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Sometimes a movie is more than just a movie: it becomes part of culture. This doesn't happen very often, understandably so when one considers how completely average, at best, most movies are. But it does happen, every now and then. This isn't the same as a movie that generates financial or artistic success. Big box office and awards recognition are something that happens to movies every year. The movie that becomes so well known and resonates with an audience so much that it's referenced in every day life for years after its release, this is something truly rare. The movie Jaws comes to mind as something that transcended a film being projected in a movie theater. Jaws introduced the American public on a mass scale to a new villain - the shark. The interest was so profound that sharks to this day remain a hot item with the media. Shark attacks that occur anywhere in the world get wide news coverage, and television shows about sharks are common and tend to draw big ratings. An unfortunate drawback to the shark phenomena that the movie Jaws created was an attitude that sharks were evil and should be destroyed. Interestingly enough the author of the book Jaws, on which the movie was based, spent years after the movie was released attempting to overcome this ecologically destructive attitude. Another movie that probably didn't have the same widespread impact that Jaws did, but that also impacted popular culture, is Scarface. Scarface was the story of Cuban refugee Tony Montana, played by Al Pacino, who came to the United States under President Jimmy Carter's Cuba open door policy. Montana however was a career criminal, like a number of the people that Cuban leader Fidel Castro sent to the United States under Carter's policy, and his criminal ways continued on US soil. Before long Montana was a major drug kingpin, with all of the accompanying results, including money, power, and destruction - including his own, eventually. Scarface was released in theaters at the end of 1983 and did pretty good box office for the time. Not the same time of box office blockbuster that Jaws was however. For Scarface, the explosion of popularity and status took time. It's difficult to say exactly when Scarface became a cultural reference, but it surely has gotten there. The Tony Montana character is revered, particularly by males who admire the swagger, and the violent toughness, that Tony Montana embodied. Though Al Pacino is one of world's famous actors, the Tony Montana character may be his best known role, particularly to younger generations. And it isn't surprising that the younger generation knows Tony Montana so well. There are references to Scarface in music, particularly hip hop, a Scarface game was released in 2006, and various forms of Scarface merchandise are still selling today. All of this is more than can be said for the movie Jaws. So while Jaws may have had a wider and more immediate cultural impact than Scarface, the impact of Scarface on popular culture seems to have been more profound.
Get merchandise from the movie Scarface at Scarface T Shirts or Scarface Posters.
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