# Movies that made a big pop culture splash but are now disporportionately forgotten **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 16, 2014, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-big-pop-culture-splash-but-are-now-disporportionately-forgotten/704755 "2014-11-16T08:07:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2014, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-big-pop-culture-splash-but-are-now-disporportionately-forgotten/704755/81 "2014-11-17T00:11:58Z")
> [@Aquadementia](#): > > That won an Oscar?!? > It’s one of those movies I wanted to be good so it got more laughs then it deserved thanks to my forcing out the laughs. > Now it looks more dated then 9 to 5 and not nearly as funny. Yes, Kevin Kline won Best Supporting Actor (one of my least faves). It was nominated for a ton of shit though. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2014, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-big-pop-culture-splash-but-are-now-disporportionately-forgotten/704755/82 "2014-11-17T00:23:19Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > It was extremely popular when it was released (it made over a billion dollars worldwide) and directly lead to a wave of fairy tale/fantasy movies like Mirror Mirror, Snow White and the Huntsman, Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, Oz: The Great and Powerful, and Maleficent. Well you know that is kind of the problem I have with a lot of candidates in this thread. A big grossing film doesn’t equal cultural impact. Often big movies make money because they are cashing in on a current cultural trend- they didn’t start it. I guess starting a fantasy movie trend would count but I’m not sure I buy that for AiW. ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2014, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-big-pop-culture-splash-but-are-now-disporportionately-forgotten/704755/83 "2014-11-17T00:28:36Z")
Five Easy Pieces, 1970, Jack Nicholson, Karen Black, Susan Anspach, was popular and angsty, now remembered for the chicken salad andwich scene if remembered at all. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2014, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-big-pop-culture-splash-but-are-now-disporportionately-forgotten/704755/84 "2014-11-17T00:50:51Z")
> [@Kropotkin](#): > > Five Easy Pieces, 1970, Jack Nicholson, Karen Black, Susan Anspach, was popular and angsty, now remembered for the chicken salad andwich scene if remembered at all. Oh yes. That reminds me of The Little Dictator. Everyone was talking about it when it came out. Now? Nobody even knows it. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2014, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-big-pop-culture-splash-but-are-now-disporportionately-forgotten/704755/85 "2014-11-17T00:52:10Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > _Unforgiven_. Edged, I think, by _A Few Good Men_, though mostly on the performance of Jack Nicholson. At the very least, “You can’t handle the truth!” is still familiar, but I can’t think of a single quote from _Unforgiven_. “Deserve’s got nothin’ to do with it.” ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2014, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-big-pop-culture-splash-but-are-now-disporportionately-forgotten/704755/86 "2014-11-17T00:58:23Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > “Deserve’s got nothin’ to do with it.” Goddamn right! Also: “You just shot an unarmed man!” “Well, he should have armed himself if he’s going to decorate his saloon with my friend” ---
**Author:** ![GreenElf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@GreenElf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenElf)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2014, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-big-pop-culture-splash-but-are-now-disporportionately-forgotten/704755/87 "2014-11-17T01:29:48Z")
The bigger they are, the harder they fall, or deeper they sink in the case of Titanic. It was the top grossing movie until Avatar, but hasn’t had the lasting impact of Star Wars. The Sixth Sense was huge, but is just another 90s movie now, as is Jerry Maguire. Many 70s blockbusters no longer garner attention, such as Rocky (although the Conti soundtrack is great), Jaws, American Graffiti (now just another teen movie), Bad News Bears. Jim Carrey has more memorable movies than Liar Liar such as The Grinch, Dumb & Dumber and The Truman Show. And the Wizard of Oz used to be all over the TV during the holidays until they started moving the holiday shows over to DVD. Now it’s just another DVD option. ---
**Author:** ![LC\_Strawhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@LC\_Strawhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LC_Strawhouse)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2014, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-big-pop-culture-splash-but-are-now-disporportionately-forgotten/704755/88 "2014-11-17T01:47:19Z")
How about the films of Ingmar Bergman or Fellini? Seems like they used to be put on a pedestal of “this is the _best_ that modern cinema has to offer” and any writing on film was littered with tributes to their greatness. But these days they’re probably conspicuously absent from anyone’s list of favorite movies… and with all their long silences, circus freaks and heavy symbolism, they are mostly indistinguishable from parodies of “pretentious art films”. (The [SCTV parody](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMVrMHQk95s) of Bergman isn’t any sillier than the actual movie being parodied, “Hour of the Wolf”) I’d exclude Bergman’s **Scenes from a Marriage** from criticism, by the way - that is his one truly powerful movie IMHO, which also cuts out all the artsy bullshit. I heard it actually made divorce rates go up in Sweden when it came out. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2014, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-big-pop-culture-splash-but-are-now-disporportionately-forgotten/704755/89 "2014-11-17T02:09:39Z")
> [@GreenElf](#): > > The bigger they are, the harder they fall, or deeper they sink in the case of Titanic. It was the top grossing movie until Avatar, but hasn’t had the lasting impact of Star Wars. The Sixth Sense was huge, but is just another 90s movie now, as is Jerry Maguire. Many 70s blockbusters no longer garner attention, such as Rocky (although the Conti soundtrack is great), Jaws, American Graffiti (now just another teen movie), Bad News Bears. Jim Carrey has more memorable movies than Liar Liar such as The Grinch, Dumb & Dumber and The Truman Show. And the Wizard of Oz used to be all over the TV during the holidays until they started moving the holiday shows over to DVD. Now it’s just another DVD option. Bwuh? Almost all of those movies are still hugely popular. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2014, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-big-pop-culture-splash-but-are-now-disporportionately-forgotten/704755/90 "2014-11-17T02:13:16Z")
> [@GreenElf](#): > > The bigger they are, the harder they fall, or deeper they sink in the case of Titanic. It was the top grossing movie until Avatar, but hasn’t had the lasting impact of Star Wars. It’s had a pretty lasting impact outside of the US. “Cafe Titanic” is still a go-to restaurant name in quite a few developing countries. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2014, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-big-pop-culture-splash-but-are-now-disporportionately-forgotten/704755/91 "2014-11-17T02:15:30Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > Bwuh? Almost all of those movies are still hugely popular. While I hate"bwuh", I gotta agree. Rocky is still massively a cultural touchstone. I don’t get at all what some people are using as parameters in this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2014, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-big-pop-culture-splash-but-are-now-disporportionately-forgotten/704755/92 "2014-11-17T02:18:35Z")
Me, either. It doesn’t get much bigger than The Wizard of Oz. It may not be on TV every year, but it’s been parodied/spoofed endlessly, spawned two additional musicals, and I’d wager to guess most people know most, if not all, of the songs from it. ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2014, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-big-pop-culture-splash-but-are-now-disporportionately-forgotten/704755/93 "2014-11-17T02:23:36Z")
Someone beat me to mentioning The Sixth Sense and Titanic, so I’ll name one other big blockbuster which I thought would be this huge cultural movie comparable to the Star Wars trilogy but didn’t. The Matrix. Maybe it was the sequels, but for whatever reason it seems yo have been completely forgotten or almost completely forgotten in the cultural memory after about five years(admittedly it was very culturally influential during that time period). ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2014, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-big-pop-culture-splash-but-are-now-disporportionately-forgotten/704755/94 "2014-11-17T02:24:25Z")
> [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](#): > > Tim Burton’s “Alice In Wonderland”. We forgot about it by the time we left the theater. The visual equivalent of those super-sour candies. (Didn’t see it, but the trailers were enough to give me a headache.) ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2014, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-big-pop-culture-splash-but-are-now-disporportionately-forgotten/704755/95 "2014-11-17T02:25:20Z")
> [@Ibn\_Warraq](#): > > Someone beat me to mentioning The Sixth Sense and Titanic, so I’ll name one other big blockbuster which I thought would be this huge cultural movie comparable to the Star Wars trilogy but didn’t. > > The Matrix. > > Maybe it was the sequels, but for whatever reason it seems yo have been completely forgotten or almost completely forgotten in the cultural memory after about five years(admittedly it was very culturally influential during that time period). See post 64. Beat there too. ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2014, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-big-pop-culture-splash-but-are-now-disporportionately-forgotten/704755/96 "2014-11-17T02:27:41Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Wouldn’t it be easier to make a list of movies that _aren’t_ disproportionately forgotten? Dozens of new movies are released each year, so older ones have less and less cultural significance. I think that’s one reason so many remakes are released nowadays. Easier but less interesting. We’d just be discussing classics like _The Wizard of Oz_ and perhaps cult films. An interesting category might be movies that became “modern classics” despite not being that big when they came out, such as _The Princess Bride._ ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2014, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-big-pop-culture-splash-but-are-now-disporportionately-forgotten/704755/97 "2014-11-17T02:36:57Z")
> [@Aeschines](#): > > Easier but less interesting. We’d just be discussing classics like _The Wizard of Oz_ and perhaps cult films. An interesting category might be movies that became “modern classics” despite not being that big when they came out, such as _The Princess Bride._ We got people here in this thread discussing Wizard of Oz as a forgotten film, my friend! ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2014, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-big-pop-culture-splash-but-are-now-disporportionately-forgotten/704755/98 "2014-11-17T02:53:57Z")
CarnalK writes: \> Oh yes. That reminds me of The Little Dictator. Everyone was talking about it \> when it came out. Now? Nobody even knows it. What are you talking about? I don’t know anything significant called The Little Dictator. Do you mean the movie _The Great Dictator_? That considered more significant now than when it came out. ---
**Author:** ![GreenElf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@GreenElf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenElf)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2014, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-big-pop-culture-splash-but-are-now-disporportionately-forgotten/704755/99 "2014-11-17T03:00:02Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > Bwuh? Almost all of those movies are still hugely popular. Give me an example of their huge popularity. I’m aware the Wizard of Oz is still culturally relevant, but it’s not the ubiquitous presence it was during the TV age. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2014, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-big-pop-culture-splash-but-are-now-disporportionately-forgotten/704755/100 "2014-11-17T03:05:19Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > CarnalK writes: > > \> Oh yes. That reminds me of The Little Dictator. Everyone was talking about it > \> when it came out. Now? Nobody even knows it. > > What are you talking about? I don’t know anything significant called The Little Dictator. Do you mean the mWellovie _The Great Dictator_? That considered more significant now than when it came out. My mistake. Don’t know how I did that, except maybe I was internalizing it’s point. Lol. But no, its not even remotely considered significant today outside of real movie buffs. What the heck are you talking about? I challenge you to ask people on the street tomorrow and I bet not a single person knows about that film. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-big-pop-culture-splash-but-are-now-disporportionately-forgotten/704755.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-big-pop-culture-splash-but-are-now-disporportionately-forgotten/704755.md?page=6)