Well, That Wouldn't Work Now: Things From Movies That Are Outdated or No Longer Politically Correct

[starri]

HIV isn't curable(yet), but someone dying from it is incredibly rare.  So Philadelphia definitely wouldn't happen.

Also, there's no way a white shoe law firm would be that blatantly homophobic.

[methodwriter85]

On 7/6/2017 at 2:47 AM, Bastet said:

Neither of those characters died from a disease that now has a cure.  Shelby (Steel Magnolias) died due to complications of diabetes.  Emma (Terms of Endearment) died of cancer.

There's actually a black remake of Steel Magnolias, but from what I understand, Shelby probably would have been fine if she hadn't gotten pregnant. If they wanted a kid that badly, she could have used a surrogate. Hell, they could have done the plotline where the mother carries the baby for her, like what has happened in real-life cases where a woman has ovaries but either no womb or isn't healthy enough for a pregnancy. I do think in real-life Shelby would have been carefully monitored.  Natal care has come a long way since 1989.

Philadelphia's a good example. I don't think I've seen any AIDS movies that take place in the 21st century- it's always either the 80's or the 90's when AIDS is still a death sentence.

[Bastet]

3 hours ago, methodwriter85 said:

There's actually a black remake of Steel Magnolias, but from what I understand, Shelby probably would have been fine if she hadn't gotten pregnant. If they wanted a kid that badly, she could have used a surrogate. Hell, they could have done the plotline where the mother carries the baby for her, like what has happened in real-life cases where a woman has ovaries but either no womb or isn't healthy enough for a pregnancy. I do think in real-life Shelby would have been carefully monitored. 

Real-life "Shelby" (I can't remember what Robert Harling's sister's real name was) died; the movie is adapted from Harling's play, which is about his mother and her friends' lives and was written in the wake of his sister's death (her jackass husband - who's only hinted at being a jackass in the film - remarried mere months after her death, and the kid was calling his stepmom "Mommy" and Harling wanted his sister remembered).  She did just what movie Shelby did -- ignored a lifetime of medical advice (she was a brittle diabetic since adolescence) not to get pregnant, as it would be way too hard on her body, and did it anyway, and, yep, it was too hard on her body.  Her mom gave a kidney to try to save her, but she died (differently than in the movie; she went under anesthesia to have a dialysis shunt put in and her heart stopped).  Unlike movie Shelby, real-life Shelby got very little time to even be a mom, because she spent big chunks of the time between the son's birth and her death in hospital and he wasn't allowed to visit.

[methodwriter85]

Right. I know that. I'm saying that now there's the technology for someone like Shelby to be able to become a mother without the danger of pregnancy. I didn't watch the remake so I don't know if they broached that subject or not, but yeah...I just wouldn't feel as bad for a 2017 Shelby as I would for a 1989 one, because she can't even use the "it's not my blood" excuse that people use when they say they don't want to adopt.  It just comes off as pure foolhardy.

Going back to the AIDS thing...I remember Boys on the Side having that subplot of Mary Louise Parker dying from AIDS as well. The mid-1990's really seems to be the last era where AIDS was a death sentence.

Edited July 8, 2017 by methodwriter85

[Bastet]

2 hours ago, methodwriter85 said:

I'm saying that now there's the technology for someone like Shelby to be able to become a mother without the danger of pregnancy.

Well, sure, and some existed at the time of the movie.  The original submission for "that wouldn't work today" was of movie characters dying from things that wouldn't now be fatal, with Shelby and Emma cited as examples - neither of which work, because both a cancer patient and a brittle diabetic going through pregnancy/childbirth against medical advice could pretty much as easily end in death today under the same set of circumstances.

Shelby having motherhood options that, as avoiding pregnancy/childbirth, wouldn't add to her already-increased risk of death is a separate issue from the topic; Shelby (and "Shelby") had alternative options at the time, and would have a few more now.

[Ceindreadh]

The Towering Inferno - Bigelow and Lorrie die because they've switched off the office phones and can't call for help.  Nowadays one or both of them would surely have a mobile phone they could use.  (they might still get killed, but they'd at least have been able to let the firefighters know where they were)

[methodwriter85]

Cell phones always seem to get knocked out in disaster movies, though.

I'm kind of surprised no one's tried to remake The Towering Inferno or Quake, especially in that period of the mid-1990's to mid-2000's when disaster flicks were popular again. (And yielded a remake of the Poseidon Adventure.)

Edited July 9, 2017 by methodwriter85

[Cobalt Stargazer]

49 minutes ago, methodwriter85 said:

Cell phones always seem to get knocked out in disaster movies, though.

In San Andreas, which came out two years ago, Alexandria Daddario's character had to use a landline to call her parents and tell them where she was because she couldn't get a signal for her cell phone. So even in modern movies, technology is the first thing to go in a catastrophe.

[Silver Raven]

24 minutes ago, Cobalt Stargazer said:

In San Andreas, which came out two years ago, Alexandria Daddario's character had to use a landline to call her parents and tell them where she was because she couldn't get a signal for her cell phone. So even in modern movies, technology is the first thing to go in a catastrophe.

Cell towers do go out in earthquakes.

[Amethyst]

Regarding Steel Magnolias, I remember Emma telling Shelby to adopt, and Shelby said no judge would give her a baby with her medical record.  But honestly, I don't think she wanted to do that, anyway.  Shelby really wanted a baby that had her and Jackson's genes ("the baby will have his looks and my sense of style", she had said) and I doubt she looked very hard into adoption.  I remember a lot of people being mad about that portrayal of diabetes being a basic death sentence.

The HIV topic is interesting, because I can't think of any major motion pic in the past decade that focused on it.  The only exception is Life Support, an HBO movie with Queen Latifah that was based on a true story.  And that was in 2007.

[Captain Carrot]

Given all the issues with police today, I don't think that Beverly Hills Cop would be made today. The moments that really stick out are when Eddie Murphy is telling the white cops that they should break the rules (like getting a search warrant).

[Bastet]

5 hours ago, Amethyst said:

Regarding Steel Magnolias, I remember Emma telling Shelby to adopt, and Shelby said no judge would give her a baby with her medical record.  But honestly, I don't think she wanted to do that, anyway.  Shelby really wanted a baby that had her and Jackson's genes ("the baby will have his looks and my sense of style", she had said) and I doubt she looked very hard into adoption.

Yeah, she wanted a baby "of [her] own," as she put it.  It's only hinted at in the film, with the "I think it would help things a lot/I see" exchange in that same conversation between Shelby and M'Lynn, but in real life their marriage was already in trouble; having a "band-aid baby" was part of her motivation.

Quote

The HIV topic is interesting, because I can't think of any major motion pic in the past decade that focused on it.

I've been trying to think of any (non-documentaries) that I've seen, either, because when the issue of movies being outdated because the things their main characters died from would no longer kill them today, Philadelphia and It's My Party immediately sprang to mind but I got distracted by the two that were mentioned. 

Edited July 10, 2017 by Bastet

[Silver Raven]

Dallas Buyers Club was about AIDS. So was The Normal Heart.

[proserpina65]

On ‎07‎/‎08‎/‎2017 at 10:28 PM, Silver Raven said:

Cell towers do go out in earthquakes.

Yep.  When that earthquake hit DC a few years ago, we felt it up here in the northeastern corner of Maryland.  As we were standing outside the courthouse waiting for instructions, everybody was trying to call home, but no one could get through on their cellphones.  One of the attorneys went down the street to his office and used his landline to make calls.  Worked perfectly.

Edited July 10, 2017 by proserpina65

[methodwriter85]

1 hour ago, Silver Raven said:

Dallas Buyers Club was about AIDS. So was The Normal Heart.

They're period pieces, though. Not contemporary.

There was a character struggling with AIDS in the movie Latter Days, but that was back in 2003.

[starri]

Even that was anarchonistic.  That character was way sicker than he should have been, even 14 years ago. 

[Raja]

On Sunday, July 09, 2017 at 6:51 PM, Captain Carrot said:

Given all the issues with police today, I don't think that Beverly Hills Cop would be made today. The moments that really stick out are when Eddie Murphy is telling the white cops that they should break the rules (like getting a search warrant). 

I disagree the race issues of the outsiders in Beverly Hills are still with us.  What would be different would be Axel Foley's childhood friend from Detroit would have been a girlfriend and there would have been more than just a non sexual hug upon their reunion 

[dusang]

3 hours ago, Raja said:

I disagree the race issues of the outsiders in Beverly Hills are still with us.  What would be different would be Axel Foley's childhood friend from Detroit would have been a girlfriend and there would have been more than just a non sexual hug upon their reunion 

I don't understand that sentence.  Are you saying you don't think there are race issues in Beverly Hills?

[benteen]

On ‎5‎/‎21‎/‎2017 at 5:32 PM, Silver Raven said:

Benjamin was also a stalker.

Emilio Estavez's character in St. Elmo's Fire was a stalker and is never called out on his absolutely creepy, stalkerish behavior.

[callie lee 29]

7 hours ago, benteen said:

Emilio Estavez's character in St. Elmo's Fire was a stalker and is never called out on his absolutely creepy, stalkerish behavior.

True, but I still adore that movie!!

[Ohwell]

Just finished watching Gigi on TCM and while listening to Maurice Chevalier's famous song, "Thank Heaven for Little Girls," it made me think that now he really does sound like a dirty old man.

[GaT]

Some of my favorite old movies would never work today, like The Women (I'm talking about the original, the remake didn't work but that was because it sucked) where all the women were known by their husbands instead of their own names publically. They were Mrs. Stephen Haines instead of Mary Haines, Mrs. Howard Fowler instead of Sylvia Fowler, Mrs. John Day instead of Peggy Day, etc. Their worth was totally dependent on their husbands. And the Thin Man movies where everybody drank & smoked up a storm. It would all be PC now.

[ChelseaNH]

14 hours ago, GaT said:

And the Thin Man movies where everybody drank & smoked up a storm. It would all be PC now.

Or they'd go "gritty" and have everyone snorting coke...

[Cobalt Stargazer]

14 hours ago, GaT said:

And the Thin Man movies where everybody drank & smoked up a storm. It would all be PC now.

 

14 minutes ago, ChelseaNH said:

Or they'd go "gritty" and have everyone snorting coke...

Because smoking are drinking are bad but drugs are good,, mmmkay?

[methodwriter85]

No way would Little Darlings happen now unless they aged up all the characters to 16 and had them all played by gorgeous 25-year olds.

[Zola]

The wonderful film"Gigi" (1957) had a song called "Thank Heaven for Little Girls" sung by  Maurice Chevalier. A lovely, sweet song for a nice, childhood film.

However, I rather suspect such a song would be quite inappropriate these days for very obvious but unfortunate reasons.

[methodwriter85]

On 8/28/2017 at 4:09 PM, Zola said:

The wonderful film"Gigi" (1957) had a song called "Thank Heaven for Little Girls" sung by  Maurice Chevalier. A lovely, sweet song for a nice, childhood film.

However, I rather suspect such a song would be quite inappropriate these days for very obvious but unfortunate reasons.

I don't think this scene would happen in a modern movie now either because of sick, sick people with sick, sick minds.

Edited September 3, 2017 by methodwriter85

[GreekGeek]

Seeing overtones of pedophilia in Shirley Temple movies is nothing new. Look at Graham Greene's controversial review.

[methodwriter85]

3 hours ago, GreekGeek said:

Seeing overtones of pedophilia in Shirley Temple movies is nothing new. Look at Graham Greene's controversial review.

I read that before and I still don't get how Graham Greene thought he could describe Shirley Temple like that and not get slapped with a big-ass lawsuit. I don't care if it's 1937- you don't describe the rump of a 9-year old girl like that.

It just kills me that people can't watch that scene now and see an innocent, sweet performance. The comments about the pedo gaze of this scene just make me sad.

[DisneyBoy]

Does it go without saying that elements of Gone With the Wind just don't work anymore? Maybe it's silly for me to even point this out...

The scene where Rhett basically carries a kicking and screaming Scarlett up to bed, followed immediately by her waking up the next morning looking completely contented and playing with her hair like a little girl has always weirded me out. She's pretty clearly fighting him about going up to bed in the previous scene...so shouldn't he take that as a lack of consent? If I recall correctly the music even swells in a way that is really menacing. It always read to me as a prelude to a rape scene.

But then, the film almost seems to suggest moments later that all fussy Scarlett needed was a good f-ing to set her straight.

I get that their relationship dynamics are rather messed up and that Rhett is supposed to be a dominant character, but...yipes. I don't see any film today trying to get its audience to accept this kind of scene as anything other than a rape.

Edited August 30, 2017 by DisneyBoy

[Irlandesa]

6 hours ago, DisneyBoy said:

I get that their relationship dynamics are rather messed up and that Rhett is supposed to be a dominant character, but...yipes. I don't see any film today trying to get its audience to accept this kind of scene as anything other than a rape.

You would think but I can think of two TV shows, although I'm sure there are more, that have tried to do exactly that.  Rescue Me (Tommy and his ex-wife) and Game of Thrones (Cersei and Jamie).  It doesn't happen often but I could see someone trying it in film.

[ChelseaNH]

6 hours ago, DisneyBoy said:

But then, the film almost seems to suggest moments later that all fussy Scarlett needed was a good f-ing to set her straight.

Very common trope from older movies.

[GaT]

7 minutes ago, ChelseaNH said:

Very common trope from older movies.

Yes, & also responsible for a lot of men thinking that behavior was OK.

[DisneyBoy]

Here's a question for another time - who gets turned on by seeing someone crying and upset with them?

*scratches head*

[Epeolatrix]

Quote

The wonderful film"Gigi" (1957) had a song called "Thank Heaven for Little Girls" sung by  Maurice Chevalier. A lovely, sweet song for a nice, childhood film. However, I rather suspect such a song would be quite inappropriate these days for very obvious but unfortunate reasons.

In the first season of Saturday Night Live (1976), they did a skit about auditions for a prison musical, and Chevy Chase plays the role of a child molester who starts to sing this song before switching to his own creepier lyrics. Then again, the actual words are about girls from the ages of five to seven and their helpless and appealing eyes flashing, in a movie about training up a 15-year-old courtesan, so not really much of a leap.

Edited August 30, 2017 by Violet Impulse
She was a bit younger than I'd originally thought.

[Dandesun]

I love Gigi. I mean, yeah, the story's kind of fucked up but oh. my. God. the. clothes. And Gaston's such a whiny-ass putz. "Oh, I'm so rich and bored. I'm filled with ennui. Le sigh." But it is fucking hilarious to introduce that movie to people who haven't seen it because they get so weirded out by 'Thank Heaven for Little Girls.' The first time we showed it to my brother in law he burst out laughing saying 'What the fuck is this movie?!' Still, I love it. I love all the stuff at Maxim's where everyone is so catty in their fabulous clothes. I love the songs that have more bite to them 'She is Not Thinking of Me' and 'I'm Glad I'm Not Young Anymore.'

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is another one that they probably couldn't do but it's another one I love unabashedly. My Mom says that every man who sees it loves it because the moral of the story is 'It doesn't matter how much of an asshole you are, your woman will love you.' Well, I don't know about that necessarily because Adam did realize what a gigantic ass he had been and Millie certainly didn't put up with his shit for too damn long and she also got the other brothers whipped into shaped while she protected the virtue of the girls. (Except, you know, you get stuck on a mountain with the hot woodsmen and you're going to forget what virtue is after a few months. I didn't blame the girls too much for making goo goo eyes at them especially since they got some of their own back.)

Older musicals would be hard to remake for any number of reasons. I fucking love Top Hat but it's pure farce draped in art deco fantasy and they just couldn't recapture that in this day and age. And that's not even getting into the fact that we don't have a modern day Fred and Ginger.

[Silver Raven]

The local theater in Sacramento just finished their summer season and they gave us a list of what musicals are available for next year that we want to see.  Seven Brides for Seven Brothers was on the list.  I registered an emphatic NO.

Edited September 1, 2017 by Silver Raven

[Dandesun]

My favorite alternate version of Seven Brides is from a Monty Python sketch where they are doing a school performance with not enough players. It is delightfully weird. "Do you three boys take those four girls to be your seven brides?" So, unless you're gonna do it in a surreal, bizarre Monty Python way OR if you happen to have seven strapping dudes who can pull off ballet with axes while singing about polecats... maybe leave it in the 50s.

[ZuluQueenOfDwarves]

On 8/30/2017 at 7:52 AM, DisneyBoy said:

Does it go without saying that elements of Gone With the Wind just don't work anymore? Maybe it's silly for me to even point this out...

The scene where Rhett basically carries a kicking and screaming Scarlett up to bed, followed immediately by her waking up the next morning looking completely contented and playing with her hair like a little girl has always weirded me out. She's pretty clearly fighting him about going up to bed in the previous scene...so shouldn't he take that as a lack of consent? If I recall correctly the music even swells in a way that is really menacing. It always read to me as a prelude to a rape scene.

But then, the film almost seems to suggest moments later that all fussy Scarlett needed was a good f-ing to set her straight.

I get that their relationship dynamics are rather messed up and that Rhett is supposed to be a dominant character, but...yipes. I don't see any film today trying to get its audience to accept this kind of scene as anything other than a rape.

The universal adoration so many women my age and older have for the  Fifty Shades of Grey franchise makes it abundantly clear to me that rape storylines aren't going to be seen as anything less than passionate romance, so long as the rapist is hot, anytime soon. 

[Irlandesa]

10 hours ago, Dandesun said:

I love Gigi.

I do too.  I can watch it over and over.  I mean, yes, technically it wouldn't be a situation I love but Leslie is 27.  And ennui was never as handsome or charming as it was portrayed by Louis Jourdan. The music.  The clothes. 

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers was a movie that I held in affection because of its music and dancing but I hadn't actually watched the whole thing in eons until last year.  That's when it hit me that it was kidnapping and Stockholm Syndrome .  I think I'll just stick to clips because it doesn't work for me as a total piece whereas Gigi, regardless of the potentially problematic issues with it, absolutely does.

[amaranta]

On 8/31/2017 at 11:27 PM, Irlandesa said:

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers was a movie that I held in affection because of its music and dancing but I hadn't actually watched the whole thing in eons until last year.  That's when it hit me that it was kidnapping and Stockholm Syndrome .  I think I'll just stick to clips because it doesn't work for me as a total piece whereas Gigi, regardless of the potentially problematic issues with it, absolutely does.

I'm not a big fan of most musicals, especially dramatic ones (stop singing and call for an ambulance, he/she is dying you twit) but I do love the barn raising dance scene in this. So yes to that as a clip.  The rest, not so much.

[Popples]

On 8/31/2017 at 1:09 PM, Dandesun said:

Older musicals would be hard to remake for any number of reasons. I fucking love Top Hat but it's pure farce draped in art deco fantasy and they just couldn't recapture that in this day and age. And that's not even getting into the fact that we don't have a modern day Fred and Ginger.

I adore Fred Astaire, but in most of the Fred/Ginger films I've seen (about 7 or 8 out of the ten), his actions could be interpreted as harassment and stalking.

[methodwriter85]

I watched Close Encounters of The Third Kind in a revival screening tonight. I've never seen the movie before, so I was watching it with 2017 eyes. I really don't think Richard Dreyfeuss's character would have a family if the movie got made now. I don't think a modern movie would expect us to root for a 30-something dad to abandon his very young kids and wife without a second thought in order to play astronaut around the galaxies. (Yes, she moved out and took the kids, but that still doesn't mean he doesn't abandon them.) I think he would be re-envisioned as a 30-something slacker who either still lives with his parents or in a house with a bunch of roommates. Probably played by either Miles Teller or maybe Dane DeHaan.

The only way he'd still have that family plot in the movie would be if they found some kind of happy little resolution, like the wife knows and gives him her blessing and they make-up before he leaves.

[xaxat]

On 7/6/2017 at 2:46 PM, starri said:

HIV isn't curable(yet), but someone dying from it is incredibly rare.  So Philadelphia definitely wouldn't happen.

Also, there's no way a white shoe law firm would be that blatantly homophobic.

I think a primary theme of he movie (and the times) was homophobia. And it just happened to be expressed by an aversion to individuals with AIDS. 

Broaden the theme to the larger LGBT community. Make the main character a transgender individual who is transitioning who becomes the victim of a hate crime and I think you have the remake.

[Ohwell]

I watched Kramer v. Kramer yesterday with Dustin Hoffman and Merle Streep.  Dustin Hoffman was fired and desperately needed a job because he needed to take care of his son in the midst of the divorce.  There was a scene where he was in an interview and the employers told him that they'd get back to him with a decision, but Hoffman was adamant that he needed an answer right then, and the guys hired him on the spot.  It was the Christmas holidays and there was an office party going on.  Hoffman had one of those "hell yeah" moments where he just grabbed an attractive blonde by the head and planted a big kiss, and he walked away.  She just looked a little perplexed and resumed talking to her coworkers.  I first saw it in the theater, and when he kissed her just about everyone (including myself) gave out a big cheer because we had been rooting for him to get a job.  Anyway, I shudder to think about the names would be called for doing that today, especially in light of all the sexual harassment stories.

[ChelseaNH]

Just for treating a human being like a trophy...

[Ohwell]

I think he was happy and just wasn't thinking.         

[Raja]

On Saturday, November 25, 2017 at 0:02 PM, ChelseaNH said:

Just for treating a human being like a trophy...

I am now thinking of a famous sailor at the end of WWII getting court martialed for his celebration 

[dusang]

On 11/25/2017 at 7:11 PM, Ohwell said:

I think he was happy and just wasn't thinking.         

The unfortunate implication of that is that it requires thought to identify women as autonomous human beings, rather than that being the baseline understanding of the world.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

3 hours ago, dusang said:

The unfortunate implication of that is that it requires thought to identify women as autonomous human beings, rather than that being the baseline understanding of the world.

 

4 hours ago, Raja said:

I am now thinking of a famous sailor at the end of WWII getting court martialed for his celebration 

Quoting both because they line up so well that there's nothing I can add.