An Ode To Film | Movies That Changed The Industry
Written by: Brian Orndorf, Kage Alan and Katherine Brodsky

Everyone once in a while comes a movie that changes the way that we view the world. When such a movie grosses an incredible sum or sways a hard-to-reach nerve in the audience, it makes history.

2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY Director Stanley Kubrick proved that Science Fiction films didn't have to be fast moving, cheesy looking or understood to gain popularity or make money. Science Fiction was no longer meant for children as adults came to see what all the fuss was about.

The set designs are incredibly realistic as is the vision of the future, which for this film is way ahead of its time. Of  course, it wasn't until "2010" came out that we finally learned what the first film was really all about

STAR WARS
Of course, without the success of "2001" and the interest it created in
Science Fiction, "Star Wars" might never have been made.  Here was a classic
example of good versus evil, but with special effects that had never been
seen or done before.  This film not only had a huge following and made a huge
amount of money, but its success opened up the floodgate of sci-films to
come.  If it hadn't been for "Star Wars", we never would have gotten the Star
Trek film franchise off the ground, nor would we embrace some of the earlier works by director Ridley Scott, "Alien" and "Blade Runner", both of which are cult classics.

Terror Strikes Gold!

JAWS Common wisdom points to "Star Wars" as the last breath of Hollywood creativity before the studios became money mad. But 1975's "Jaws" (and even before that with 1974's "The Exorcist" and 1972’s “The Godfather”) really put the blockbuster

HALLOWEEN
The film that launched the careers of John Carpenter and Jamie Lee Curtis.  
While responsible for starting the slasher film craze (of which there is
little to no blood or slashing in this film at all), "Halloween" was the
highest grossing independent film ever made during that time.  Audiences had
reason to fear the dark and studios had reason to fear not giving audiences
what they wanted, which in this case were sequels.  Scary films were suddenly
"in" again and had potential to reach a much larger audience without having
the word "Exorcist" in the title.

JURASSIC PARK
It's all about special effects, isn't it?  If it hadn't been for the CGI
technology developed for "Jurassic Park", we never would have had to worry
about Jar Jar Binks.  Still, extremely realistic dinosaurs walking around was
a spectacle that did for audiences what "Titanic" did for lowering IQs.  
Hollywood would never be the same with CGI technology in their hands.  
Imperfections could be corrected, shots could be altered and entire
characters could be created from scratch.  Oh, yeah, more sequels could be
made too, which was great news for the fast food franchises.

Sometimes These Films aren’t Brilliant Works of Art, but rather Brilliant Marketing Machines…

THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT Yet another example of a low budget independent film that took Hollywood by storm.  Love it, hate it, despise it or glorify it, but this production proved that a decent website and word-of-mouth could turn something that probably would have been easily forgotten into an extravaganza.

And other Times it’s all about the Revolution…

THE WIZARD OF OZ Marking a giant step for 'film-kind' The Wizard Of Oz didn’t just bring Toto, Dorothy and the rest of the gang into our lives - it also brought color. Full of bright

THE ABYSS
"Terminator 2" is normally the film associated with spawning the computer effects boom of the 1990s (giving birth to terms like "morphing"), but the first toe dipped into this bottomless pool was made by James Cameron's other water tour de force, 1989's "The Abyss." The "water tentacle" sequence from the movie was a landmark moment in digital effects, showcasing the fluidity and range this new horizon could achieve. They even won an Academy Award for their work. It also started a revolution that, for better or worse, changed the way F/X films were made.

EASY RIDER
Before 1969, the studios were drying up. Relentlessly bleeding dry stale musical concepts and big-budgeted epics that were anything but, it took a revolution of the youth, seen in pictures like “Easy Rider” and “Midnight Cowboy,” to bring back the audiences into the theaters. “Easy Rider” is the more definitive motion picture of this movement, drenched in drugs, defiance, and aimlessness. The film industry changed after “Easy Rider.” It gave birth to one of the most creatively fertile movements of filmmaking ever seen in its history.

DEEP THROAT
Made for a song in 1972, and has reportedly grossed over 600 million dollars since, “Deep Throat” took adult cinema out of the dank corners and into the big time. In this day and age, it’s hard to believe just how mainstream and popular this film was, bringing couples, and single men who were looking for couples, out from everywhere to the adult theaters to watch the film. “Deep Throat” took the stigma out of porn for a short time, even showing up as a subtle character point in the 1976 remake of “King Kong.” Its legacy has lasted through the years, has left victims in its wake, but will be remembered as the film that kicked the doors open for the adult film industry to rule the suburbs.

X-MEN
The only thing better than recognizing a trend is living through a trend. "X-Men" has changed the way Hollywood deals with comic book movies, and also with their fans. There is a new respect now paid to these characters of pen and ink, where not too long ago, they were the butt of jokes ("Batman And Robin" anyone?). Look at the upcoming "Hulk" and "Daredevil" features, or this summer's blockbuster "Spider-Man" and you'll see a staggering amount of reverence to the source materials. Sadly, this will burn out in due time, but for now, we can rejoice in Hollywood making sure comic book films are made with splendor and awe in place of jokes and florescent lighting.

And of course we cannot forget classics like Citizen Kane (1941), Casablanca (1942), Gone With The Wind (1939), The Godfather (1972), The Graduate (1967), Schindler's List (1993), Singin' In The Rain (1952), Sunset Boulevard (1950), Some Like It Hot (1959), All About Eve (1950), One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975), E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Apocalypse Now (1979), A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), The Sound Of Music (1965), Tootsie (1982), Forrest Gump (1994), Pulp Fiction (1994) and countless other gems.

- Written by Kage Alan, Brian Orndorf and Katherine Brodsky