Movies which have actively brought harm to the world

[kngen]

Natural Born Killers had a couple of copycat incidents, I seem to remember. Worst thing about that, even the actual murders, was this convinced Oliver Stone that he'd made a film on par with A Clockwork Orange and he became even more of self-regarding, pompous twat.

[NoSleep]

^What else did you expect from someone who thought that the Doors were not just on a par with the Velvet Underground but were actually superior?

[neveragain]

Twilight Zone: The Movie.

[buzby]

Twilight Zone: The Movie.

On that front The Twilight Zone is worse - John Landis got a man and two children killed in that.

[St_Eddie]

Everyone and their grandmother knows that the Twilght Zone helicopter crash related deaths are a thing.

I once asked my Grandmother whether she'd heard about it and she replied in the positive, gave me a kiss and imparted her wisdom thusly; "a person whom thinks that they possess exclusive knowledge, is a fool indeed".  I can't imagine what the old hag meant by that but there was probably some wisdom in there, amongst the dementia.  Silly old bitch.

[Sin Agog]

I bet the series caused more deaths by having that suave sonuvagun Serling pimp those coffin nails at the end of every episode.

[greenman]

To get dull and serious probably something like Independence Day kicking off the recent glorification of the US military.

[The Culture Bunker]

To get dull and serious probably something like Independence Day kicking off the recent glorification of the US military.

You could probably go further back to Top Gun for that kind of thing.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

^What else did you expect from someone who thought that the Doors were not just on a par with the Velvet Underground but were actually superior?

Oliver Stone did more harm to the legacy and credibility of the Doors than any number of posthumous accounts of Jim Morrison pissing his keks and falling out of windows.

Stone presumably doesn't have a sense of humour, hence why he took Morrison's often slyly tongue-in-cheek self-mythologising at face value, resulting in a film which, contrary to its intent, made the late Lizard King look like the biggest, most risible twat in the history of rock and roll. I mean, he was a bit of a prannet, no doubt about that, but he was also far more self-aware than that stupid, overblown film suggests. 

[Sebastian Cobb]

You could probably go further back to Top Gun for that kind of thing.

Reganite telly like Airwolf and the like came even earlier.

[Blumf]

U.S. Military Assistance in Producing Motion Pictures, Television Shows, Music Videos

Been going a long time:

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/hollywood-cia-washington-dc-films-fbi-24-intervening-close-relationship-a7918191.html

It is a matter of public record that the Pentagon has had an entertainment liaison office since 1948. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) established a similar position in 1996.

First film that came to my mind was John Wayne's army love letter The Green Berets from 1968, but there must be earlier examples.

requested and obtained full military cooperation and materiel from 36th President Lyndon B. Johnson and the United States Department of Defense. To please The Pentagon, who were attempting to prosecute author Robin Moore for revealing classified information, Wayne bought Moore out for $35,000 and 5% of undefined profits of the film

[Cuellar]

That woman what died looking for the suitcase full of money in 'based on real events' Fargo.

[greenman]

Reganite telly like Airwolf and the like came even earlier.

Although that like a lot of cinema actually had a bit of an anti establishment tone to it, it really seemed to be sometime in the early 90's that sucking off the US armed forces and political office became the action film standard.

[buzby]

Although that like a lot of cinema actually had a bit of an anti establishment tone to it, it really seemed to be sometime in the early 90's that sucking off the US armed forces and political office became the action film standard.

Yes, the first season at least of Airwolf was a lot less black and white - the CIA stand-in The Firm were a lot more morally dubious and worked against the crew of Airwolf just as much as they worked together. Things got a lot more simplistic from season 2 onwards.

[Shit Good Nose]

On the subject of Airwolf, did anyone else ever see the (then) 18 rated re-edit of the first few episodes?

[Phil_A]

That woman what died looking for the suitcase full of money in 'based on real events' Fargo.

She wasn't looking for the money, it was a tragic misunderstanding that the news coverage picked up on and blew up out of all proportion.

https://kotaku.com/the-real-story-behind-kumiko-the-treasure-hunter-1694010461

[mothman]

I recall that in Babylon 5 somebody once used the line "See you next Wednesday." Series creator J. Michael Straczynski was asked online if that was a deliberate Landis reference; he said: "The line, 'See you next Wednesday,' was basically an offhand line, slightly but not significantly based in the idea that in most markets, B5 air[ed] on Wednesdays. It was never meant to be a John Landis reference, and if I'd known it was (I'd never heard it before), I would have changed it. Not all of us in Hollywood have forgotten Vic Morrow."

[Retinend]

When Birth of the Nation was released, the KKK were barely even a going concern anymore.  The movie reignited them, and all the strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees were arguably planted by this movie.

What is the truth about this film? How racist was it? It's still considered a classic, after all.

[Cuellar]

She wasn't looking for the money, it was a tragic misunderstanding that the news coverage picked up on and blew up out of all proportion.

https://kotaku.com/the-real-story-behind-kumiko-the-treasure-hunter-1694010461

Oh fair play.

[Shit Good Nose]

What is the truth about this film? How racist was it? It's still considered a classic, after all.

It's a jaw-dropping technical marvel (although not on the same scale as Intolerance).  It's also, probably, the most disturbingly racist film ever made, at least in America, and was considered as such even at the time, which says a lot.  The negroes (intentional for the purposes of this precis) are women raping and child murdering devils, whilst the KKK are heroic saviours of all mankind.

[sevendaughters]

loads of the cast of Triumph of the Will did some right shocking things

[zomgmouse]

Was it Animal House that brought a resurgence in college fraternities?

Unsure but it did reignite the trend of food fights.

[EOLAN]

On Birth of the Nation; already well answered by Shit Good Nose. Intolerance may have further improvements but Birth of the Nation would have been the film that made a much greater leap in technical developments.
From what I recall; the film is pretty much two parts. The first part on the Civil War and conflicting between friends seems fairly standard for pre 1950s Civil Rights movement films that portray the Civil War; with a lot of the main ones having a more favourable leaning to the South. There even seems to be making Abraham Lincoln a heroic almost godlike figure who was needed to steer America through the post Civil War path.
Then after that; it just gets quite racist to the extreme. Like 'Triumph of the Will' the cinematography and editing is quite wonderful but what it is actually portraying is horrid. Also; using music from Hitler's favourite composer really elevates it further.

[greenman]

Honestly though a lot of what I'v heard suggests that it was more that Hollywood generally had lax safety standards at that time and Landis happened to be the one who was on hand when something terrible happened rather than his being exceptionally incompetent, he was actually in the helicopter himself as well.

[Shit Good Nose]

Honestly though a lot of what I'v heard suggests that it was more that Hollywood generally had lax safety standards at that time and Landis happened to be the one who was on hand when something terrible happened rather than his being exceptionally incompetent, he was actually in the helicopter himself as well.

Whilst it's true that Landis isn't solely to blame (he wasn't in the helicopter, but was very near where it crashed along with a couple of others, all of whom would have been killed or, at least, very seriously injured had it fallen differently or a few feet closer to them) and, of course, isn't guilty of murder, he was/is solely culpable for flouting numerous set safety laws and also child labour laws.  He also ignored warnings about the amount of pyrotechnics being used in such a small area, and ordered the pilot to hover much lower than was originally planned for.  If he had observed the law and heeded the warnings, there's a fairly good chance that the accident wouldn't have happened, or it wouldn't have been so tragic.

Spielberg and Jennifer Jason Leigh (Morrow's daughter) both laid 100% of the blame on Landis (Spielberg immediately broke off his friendship and also severed all professional ties with Landis, and that remains so to this day, whilst Leigh, I believe, has tried to bring further prosecution to Landis in the intervening years given he got off basically with little more than a slap on the wrist) whilst other contemporaries of his, such as Joe Dante, think that he was unfairly singled out for something that Hollywood in general had been doing for years (i.e. ignoring set safety).

[greenman]

Whilst it's true that Landis isn't solely to blame (he wasn't in the helicopter, but was very near where it crashed along with a couple of others, all of whom would have been killed or, at least, very seriously injured had it fallen differently or a few feet closer to them) and, of course, isn't guilty of murder, he was/is solely culpable for flouting numerous set safety laws and also child labour laws.  He also ignored warnings about the amount of pyrotechnics being used in such a small area, and ordered the pilot to hover much lower than was originally planned for.  If he had observed the law and heeded the warnings, there's a fairly good chance that the accident wouldn't have happened, or it wouldn't have been so tragic.

Spielberg and Jennifer Jason Leigh (Morrow's daughter) both laid 100% of the blame on Landis (Spielberg immediately broke off his friendship and also severed all professional ties with Landis, and that remains so to this day, whilst Leigh, I believe, has tried to bring further prosecution to Landis in the intervening years given he got off basically with little more than a slap on the wrist) whilst other contemporaries of his, such as Joe Dante, think that he was unfairly singled out for something that Hollywood in general had been doing for years (i.e. ignoring set safety).

Safety standards being treated in a pretty lax fashion rather than as cast iron rules was supposed to be quite par for the course at the time wasn't it? the child labour situation was based on the time of day(well night) as well wasn't it rather than there not being allowed to be involved with dangerous stunt work? I'd imagine that's changed to.

[Shit Good Nose]

Safety standards being treated in a pretty lax fashion was supposed to be quite par for the course at the time wasn't it? the child labour situation was based on the time of day(well night) as well wasn't it rather than there not being allowed to be involved with dangerous stunt work? I'd imagine that's changed to.

Lax by today's standards, but even back then everyone on set considered it to be a dangerous show - Vic Morrow feared for the kids' safety during the scene (I think it was him who suggested they should use dummies instead) and infamously said, just before the accident, that he should have demanded a stunt double for himself.

The flouting of the child labour laws meant that the two kids didn't have the required industry guardians on set at the time, only their own parents, who of course wouldn't have understood what was and wasn't permissable and who were told (by Landis himself, if memory serves) that there would only be a wind machine and distant pyrotechnics - they were never told anything about the helicopter or water.

[Phil_A]

Back in the usenet era I remember reading some conspiracy-ish rumour mongering that claimed Spielberg had been on set that night even though he later denied it and let Landis take the fall for the whole thing. Completely unsourced though so take that how you will.

Ultimately it wouldn't make a huge difference to what happened as Landis was the one directing the scene, regardless of whether Spielberg was there or not.

[Shit Good Nose]

Back in the usenet era I remember reading some conspiracy-ish rumour mongering that claimed Spielberg had been on set that night even though he later denied it and let Landis take the fall for the whole thing. Completely unsourced though so take that how you will.

Ultimately it wouldn't make a huge difference to what happened as Landis was the one directing the scene, regardless of whether Spielberg was there or not.

Since proven he was definitely not on set.  I can't remember which, but he was either doing pre-production stuff for Temple of Doom, or promotional stuff for ET.  I believe during the trial it was revealed that Spielberg had no idea how much Landis had changed the sequence compared to what was originally scripted and planned, and also had no idea that he was doing overtime shooting at night.  Spielberg wanted to pull out of the entire film and have his name removed, but he was contractually obliged to do it under any circumstances (save for his own demise).  But that's why his segment ended up being a quick and simple bit of fluff, so he could bow out of the production as quickly as possible.

[NoSleep]

What is the truth about this film? How racist was it? It's still considered a classic, after all.

It's jaw-droppingly (and KKK-revivingly) racist.

The film opens with the words "The bringing of the African to America planted the first seed of disunion" and proceeds from there. The first scenes depict how idyllic and wonderful everything in the South is while "the African" is still securely enslaved by their white masters. The later parts of the film have been described in earlier posts.