When The Public Imitates Movies

[MortSahlFan]

Although it is often reported that A Clockwork Orange was 'banned' in the United Kingdom, the removal of the movie was actually Kubrick's own choice. ... The association of real-world acts of violence with the movie was deeply upsetting for Kubrick, and he decided to pull A Clockwork Orange from the British market.

Can you think of any other examples?

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Blokes supposedly not only talking about Fight Club, but also forming their own fight clubs.

[Deyv]

The Chucky/Child's Play movies inspired horrible children to commit terrible crimes.

[MortSahlFan]

John Hinckley attempted to assassinate the President to impress Jodie Foster after seeing "Taxi Driver"

[Blumf]

Didn't Animal House restart interest in college frats?

[beanheadmcginty]

Those Guy Fawkes masks from V for Vendetta

[JesusAndYourBush]

Twatty student types endlessly wanking on about the knights who go ni etc so when I finally saw the film I found it to be a tedious pile of wank.  (It's possible I may have felt the same without the endless quoting, but I'll never know.)

[Dr Syntax Head]

Green street and football factory making all the legend Gary's feel all hard and tasty on a Saturday afternoon down the pub the Stella drinking fucking should have been abortions.

[magval]

Also just the penetration of obnoxious speech patterns into public conscience. Endless cunts ending endlessly unimpressive statements and revelations with the word 'boom', for example.

[MortSahlFan]

I read that "The Warriors" led to many fights IN the theaters.

[Keebleman]

My Dinner With Andre once inspired an entire audience to start droning on about electric blankets and spending a night in the forest.  Absolute mayhem apparently.  Police came in with tear gas and everything.

[SavageHedgehog]

1993's The Program had a scene that inspired teenagers in the US to lie in the middle of the road as a test of bravery, causing one death and a number of serious injuries. This led to the scene in question being edited out of the VHS release and almost all subsequent releases worldwide, though it is on YouTube.

[Thomas]

Jackson's King Kong led to copycat incidents.

[C_Larence]

A very online example, but when Dril got doxxed and everyone silently agreed to not look at who he was is often compared to the scene in Spider-Man 2 when Spider-Man 2 saves a train full of people with his mask off.

[Goldentony]

John Hinckley attempted to assassinate the President to impress Jodie Foster after seeing "Star Wars"

[Phoenix Lazarus]

The Chucky/Child's Play movies inspired horrible children to commit terrible crimes.

It inspired Jamie Bulger to kill.  Thompson and Venables saved those he planned to stab and what thanks did society give them?

[Icehaven]

I've never understood why "I'm walkin' here!" caught on so much. It isn't even the best line in that scene ("Hey there horse" is).

[Phil_A]

Although it is often reported that A Clockwork Orange was 'banned' in the United Kingdom, the removal of the movie was actually Kubrick's own choice. ... The association of real-world acts of violence with the movie was deeply upsetting for Kubrick, and he decided to pull A Clockwork Orange from the British market.

Based on my limited research into this, the actual number of cases of imitative violence related to A Clockwork Orange appears to have been somewhat exaggerated, due to the media's habit of linking the film to incidents which had actually little to do with it. The most famous one being the young lad who went out and kicked a tramp to death, reported as the "Clockwork Orange Boy", when it turned out he hadn't actually seen the film, he'd only heard his friends talking about it.

It's true Kubrick's family received death threats, which is what is believed to have prompted him to withdraw it, but these appear to've been from angry critics of the film rather than wannabe droogs out for a bit of the old ultraviolence.

While I was digging through the newspaper archives, I found this quite amusing letter from the late great NF Simpson that sums up the whole overblown furore pretty well:

[dissolute ocelot]

Also just the penetration of obnoxious speech patterns into public conscience. Endless cunts ending endlessly unimpressive statements and revelations with the word 'boom', for example.

See also Wayne's World. Not.

[MortSahlFan]

I've never understood why "I'm walkin' here!" caught on so much. It isn't even the best line in that scene ("Hey there horse" is).

I don't get it, either. It's a fine movie, but I never thought a thing about that line.. Then again, there are many lines that are "famous" but didn't strike me as very interesting while I was watching it the first time. "This is going to be a bumpy ride" or "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn"

[Hand Solo]

I don't get it, either. It's a fine movie, but I never thought a thing about that line.. Then again, there are many lines that are "famous" but didn't strike me as very interesting while I was watching it the first time. "This is going to be a bumpy ride" or "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn"

Isn't it because the scene was a happenstance when a cab jumped the light and Hoffman had to improvise in character? So the scene seems very real, he even drops the cigarette from his mouth when he's shouting at the cabby guy. There's some controversy as it was a 'low-budget stolen shot' filmed featuring no extras with hidden cameras but had multiple re-shoots so nobody is really quite sure if they used the first take and then scripted the re-shoots to go the same way. It certainly doesn't look like something you'd script because it has no relevance to anything. I thought the line was only mostly famous from being bootlegged by McFly in BTTF2?

The infamous "You're gonna need a bigger boat" line was also supposedly improvised by Scheider during the Jaws scene after becoming an on-set catchphrase about the low-production costs.

[Famous Mortimer]

The thing where you say you can't report a missing person til they've been missing for 24 hours (which apparently even some cops do, despite it not being a thing outside of the movies).