Sometimes you get a movie or cultural trend that is HUGE - it breaks records, cuts across all demographics, invites serious discussion by critics and basically rules the world for a while.
But if you flash forward to today, there is NO remaining interest. There’s no nostalgia, no cult following or “ironic” interest or any other cultural influence. It’s as if it never existed.
I’m talking about stuff like-
Spielberg’s E.T. and Close Encounters
Kevin Costner’s The Bodyguard (with Whitney Houston)
Bryan Adams - Everything I Do (the song - it was #1 for about a thousand weeks)
Anne Murray’s body of work
Brian DePalma’s body of work (Scarface excluded)
Danny DeVito’s body of work
I think Close Encounters definitely has a cult following. If I wanted to think of a huge Spielberg hit that isn’t much noted today, I’d go with Jurassic Park.
I should probably add: the films of Ingmar Bergman. They weren’t mass marketed, but they did get treated with the utmost awed respect in the 1970s.
I’d agree with Mission Impossible, but not Ghost - I still hear people talk about the pottery scene, saying “ditto”, etc…
Of those listed above that haven’t been addressed yet:
–The Bodyguard doesn’t get much attention now because of the subsequent fortunes of its two stars. Costner’s lucky streak ended shortly after that movie came out and Houston’s been a trainwreck for the last decade. Also, the movie just isn’t that good.
–The Bryan Adams song and Anne Murray’s body of work fall in the category of bland innocuous MOR/AC pop. There just isn’t anything that’s particularly memorable about it.
–Brian DePalma is still known for Carrie, The Untouchables, and for his constantly homaging (or ripping off) Hitchcock in his movies. However, his reputation really suffered with Bonfire of the Vanities.
–Danny DeVito is still visible and in demand as a character actor so you can’t say he’s disappeared.
Well, a lot of early movie stars would probably fall under this heading. Are Clara Bow, Lillian Gish or Rudolph Valentino - staggeringly huge stars in their day - remembered by more than a handful of movie buffs nowadays? For that matter, how many people have actually seen Intolerance, Birth of a Nation or *The Sheik * in their entirety, other than in an art house or academic context, lately?
Birth of a Nation – created the feature film and a massive popular hit, but it’s only mentioned in film histories and it’s extremely rare for it to be shown anywhere due to its racist content.
The same can be said about any silent dramatic film – there are only a small number of film fans who watch them. Sadie Thompson, The Thief of Baghdad or Greed are not known to the general public.
Actors of the silent era who have been forgotten include Douglas Fairbanks, Raymond Griffith, Florence Lawrence, and Wallace Reid.
The 40s version of The Thief of Baghdad (not the silent one) was a big success and considered one of the greatest fantasy/special effects films of all time, not to mention making Sabu a star. Only a few film buffs have ever heard of Sabu.
Someone named Joni James. I had never ever heard of her, but my mom asked ‘whatever happened to Joni James’ so I looked her up. She had pop songs in the Top Ten and in the top Forty throughout the '50s.
She sold more than 100 million records! And, put out a compilation CD in 1999. I have never heard of her, but apparently she was smashing success in her day and is AFAIK forgotten now.
Ernest Loring “Red” Nichols. His group, called “The Five Pennies” (although it often numbered more like seven or eight), included, at one time or another, Jack Teagarden, Benny Goodman, Jimmy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, Gene Krupa, Pee Wee Russell, Joe Venuti, and Eddie Lang. In his day, some considered him in the same league as Bix Beiderbecke. During the decade of the 1920s, he may well have appeared on more jazz sides than any other human on the planet Earth. But now, it is not hard to find supposedly authoritative jazz compendia that do not so much as mention his name.
Not sure if “Birth of a Nation” or stars such as Valentino, Bow or Fairbanks should be mentioned. I think quite a number of people have at least heard of them even today. A lot of their films are still issued on DVD if one wants them
I nominate Richard Dix. a 20s actor who was so forgotten by the 1960s that Star Trek TOS “City on the Edge of Tomorrow” substituted Clark Gable so modern audiences could chuckle over Kirk and McCoy’s ignorance of what was popular in 1930.