I dare you to anticipate Joaquin Phoenix in Todd Phillips's JOKER (now with something that may or may not be a SPOILER)

as recently noted in a WaPo article about the recent lynching memorial/monument in DC:

“Gone with the Wind” repeated the story about carpetbagger misrule and black insubordination during the Reconstruction era, directing viewers to sympathize with Southern white “victims” like Scarlett O’Hara and Ashley Wilkes. Even in its Hollywood form, the story had political consequences. “Whatever sentiment there was in the South for a federal anti-lynch law,” NAACP leader Walter White supposedly said, “evaporated during the ‘Gone with the Wind’ vogue.”

As long as Americans remained enamored with a “Gone with the Wind” version of history, the real history of racial brutality, including any awareness of the true extent of racial terror lynchings, will be buried beneath a myth about the “shackles of Reconstruction.”

White really hated the movie, went after Hattie McDaniel (not very successfully afaict) as well.

ooh Death Wish is def a good candidate imo. It doesn't have any of the ambiguity or discomfort of Taxi Driver.

xp

Inspired by JOKER, here is a complete list of movies that have actually caused tangible societal harm:

✓ Birth of a Nation (revived the KKK)
✓ A Better Tomorrow (inspired Hong Kong teenagers to wear trenchcoats in the sweltering heat)
✓ Avengers (led to the Disney monopoly)

— Will Sloan, the 6ix Dad (@WillSloanEsq) September 3, 2019

xpost Would the same go for any revenge exploitation movie? Or is the target of vengeance a key distinction?

Deer Hunter reportedly inspired a spate of copycat Russian Roulette (which the movie invented?).

idk if the need to play stupid suicidal games was really a broader social trend that one could accuse Deer Hunter of exploiting and perpetuating

you could maybe argue that about Jackass tho lol

Oh, you're looking for movies that exacerbate existing conditions?

I guess? seems like irresponsibility requires there to be something already extant to be irresponsible about.

like, exploiting a developing or already existing political trend/strain

idk I'm just spitballing here

Falling Down is pretty bad

I mean, did Bernie Goetz inspire copycats?

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/2005/joe_blu-ray_/poster_joe_blu-ray01.jpg

Surely many pearls were clutched upon the release of A Clockwork Orange?

Gone With the Wind also purports to be somewhat historical, so the harm it did seems to have been in distorting history.

Joe (1970)
R | 1h 47min | Drama, Thriller | 15 July 1970 (USA)

Two men, Bill, a wealthy conservative, and Joe, a far-right factory worker, form a dangerous bond after Bill confesses to murdering his daughter's drug dealer boyfriend to Joe.

Jesus, this is literally right wing ideology in one sentence.

I haven't seen it in forever and can't remember if it's intended satirically but my instinct is no.

I don't think so. It came up a lot in Nixonland.

it sort of sounds satirical from this, but maybe just done so hamfistedly that it doesn't read satirically? I mean the fact that he accidentally kills his own daughter at the end sounds like a trite sort of moral

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_(1970_film)

Surely many pearls were clutched upon the release of A Clockwork Orange?

Wot a ninny

until recently the movies i most frequently heard condemned as irresponsible were jfk and do the right thing

Caligula

JFK *is* pretty irresponsible but idk if it really had any impact on audience actions or politics. It is also hilariously awesome, obviously.

hard disagree on DTRT tho

p sure Stone's Ukraine/Putin movie is def going to qualify

Caligula led to a spate of Emperor on Emperor violence iirc

I'm just going to take a wild guess re: the demographics of those who've deemed Do the Right Thing to be irresponsible...

common thread with Birth of a Nation, Gone With the Wind, and JFK is that they are all revisionist histories that play hard and loose with facts in service to a broader ideological agenda.

do the right thing is obviously great and lee made the same correct observation re: demographics in public at the time, but it is an example of when media conversation around a movie was cast in these terms.

hard disagree on DTRT tho

Do the Right Thing was totally (and racistly) branded irresponsible.

right, I meant I disagreed with that branding

Gotcha.

the argument at the time was that there was going to be riots because of Do The Right Thing which is just so laughable on the face of it. The thinking there was that this *film* would convince black people to get irrationally angry about racism? As opposed to, like, all the actual racism?

think of all the innocent pizza parlors throughout the nation

Poor Danny Aiello

I think the question is why would we think Joker is going to inspire a bunch of basement dwelling incels from 4chan to get violent, when they're already on 4chan.

or 8chan or whatever the fuck jesus I'm a 40-year-old dad I only pretend I know what this stuff is

Warner Bros just lookin to capitalize on that sweet incel 8chan market

I think the question is why would we think Joker is going to inspire a bunch of basement dwelling incels from 4chan to get violent, when they're already on 4chan.

― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Wednesday, September 4, 2019 12:50 PM (twelve minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

they're already violent, yeah

point stands that it's pouring gasoline on a fire

^^^^

Another key difference between the era of Taxi Driver, Death Wish, or even Natural Born Killers, is the socially-driven motivation of the perpetrators of these present day acts. It seems like the feedback loop from other forum members and media attention/notoriety compel these people to one-up each other. These people probably do have those old movies on high rotation, though.

I would rather see Joaquin in a live action remake of Lilo and Stitch.

In what role

both

Ms Hasagawa

stich

It probably is worth noting that spree killers and sociopathic vigilantes weren't a pervasive social ill when Natural Born Killers, Taxi Driver, Death Wish, etc. were released. This might be more comparable to the JD flicks of the '50s and '60s.

Ebert called Fight Club “the most frankly and cheerfully fascist big-star movie since Death Wish.”

a lot more people will leave this movie and get in fights than will leave it discussing Tyler Durden's moral philosophy

unfortunately i don't think it worked out this way