# Movie Romances You Found Extremely Disturbing (though they weren't supposed to be) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 27, 2006, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-romances-you-found-extremely-disturbing-though-they-werent-supposed-to-be/350053 "2006-03-27T06:08:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-romances-you-found-extremely-disturbing-though-they-werent-supposed-to-be/350053/141 "2006-03-30T05:22:38Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Ah, and Darren/Samantha bothered me. I was totally with Endora- I’d have turned bitch-boy into a cat in heat and set him loose behind an inner city Captain D’s. His refusal to allow Sam to use her powers or even let their daughter use them was on par with keeping her veiled and chained to the kitchen floor in the cruel and insecure department…) But that was the deal. She could have said “no” and not married him. Her choice. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-romances-you-found-extremely-disturbing-though-they-werent-supposed-to-be/350053/142 "2006-03-30T14:50:11Z")
> [@Ruffian](#): > > I’m equal opportunity on the whole massive age (20+ years) difference thing. Ick. It’s just that in Hollywood, it seems there are about 10 movies–if not more–of (much) older male/younger female romances for every one film with an older female/younger male. That seems close to reality though. When a same-age couple gets divorced, the man marries again to a younger trophier wife, perhaps even having more kids since the second wife may not have had any yet. The divorced woman remains single. ---
**Author:** ![Godfrey\_Daniels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Godfrey\_Daniels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Godfrey_Daniels)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-romances-you-found-extremely-disturbing-though-they-werent-supposed-to-be/350053/143 "2006-03-30T17:37:31Z")
> [@priapus](#): > > I always thought it strange how young Audrey Hepburn always ended up with the older “A” stars of Hollywood…Bogart,Cooper,Peck,Astaire,Grant yeh…[Sabrina](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047437/) was a prime example. I always thought he was way too old for her. Apparently IRL, Bogie hated Bill Holden, and was also very critical of Audrey Hepburn’s acting abilities. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-romances-you-found-extremely-disturbing-though-they-werent-supposed-to-be/350053/144 "2006-03-30T18:48:31Z")
Apologies if it’s been mentioned, but _Fifty First Dates_ freaked me out. I know it’s a light comedy, etc., but NOBODY should marry this woman, and especially should not have a child with her. She’ll require constant maintenance and is a danger to herself and others in a relationship. She needs a treatment facility. ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-romances-you-found-extremely-disturbing-though-they-werent-supposed-to-be/350053/145 "2006-03-30T19:15:05Z")
> [@Stranger On A Train](#): > > C’mon…they kidnap six girls to serve as brides for the six remaining brothers, who are a pretty brutish lot. > > Kidnap. By force. Can you say “Stockholm Syndrome”? Can you say, “brainwash”? Can you say “human slavery”? The whole thing is creepier than the Patty Hearst abduction. > > Stranger How bout those other musicals: Paint Your Wagon - Two men, one woman :eek: Carousel - “Sometimes a slap iis like a kiss” :eek: ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-romances-you-found-extremely-disturbing-though-they-werent-supposed-to-be/350053/146 "2006-03-30T19:28:06Z")
> [@JoeSki](#): > > I haven’t seen this for a while…but wasn’t the relationship between Leon and Natalie Portman’s character more along the lines of a Father/Daughter relationship? It’s the mother/daughter relationship that’s f…ked. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-romances-you-found-extremely-disturbing-though-they-werent-supposed-to-be/350053/147 "2006-03-30T20:54:56Z")
> [@ouryL](#): > > How bout those other musicals: > Paint Your Wagon - Two men, one woman :eek: Wait. Paint Your Wagon? With Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood? That was a real musical? I thought it was just a joke in that _Simpsons_ episode. Did Lee Marvin really sing about having to use oil-based paint, because the wood is pine? ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-romances-you-found-extremely-disturbing-though-they-werent-supposed-to-be/350053/148 "2006-03-30T21:09:35Z")
_Paint Your Wagon_ was a real musical, but the song from _The Simpsons_ is a joke. It’s about settlers and prospectors in the old west who find a gold strike, build a rip-snortin’ boomtown, and then the whole thing falls into a pit. Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood both sing. Jean Seberg has her voice dubbed. ---
**Author:** ![blackhobyah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/41988e/32.png) [@blackhobyah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blackhobyah)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-romances-you-found-extremely-disturbing-though-they-werent-supposed-to-be/350053/149 "2006-03-30T21:10:34Z")
> [@a35362](#): > > I remember being upset by _Bus Stop_, possibly because I figured it would the usual Marilyn Monroe silliness. This is the one I was going to mention … I’ve seen it once and it gave me the horrors, I could never bring myself to watch it again, despite Monroe’s wonderful showgirl costumes. He stalks her and ties her up, there’s a terrible air of menace about his “love” which is just unnerving. It’s a long way from what I think of as romantic. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-romances-you-found-extremely-disturbing-though-they-werent-supposed-to-be/350053/150 "2006-03-30T23:18:47Z")
> [@ouryL](#): > > How bout those other musicals: > Paint Your Wagon - Two men, one woman :eek: > Carousel - “Sometimes a slap iis like a kiss” :eek: A lot of musicals strike me as being more than just slightly creepy. It’s something about the music, I guess, that is supposed to distract from how seriously screwed up the characters are. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2006, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-romances-you-found-extremely-disturbing-though-they-werent-supposed-to-be/350053/151 "2006-03-31T02:40:00Z")
Pretty much any movie or play, written before the terms “stalker” and “erotomaniac” entered the popular lexicon, where it’s considered cute, funny, or endearing that a man is determined that he WILL win a woman’s heart no matter what, even though she either doesn’t care about him at all or else actively dispises him. If the latter, then of course she really DOES care about him but either she’s suffering from repressed sexual tension and can’t admit her feelings or else needs for him to “prove” he’s man enough not to take no for an answer. (!) ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2006, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-romances-you-found-extremely-disturbing-though-they-werent-supposed-to-be/350053/152 "2006-03-31T06:10:57Z")
> [@nevermore](#): > > arguably. and though I really, _really_ wanted to read it that way, the explicit “I fell in love with you, Evey” really fucked all for me. > > and I know that he WASN’T her father, but the thought crossed her mind more than once (in the comic), various parallels were drawn, and so forth, thereby it should have obliterated the possibility of romance in her mind, as it did in mine. granted, the movie and the graphic novel were different universes… but I can’t rightly separate the two in my mind enough to allow for it. That’s the thing I came in here to mention (I just got back from the theatre and reread the TPB today). Viewed with the context of the comic, the romance is creepy and disturbing. Viewed without, it’s… rather sweet, actually. (I mean, come on, he cooks her breakfast! And he smashes up the mirror and cries when she leaves him and _says_ “I love you” and…) I know, I know, I’m a hopeless romantic. But I have to agree: the comic universe draws a much different relationship than the movie universe; the most you can do is keep them as separate as possible and enjoy both. ---
**Author:** ![VegemiteMoose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/df788c/32.png) [@VegemiteMoose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VegemiteMoose)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2006, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-romances-you-found-extremely-disturbing-though-they-werent-supposed-to-be/350053/153 "2006-03-31T06:20:19Z")
Not sure if it’s from any Disney **movie** or not, but anytime I see Mickey and Minnie Mouse together I want to scream “Run Minnie run!” Just the look in Mickey’s eyes or something… Blech! Creeps me the hell out. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2006, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-romances-you-found-extremely-disturbing-though-they-werent-supposed-to-be/350053/154 "2006-03-31T06:21:26Z")
> [@VegemiteMoose](#): > > Not sure if it’s from any Disney **movie** or not, but anytime I see Mickey and Minnie Mouse together I want to scream “Run Minnie run!” Just the look in Mickey’s eyes or something… Blech! Creeps me the hell out. How is the look in Mickey’s eyes any different from the look in Minnie’s eyes? ---
**Author:** ![VegemiteMoose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/df788c/32.png) [@VegemiteMoose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VegemiteMoose)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2006, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-romances-you-found-extremely-disturbing-though-they-werent-supposed-to-be/350053/155 "2006-03-31T06:29:24Z")
“… or something.” I don’t know exactly what it is. It just freakin creeps me out. Maybe the voice as well as the flat black eyes? Blech. I’m going to bed now, happy dreams await I’m sure. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2006, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-romances-you-found-extremely-disturbing-though-they-werent-supposed-to-be/350053/156 "2006-03-31T14:27:44Z")
I’ve started a thread in IMHO about the older man/younger woman thing: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=365251](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=365251) ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2006, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-romances-you-found-extremely-disturbing-though-they-werent-supposed-to-be/350053/157 "2006-03-31T15:20:32Z")
> [@VegemiteMoose](#): > > Not sure if it’s from any Disney **movie** or not, but anytime I see Mickey and Minnie Mouse together I want to scream “Run Minnie run!” Just the look in Mickey’s eyes or something… Blech! Creeps me the hell out. What about Pepé Le Pew and his tendency toward would-be feline amours? Cross-species romance is pretty creepy, non? Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2006, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-romances-you-found-extremely-disturbing-though-they-werent-supposed-to-be/350053/158 "2006-03-31T18:46:21Z")
> [@Stranger On A Train](#): > > What about Pepé Le Pew and his tendency toward would-be feline amours? Cross-species romance is pretty creepy, non? > > Stranger Speciesist. 😉 Anyway, Pepe never realized he was pursusing a non-skunk; he was unobervant (to be kind) or deluded (to be blunt). And it never reached the level of ROMANCE (though calling it attempted RAPE) might be accurate–if over-serious. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2006, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-romances-you-found-extremely-disturbing-though-they-werent-supposed-to-be/350053/159 "2006-03-31T20:30:32Z")
> [@Fabulous Creature](#): > > Anyway, Pepe never realized he was pursusing a non-skunk; he was unobervant (to be kind) or deluded (to be blunt). And it never reached the level of ROMANCE (though calling it attempted RAPE) might be accurate–if over-serious. I know in at least one cartoon Pepe never realized he was pursuing a \*non-female \* non-skunk. I believe he was also caught by his wife just before he was about to kiss the black-and-white-tomcat-with-a-white-stripe-painted-on-his-back and immediately dropped his French accent as he tried to explain away the situation. ---
**Author:** ![Rachael\_Rage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71c47a/32.png) [@Rachael\_Rage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachael_Rage)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2006, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-romances-you-found-extremely-disturbing-though-they-werent-supposed-to-be/350053/160 "2006-04-01T02:53:58Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > That seems close to reality though. When a same-age couple gets divorced, the man marries again to a younger trophier wife, perhaps even having more kids since the second wife may not have had any yet. The divorced woman remains single. Why? Because she’s so old and withered nobody could possibly want her? :rolleyes: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-romances-you-found-extremely-disturbing-though-they-werent-supposed-to-be/350053.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-romances-you-found-extremely-disturbing-though-they-werent-supposed-to-be/350053.md?page=9)