Movies, whether we are talking about fiction or documentary can change lives,societies or even worlds. “Super Size Me”, “Rosetta”, “An Inconvenient Truth” or “The Thin Blue Line” are some of the movie that successfully fulfilled their missions, according to the top created by toptenz.net
“Super Size Me” is a documentary in which Morgan Spurlock, the director and writer of the documentary, tries to find out what happens what you eat only from McDonald’s for a month, three times / day.
In the first few days, Spurlock stars to gain weight and faces depressed following the weight gain. Also, Super Size Me analyzes the ways in which fast food is sold, but also the bad nutrition and food addiction, promoted by restaurants.
“Super Size Me” is basically a fair view about what obesity really means. The movie was a success and managed to touch the public. In less than six weeks since it’s official release, McDonald’s removed the “Super Size” item from their menu, but the restaurant denied that this decision had anything to do with the documentary, and since then McDonald’s started to sell healthy alternatives.
Even if it’s not very popular, the movie “Rosetta” directed by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne was a complete success after it’s release in 1999, being award the Palm d’Or award at Cannes. THe movie tells the story of a teenager named Rosetta, who runs away from home to escape her alcoholic mother. The teenager tries to find a job and to live in her own.
The portrait of Rosetta and the obstacles she encounters while trying to survive were pictured so well by the Dardenne brothers that a new law appeared in Belgum. A law the forbids employers to pay less than minimum wage to teenage employees.
Although now is hard to belive, in 1968, when ” 2001: A space Odyssey” was released, directed by Stanley Kubric, the movie was considered very innovative, original and fictional. The movie, which tells the story of scientist Dr Heywood Floyd, who travels to Jupiter in his attempt to discover the origin of an alien artifact. The movie was appreciated because of the details and the realistic description of space. Kubrick’s movie amazed with the advanced technologies that appear in the movie, some of them have become reality.
The influence that 2001, A Space Odyssey had on movies that followed was unimaginable.The movie inspired many NASA scientists, that a year after the movie was released, they were going to send a man to the moon. Surprisingly or not, Apollo 11 astronauts said “exactly like in 2001″ when they landed on the moon.
“JFK” directed by Oliver Stone, is a very controversial movie about the John F. Kennedy assassination. Before it’s release, in 1991, many critics and historians attacked the movie’s theory, according to which there was a government conspiracy behind Kennedy’s death, they also claimed that the movie dishonors John F. Kennedy.
Stone received many death threats. The importance that the media gave to Oliver Stone contributed to “JFK” success. The movie raised questions about what really happened in Dallas in 1963. As a result, Assassination Records Review board, was created, who’s job was to collect materials and recording regarding JFK’s assassination for make them public. Since then, many documents were made public. Until 2017, no information about the death of JFK will be a secret, everything will be made public.
Without the doubt, the “An Inconvenient Truth” documentary, that presents the possible dangers of global warming, has become a cultural phenomenon. ” An Inconvenient Truth” helped people be more aware of the problems that global warming can cause world wide, determining political people to do something about solving these issues.
One of the movies that nobody heard of ” The Battle of Algiers”, 1966, illustrates the Algerian War of Independence from the 50s, when revolutionary groups launched an intense campaign of guerrilla fights against the french colonists.
Because of it’s content, the movie was banned from France for 5 years after it’s release and was blamed by many members of the government. The 60′s represented a period of major decolonization all over the world and many claimed that the “The Battle of Algiers” movie was a manual about how guerrilla fights are to be carried.
Also, it was said that groups like the Black Panthers or IRA implemented a series of tactics presented in the movie. The movie’s influence was so strong that over the time it was used as a training tool for anti revolutionary teams and was even viewed at the Pentagon, in 2003, being presented as an example of military problem that US might face in Irak.
The silent movie “The Birth of a Nation” directed by D.W. Griffith, was released in 1915 and is considered one of the most influential movies in the world. Narrative moments follow events like the US Civil War, Abraham Lincoln’s assassination and the birth of Ku Klux Klan.
The movie was a complete hit but was very criticized because of the history errors and obvious racism. It was condemned by many organizatiaons and was banned from some cities. In Boston and Philadelphia, places where “The Birth of a Nation” was in theaters, a lot of protests occurred and at least one white man killed a black teenager after he saw the movie.
According to a journalist, Griffith’s movie had a major role in reforming Ku Klux Klan in 1920 and they say that group might have used the movie as a recruiting tool for many years.
Besides all that, the movie is appreciated by many specialists as one of the best movies ever created because it was a road opener. Griffith takes credit for making “visual language” in modern movie posibile, along with editing and filming techniques that are still used today.
The documentary “The Thin Blue Line” created by Errol Morris, released in 1988, talks about Randall Dale Adams, a man that was wrongfully sentenced to death for killing a Dallas police officer. Errol Morris managed to show the fact that eye witness statement were not credible and that many witnesses gave false statements during the trial.
As a result, Adams was entitled a new trial, being acquitted of the murder charge, becoming a free man.
This movie is being considered a classic of the documentary genre.
