Movies as Catalysts for Positive Change

[Stewball]

Sylvester Stallone and his movie, Rambo, deserve a lot of credit for shining a light on the literal backwater hell-hole of Myanmar (formerly Burma) in 2008. When the movie came out it was in great demand in Thailand, as well as in Myanmar where it was banned. How much credit it can take for the events that followed there resulting in the rise and landslide election of the popular NDL party with it's titular leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, yesterday, is debatable. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-34805806 And while it appears that Stallone is not seeking any credit for his/its role in the decades overdue uprising, it's obvious the connection is more than coincidental though impossible to quantify.

I invite other examples of such positive influence, rather than those in the plethora of simple after-the-fact docudramas, or outright propaganda. I suppose something like In the Heat of the Night might possibly qualify, but I'm not so sure whatever change it sparked, if any, was positive. Even more doubtful would be Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, since the resistance to racial intermarriage has changed little to none across the political spectrum. The burgeoning Hollywood film industry came late to the party in WWII, and really didn't produce any catalytic sparks or anything that stands out until years after the fact--unless I'm just not remembering them. Then there's The Manchurian Candidate ('62) which was so far ahead of its time, as to leave any connection to future events in the realm of the uncredible. Then they did the '04 remake which was so absurd it undermined whatever substance there was left of the original.

Anyway....

[ShogunRua]

I can't think of a single movie that helped inspired positive, wide-scale social change.

I can think of several that helped inspire negative change, however.

[ehk2]

Rosetta: "In Belgium the film inspired a new law prohibiting employers from paying teen workers less than the minimum wage and other labor reforms for youth" (wiki)

[Pickpocket]

The first that came to mind was The Thin Blue Line which led to the guy they profiled have his conviction overturned and released from prison after 12 years incarcerated.

[Velvet Crowe]

Well, I wouldn't say the program itself caused positive change but there was a film called "The Boys of St.Vincent" which portrayed an ongoing case at the time of a child abuse scandal at the catholic church. Given the nature of the film, the judge ordered the jury to not watch it and created the precedent for publication bans wherein they impose publication bans on information revealed in a criminal trial

[Stewball]

I can't think of a single movie that helped inspired positive, wide-scale social change.

I can think of several that helped inspire negative change, however.

Well, it doesn't have to be world-wide change. One, involving a single individual can affect us all. And I s'pose it could be about something other than social change, like maybe science or something, though that would be even less likely. But yeah, the market is flooded with negative documentaries, aka propaganda, like An Inconvenient Truth or any of Goebbles' stuff, for example.

Drew, wasn't the Catholic pedophile scandal broken by a newspaper. What I'm hoping to find is cases where an issue that had been hidden/ignored is initially brought to like by a movie. Like with Rambo, the carnage in Myanmar had been going on for 50 years with essentially no external notice until it's release. And it was arguably an instrument/catalyst of change because of the light it shined on the subject.

Pickpocket, I haven't seen The Thin Blue Line, but that sounds right, on a smaller scale anyway.

movieboy, Indian movies? Such as what?

[CMonster]

The first that came to mind was The Thin Blue Line which led to the guy they profiled have his conviction overturned and released from prison after 12 years incarcerated.

I was going to say this. Brilliant documentary filmmaking. I would also include the Paradise Lost documentaries. There is admittedly less of a direct connection between the films and the release of the wrongfully incarcerated, but I would venture to guess it may not have happened without the films.

[Pickpocket]

The first that came to mind was The Thin Blue Line which led to the guy they profiled have his conviction overturned and released from prison after 12 years incarcerated.

I was going to say this. Brilliant documentary filmmaking. I would also include the Paradise Lost documentaries. There is admittedly less of a direct connection between the films and the release of the wrongfully incarcerated, but I would venture to guess it may not have happened without the films.

Coincidentally 2/3 of the docs I've given a 10/10.

[mattorama12]

Even more doubtful would be Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, since the resistance to racial intermarriage has changed little to none across the political spectrum.

What? Are you saying that public opinion on interracial marriage is the same today as it was before that movie was released?? If so, you're wildly off the mark: http://www.gallup.com/poll/163697/appro ... hites.aspx

Now, I doubt the movie was a major cause for this change, and the data there makes it impossible to try and form any conclusion about the effect of the movie. But to say that opinion has "changed little" on the issue is just wildly wrong.

Anyway, I think the question posed by this thread is an interesting one. It seems to me that it's more common for movies to capitalize on changing tides rather than create them. This is probably partly due to the nature of filmmaking--it takes a while from its inception to its release.

[Stewball]

Indian movies

- Rang De Basanti [2006]

Very good movie. Was huge. Was about a bunch of young guys in college who revolt against corruption in politics and [spoiler]kill a lot of corrupt politicians,[/spoiler]

It inspired a lot of activism in the country against politicians on different issues. There was a politician's son who had murdered a bar maid (in real life, not in the movie - movie was about other issues) and was almost getting away with it. Witnesses had been bribed/threatened/turned hostile and the guy was acquitted. There was a mass revolt on the streets, the case was appealed and the High Court convicted the guy.

- Taare Zameen Par [2007]
Again a nice movie. Brought a little awareness about Dyslexia which was almost unknown in the country.

Well, you went back and edited it. I honestly didn't know if you were talking about American or Asian Indians. I haven't seen either but based on the descriptions TZP seems to fit, but did RDB initiate any change itself or just document it?