Not to mention the part when the main female character gets an abortion. Writers today are too cowardly to do something like this nowadays. Now, whenever someone considers having an abortion, they invariably change their minds.:rolleyes:
I’ve wondered if The Miracle Worker could be made today due to the violence against a blind deaf-mute. True, in the 1880s Helen was lucky to get that kind of care and caring, but today Annie Sullivan’s trial for abusing her would be the lead on Nancy Grace for three weeks.
In a similar vein I watched a Little Rascals short recently in which a couple of the boys were unable to sit down because their dads had worn their behinds out with razor straps or belts. The schoolmistress, Miss Crabtree, gives a kind of grin to this and even says something like “Again Chubby? What did you do this time?” Today of course she’d be calling social services and the cops (not without reason of course).
Not a movie but a TV show: The Honeymooners and I Love Lucy both made jokes about wifebeating (not that I think Ralph, Ricky or Fred ever actually beat their wives, but they liked to threaten it and joke about it) and of course all of them made their wives lick their toes and call them ‘My Lord and Master’ if they wanted a new pair of shoes. I have a suspicion that in some alternate universe where these shows became real all three women- Alice, Lucy, and Ethel- eventually made a Strangers on a Train pact to stock up on insurance and kill their husbands long before anyone heard of Woodstock.
I can think of a lot of movie scenes that couldn’t be made today. John Wayne spanking his wife, Maureen O’Hara, in McLintock is on the list.
The Howard Keel musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Even in the 1950s they could easily have filmed it as a horror movie: six backwoods brothers abduct six girls from the nearest town and keep them hostage in their home where the girls are kept from being raped only by the oldest brother’s much put upon pregnant wife. There’s even a song about the Rape of the Sabine Women (“those women were sobbin’ sobbin’ sobbin’ fit to be tied!”). By the time help arrives Stockholm Syndrome has set in and the girls remain thanks to parents who evidently have no idea how long human gestation takes.
One example of early Shirley Temple that might draw some raised eyebrows today. You can find others on youtube by searching for ‘Baby Burlesks.’ Seriously.
Not in The Honeymooners, I don’t think. In the Cramden and Norton households, the wives never acted like less than equals (to my recollection).
We don’t have a “PC world”. That term’s been tossed around until it’s meaningless. Sometimes I do think there’s less and less risk-taking drama available, but that may be just because I’m getting old and cranky.
There’s always been a struggle between those who want to do something artistically honest that might upset people, and those who just want everything to be nice. Allegedly, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari was so disturbing in 1920 that the studio sent employees to personally appear after showings and assure audiences that: Dr. Caligari really was a benevolent psychiatrist; Francis really was unbalanced; but glory be, he’d been successfully treated and was now happily married with two healthy children.
A non-villain white guy saying “did you notice a sign out in front of my house that said ‘Dead Nigger Storage?’” would probably raise some eyebrows.
?? What violence are you referring to?
Pretty Baby would be considered child porn today.
Max was barely able to be made in 2002; I doubt they’d be able do it now.
Treasure of the Sierra Madre
We don’t neeeed no steeenkin badges!!
This scene among others. Annie slaps and fights with and drags Helen throughout. (Note that I’m not condemning it- it’s one of my favorite movies.)
I think that’s why they dropped it from The King’s Speech.
I don’t know about “can’t” be made, but I suspect that a lot of rated-G movies would get at least a PG today, which means they probably wouldn’t be made.
John Cusak’s girlfriend in High Fidelity had an abortion.
No more eyebrows than it raised in 1994, when “PC” was at the height of its mainstream popularity.
Brooke Shields childhood movie career would never happen today. She seemed to specialize in the sexy Lolita roles. Pretty Baby, Blue Lagoon, Endless Love, Sahara none of those could be made today without drastically cutting back on the implied “young girl” sexuality.
I love Silver Streak with Gene Wilder, Richard Pryor, and Jill Clayburgh. They’d have trouble today with the black face scene. A shame because it’s is hilarious. Richard Pryor’s reaction to Gene as a hip black dude has me ROFL every time. IMHO if Richard Pryor was cool with the scene, then it’s not racist. But, people today are much more “PC”.
Well, I don’t know about that; there’s Robert Downey’s recent turn in Tropic Thunder, although the dynamic is somewhat different.
Often, yes. It was cliche. That said, they certainly had villainous Muslims.
That was barely 10 years ago.
Pulp Fiction came out in 1994, although I agree in general that the context surrounding this word has not particularly changed. If they could have that scene sixteen years ago, they could have it today.
Yeah, if Blue Lagoon were filmed today there’s no way in hell Emily would be played by an underage actress. Granted many of Shield’s scenes were done by body doubles, but she was still naked alot. Inlcuding during the sex scene with only a piece of gauze seperating her genitals from Chris Atkin’s genitals. :eek: And don’t the frontal nude scenes with the younger versions of Richard & Emily, both of those actors were preteens; imagine an American film doing that today.
Yes, but it’s still incredibly rare and IIRC, High Fidelity was hardly a mainstream movie.
Think about it like this. There are over a million abortions performed every year in the US and it’s the most second-most performed surgical procedure in America(after delivering a baby).
That said, I would have a difficult time coming up with more than a handful of movies where characters got them.
One movie if it was remade that would probably raise some eyebrows is Dirty Dancing.
A sixteen-year-old girl who who sleeps with a guy in his mid-20s and her parents are cool with that rather than calling the cops.
You have the miniseries “The path to 9/11” which can’t get a DVD release becasue ABC feels it is important to lie about the Clinton legacy.
Let’s see if anyone tries to remake “Submission” by Theo van Gogh which got him murdered by members of the Religion of Peace. Or the 1970s film “The Message” which caused a hostage situation by said religion members.