# Movies that could not be made in today’s world **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [September 13, 2023, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-could-not-be-made-in-today-s-world/990064 "2023-09-13T18:10:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 12
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2023, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-could-not-be-made-in-today-s-world/990064/221 "2023-10-01T15:54:29Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > If _Antebellum_’s single sentence summary is “a movie about how horrible it was to live through slavery”, _Gone with the Wind_ (2024) would be “a movie about the dissonance created when a society of horrible brutal slavers try to cosplay as chivalrous and honorable gentle folk”. I see. TBH, Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin does quite a bit of probing of that dissonance. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2023, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-could-not-be-made-in-today-s-world/990064/222 "2023-10-01T16:12:47Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > I see. TBH, Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin does quite a bit of probing of that dissonance Absolutely. And Uncle Tom’s Cabin has the additional merit of using Tom, an enslaved black man, as the protagonist - in the abstract, I think that’s a more worthwhile story to tell than one about slavers and their empty escapades. But because of the existing cultural legacy of _Gone With the Wind_ and other Lost Cause stories, I think there would be some value in subverting that tale. Tell the same exact story, but strip off the Lost Cause veneer, and suddenly the cast of planter-class character are revealed to be callous and vain _at best_ and horrible monsters at worst, playing out their petty dramas while doing their damnest to try and preseve an institution that causes immense suffering for their personal benefit. ---
**Author:** ![XOldiesJock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/ec9cab/32.png) [@XOldiesJock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XOldiesJock)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2023, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-could-not-be-made-in-today-s-world/990064/223 "2023-10-01T17:09:57Z")
Has a movie ever been made using _ **The Wind Done Gone** _ by Alice Randall as the source? It’s a parody of GWTW told from the viewpoint of a slave and was a best-seller. I’d love to see that! ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2023, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-could-not-be-made-in-today-s-world/990064/224 "2023-10-01T17:33:11Z")
It’s a great idea, but one of the problems, it seems to me, is that you’d have to add a second plot - one that focused on the African-American characters, and their experiences during and after the war (half of _GWtW_ takes place after Appomattox; it’s as much a story of Reconstruction as it is of the war, and the problems the main characters are dealing with aren’t petty). That would obviously mean more time, and the movie runs four hours already. To bring it down to a length that a studio would be willing to release, you’d have to cut the Scarlett-Rhett-Ashley-Melanie plot down to the point that it really wouldn’t be recognizable as _GWtW_ at all, as opposed to a movie _based_ on the original film. ---
**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:** [October 1, 2023, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-could-not-be-made-in-today-s-world/990064/225 "2023-10-01T18:22:33Z")
Maybe it could be done like _Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead_. Show the new main characters just occasionally interacting with Scarlett, Rhett, and all the _GWTW_ stalwarts; sewing for hours to make a dress out of curtains, that sort of thing. The problem with that approach is that it’s inherently comedic/ironic. If you’re trying to show the sordid underbelly of _Gone With the Wind_, you probably don’t want to play it for laughs. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2023, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-could-not-be-made-in-today-s-world/990064/226 "2023-10-01T19:07:29Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Maybe it could be done like _Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead_. Show the new main characters just occasionally interacting with Scarlett, Rhett, and all the _GWTW_ stalwarts; sewing for hours to make a dress out of curtains, that sort of thing. This would work, and I don’t think it would have to be comedic. Just show how fundamentally irrelevant Scarlett’s drama is to the actual real problems playing out among the people she’s oppressed. Those issues should take a narrative backseat to the lives of the enslaved. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2023, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-could-not-be-made-in-today-s-world/990064/227 "2023-10-01T19:12:17Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > It’s a great idea, but one of the problems, it seems to me, is that you’d have to add a second plot - one that focused on the African-American characters, and their experiences during and after the war (half of _GWtW_ takes place after Appomattox; it’s as much a story of Reconstruction as it is of the war, and the problems the main characters are dealing with aren’t petty). That would obviously mean more time, and the movie runs four hours already. To bring it down to a length that a studio would be willing to release, you’d have to cut the Scarlett-Rhett-Ashley-Melanie plot down to the point that it really wouldn’t be recognizable as _GWtW_ at all, as opposed to a movie _based_ on the original film Sounds like you’re pitching the next hit HBO series! Aside from depicting intentional cruelty by the enslavers, you could weave a complex web of events where very dramatic problems are caused for the enslaved characters by actions the planter characters take for their petty romantic problems that cascade to embitter the lives of the enslaved. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2023, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-could-not-be-made-in-today-s-world/990064/228 "2023-10-02T07:29:56Z")
Okay, as long as we seem to be actually doing this project, I DEMAND that the production also be informed by [Tom and Lorenzo’s historical film costuming analysis:](https://tomandlorenzo.com/2020/06/one-iconic-look-vivien-leigh-as-scarlett-ohara-in-gone-with-the-wind-movie-costume-analysis/) > [@](#): > > Golden-hued romantic portraits of slavery in which the enslaved are underlit and in some cases barely distinguishable from objects of labor. They’re not people, they’re ideas. Symbols of the “Old South” of the title card. A signal that this is a story ostensibly about slavery in which the enslaved will be sidelined or treated as props. That framing is deliberate – and it’s one of the many ways in which _GWTW_ tries to have its cake and it eat it too. The film plays as being aware of the wrongness of slavery while cynically layering romantic imagery over it in order to appeal to the white audiences that were going to pay back the enormous amount of money sunk into the production. Which brings us (literally) to Scarlett […] > > The point; the Number One quality, the most clear and overwhelming aspect of Scarlett O’Hara in this introductory scene: She is a huge cupcake of whiteness sitting on a white platter situated in a white tableau. > > Her dress is white, her flowers are white, her dog is white, her house is white, the blooms on the trees are white and even the peacocks on the lawn are white. In 1939, these aesthetic decisions were likely to have been made in service to the idea of purity (in a virginal if not racial sense), or to Scarlett’s clean and pampered life; or to a general romanticism and naivete that defines her. They definitely tie Scarlett directly to Tara […] > > In 2020, it’s almost impossible not to see it all in terms of her race. Scarlett isn’t just spotless; she’s spotless because of the enslaved Black people who work to keep her that way. She isn’t just pampered; she’s pampered by enslaved Black people in an apartheid system based on white supremacy. Her house and grounds aren’t just beautifully groomed; they’re done so by enslaved Black people, using resources and money generated off the backs of enslaved Black people. […] > > Even if directors Victor Fleming, George Cukor and Sam Wood ensured that the film occasionally tut-tutted the slave owners or took them to task for their perspective, it’s hard not to read the entire opening scene as a celebration of an exploitive economic system based on the idea of white supremacy. And it’s impossible not to see Scarlett’s confection of a dress as a commentary – inadvertent or not – on the delusional quality that underlines white supremacy itself. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2023, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-could-not-be-made-in-today-s-world/990064/229 "2023-10-04T22:37:52Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > Burton Gilliam, who played Lyle in _Blazing Saddles_, said in an interview about the movie that he had a hard time using the N-word, especially in the presence of the African-American actors. Saw Blazing Saddles on streaming over the weekend. It aged very badly. I mean all of it. I could barely manage a smile. Humor has moved on and left this in the dust. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2023, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-could-not-be-made-in-today-s-world/990064/230 "2023-10-05T00:55:02Z")
I think a lot of it still works. But I think that, like all comedy, how well it works depends on how well it meshes with your own sense of humor (and to some extent on whom you watch it with). ---
**Author:** ![veryfrank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/87869e/32.png) [@veryfrank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/veryfrank)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2023, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-could-not-be-made-in-today-s-world/990064/231 "2023-10-05T14:56:35Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Watching some old guy who thinks a young woman, Marilyn Monroe no less, would actually be interested him is… _ **funny** _. I don’t think it’s that great of a comedy, but your lack of understanding for its basis just baffles me. Wasn’t it basically remade by Gene Wilder as _The Woman in Red_? Same issues: kinda homely guy gets super hot babe to desire him for nor readily understandable reason. That movie’s almost forty years old now, a period piece from the era if there ever was one. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2023, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-could-not-be-made-in-today-s-world/990064/232 "2023-10-05T15:11:41Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > (half of _GWtW_ takes place after Appomattox; it’s as much a story of Reconstruction as it is of the war, and the problems the main characters are dealing with aren’t petty). If you wanted to deconstruct the narrative of GWTW, you could do worse than focus on the reconstruction era. I’ve done some reading in the last few years on how the newly freed slaves were organizing themselves to vote, and actually ended up in a lot of government positions, and were making good progress on creating a government that actually helped the majority of people. And then contrasting that progress with the rhetoric being spread by the former slaveowners, who did everything they could to spread bullshit lies about how these new voters were “destroying the country with socialism”. Sound familiar? So make a film that shows the real, serious work the newly elected Freedmen were doing, and contrast that to the ridiculous hype nonsense the slavers were spreading about. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2023, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-could-not-be-made-in-today-s-world/990064/233 "2023-10-05T15:25:47Z")
It’s been done many ways. Consider Cyrano de Bergerac, reverse the genders in Arthur. It’s part of almost every romcom. It doesn’t matter what difference keeps two people apart, but the old guy:young woman combination is a wellspring of comedy. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2023, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-could-not-be-made-in-today-s-world/990064/234 "2023-10-05T17:21:54Z")
> [@veryfrank](#): > > Wasn’t it basically remade by Gene Wilder as _The Woman in Red_? Same issues: kinda homely guy gets super hot babe to desire him for nor readily understandable reason. That movie’s almost forty years old now, a period piece from the era if there ever was one. _The Woman in Red_ was a remake of the French comedy **Le Grand Blond avec une chaussure noire** (“The Tall Blonde Man with One Black Shoe”) and its sequel. They just changed the color of the shoe. I’ve seen all three, and I think the original French film is a bit better than the American remake. I suppose it’s kind of the same idea, but you have the additional _frisson_ of the attractive young blonde woman being an international spy. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2023, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-could-not-be-made-in-today-s-world/990064/235 "2023-10-05T17:31:36Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > _The Woman in Red_ was a remake of the French comedy **Le Grand Blond avec une chaussure noire** (“The Tall Blonde Man with One Black Shoe”) and its sequel. They just changed the color of the shoe. I’ve seen all three, and I think the original French film is a bit better than the American remake. I think you maybe mixed up your Wilder and your Hanks. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2023, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-could-not-be-made-in-today-s-world/990064/236 "2023-10-05T17:49:40Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > I think you maybe mixed up your Wilder and your Hanks. Not me – that was **veryfrank** ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2023, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-could-not-be-made-in-today-s-world/990064/237 "2023-10-05T18:06:52Z")
No, you’re both wrong. The Woman in Red was a 1984 Gene Wilder film that was a remake of the French films, _Pardon Mon Affaire_ and _Pardon Mon Affaire, Too._ It’s about a married man who becomes infatuated with a much younger woman. It wasn’t a remake of _The Seven Year Itch_, but it did include an homage to Marilyn’s famous street grate scene. _The Man with One Red Shoe_ was a 1985 Tom Hanks film that was a remake of _The Tall Blonde Man with One Black Shoe_. That one’s a spy spoof where a corrupt CIA official frames an innocent man for espionage, based on picking him at random out of an airport crowd because of his mismatched shoes. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2023, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-could-not-be-made-in-today-s-world/990064/238 "2023-10-05T18:37:58Z")
As long as we are off on those kinds of tangents… Back when it came out, I took a date to see Revenge of the Nerds. Sometime later she was asking me about the first one. I didn’t really understand, and we dropped it unresolved. Later, she again brought up ‘the first one’, she wanted to see it. After discussing it some more I realized she mistakenly though the “Revenge of” part indicated that it was a sequel: > **[Revenge of the Sequel - TV Tropes](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RevengeOfTheSequel)** > > In many sequel names, particularly in schlock horror, the title, or sub-title, describes some kind of return, revenge, reaction, counter-force, backlash, etc. that usually implies it's a direct consequence of one of the previous installments. The … ---
**Author:** ![veryfrank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/87869e/32.png) [@veryfrank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/veryfrank)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2023, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-could-not-be-made-in-today-s-world/990064/239 "2023-10-05T18:46:26Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > No, you’re both wrong. > > The Woman in Red was a 1984 Gene Wilder film that was a remake of the French films, _Pardon Mon Affaire_ and _Pardon Mon Affaire, Too._ It’s about a married man who becomes infatuated with a much younger woman. It wasn’t a remake of _The Seven Year Itch_, but it did include an homage to Marilyn’s famous street grate scene. I stand corrected. The similar plot plus the obvious hommage threw me. (also…39 years ago) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2023, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-could-not-be-made-in-today-s-world/990064/240 "2023-10-05T18:49:46Z")
I still say it’s a Floor Wax. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-could-not-be-made-in-today-s-world/990064.md?page=11) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-could-not-be-made-in-today-s-world/990064.md?page=13)