm not a fan of musicals, and I've heard the fascism links a lot... On second thought, how much singing is there? Less than 5% of the movie?

I've never seen it, Matt, but too much spontaneous singing would be my guess.

Suddenly gets a little hokey, but it's definitely worth your time. Can't go wrong with Sterling Hayden AND Sinatra.

Idk if this qualifies as influence, but it's certainly an infamous response to a film from a public figure of great importance:
In February 1915, upon viewing The Birth of a Nation at a special White House screening, President Woodrow Wilson reportedly remarked, “It's like writing history with lightning. My only regret is that it is all so terribly true.”

I tend to agree with the idea that art is reactive and descriptive of the society which it stems from, not the other way around. That said there are examples of movies, especially documentaries, shining light on certain issues or pushing them into the mainstream conversation. William Friedkin actually got his start making a documentary about an African American on death row for a crime he probably didn't committ. The documentary did it's part in getting him pardoned. More recently, you have stuff like Black FIsh which brought attention to the treatment of captive animals. Hell, regardless of how you see that whole #KONY2012 stuff, it generated millions of donations on the strength of a YouTube video.

Kind of tangential to your question about movies was the 2016 presidential election where a reality TV candidate became media darling who could boost ratings just by giving him air time. Even the media who hated him loved giving him airtime. Whole, uninterrupted stretches of speeches. Sure, it's not scripted or narrative driven by film, but it's the most powerful office on the planet being decided to a great extent by how successfully you can manipulate a visual medium.

Oh, and then you have the spree killers who've cited stuff like Natural Born Killers. Again, I wouldn't call that influential as much as reflective.

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Whatever happened to the guy who started that? He had a break down then disppeared.

Idk, I donated and put up the posters on 4/20 while stoned out of my mind. I know his foundation was travelling around to college campuses for speaking engagements or something, because I saw advertisements at my university for one.

I thought he was a bit of a scam artist but it doesn't matter in retrospect because it got the word out around the globe, especially to kids. I was impressed with the number of young people on facebook discussing it. My niece was probably about 10 or 11 back then nd she and all of her friends were promoting it.
As for the guy, pretty sad about his downfall.

Well, Lee Harvey Oswald did not assassinate JFK. And the men who did shoot Kennedy were likely not influenced by either movie.

I didn't know that Sinatra tried to can Suddenly. It was well known that he had The Manchurian Candidate shelved, but it was only after the rights to the film reverted to him in 1972. The film was released in 1962, and it had even been shown on TV by 1965.

But you have a good point. IMO some films have perhaps pushed some weak minded folks into criminal activity, but I don't see any solution to that. But overall, there's no question that the level of violence in films and on TV have desensitized people to the horror of it. One might even argue that this desensitization has allowed people to be less repulsed by violence, and has made them more likely to condone war.

Personally I'm so disgusted with violence and gore in cinema that I almost never watch an "R" rated film. Hopefully the writers and producers will start going back the other way, but I'm not holding my breath...

~Cheers

I paid like $20 and received a shirt, bracelets, posters, and stickers. It's not like I was deceived or anything. I also donate to Doctors without Borders. A lot of people were up in arms about it being a scam. I still don't consider it one.

That's a cool attitude to have, Red. And good on you for putting up posters. I didnt mean to come across as knocking you.
Doctors Without Borders and Vets Without Borders are also great.

I just thought of one

Black Diamond had a huge impact on the african diamond industry at the time. I dont know about now.

I think people get caught up far too much into how many shooters were involved to look at other evidence of conspiracy. I definitley think that Oswald was without a doubt somehow in on it. He (briefly as a runner) and his uncle being apart of New Orleans Mafia boss Carlos Marcello.'s network is too convinent. Doesn't help that Marcello himself confessed to the assassination in OPERATION CAMTEX in 1981 to his cell mate who was feeding info to the FBI (source below). From a factual standpoint, JFK(1991) was **** and Jim Garrison was a fraud.