Have you ever seen movies changing anything in the political world?

burkaman · on Feb 23, 2015

I'm sure there's lots of examples, but in the documentary world, The Thin Blue Line was about a man wrongfully accused of murder on death row, who was retried and released as a direct result of the movie.

Also, I think Triumph of the Will played a huge part in helping Hitler come to power. And in the US, The Birth of a Nation helped the KKK explode in popularity. These aren't particularly uplifting examples, but I think it's clear that a popular movie can have a huge effect on the political landscape.

jamestnz · on Feb 23, 2015

Similarly (but less directly), the sympathetic treatment given in the 2011 Richard Linklater film "Bernie" is believed by some to have been instrumental in the release of a convicted murderer from his life sentence.

The film is great, incidentally.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernie_Tiede http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernie_(2011_film)

solarexplorer · on Feb 23, 2015

"Triumph des Willens" was released in 1935, two years after the Nazis grabbed power.

burkaman · on Feb 24, 2015

Yeah my bad, I remembered wrong. Maybe it helped cement his power? We definitely talked about this in some history class I took, but I can't find any good references online, so maybe that's a bad example.

dragonwriter · on Feb 23, 2015

So, what, you don't believe in retrocausality?

wwweston · on Feb 23, 2015

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_After

This movie was a catalyst in national conversation about nuclear proliferation, and there's evidence that its impact included President Reagan.

It was also broadcast on prime time in an era when that meant a greater number of simultaneous viewers, of course.