AHC: Impact on Movie History if the Reagan Assassination Attempt Succeeds

In 1981, a deranged lone gunman named John Hinckley Jr attempted to kill US President Ronald Reagan. As an inspiration, he cited the 1976 movie Taxi Driver directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Robert DeNiro as a psychotic gunman who tries and fails to kill a popular U.S. Senator. Hinckley wanted to impress DeNiro's young co-star Jodie Foster by killing Reagan, hoping that she would fall in love with him. If Hinckley had succeeded in killing Reagan, what would've been the impact on the careers of Scorsese, DeNiro, and Foster? And how would the legacy of Taxi Driver be affected?
 
It’d probably be even more of a cult film than it already is, and we’d likely see a moral panic over violence in media sweep the nation.
 
It’d probably be even more of a cult film than it already is, and we’d likely see a moral panic over violence in media sweep the nation.

Probably true. Though it wouldn't be a logical repsonse, since if the movie can inspire a failed assassination, there's no reason it couldn't have inspired a successful one, had Hinckley been a better shot.
 
And just to clarify...

It’d probably be even more of a cult film than it already is, and we’d likely see a moral panic over violence in media sweep the nation.

By "more of a cult film", do you mean it would be less popular, or more popular? Because I've heard the phrase used with both connotations, ie. it can mean that the film is unpopular, except for a small legion of devotees(eg. Andy Warhol's Trash), or that it's pretty widely popular, albeit a little bit offbeat in its content(eg. Clockwork Orange).
 
And just to clarify...



By "more of a cult film", do you mean it would be less popular, or more popular? Because I've heard the phrase used with both connotations, ie. it can mean that the film is unpopular, except for a small legion of devotees(eg. Andy Warhol's Trash), or that it's pretty widely popular, albeit a little bit offbeat in its content(eg. Clockwork Orange).

Taxi Driver was nominated for the Best Picture Oscar and in OTL has long been considered one of the great American movies. It's hard to see how it's a "cult movie." Anyway, I'm sure that plenty of social conservatives would blame Taxi Driver, Scorsese, and Hollywood in general for Reagan's death. In their defense, Columbia-Tristar (the studio that produced the movie) would point to how few people blamed The Catcher in the Rye for John Lennon's death even though that book inspired Mark David Chapman.
 
We probably would not have the Kennedy nostalgia in films from the 90s or at least be downplayed

Why do you say that? Because it would be replaced by Reagan nostalgia? IMO film studios would still be keen on producing films like JFK, Thirteen Days, etc as long as the public remains interested in the Kennedys and historical thrillers. But maybe during the early 1980's studio executives decide to make films that condemn gun violence in response to Reagan's death.
 
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Why do you say that? Because it would be replaced by Reagan nostalgia? IMO film studios would still be keen on producing films like JFK, Thirteen Days, etc as long as the public remains interested in the Kennedys and historical thrillers. But maybe during the early 1980's studio executives decide to make films that condemn gun violence in response to Reagan's death.
I mean we would not have a number of Conspiracy thrillers Like JFK had Reagan was killed a decade before especially if people were blaming Taxi driver
 
I mean we would not have a number of Conspiracy thrillers Like JFK had Reagan was killed a decade before especially if people were blaming Taxi driver

If anything a more recent presidential assassination would increase demand for conspiracy movies, as people would be looking for some sort of catharsis after the trauma of Reagan's death. Also the Kennedy assassination was unrelated to the attempted shooting of Reagan. But I do see one butterfly involving JFK: Stone started out as a conservative Republican and a supporter of Nixon and Reagan, but changed his political views in the mid-1980s after traveling to Latin America and reacting against Reagan's policies there. Without Reagan, Stone probably remains a Republican and his political movies wouldn't have their left-wing bent - including JFK if he makes that movie at all.
 
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