Well, That Wouldn't Work Now: Things From Movies That Are Outdated or No Longer Politically Correct

[VCRTracking]

The thing that redeems Seven Brides For Seven Brothers for me is that no matter the successful end result of his idea, Adam clearly is shown to be wrong the whole time. What he and he his brothers did was incredibly stupid and terrible and Millie tells him so. She angrily sends him packing off in a cabin and his brothers in the barn while the girls sleep in the house the whole winter.  The thing I like most about the movie is Millie doesn't back down from Adam or take any of his shit:

Quote

Do you think those girls would marry them now? You think because you got a wife so easily...because I didn't make you court me, that that's all there is to it? I said yes because I fell in love with you the first time I saw you. And I thought it was the same with you too. You think a wife is just to cook and clean. You got no understanding, you got no feelings! How could you do a thing like this? When I think of these girls, sick with fright...and their families crazed with worry, and...I can't abide to look at you!

After Millie gives birth to a baby girl and the youngest brother(Russ Tamblyn) goes to tell Adam and he's too pigheaded to apologize to her:

Quote

You're my eldest brother. And I've always looked up to you, tried to ape you...but today I'm ashamed for you. I know you can lick me, lick the tar out of me...but I wouldn't be a man unless I showed you how I felt.

And Adam comes back after FINALLY realizing what a jerk he's been and to take the girls back after the pass clears:

Quote

I got to thinking up there in the mountains...thinking about the baby...about how I'd feel if somebody sneaked in and carried her off. I'd string him up the nearest tree...shoot him down like I would a thieving fox.

It's definitely a movie that could only be made in the 50s but I also like that it's movie made in the 50s where boys are shown to be depressed because of lovesickness(the "Lonesome Polecat" number) and that girls can be horny(everything that comes out of Julie Newmar's mouth)!
 

Edited March 20, 2017 by VCRTracking

[methodwriter85]

I rewatched Desperately Seeking Susan. Yeah, nothing about that movie would work now.

[Which Tyler]

One Hour Photo

[dusang]

Okay, I acknowledge that I kind of loved Overboard when I was younger but even as a child my parents pointed out to me that it was a horrible, horrible story.  I mean, the whole premise is so fundamentally ... immoral? illegal? manipulative? cruel? unforgivable? all of the above? It's a flawed premise. They could never make it now, right?

GENDER SWAP!

Edited March 23, 2017 by dusang

[proserpina65]

On ‎03‎/‎17‎/‎2017 at 10:47 PM, slf said:

I know, right?! I get that the lyrics are meant to be clever (the song starts off with talk of the Sabine women, IIRC) but...I mean...:

And the women was sobbin', sobbin', sobbin'
Fit to be tied.
Ev'ry muscle was throbbin', throbbin'
From that riotous ride.
Seems they cried and kissed and kissed and cried
All over that Roman countryside
So don't forget that when you're takin' a bride.
Sobbin' fit to be tied
From that riotous ride!
They never did return their plunder
The victor gets all the loot.
They carried them home, by thunder,
To rotundas small but cute.
And you've never seen,
So they tell me, 
Such downright go domesticity.
With a Roman baby on each knee
Named "Claudius" and "Brute"

I used to love Seven Brides For Seven Brothers until I got to college, took an art history class, and found out that this song refers to the rape of the Sabine women.  Now I just can't with that movie.

[VCRTracking]

On 3/23/2017 at 10:23 AM, dusang said:

Okay, I acknowledge that I kind of loved Overboard when I was younger but even as a child my parents pointed out to me that it was a horrible, horrible story.  I mean, the whole premise is so fundamentally ... immoral? illegal? manipulative? cruel? unforgivable? all of the above? It's a flawed premise. They could never make it now, right?

GENDER SWAP!

Overboard along with Seven Brides along with Beauty and the Beast, along with The Sound of Music, and other stories, going all the way back to Jane Eyre are variations of a story where a young woman who through circumstances finds herself part of a household that's severely messed up and miserable and she's basically like "Nope. There's going to have to be some changes around here." Mary Poppins doesn't count because that's more of like the mysterious stranger in a Western who comes in to solve a problem and then leaves when their work is done. In this kind of story the heroine finds herself in a situation she DOES NOT want to be in, decides to make the best of it, and through her pluck and strong will improves the lives of the servants, children, family members and they grow to love her.  Then, the male head of the household, who begins the story with all kinds of personality faults has them gradually "eroded" because of this woman and they fall in love. The sheer awesomeness of one woman has brought light into this dark little world. That's why despite the incredibly problematic premise of a man tricking a woman with amnesia into cleaning his house and raising his 4 bratty kids, Overboard still works. I don't know if it would if you reversed genders.

Edited March 24, 2017 by VCRTracking

[dusang]

1 hour ago, VCRTracking said:

That's why despite the incredibly problematic premise of a man tricking a woman with amnesia into cleaning his house and raising his 4 bratty kids, Overboard still works. I don't know if it would if you reversed genders.

It isn't the cleaning or child-rearing that really bothers me, it's the sex.

[Trini]

1 hour ago, VCRTracking said:

Overboard along with Seven Brides along with Beauty and the Beast, along with The Sound of Music, and other stories, going all the way back to Jane Eyre are variations of a story where a young woman who through circumstances finds herself part of a household that's severely messed up and miserable and she's basically like "Nope. There's going to have to be some changes around here." ...

Hmm, I wouldn't group those films together at at all (as having a similar theme/outline); maybe Jane Eyre and BatB, and even then there are big differences. They're all versions of love stories, though.

Edited March 24, 2017 by Trini

[VCRTracking]

Sound of Music and Overboard both have scenes where the female protagonist tells the guy he's a shitty dad who doesn't even know his own kids. Von Trapp because he's too distant and Kurt Russell because he'd rather be his sons' pal than their father.

There is an element of Taming of the Shrew(the ultimate problematic story) in Overboard but Goldie does treat those she thinks are beneath her like her loyal butler played by Roddy McDowell like crap in the beginning so you do want her to get her comeuppance even under dubious circumstances. She becomes a less selfish, more empathetic person while still retaining her fierceness.  As they say on Parks and Recreation, there's "Bitch Boss" and "Boss Bitch" and Goldie starts the movie as the former and ends the movie the latter.

Edited March 25, 2017 by VCRTracking

[Trini]

Gah, I've had some weekend rest, ignore my previous post.

---

On topic: All Dogs Go to Heaven. The lead character breaks out of "jail" in his first scene, get murdered by his gambling den partner, rejects heaven, also that slightly racist alligator. All rated G.

Edited March 26, 2017 by Trini

[starri]

7 hours ago, Trini said:

All rated G.

Look at what PG movies got away with before PG-13 was developed.

Among other ones that are questionable, there's no way Howard the Duck and The Goonies wouldn't be rated R these days.  Goonies doesn't have any real violence or sexual content, but the language is off the charts.  Temple of Doom would probably squeak by with a PG-13 though.

[AimingforYoko]

3 hours ago, starri said:

 Temple of Doom would probably squeak by with a PG-13 though.

I believe Temple of Doom was the reason PG-13 was developed.

[Lugal]

On 3/24/2017 at 10:40 AM, VCRTracking said:

In this kind of story the heroine finds herself in a situation she DOES NOT want to be in, decides to make the best of it, and through her pluck and strong will improves the lives of the servants, children, family members and they grow to love her.  Then, the male head of the household, who begins the story with all kinds of personality faults has them gradually "eroded" because of this woman and they fall in love. The sheer awesomeness of one woman has brought light into this dark little world. That's why despite the incredibly problematic premise of a man tricking a woman with amnesia into cleaning his house and raising his 4 bratty kids, Overboard still works. I don't know if it would if you reversed genders.

There's the premise of Overboard in which a woman comes into a broken family and as they all get to know each other, she heals them and herself at the same time and in the end they all make a new life together.  It's something we've seen thousands of times.  Then there's the execution, in that the man tricks the amnesiac woman into believing she's his wife, which then goes too far, leading to sex and love, the most problematic parts of the story.  I don't see how those elements go away simply by swapping the genders of the people involved.  Overboard worked despite all that due to the charisma of Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell (and I think, knowing they were together IRL at the time.)

[VCRTracking]

1 hour ago, Lugal said:

Overboard worked despite all that due to the charisma of Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell (and I think, knowing they were together IRL at the time.)

Definitely. Their chemistry is so vital as is their individual performances. First Kurt Russell is still very much Kurt Russell and not a watered down romcom version.  Second Goldie Hawn is FANTASTIC in the movie. She can be OTT funny but when the important emotional beats of the story happen she's also able to be very real.

The premise of The Parent Trap doesn't work now but I don't think it ever worked. It was messed up in 1998 with the Lindsay Lohan version, and in the 1961 version with Hayley Mills. A married couple with baby identical twins gets divorced and each takes one and move as far away from each other without telling their child they have a sibling? Who the hell does that?

Edited March 26, 2017 by VCRTracking

[starri]

2 hours ago, AimingforYoko said:

I believe Temple of Doom was the reason PG-13 was developed.

That and Gremlins.

But the weird thing is that PG-13 was started with Red Dawn in 1984.  Goonies was '85, and Howard the Duck was '86.

[Blergh]

24 minutes ago, VCRTracking said:

 

The premise of The Parent Trap doesn't work now but I don't think it ever worked. It was messed up in 1998 with the Lindsay Lohan version, and in the 1961 version with Hayley Mills. A married couple with baby identical twins gets divorced and each takes one and move as far away from each other without telling their child they have a sibling? Who the hell does that?

 

 While I liked the original Hayley Mills version more  , the Lindsay Lohan one does get a couple of points for having one twin actually confront her mother over just abandoning her without a backwards glance  after the parental split and the mother apologizing for doing so! Oh, ironically,  the late Natasha Richardson's mother was BY FAR a more believable, likable and interesting character than the late Maureen O'Hara's (despite the latter having had a much longer and more legendary career prior to that).

  Still, I agree that there's really no good comedic spin one can make to justify or shrug off parental abandonment.

[raezen]

7 hours ago, VCRTracking said:

The premise of The Parent Trap doesn't work now but I don't think it ever worked. It was messed up in 1998 with the Lindsay Lohan version, and in the 1961 version with Hayley Mills. A married couple with baby identical twins gets divorced and each takes one and move as far away from each other without telling their child they have a sibling? Who the hell does that?

It's a messed up premise but unfortunately it's not an impossible one because it happened. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/11/12/jack-yufe-a-jew-separated-for-years-from-his-ex-nazi-twin-brother-dies-at-82/?utm_term=.6a2a3e09825b

Knowing that it's real does make it an interesting story to explore but I'm kind of curiousabout the minds that heard about this story and decided it was to be told as a family oriented Disney story.  Because this is some dark stuff.

[VCRTracking]

The Parent Trap was based on a German novel Das Doppelte Lotchen("The Double Lottie") published in 1949. Wikipedia:
 

Quote

 

The book originally started out during World War II as an aborted movie scenario. In 1942, when for a brief time Kästner was allowed by the Nazi authorities to work as a screenwriter, he proposed it to Josef von Báky, under the name “The Great Secret”, but before he could proceed the Nazis once again forbade him to work.

After the war, Kästner worked the idea into a highly successful book. Subsequently, it has been adapted into film many times (see below), as well as being translated into various languages.

 

The Hayley Mills Parent Trap was the fourth adaptation. There was a West German, Japanese and British version made before it.

Edited March 27, 2017 by VCRTracking

[methodwriter85]

Every time I think about the Parent Trap, I just can't see a modern one being made. 1998 was pushing it, now it just reeks of being horrible parents to do that to their kids. Especially with Skype and the internet and the like.

I mean, the '98 Parent Trap is now hitting close to prime-remake age, so we'll see whether or not Disney decides that they can pull this premise off in the 21st century.

[supposebly]

They did quite a few versions after the 1998 Parent Trap. I've never seen any of them so I can't say how they made it work if they did. Here is a list: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Das_doppelte_Lottchen#Filme

Edited March 27, 2017 by supposebly

[Luckylyn]

A modern day parent trap has occurred.   I don't remember his name but there was a famous party planner who divorced his husband while their surrogate was pregnant with their twins.  Each man took custody of one twin.  

 

Edited to add:  His name is David Tutera and the custody case happened in 2013

Edited March 27, 2017 by Luckylyn

[proserpina65]

On ‎03‎/‎26‎/‎2017 at 1:20 PM, Blergh said:

Oh, ironically,  the late Natasha Richardson's mother was BY FAR a more believable, likable and interesting character than the late Maureen O'Hara's (despite the latter having had a much longer and more legendary career prior to that).

For me, the chemistry between Maureen O'Hara and Brian Keith is a large part of what sells this version.  That, and the fact I had a huge crush on Brian Keith.  I thought they both were fantastic.

[Bastet]

Maureen O'Hara is the reason I watch The Parent Trap.

[VCRTracking]

 She can easily transform from this prim and proper Boston lady to a sexy coquette with a devilish twinkle in her eyes.  Also the farce scenes with Maureen and Brian Keith are better than the 1998 version.

What the remake does great is the American twin being reunited with her mother and then the mother finding out about it later. Both scenes made me tear up.

Edited March 30, 2017 by VCRTracking

[magicdog]

On March 23, 2017 at 10:46 AM, proserpina65 said:

I used to love Seven Brides For Seven Brothers until I got to college, took an art history class, and found out that this song refers to the rape of the Sabine women.  Now I just can't with that movie.

For what it's worth, from some accounts and historical research the Sabine women weren't really "raped" in the conventional sense of the word.  Rome had a shortage of women and advertised to local villages that they were interested in potential brides.  In some ways it paralleled the need for brides during the settlement of the American west (marrying mail order brides or even dance hall girls).

[proserpina65]

Just now, magicdog said:

For what it's worth, from some accounts and historical research the Sabine women weren't really "raped" in the conventional sense of the word.  Rome had a shortage of women and advertised to local villages that they were interested in potential brides.  In some ways it paralleled the need for brides during the settlement of the American west (marrying mail order brides or even dance hall girls).

Yeah, I realize I was getting my history from a painting.  Still can't get over that, though.

[VCRTracking]

From Lindsay Ellis, the former "Nostalgia Chick" Is Beauty and the Beast About Stockholm Syndrome? Lindsay argues it is not and gives her reasons:

[kiddo82]

I caught most of Bring It On on FreeForm today (love this movie) and color me surprised at how well it's held up over the years, especially considering it's a teen comedy that takes on issues such as cultural appropriation.  Aside from 100% more cell phone usage and selfie taking, I don't know that you'd have to change much to remake it today.

Edited April 2, 2017 by kiddo82

[starri]

It helps that Bring It On has a great cast and doesn't take itself seriously.

Because it's already been broughten.

[Silver Raven]

I fell in love with Gabrielle Union after seeing Bring it On.

[starri]

It's interesting that a lot of teen movies can hold up well--there's no reason you couldn't do Clueless or Mean Girls today--while others don't.

You might get away with Fast Times at Ridgemont High, if a bit toned down (at least the masturbation scene and the abortion), but the John Hughes films, except for Some Kind of Wonderful, probably not.

As a complete left turn, The Warriors is one of my favorite cult films, but there's no way to tell that story in present-day New York, unless they contorted it a lot, like how Marvel's Netflix shows pretend that Hell's Kitchen isn't full of luxury condos today.

Edited April 3, 2017 by starri

[Dandesun]

Well, the Marvel Netflix shows used the big battle in the first Avengers movie as a means of wrecking mid-town and making it crime-ridden and stuff. "The Incident" is what they referred to it as. So I could at least buy that as part of a larger narrative. Except, you know, when they filmed in the daylight on location and I'm sitting there going 'That's a really nice neighborhood that Matt's walking through.'

But, yeah, present day New York is very definitely NOT the New York of the 60s and 70s.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

As someone who also loves The Warriors and even owns it on DVD, I can say that the entire point of the gang trying to get back to their home turf before they get killed or arrested is exactly that they're going back to their shabby neighborhood, and as the sun is coming up after that long night one of the characters even says, "Man....we went through all that to come back to this?"

[QueerGirrl]

I still want that vest!

[kiddo82]

On April 3, 2017 at 6:42 AM, starri said:

It's interesting that a lot of teen movies can hold up well--there's no reason you couldn't do Clueless or Mean Girls today--while others don't.

I wonder if it's because movies like Bring It On, Clueless, and Mean Girls are all satirical views of high school/teen life to varying degrees.  To your point above about Bring It On not taking itself too seriously, it makes sense that films that are purposely over the top age better than those that want to play it straight.  "Now" is so transient but good satire can endure a long time.  I haven't seen Drop Dead Gorgeous (one of my all time favorites) in forever but I'd guess it would be also in that boat.  

[DisneyBoy]

You definitely couldn't do Return to Oz today. That Disney allowed an Oz movie to be so terrifying is kind of incredible. I love the film exactly as it is but, as Oz the Great and Powerful proved, Disney just wants to recycle elements of the Oz property and make "visually exciting" films that make us sick with CGI. Things like a child questioning adults? Adults putting children in danger? The heroine getting electroshock therapy? The villainess swapping heads? None of that stuff would fly today.

I really hate the way studios are comfortable spoon feeding children overly simplified moral platitudes rather than exploring psychologically compelling material. I felt respected by Return to Oz far more than almost any of these so-called kids films I see released today, not that I'm exactly the target demo anymore.

Maybe the 80s were just a special time...
 

Quote

 

You know, with the rash of Disney live-action remakes here or on the horizon, it made me think about the fact that Disney hasn't announced a Pocohantas remake.

I cannot see modern-day Disney willing touch the subject of a young Native-American girl who falls in love with the 30-something white guy leading the band of pirates who take away the land of her people.

That's not even going into the fact that the story is bullshit.

 

You are so right. I actually came to love the movie anyway in spite of all of its flaws and it bums me out that the wonderful score will never be adapted to the Broadway stage for those very reasons you just cited. There's so much about the movie that's wrong and I honestly can't believe Disney was so tone-deaf to the First Nations cultures to go and make a movie that heavily rewrote one of their only stories that have seeped into the pop-culture consciousness the way they did.

If I Never Knew You is a beautiful Broadway song but it will never be heard on Broadway.

Edited April 5, 2017 by DisneyBoy

[starri]

17 hours ago, Dandesun said:

Well, the Marvel Netflix shows used the big battle in the first Avengers movie as a means of wrecking mid-town and making it crime-ridden and stuff. "The Incident" is what they referred to it as. So I could at least buy that as part of a larger narrative. Except, you know, when they filmed in the daylight on location and I'm sitting there going 'That's a really nice neighborhood that Matt's walking through.'

Or they do a bunch of really tight shots so you don't recognize they're filming in a different part of the city.  A lot of the S2 scenes were filmed in the part of Harlem I used to live in.  And the parts of Luke Cage that were filmed on 125th St were very carefully shot to avoid showing the Starbucks and Banana Republic outlet.

Speaking of dystopian NYC, I used to think no one would buy an update of Soylent Green, but now...It's kind of gone through outdated and come out the other side.

[Spartan Girl]

The silent movie Sunrise, in which a married couple rekindles their love after the husband backs out of killing her for his mistress. I know there are a lot of fucked up love stories out there now, but I don't think Hollywood could make that even remotely okay these days.

[methodwriter85]

On 4/3/2017 at 6:42 AM, starri said:

It's interesting that a lot of teen movies can hold up well--there's no reason you couldn't do Clueless or Mean Girls today--while others don't.

You might get away with Fast Times at Ridgemont High, if a bit toned down (at least the masturbation scene and the abortion), but the John Hughes films, except for Some Kind of Wonderful, probably not.

As a complete left turn, The Warriors is one of my favorite cult films, but there's no way to tell that story in present-day New York, unless they contorted it a lot, like how Marvel's Netflix shows pretend that Hell's Kitchen isn't full of luxury condos today.

John Hughes films were set in an incredibly specific time and place- an upscale Chicago suburb in the mid-1980's when greed was good and snobby preps ruled everything. Mean Girls other than the time period comes close to the setting, but it also managed to realize that everyone kind of just dumps on each other. It's not the Mean Girls who torture the Nice Girls in Other Social Groups. Most of it is turning on each other. (Come to think of it, that is basically what happens to Amanda in Some Kind of Wonderful.)

Foxes could work pretty well as a modern movie, I think. The only really dated aspects of it are the music and the clothing, but the bare bones of the story could very well work with today. Kids still run wild with absent parents. I think the only problematic part is Madge nailing her over-aged boyfriend and marrying him with her parents full blessing, but even then, that shit still happens. (It's not THAT hard of a plot that you could work around or modify to work with modern sensibilities.)

From what I've heard, even the Valley (where this is set) is still pretty skeezy.

You kind of have to love that the modern adaption of Endless Love

[JustaPerson]

4 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

The silent movie Sunrise, in which a married couple rekindles their love after the husband backs out of killing her for his mistress. I know there are a lot of fucked up love stories out there now, but I don't think Hollywood could make that even remotely okay these days.

Yea, Sunrise could never be made today. Would it have even worked as a talkie? Maybe it's that we can't hear them that makes it less horrifying than it really is. It's such a beautiful film though. 

[DisneyBoy]

It's one of my favorites in spite of the loathsome plot. It's kind of amazing how the movie recovers from that. I get really choked up when the husband and wife are sitting in the church watching a young couple marry one another. He's obviously a terrible husband but he's redeemed in that moment and I think it's quite a feat that the movie manages to pull that off. If I recall correctly though at the end of the story he turns violent against his mistress however. All in all he's not the best dude but the film is absolutely beautiful.

I definitely don't think West Side Story would work in theaters today. I can't imagine the theater-going audience wanting to sit through so much dancing as a metaphor for street fighting. It kind of makes the original film a chore to sit through and a bit campy in its own way. Maybe if the choreography was much more urban and gritty it might the palatable to audiences, but then it wouldn't be the original show. Plus I don't think modern-day audiences would be as tolerant of singers dubbing over the performances of famous actors.

[ChelseaNH]

18 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

a married couple rekindles their love after the husband backs out of killing her for his mistress

Not quite the same, but there was Mr. & Mrs. Smith.  Maybe that was okay because they were both trying to kill their spouse...

Edited April 6, 2017 by ChelseaNH

[VCRTracking]

21 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

The silent movie Sunrise, in which a married couple rekindles their love after the husband backs out of killing her for his mistress. I know there are a lot of fucked up love stories out there now, but I don't think Hollywood could make that even remotely okay these days.

I watched it for the first time last year and I just couldn't get past the husband trying to kill her for me to be entertained with all their madcap shenanigans in the city later and them falling in love again. I get how technically impressive it was at the time but I couldn't be invested in the love story since he tried to murder her(even though he immediately felt bad about it and tried to apologize).

[DisneyBoy]

Human beings suck - what else can we say?

In a weird way I kind of feel like that's the same thing we see play out in Unfaithful with Diane Lane and Richard Gere. That movie bothers me a lot more because it's set in contemporary times and I felt like the ending played it safe and got a bit schmaltzy. Would Diane Lane seriously stand by her husband knowing that he killed a man? Would they actually be able to fall in love again? It seems like their mutual guilt holds them together and that's pretty sad statement to make...but possibly a very realistic one. I don't know. I guess I just felt like the movie was building to a place where Richard Gere would end up being exposed as a murderer and Diane Lane would have to face the music and deal with the consequences. I just don't see how the events of the film could end in a sort of happy fashion with the family staying together.

On a completely different note, I really don't think they could get away with Eliza Doolittle returning to Henry Higgins and then being asked to fetch his slippers. That ending makes me rage at the filmmakers even though I know it's in keeping with the stage musical. Being "accustomed to her face" does not constitute love Mr. Smarty-Pants Professor. And Eliza is all set up with a wonderful guy who wants to marry her and a new flower shop to run...why return to essentially being Henry Higgins' assistant?

[dusang]

1 hour ago, DisneyBoy said:

In a weird way I kind of feel like that's the same thing we see play out in Unfaithful with Diane Lane and Richard Gere. That movie bothers me a lot more because it's set in contemporary times and I felt like the ending played it safe and got a bit schmaltzy. Would Diane Lane seriously stand by her husband knowing that he killed a man? Would they actually be able to fall in love again? It seems like their mutual guilt holds them together and that's pretty sad statement to make...but possibly a very realistic one. I don't know. I guess I just felt like the movie was building to a place where Richard Gere would end up being exposed as a murderer and Diane Lane would have to face the music and deal with the consequences. I just don't see how the events of the film could end in a sort of happy fashion with the family staying together.

Didn't the movie end with him turning himself into the police?

[JustaPerson]

2 hours ago, DisneyBoy said:

On a completely different note, I really don't think they could get away with Eliza Doolittle returning to Henry Higgins and then being asked to fetch his slippers. That ending makes me rage at the filmmakers even though I know it's in keeping with the stage musical. Being "accustomed to her face" does not constitute love Mr. Smarty-Pants Professor. And Eliza is all set up with a wonderful guy who wants to marry her and a new flower shop to run...why return to essentially being Henry Higgins' assistant?

Get in line behind George Bernard Shaw who wrote the original play the musical was based on. The producer of the first production of Pygmalion I believe added that ending and Shaw was PISSED. He even wrote an essay definitively saying that Eliza ended up with Freddie and detailing Eliza's life with him (she and Higgins stay friends.) I totally agree with you btw. I was confused at the end of the film -- it didn't feel like I was watching a love story between Higgins and Eliza.

2 hours ago, VCRTracking said:

I watched it for the first time last year and I just couldn't get past the husband trying to kill her for me to be entertained with all their madcap shenanigans in the city later and them falling in love again. I get how technically impressive it was at the time but I couldn't be invested in the love story since he tried to murder her(even though he immediately felt bad about it and tried to apologize).

Sunrise had such a strange magic for me -- I knew she shouldn't have forgiven him and yet watching them fall in love again was so beautiful. 

[DisneyBoy]

Perfect way to put it!

Quote

Didn't the movie end with him turning himself into the police?

Nope. He gets away with the murder and he and Diane Lane stay together with some kind of false "newfound appreciation" for one another for having survived her affair and covered up a murder.

Lesson: don't be a boy toy?

[VCRTracking]

Wikipedia:
 

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Lyne shot five different endings to Unfaithful based on his experiences with Fatal Attraction, whose initial ending was rejected by the test audience.[4] According to Lyne, he had some debate with the 20th Century Fox officials, who wanted to "make the marriage gray, the sex bad. I fought that. I tried to explore the guilt, the jealousy—that's what I'm interested in."[9] The studio did not like the film's "enigmatic" ending, which they felt failed to punish crimes committed by the characters. It imposed a "particularly jarring 'Hollywood' final line", which angered Gere.

Following negative reactions from test audiences, the studio reinstated the original ending;[7] a few weeks before the film was to open in theaters, Lyne asked Gere and Lane to return to Los Angeles for re-shoots of the ending.[1] Lyne claimed that the new ending was more ambiguous than the original and was the original one by screenwriter Alvin Sargent. Lyne also thought the new ending "would be more interesting and provoke more discussion,"[10] saying he intentionally "wanted to do a more ambiguous ending, which treats the audience much more intelligently."

 

[DisneyBoy]

Hmmm...interesting. But...the ending they kept did fail to punish the characters.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

14 hours ago, ChelseaNH said:

Not quite the same, but there was Mr. & Mrs. Smith.  Maybe that was okay because they were both trying to kill their spouse...

And The War of the Roses from 1989, where a near-divorce ends up in two deaths.