Movies that have influenced you

[PaTaito]

I've not seen John Carter. Is it as good as Precinct 13? How about The Warriors? Any film where an ice cream man shoots a child point blank in the head deserves talking about IMO.

well its....

Sorry thats all the effort i'm willing to put into further JC discussion.

Key:
Red - people who watched Top Gun
Blue - people who joined Navy
Purple - people who joined Navy after watching Top Gun.

Where are these stats from?

[MartyG]

The school of movies aren't real (also not a statistic, it's a van diagram)

[Guts]

Doesn't really matter how many people joined the navy after seeing Top Gun, people still did. You think the U.S. military for example doesn't have PR people in Hollywood thinking constantly how to make the military look as awesome as possible, how to get more people to join?

[MartyG]

I'm sure they do, but I'm also sure that the ratio of people who believe movies are real to the reality of naval life is reasonably consistent, regardless of Hollywood movies.


After all, we also have Saving Private Ryan and similar as a discouragement.

[rmoxon]

People here do make me laugh sometimes.

I think people are confusing cultural impact with something that has Actually influenced people in a way that it made world wide changes to the planet.

No film will ever change the world.

As for the top gun argument, that's the most hilairious thing I've ever heard. I have to wonder how long the 5 people who joined up just becuase they saw top gun lasted? 2 days?

[PaTaito]

As for the top gun argument, that's the most hilairious thing I've ever heard. I have to wonder how long the 5 people who joined up just becuase they saw top gun lasted? 2 days?

I'd bet its a lot more than 5.

Yes some war movies are potentially offputting, but movies like topgun do glam up the idea of service.

Hell if a book can inspire mass murder, the contents of which being even less believable, then i see no reason why equally gullable teens couldnt be sold on the US air force based on top gun.

['Press Start']

People here do make me laugh sometimes.

I think people are confusing cultural impact with something that has Actually influenced people in a way that it made world wide changes to the planet.

I think your confused. You say films don't inspire you as they are fantasy then you go on to talk about how x should be y because it would have been more inspiring.

Also who has talked about films changing the world apart from you?

[Guts]

No film will ever change the world.

Everything "changes the world" constantly. When I take a crap, I change the environment and therefore the world. Besides, this thread was about which movies influenced you, made you think, feel, change your ways maybe.

As for the top gun argument, that's the most hilairious thing I've ever heard. I have to wonder how long the 5 people who joined up just becuase they saw top gun lasted? 2 days?

Wikipedia had this to say:

A motion picture producer, John Davis, claimed that "Top Gun was a recruiting video for the Navy. It really helped their recruiting. People saw the movie and said, 'Wow! I want to be a pilot.'"


The United States Navy stated that after the release of the film that the number of young men who enlisted, wanting to be Naval aviators, went up by 500 percent.


Paramount Pictures offered to place a 90 second Navy recruiting advertisement at the beginning of the videocassette for Top Gun, in exchange for $1 million in credit towards their debt to the Navy for production assistance. An internal memo to the Pentagon from an advertising agency rejected the offer, noting that "Both movies are already wonderful recruiting tools for the military, particularly the Navy, and to add a recruiting commercial onto the head of what is already a two-hour recruiting commercial is redundant."

500% is quite a lot, one might say. That's 5 times as much as before. So for example, if there was 1,000 people before who wanted to become F-14 pilots, after the film there were 5,000 people.

Honestly, you think they let them borrow a few Tomcats for the artistic merits of the film?

[rmoxon]

Sorry, I have no other reaction.

The funniest thing is that top gun is really just a romantic drama wrapped in navy clothing...So it's doubtful it had anything to do with flying planes.... Maybe they all wanted to pull Kelly mcgillis.

[Guts]

Yeah, I imagine it's kinda hard to argue when evidence has shown you were wrong.

While were at it check out this interesting article:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2001/aug/29/media.filmnews

"Hollywood film-makers have frequently changed plot lines, altered history and amended scripts at the request of the Pentagon, according to recently released military documents.

Producers and directors have often agreed to changes in order to gain access to expensive military hardware or to be able to film on military property. On many occasions films have been changed so that the US armed forces are shown in a more heroic fashion. Film companies agree to the changes because doing so saves them millions in production costs.

If film-makers do not agree to alterations, assistance is withheld.

Among films that have been given approval and help by the Pentagon are Armageddon, Air Force One, The Jackal, Pearl Harbour and Top Gun. Those that have failed the test include Forrest Gump, Mars Attacks!, The Thin Red Line, Apocalypse Now, Sgt Bilko, Platoon, Full Metal Jacket and Independence Day."

[rmoxon]

Nothing has shown I was wrong.

You didn't even seem to understand my original point, just jumped down my throat without thinking first.

Don't worry though I'm enjoying the overly agressive stupidity.

[Guts]

As for the top gun argument, that's the most hilairious thing I've ever heard. I have to wonder how long the 5 people who joined up just becuase they saw top gun lasted? 2 days?

So then explain to me why the Top Gun argument was the most "hilarious thing you've EVER heard".

[PaTaito]

Sorry, I have no other reaction.

The funniest thing is that top gun is really just a romantic drama wrapped in navy clothing...So it's doubtful it had anything to do with flying planes.... Maybe they all wanted to pull Kelly mcgillis.

Whats its actually about underneath all the 80's cheese is besides the point. The glamming up of the navy pilot is what matters in this case.

[rmoxon]

Whats its actually about underneath all the 80's cheese is besides the point. The glamming up of the navy pilot is what does matter in this case.

Well I imagine if anything it is the romantic notions of the film that would make people join the navy after watching top gun. Yet as I stated in my original post films are fantasy and what happens in them has no bearing in the real world. Im pretty sure The reality of naval life is a lot differnt to the one shown in top gun.

This argument has proven my initial point really. I was speaking personally and stated that I don't really get influenced by movies because they are fantasy and I know they don't represent real life.

The only film that could ever inspire me would be a documentary I suppose, but even then what I was watching wouldn't always be 100 percent accurate. I don't trust the information I'm given enough to be inspired most of the time, even by real events.

[rmoxon]

So then explain to me why the Top Gun argument was the most "hilarious thing you've EVER heard".

If you don't understand the hilarity in people running out to join the navy after watching something as manipulatively romantic in both its depicted relationships and the way it shows the naval service as top gun is, then Id worry about your state of mind really.

Its one of the most over the top and romanticised films ever made. The fact that people thought they would join up and experience that movie first hand is ****ing hilarious.