# 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:** 6
**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, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-big-pop-culture-splash-but-are-now-disporportionately-forgotten/704755/101 "2014-11-17T03:11:14Z")
You are not whooshing? Remember the op is “disproportionately forgotten.” How many movies would I and do I know of from that era? It was a long time ago. Maybe a dozen. Max. I know of _The Great Dictator_. ---
**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, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-big-pop-culture-splash-but-are-now-disporportionately-forgotten/704755/102 "2014-11-17T03:12:11Z")
> [@LC\_Strawhouse](#): > > How about the films of Ingmar Bergman or Fellini? Indeed. I saw _8 1/2_ last year, and that crap’s just boring. ---
**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, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-big-pop-culture-splash-but-are-now-disporportionately-forgotten/704755/103 "2014-11-17T03:18:59Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > 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. I can see _Wizard of Oz_ as descending from a previous high. In the 70s when I was a kid, it was a real event when that came on TV (and Willy Wonka, too). After several more decades of children’s entertainment has been produced, there is bound to be some dilution. But I would say WoO is still treated as a classic. ---
**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, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-big-pop-culture-splash-but-are-now-disporportionately-forgotten/704755/104 "2014-11-17T03:21:11Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > You are not whooshing? > > Remember the op is “disproportionately forgotten.” How many movies would I and do I know of from that era? It was a long time ago. Maybe a dozen. Max. I know of _The Great Dictator_. You just might be in the minority. Or is that really unbelievable to you? Eta: my original post on this was in response to someone bringing up a so so movie that was over 40 years old and didn’t take on Hitler. ---
**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, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-big-pop-culture-splash-but-are-now-disporportionately-forgotten/704755/105 "2014-11-17T03:42:29Z")
One movie (and book) before my time that I think fits is _Exodus,_ which deals with the founding of Israel as a modern nation. The movie was big, the theme song was everywhere. Culturally, it’s just not on the radar any more. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2014, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-big-pop-culture-splash-but-are-now-disporportionately-forgotten/704755/106 "2014-11-17T03:49:38Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > 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” Ya probably think I’m kickin’ ya, Bob. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2014, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-big-pop-culture-splash-but-are-now-disporportionately-forgotten/704755/107 "2014-11-17T03:52:23Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Who the heck is Sophia? Eh, my daughter. 13yo, has a copy, they also play TSoM yearly @ school. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2014, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-big-pop-culture-splash-but-are-now-disporportionately-forgotten/704755/108 "2014-11-17T03:52:36Z")
> [@NDP](#): > > We’ll have to disagree on this because I can remember some quotable lines for **Unforgiven**. > > –“It’s a hell of a thing killing a man. You take away everything he’s got and everything he’s ever gonna have.” > > –“I’ve killed women and children. I’ve killed everything that walks or crawls at one time or another. And I’m here to kill you, Little Bill, for what you done to Ned.” > > –“Hell, I even thought I was dead 'til I found out it was just that I was in Nebraska.” Thematically, in a couple of ways it’s “The Last Western Made”.\* That seems culturally relevant. \*Eastwood’s last Western and time wise in the film, the wild days of The Old West are drawing to an end. ---
**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, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-big-pop-culture-splash-but-are-now-disporportionately-forgotten/704755/109 "2014-11-17T04:26:09Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > You just might be in the minority. Or is that really unbelievable to you? … Well I don’t consider myself a film buff so I find my knowing much more than the average Joe about films that old to be improbable. Yeah, if I know of it then likely lots of other average Joes do. Now mind you looking up films of the era there actually are more that stood the test of time than one would expect … it _was_ the Golden Age. That said, I’ve never heard of _San Francisco_ and it was the top grosser in 1936. _The Great Dictator_ was beat out for gross in 1941 apparently by [_Sergeant York_](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034167/) … do you think that one is much more well remembered? Best picture went to [_How Green was My Valley_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Green_Was_My_Valley_(film)) and the most nominations went to [_The Little Foxes._](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Foxes_(film)) You think that those who don’t know of _The Great Dictator_ know of any of them? And btw, [your original post](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=17904591&postcount=84) was in response to _Five Easy Pieces_ being brought up … not about Hitler. ---
**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, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-big-pop-culture-splash-but-are-now-disporportionately-forgotten/704755/110 "2014-11-17T04:29:50Z")
_The Great Dictator_ is number 52 on the Internet Movie Database’s list of the top 250 movies: > **[Top 250 Movies](https://www.imdb.com/chart/top?ref_=ft_250)** > > Check out the top 250 movies as rated by IMDb users It’s ahead of, say, _The Lion King_, _The Shining_, _WALL-E_, and _Citizen Kane_. The IMDb’s list is not, I must emphasize, the list that movie critics would make of the best films of all time. The average critic would disdain this list as being far too slanted toward recent movies and movies that are flashy but minor (and it’s obviously quite slanted toward American films). It’s not a list of what the average filmgoer would consider best either. Most filmgoers would find the list to contain far too many films that they had never heard of. It’s somewhere in between. It’s a list of what people (who are mostly American) who have been regularly seeing movies for a few years consider to be their favorites. A lot of posters to this thread have been way, way, way too broad in calling a film forgotten. They seem to think that because they haven’t thought about a particular movie for awhile that this makes it generally forgotten. I don’t know of any way to systematically characterize which films are actually forgotten and which aren’t, but I don’t think posters here are doing it accurately. Incidentally, I said that _The Great Dictator_ has risen in significance in the past several years because I watched its rise on the IMDb’s 250 list over the past few years. ---
**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, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-big-pop-culture-splash-but-are-now-disporportionately-forgotten/704755/111 "2014-11-17T05:07:52Z")
> [@GreenElf](#): > > 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. Also, IIRC, it wasn’t terribly popular when it came out so if anything it’s more popular now than when it came out. ---
**Author:** ![Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellis_Aponte_Jr)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2014, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-big-pop-culture-splash-but-are-now-disporportionately-forgotten/704755/112 "2014-11-17T05:26:00Z")
> [@LC\_Strawhouse](#): > > 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. One way to assess the relative reputations of various film directors and how they’ve changed over time is to look at the “Greatest Films Poll” tabulated every ten years (since 1952) by Sight & Sound magazine. The most recent one was the 2012 poll which involved 846 “critics, programmers, academics, and distributors,” who all contributed top 10 lists. Out of this came a ranked list of 250 films, supposedly the best ever. Just looking at the top 100, Fellini shows up twice, his highest being \*\*8 1/2 \*\* at #10. Bergman shows up four times; his highest is **Persona** at #17. That’s still a pretty good showing, I would say. It’s probably true that, in a relative sense, both directors have slipped in this poll since the 1970s, but then there’s been 40 years of cinema since then that their old films have to “compete” against. If you’d like a more populist way to judge these directors’ reputations, maybe the imdb ratings are that. There we find that Fellini has six films with an 8 rating or higher and Bergman has 11 (or 12 if you include **Scenes from a Marriage,** which was actually a TV mini-series). Again, this is quite impressive. As a comparison, Martin Scorsese has seven (not including documentaries), Alfred Hitchcock has 11, Stanley Kubrick has nine, and the great John Ford has four. ---
**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, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-big-pop-culture-splash-but-are-now-disporportionately-forgotten/704755/113 "2014-11-17T05:28:47Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > Well I don’t consider myself a film buff so I find my knowing much more than the average Joe about films that old to be improbable. Yeah, if I know of it then likely lots of other average Joes do. > > Now mind you looking up films of the era there actually are more that stood the test of time than one would expect … it _was_ the Golden Age. That said, I’ve never heard of _San Francisco_ and it was the top grosser in 1936. _The Great Dictator_ was beat out for gross in 1941 apparently by [_Sergeant York_](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034167/) … do you think that one is much more well remembered? Best picture went to [_How Green was My Valley_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Green_Was_My_Valley_(film)) and the most nominations went to [_The Little Foxes._](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Foxes_(film)) You think that those who don’t know of _The Great Dictator_ know of any of them. No! For Pete’s sake. I was mocking someone for bringing up a 40 y old movie by mentioning an important 70 y old movie! If you weren’t such a reactionary member of the ADL you might have got the joke. So yes, you were “wooshed”, except for the fact that the common man does not know jack shit about The Great Dictator. That’s staight up reality. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2014, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-big-pop-culture-splash-but-are-now-disporportionately-forgotten/704755/114 "2014-11-17T05:37:40Z")
What saddens me now is there are a lot of people nowadays, say ages 23 and younger, who don’t know there was a real passenger liner named “Titanic” and that it struck an iceberg on it’s first cruise, sank, and most of it’s crew and passengers died. They just think it’s a movie. ---
**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, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-big-pop-culture-splash-but-are-now-disporportionately-forgotten/704755/115 "2014-11-17T05:41:41Z")
> [@Ranger\_Jeff](#): > > What saddens me now is there are a lot of people nowadays, say ages 23 and younger, who don’t know there was a real passenger liner named “Titanic” and that it struck an iceberg on it’s first cruise, sank, and most of it’s crew and passengers died. They just think it’s a movie. You think? I would have given them the benefit of the doubt and assumed they knew it was “based on a true story” at least. ---
**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, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-big-pop-culture-splash-but-are-now-disporportionately-forgotten/704755/116 "2014-11-17T05:55:48Z")
> [@Ibn\_Warraq](#): > > Also, IIRC, it wasn’t terribly popular when it came out so if anything it’s more popular now than when it came out. That’s common knowledge, but still Oz is no longer the cultural presence it was during the TV age when it was a widespread tradition to watch it on prime-time TV during the holidays. \*I added Oz at the end of my list as an aside rather than another instance of a forgotten movie. ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2014, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-big-pop-culture-splash-but-are-now-disporportionately-forgotten/704755/117 "2014-11-17T07:08:05Z")
> [@Ranger\_Jeff](#): > > What saddens me now is there are a lot of people nowadays, say ages 23 and younger, who don’t know there was a real passenger liner named “Titanic” and that it struck an iceberg on it’s first cruise, sank, and most of it’s crew and passengers died. They just think it’s a movie. What saddens me is that you think this is true (to any significant extent)… ---
**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, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-big-pop-culture-splash-but-are-now-disporportionately-forgotten/704755/118 "2014-11-17T08:04:26Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > No! For Pete’s sake. I was mocking someone for bringing up a 40 y old movie by mentioning an important 70 y old movie! If you weren’t such a reactionary member of the ADL you might have got the joke. So yes, you were “wooshed”, except for the fact that the common man does not know jack shit about The Great Dictator. That’s staight up reality. What does “the ADL” have to do with this discussion and when has he ever identified himself as a member?\* \*. Note, I have no idea whether he is or isn’t a member but I don’t remember him claiming to be or how that would be remotely relevant to the thread or his comment. ---
**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, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-big-pop-culture-splash-but-are-now-disporportionately-forgotten/704755/119 "2014-11-17T09:09:36Z")
I kind of jumped to an assumption there. I found it odd someone felt the need to jump to the defense of that movie despite the fact that I hadn’t put it down. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2014, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-big-pop-culture-splash-but-are-now-disporportionately-forgotten/704755/120 "2014-11-17T09:28:17Z")
> [@GreenElf](#): > > That’s common knowledge, but still Oz is no longer the cultural presence it was during the TV age when it was a widespread tradition to watch it on prime-time TV during the holidays. _Nothing_ has the same level of presence today as things did during the TV age - cable and internet have diffused stuff too much. I bet the moon landings would get middling ratings these days. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-big-pop-culture-splash-but-are-now-disporportionately-forgotten/704755.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-big-pop-culture-splash-but-are-now-disporportionately-forgotten/704755.md?page=7)