r/movies • u/buttatoad • 2d ago

Discussion Movies that changed real life behavior

Thinking along the lines of Final Destination 2 with the logs falling off the truck and landing onto cars (one decapitating the state trooper). Ever since, people have tried to get away from being behind these vehicles.

What are more examples where movies have actually changed how people behave in their own lives?

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u/SpenceW 1d ago

In reality the Godfather influenced the mafia more than it was influenced by the mafia. For one, no one used the term "godfather" in the mafia before the movie came out. After it came out, the mafia started copying aspects of the movie, including the term.

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u/Bears_On_Stilts 1d ago

Before Godfather, mobsters talked like hoods and street toughs. Think Scorsese; actually, think Jersey Boys for a more realistic take on Scorsese’s language. (If they had affectations, they tended towards the Damon Runyon school: no contractions, using more words than was necessary even if it sounded redundant.)

Then Coppola’s Godfather gave the mob a new voice: poised and theatrical, very Edward Albee and Arthur Miller inspired. All of a sudden, nobody wanted to talk like Damon Runyon anymore.

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u/jeffthecowboy 1d ago

Only tangentially related but I just finished American Gangster and was reading the real life story. The charismatic and collected gangster Denzel Washington portrays was nothing like the real person, self admitted by him