Well, That Wouldn't Work Now: Things From Movies That Are Outdated or No Longer Politically Correct

[Dandesun]

On 11/4/2018 at 2:44 PM, Luckylyn said:

I always thought Sixteen Going on Seventeen was designed to make the audience roll their eyes at him because he’s acting like a “know it all” and is still a kid himself.  I thought it was mocking paternalism.  

Besides, the 'I'll take care of you' guy (Rolf) ends up becoming a Nazi anyway so Liesel dodged a bullet there. But even the lyrics are set up to describe the 'sixteen going on seventeen' as so innocent and naive while the 'seventeen going on eighteen' is wise in the ways of the world when we all know they're both idiots because they're that young.

[methodwriter85]

Robert Mitchum did a movie in 1957 with Deborah Kerr where they're stuck on an island during World War II and he tries to convince her to give up being a nun for him. I can't see that particular storyline getting greenlit now.

[Dandesun]

On 12/25/2018 at 9:34 AM, methodwriter85 said:

Robert Mitchum did a movie in 1957 with Deborah Kerr where they're stuck on an island during World War II and he tries to convince her to give up being a nun for him. I can't see that particular storyline getting greenlit now.

That's the kind of story that I almost wish they would do again but have it absolutely not play up all those ridiculous tropes. Like, the woman who is a nun or going to be a nun doesn't fall for the hot guy and decide to toss her vows away. She can basically point out everything he's doing that is disrespectful to her as a person just because he wants to get laid. If he wants to orgasm so badly, why doesn't he go over to the other side of the island and jerk off? Why does she have to be a part of his equation at all? And they don't even have to write her as some pious, holier-than-thou prude, either. It could be framed as HER decision and HER path and why HE doesn't enter into it at all.

[methodwriter85]

I just realized that Murray's monologue about how Christian is gay in Clueless would NOT go down well these days, although it does avoid any actual slurs so yay?

[raezen]

Only if Friend of Dorothy is a slur.

[starri]

19 hours ago, methodwriter85 said:

I just realized that Murray's monologue about how Christian is gay in Clueless would NOT go down well these days, although it does avoid any actual slurs so yay?

I imagine "Streisand-ticket-holding" would fly over the heads of kids these days.

[PepSinger]

And the Judy Garland reference

[kiddo82]

They flew over my head at the time.

[methodwriter85]

I guess that could be swapped for Gaga references but I can just see the little snowflakes getting offended. On a more serious note, I feel like Elton trying to force a kiss on Cher and then him accusing her of leading her on probably wouldn't play as lightly now. Hell, I can see them either upping Cher's age or making Josh still a senior in high school like what they did in the Princess Diaries.

[Scarlett45]

On 1/23/2019 at 12:41 AM, methodwriter85 said:

I just realized that Murray's monologue about how Christian is gay in Clueless would NOT go down well these days, although it does avoid any actual slurs so yay?

The cast of Clueless will be at C2E2 in Chicago this spring and I will probably go. 

Murray’s dialogue did avoid slurs, but a lot of the references are so dated. The one that went over my head was “cake boy”- HUH?!! I got the others. 

[starri]

1 hour ago, Scarlett45 said:

The cast of Clueless will be at C2E2 in Chicago this spring and I will probably go. 

With Brittany Murphy dead and Stacey Dash kind of crazy, it kind of loses something.

[Scarlett45]

9 minutes ago, starri said:

With Brittany Murphy dead and Stacey Dash kind of crazy, it kind of loses something.

RIP Brittany Murphy. But Paul Rudd, Alicia Silverstone, Donald Faison and the guy who played Travis will be there. 

[starri]

Just now, Scarlett45 said:

RIP Brittany Murphy. But Paul Rudd, Alicia Silverstone, Donald Faison and the guy who played Travis will be there. 

If Paul Rudd is there, it's a no-brainer.

[Popples]

19 hours ago, Scarlett45 said:

Murray’s dialogue did avoid slurs, but a lot of the references are so dated. The one that went over my head was “cake boy”- HUH?!! I got the others. 

I've never heard that term outside of the film. I was 10 when it came out and part of me now wonders if they were trying to make "Fetch" happen.

[Scarlett45]

18 minutes ago, Popples said:

I've never heard that term outside of the film. I was 10 when it came out and part of me now wonders if they were trying to make "Fetch" happen.

I was ten too!!

[methodwriter85]

Mrs. Doubtfire is even more problematic than I thought it was at the start of the thread. Going beyond the transphobic stuff and the whole internet background search deal, it's just really not going to work well in the whole "Me, too" era because what Daniel does is incredibly intrusive and icky if you think about it. Especially once we get to the part that he's basically emotionally blackmailed his kids into keeping up the deception while trying to wreck Miranda's new relationship. I did kind of like the looks that Daniel's older daughter was shooting him while Mrs. Doubtfire tried to convince Miranda to wear a frumpy funeral dress for her date.

Meanwhile at the end we're supposed to think that Miranda is in the wrong for not jumping to Daniel's defense when the judge chewed him out at the custody hearing.

[Scarlett45]

2 hours ago, methodwriter85 said:

Mrs. Doubtfire is even more problematic than I thought it was at the start of the thread. Going beyond the transphobic stuff and the whole internet background search deal, it's just really not going to work well in the whole "Me, too" era because what Daniel does is incredibly intrusive and icky if you think about it. Especially once we get to the part that he's basically emotionally blackmailed his kids into keeping up the deception while trying to wreck Miranda's new relationship. I did kind of like the looks that Daniel's older daughter was shooting him while Mrs. Doubtfire tried to convince Miranda to wear a frumpy funeral dress for her date.

Meanwhile at the end we're supposed to think that Miranda is in the wrong for not jumping to Daniel's defense when the judge chewed him out at the custody hearing.

Yes, the transphobia aside (which is huge), Daniel entered his ex’s home uninvited and actually spies on her using the role as a caregiver to their children. 

(Bolding mine) YES I loved that part! She knew her Dad was being a douche. 

The notion that even if Daniel was trans or a cross dresser etc that meant he needed supervised visits with his kids?! Wtf.

I am kind of surprised the wife never recognized him. The older kids, understandable- and they figured it out when he dropped his stage voice. But his wife knew he was an actor, and his brother was a drag performer AND he’s the exact same height and build. She lived with this man for 16yrs and didn’t recognize his mannerisms under drag makeup?

[Scarlett45]

On 11/6/2018 at 2:37 PM, methodwriter85 said:

I'm half/half on if I think Never Been Kissed could be done now. On one hand, it's kind of icky that he thinks she's really a student. On the other hand, Pretty Little Liars was pretty recent and it treated the teacher/actual 16-year old student as a beautiful love story complete with marriage bells at the end, so...maybe? It might still get a pass because she's really a 25-year old.

 

The biggest problem with Never Been Kissed would be the social media presence of the actual 25yrs old reporter. While pretending to be a teen, she could always say her parents wouldn’t let her have social media until she turned 16 or something to work around that. I suppose the reporter could scrub her accounts and change her hair color to confuse anyone who might see her image online.

As far as the romance with the teacher, I don’t think anyone would have a problem with it because 1. The actress and character would be far above legal age, 2. The teacher never did or said anything inappropriate when he thought she was 17. I think that humans know, young teachers (or a young adult) may think a 17/18yrs old student (who’s got the physical characteristics of an adult) is attractive- that doesn’t make them a horrible person who’s disgusting. ACTING on it, or using their power to sexually exploit a younger person is what makes them a creep and disgusting. 

[methodwriter85]

Yeah. I think any reporter now is going to have some kind of social media presence, not just tv ones. It's crucial for personal branding in the era of shrinking print and all newspapers having a digital footprint now.

[kiddo82]

One of my friends and I were out to dinner last night and we were discussing how there is probably about to be a wave of movies set no later than 2005 (pre iphone and facebook had just launched) or even before the year 2000 (which is when just about everyone starting getting cell phones) because so many movie conflicts/mysteries can now be solved with a quick phone call/google search/social media search.   

[methodwriter85]

There have been a lot of spy movies/t.v. shows in recent years set during the Cold War.

[Irlandesa]

21 hours ago, kiddo82 said:

because so many movie conflicts/mysteries can now be solved with a quick phone call/google search/social media search. 

This is why there are so many dead cell phone batteries in movies and on TV.

Edited January 28, 2019 by Irlandesa

[paulvdb]

And movies set at remote locations without cell phone service.

[Dandesun]

That's kind of the fun of reading old spy thriller books and watching the movies, though. It amps up the suspense because so many things can go wrong. I was reading The Aquitane Progression by Robert Ludlum a few years ago and, wow, the suspense was everything. Even as a part of my mind is thinking 'today, it's just cell phones' when it's all about trying to get to the station to send a telegram. I mean, it takes place in 1984 but still. 

Also, I love that watches are referred to as chronometers.

But when you watch those older movies or read the books you do sit there in amazement that these people were able to get ANYTHING done, let alone get it done quickly.

[ruby24]

On 1/26/2019 at 10:54 AM, methodwriter85 said:

Mrs. Doubtfire is even more problematic than I thought it was at the start of the thread. Going beyond the transphobic stuff and the whole internet background search deal, it's just really not going to work well in the whole "Me, too" era because what Daniel does is incredibly intrusive and icky if you think about it. Especially once we get to the part that he's basically emotionally blackmailed his kids into keeping up the deception while trying to wreck Miranda's new relationship. I did kind of like the looks that Daniel's older daughter was shooting him while Mrs. Doubtfire tried to convince Miranda to wear a frumpy funeral dress for her date.

Meanwhile at the end we're supposed to think that Miranda is in the wrong for not jumping to Daniel's defense when the judge chewed him out at the custody hearing.

This was ALWAYS my problem with this movie! It's supposed to be a setup for a comedy but what he does is incredibly creepy, because the movie's still trying to take the whole divorce/custody thing seriously (a lot of movies in the 90s suddenly started tackling that issue, since it was happening in real life).

I mean, if I was her and my ex pulled that kind of deception, fooling the kids, sneaking around the house and intruding in their lives, I WOULD try to take the kids from him after that. I would think he was insane.

[xaxat]

22 hours ago, kiddo82 said:

One of my friends and I were out to dinner last night and we were discussing how there is probably about to be a wave of movies set no later than 2005 (pre iphone and facebook had just launched) or even before the year 2000 (which is when just about everyone starting getting cell phones) because so many movie conflicts/mysteries can now be solved with a quick phone call/google search/social media search. 

Agreed. In a world were people increasingly realize how little privacy they have, crafting a realistic spy story is going to be more difficult for the reasons you mentioned. IRL, spies, military in sensitive facilities and hitmen have been found because of social media, surveillance cameras, fitness trackers etc.

James Bond's face is in a lot of databases. 

I remember when the Tony Scott, Will Smith, Gene Hackman movie Enemy of the State felt like science fiction. Now it's real.

Edited January 28, 2019 by xaxat

[methodwriter85]

Lindsay Ellis did an interesting essay that contrasted Independence Day and War of the Worlds within their context of their respective time period-1990's Boom America and post-9/11 Dubya America.

Though she doesn't mention the ID sequel, she basically says that Independence Day worked as it did because it came within the context of a bored American public who were secure and thought the idea of seeing familiar landmarks blown up was kind of like a vicarious thrill. It also felt like at the time, people COULD defeat these foreign enemies by their wits.

Now, when you get alien invasion films, you have superheroes, Transformers, or a smaller budget movie along the lines of a Quiet Place/10 Cloverfield Lane. The bombastic "yeah, we can do it!" style of Independence Day just won't work now.

[raezen]

I just watched 'The Switch ' with Jason Bateman and Jennifer Aniston and I'm having a hard time believing that this worked only 9 years ago. Seriously, there was not enough litigation going on in the end.

[andromeda331]

13 hours ago, raezen said:

I just watched 'The Switch ' with Jason Bateman and Jennifer Aniston and I'm having a hard time believing that this worked only 9 years ago. Seriously, there was not enough litigation going on in the end.

I hated that movie. I hated the premise switching out the sperm donor with his own and I hated that it ended "happy". Ah no Jennifer Aniston's character should have been furious forever over that.

[kiddo82]

I'm watching The Lost Weekend as part of TCM's 31 Days of Oscars.  Ray Milland's character finds ten dollars and with it he proceeds to buy not one but 2 bottles of whiskey, a bunch of oranges, and then proceeds to go to a bar and gets plastered.  When he rushes out the bartender even tells him not to forget his change.  All I could think was "Damn, 10 dollars could go a long way back in 1945."    

Edited February 9, 2019 by kiddo82

[xaxat]

On 2/9/2019 at 2:57 PM, kiddo82 said:

I'm watching The Lost Weekend as part of TCM's 31 Days of Oscars.  Ray Milland's character finds ten dollars and with it he proceeds to buy not one but 2 bottles of whiskey, a bunch of oranges, and then proceeds to go to a bar and gets plastered.  When he rushes out the bartender even tells him not to forget his change.  All I could think was "Damn, 10 dollars could go a long way back in 1945."    

According to the governments inflation calculator, ten dollars in 1945 would be worth about $140 now.

So yeah, there was a lot of change. 

[kiddo82]

Here's another one from 31 Days of Oscars.  A Letter to Three Wives (1949):  an appliance store owner balks at the idea of advertising on the radio essentially saying he has no competition in the state.  The response?  "There are 47 other states, Porter."

It just made me laugh.  It feels like there have been 50 states since forever (and that's certainly the case in my lifetime) but it really wasn't that long ago that there were 48.

Edited February 16, 2019 by kiddo82

[Blergh]

1 hour ago, kiddo82 said:

Here's another one from 31 Days of Oscars.  A Letter to Three Wives (1949):  an appliance store owner balks at the idea of advertising on the radio essentially saying he has no competition in the state.  The response?  "There are 47 other states, Porter."

It just made me laugh.  It feels like there have been 50 states since forever (and that's certainly the case in my lifetime) but it really wasn't that long ago that there were 48.

Actually, technically there are 46 states and four commonwealths with Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Kentucky officially terming themselves as Commonwealths but I can't think of any movies before 1959 in which any character  would have said 'There are 44 other states and four commonwealths!' 

[kiddo82]

14 minutes ago, Blergh said:

Actually, technically there are 46 states and four commonwealths with Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Kentucky officially terming themselves as Commonwealths but I can't think of any movies before 1959 in which any character  would have said 'There are 44 other states and four commonwealths!' 

In the inevitable "gritty" remake of the film they should definitely use that line.

[methodwriter85]

The show Pen15 had an episode revolving around Wild Things. I would like to think that a movie revolving around two teenage girls who make up a fake rape story involving their teacher as part of a moneymaking scheme could not get made now even if you're following the original by casting 25-year old models as the teens. And they don't really make hypersexual teen movies like they used to.

[catlover79]

On 1/26/2019 at 4:10 PM, Scarlett45 said:

I am kind of surprised the wife never recognized him. The older kids, understandable- and they figured it out when he dropped his stage voice. But his wife knew he was an actor, and his brother was a drag performer AND he’s the exact same height and build. She lived with this man for 16yrs and didn’t recognize his mannerisms under drag makeup?

THANK YOU!!!! The points you just mentioned have always bothered me. Plus, wouldn't she have recognized his voice just by those prank calls he made to her when he first learned she had put out an ad for a housekeeper?

I guess most of the happenings in that movie just flew over my head when I first saw it as a middle-schooler. I will give them credit for not having the parents get back together at the end. Thank goodness.

[catlover79]

On 5/17/2017 at 1:47 AM, methodwriter85 said:

I re-watched Saturday Night Fever in a revival at a theater, and it was just funny to think about how impossible it would be to update the story without twisting it beyond recognition.

1.) I mean, it's possible you could swap out disco for something else, but are dance contests at clubs even really a thing anymore? Especially if we're talking about partner dancing? Possibly ballroom, but that wouldn't fit the kind of characters these people were. The modern-equivalents of these guys would be like hitting up trance or electronic dancing and/or hip-hop where partner dancing isn't really a thing unless you're talking about grinding.

2.) The kind of house that Tony lived in would probably go for at least over a million in modern-day Bay Ridge. (It had to have at least 3 bedrooms, probably 4.) I guess you could say it's been in the family for a very long time?

3.) Tony's father is a construction guy out of work, which reflected the fact that almost a million people left New York City in the 1970's. Of course, construction is now booming in New York City.

4.) Stephanie is somehow able to move to Manhattan on a secretary's budget. I don't care if she had a former sugar daddy who decided to dump the apartment on her- she seemed to be living alone, and there's no way she could have sustained that.

5.) Tony's mother probably already would have had a job.

I'm not entirely sure if the rape scene would be still in a modern movie or not. They did do a great job of suggesting the horror without getting too gratuitous.

On 5/17/2017 at 1:47 AM, methodwriter85 said:

I re-watched Saturday Night Fever in a revival at a theater, and it was just funny to think about how impossible it would be to update the story without twisting it beyond recognition.

I'm not entirely sure if the rape scene would be still in a modern movie or not. They did do a great job of suggesting the horror without getting too gratuitous.

Donna Pescow even said recently that she's not sure the movie could be remade today. Both she and Karen Gorney acknowledged those scenes and how they wouldn't fly in the #MeToo era. Here's the video:

[methodwriter85]

Wow, Donna Pescow lost a lot of weight. Good for her. A quick perusal of her IMDB is showing she's also working more. Good for her.

But yeah, in the MeToo era, there's just no way you could ever do that movie now. No one would ever allow the movie protagonist to not only not stop a girl from getting gang-raped, but to berate her afterwards for being a slut.

That doesn't even go into the homophobia and pretty explicit racism throughout the movie.

Edited June 3, 2019 by methodwriter85

[starri]

Having lived in both Manhattan and Bay Ridge, I don't think the supposed cultural divide between Manhattan and Brooklyn really exists any more.

Honestly, I don't think a lot of movies about NYC could be remade with a present day setting, except maybe Working Girl.  Some of the trappings in that are a bit dated, but the themes about being shut out of opportunities for both being a woman and being from a lower-class background are still sadly relevant.

[methodwriter85]

7 hours ago, starri said:

Having lived in both Manhattan and Bay Ridge, I don't think the supposed cultural divide between Manhattan and Brooklyn really exists any more.

Honestly, I don't think a lot of movies about NYC could be remade with a present day setting, except maybe Working Girl.  Some of the trappings in that are a bit dated, but the themes about being shut out of opportunities for both being a woman and being from a lower-class background are still sadly relevant.

The only borough of New York that still has an "uncool" status is probably Staten Island. Queens is considered cool now, and I'm sure the Bronx isn't far behind. And at this point they're trying to build a lot more skyscrapers in Brooklyn.

The West Side Story remake is supposedly going to to stay in the 50's, although they're raceflipping/genderflipping Doc to an elder Latina woman being played by Rita Moreno and they're explicitly avoiding whitewashing. Also, if Disney gets their way they aren't going to smoke.

The Tootsie musical update swapped out a soap opera (New York City hasn't had one filming there since about 2011) for a Broadway show-within-the-show.

[catlover79]

12 hours ago, methodwriter85 said:

But yeah, in the MeToo era, there's just no way you could ever do that movie now. No one would ever allow the movie protagonist to not only not stop a girl from getting gang-raped, but to berate her afterwards for being a slut.

I recently watched the movie again, and for what it's worth, I don't think it was a gang rape. Here's why:

Spoiler

It became clear with the first guy that this was also her first time. She was starting to get uncomfortable because he was climaxing, inside her and breaking the hymen. That's why you see the pained expression on her face and when she starts to cry. She was in physical pain, as most females are the first time.

Now, the second guy clearly raped her. She kept saying that she changed her mind, she didn't want to do it, and no. He did it anyway, despite her crying and protesting.

Anyway, it's a disturbing scene - as is the earlier one with Tony and Stephanie in the car. At least the scene in the back of the car was fairly brief - but Tony's not intervening AND "slut-shaming" Annette afterwards made it clear that he was definitely NOT a "hero".

[xaxat]

On 1/28/2019 at 3:56 PM, xaxat said:

Agreed. In a world were people increasingly realize how little privacy they have, crafting a realistic spy story is going to be more difficult for the reasons you mentioned. IRL, spies, military in sensitive facilities and hitmen have been found because of social media, surveillance cameras, fitness trackers etc.

James Bond's face is in a lot of databases. 

I remember when the Tony Scott, Will Smith, Gene Hackman movie Enemy of the State felt like science fiction. Now it's real.

Something I did not know at the time I wrote this, the movie Enemy of the State was a real life inspiration for the current US surveillance regime.

Quote

By day, he was an engineer at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a secretive government research facility about an hour from San Francisco. As such, he knew that the Enemy of the State satellite was pure fantasy. But what if it could be willed into existence? He wondered. The movie makes it resoundingly clear that it would be very bad for all of us if such a cruel device did, in fact, exist—but this must not have registered. As the credits rolled, he rushed home and left a breathless message with his supervisor: “I have a great idea. Call me.”

[proserpina65]

On ‎06‎/‎03‎/‎2019 at 4:07 AM, methodwriter85 said:

Wow, Donna Pescow lost a lot of weight. Good for her. A quick perusal of her IMDB is showing she's also working more. Good for her.

But yeah, in the MeToo era, there's just no way you could ever do that movie now. No one would ever allow the movie protagonist to not only not stop a girl from getting gang-raped, but to berate her afterwards for being a slut.

That doesn't even go into the homophobia and pretty explicit racism throughout the movie.

There are ways to do that now, by making it obvious that the protagonist is not a hero, but it wouldn't be easy, and that movie probably wouldn't be the hit that Saturday Night Fever was.  I mean, Tony was not a good guy, really, but he was supposed to be a hero of sorts in the end.

[VCRTracking]

I saw the movie My Geisha starring Shirley MacLaine on cable when I was a kid and liked it. However, the premise "White actress disguises herself as a geisha in order to land the lead role in her director husband's film version of 'Madam Butterfly" would NOT fly today! A Caucasian actress like Scarlett Johannson playing a role originally Japanese is a big controversy. Back then audiences didn't bat an eye. MacLaine played an Indian woman earlier in Around the World in 80 Days. Realizing as I'm writing this how it's apt  MacLaine's character in My Geisha  is named Lucy because the premise is straight out of "I Love Lucy": Wife tricks her husband to get part, he finds out and feels betrayed, gets back at her by making her think he loves her alter ego, etc etc. Her husband is even a foreigner but with an accent, although in this case it's French, not Cuban! Seeing the ending on YouTube though, it still makes me emotional.

Edited June 26, 2019 by VCRTracking

[VCRTracking]

On 12/25/2018 at 9:34 AM, methodwriter85 said:

Robert Mitchum did a movie in 1957 with Deborah Kerr where they're stuck on an island during World War II and he tries to convince her to give up being a nun for him. I can't see that particular storyline getting greenlit now.

On 12/26/2018 at 10:21 AM, Dandesun said:

That's the kind of story that I almost wish they would do again but have it absolutely not play up all those ridiculous tropes. Like, the woman who is a nun or going to be a nun doesn't fall for the hot guy and decide to toss her vows away. She can basically point out everything he's doing that is disrespectful to her as a person just because he wants to get laid. If he wants to orgasm so badly, why doesn't he go over to the other side of the island and jerk off? Why does she have to be a part of his equation at all? And they don't even have to write her as some pious, holier-than-thou prude, either. It could be framed as HER decision and HER path and why HE doesn't enter into it at all.

Actually, spoiler warning, Wikipedia:
 

Spoiler

The Japanese unexpectedly leave the island, and in both celebration and frustration, Allison gets drunk on sake. He blurts out that he loves Sister Angela and considers her devotion to her vows to be pointless, since they are stuck on the island "like Adam and Eve." She runs out into a tropical rain and falls ill as a result; Allison, now sober and contrite, finds her shivering. He carries her back, but the Japanese have returned, forcing them to retreat to the cave. Allison sneaks into the Japanese camp to get blankets. He kills a soldier who discovers him, alerting the enemy. To force him into the open, the Japanese set fire to the vegetation.

When a Japanese soldier discovers the cave, Allison and Sister Angela have two choices: surrender or die from a hand grenade thrown inside. An ensuing explosion is not a grenade, but a bomb; the Americans have begun attacking the island in preparation for a landing. Allison comments that the landing will not be an easy one because when they returned, the Japanese brought with them four artillery pieces whose positions are well-concealed.

In what he attributes to a message from God, Allison disables the artillery during the barrage that will precede the American assault, while the Japanese are still in their bunkers. He is wounded, but sabotages all the guns by removing their breechblocks, saving many American lives. After the landing, the Marine officers are puzzled by the missing breechblocks.

Allison and Sister Angela say their goodbyes. Allison has reconciled himself to Sister Angela's dedication to Christ, though she reassures him that they will always be close "companions". After being found, Marines transfer Allison to the ship, with Sister Angela walking beside him.

[VCRTracking]

Sidenote, here's some great stories about the bond Mitchum and Kerr developed while making the movie which lasted for years:
 

Quote

Deborah Kerr and Robert Mitchum were a magical team.  The actress likened their work together to a perfect doubles pair at tennis.  Getting to know him in those first days on Tobago while filming Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison, as they sat on the “soft pink sand.” Kerr recalled finding herself “listening to an extremely sensitive, poetic, extraordinarily interesting man…a perceptive, amusing person with a great gift for telling a story, and possessed of a completely unexpected vast fund of knowledge…Bob was at all times patient, concerned, and completely professional, always in good humor, and always ready to make a joke when things became trying."  Laura Nightingale, a wardrobe girl on the film, described Mitchum’s great sensitivity toward his costar to journalist Lloyd Shearer: Sensing that her feet were hurting from the sharp rocks she’d been standing on, "He just kneeled down, unlaced her white sneakers, removed them and massaged her feet.  It was lovely and compassionate the way he did it….Then he put her sneakers back on and said kind of brusquely to hide his tenderness, ‘Gotta keep you alive for the next scene.'  Then he walked away.  Deborah was so touched she cried.”

Deborah became Bob’s great platonic love. He would speak of her ever after as his all-time favorite actress and the “only leading lady I didn’t go to bed with” – an exaggeration in any case, but meant somehow as a compliment.  When they met he had been expecting a prim Englishwoman like the rather frosty ladies she often played on screen, but Kerr turned out to be one of the boys.  She was a rare delight, warm, wise, earthy.  One time she was rowing a raft in open water during the tortoise-chasing scene, John Huston constantly shouting, “Faster! Row faster!"  The wooden oars split in half in her hands, and Kerr, in her damp nun’s habit, screamed in fury, "Is that fucking fast enough?  Mitchum, floating nearby, swallowed a gallon of saltwater laughing. 

One day, an inspector from the Catholic Legion of Decency arrived on set as Huston was preparing a scene between Mitchum and Kerr. Huston greeted the priest and then called for "Action."  Director and crew were deadpan as Bob and Deborah spoke their lines, then moved closer together, Mitchum sliding his hand under nun Kerr’s breasts while she cupped his buttocks and they began to kiss with open-mouthed abandon.  The Legion of Decency man’s eyes widened, he grasped at his heart and screamed, "What is going on there?!"  "No talking, Father,” said Huston. “Dammit, now you’ve gone and ruined a perfectly good take." 

From the book: "Robert Mitchum: Baby I Don’t Care"

Edited June 26, 2019 by VCRTracking

[Dandesun]

While it's a lovely write up and all I have come to detest the 'just one of the boys' phrase when describing women. I was a big tomboy growing up and detested anything 'girly girl' but, you know, the phrase 'just one of the boys' has the stench of misogyny. It's this idea that a woman isn't fun to be around or worth anything more than a roll in the hay unless she acts like a dude.

Everything else in that write up suggests she was a cool person. "A rare delight, warm, wise and earthy." I'm not sure how that translates to 'one of the boys' exactly. She sounds like a fun person who would swear, get frustrated, be totally game for a practical joke on the Catholic League of Decency... you know, in other words; a human being.

Regarding the movie, I'm glad they don't end up together but his claiming her vows were pointless because they were alone on an island like Adam and Eve... ARGH! Again! Go jerk off somewhere if you're that sexually frustrated. Y'all are stranded... not set with the obligation to repopulate the earth!!

[VCRTracking]

8 hours ago, Dandesun said:

Regarding the movie, I'm glad they don't end up together but his claiming her vows were pointless because they were alone on an island like Adam and Eve... ARGH! Again! Go jerk off somewhere if you're that sexually frustrated. Y'all are stranded... not set with the obligation to repopulate the earth!!

Well if you want to watch a movie where it's the nun who is willing to forsake her vows because of her sexual desires over a man, you should check out Deborah Kerr's earlier film 1947's Black Narcissus. Kerr doesn't play that particular nun, she plays the strict Sister Superior of a group of British nuns in India at the Himalayas. Katherine Byron plays the unstable nun, Sister Ruth who is smitten with Mr. Dean the local British agent:

Best moment is when Kerr comes into Sister Ruth's room and she's shocked to see her in dress she ordered by mail and then Ruth defiantly puts on lipstick in front of Kerr.

I first saw the movie on VHS with muddy picture quality and thought it was just okay. Later I saw it on a restored DVD and wow, what a difference! The technicolor cinematography by Jack Cardiff is gorgeous and the red of her lipstick really popped out in that scene.

Kerr and Mitchum did three more movies together. The Sundowners, The Grass is Greener,(both 1960) and the TV movie Reunion at Fairborough in 1985.

Edited June 28, 2019 by VCRTracking

[Kel Varnsen]

On 8/22/2018 at 1:40 PM, ChelseaNH said:

Except that was basically the plot of The Incredibles 2...

To be fair the Incredibles movies are supposed to be set in the 1960's so Bob having to adjust to being a stay at home dad works in that context.

[kiddo82]

Here's an example of a movie that improbably stands the test of time:  A couple of the movie YouTube Channels/podcasts that I frequent revisited Speed this summer to celebrate the movie's (gulp) 25th anniversary.  As a result, I was inspired to rewatch Speed as well and it....still works.  No, really.  I wasn't surprised that I enjoyed watching it (we wore that VHS OUT when I was a kid) but I was very pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it independent of the nostalgia factor.   It's tightly edited and paced, isn't overly trope-y, the action scenes still hold up, and the dialogue still pops.  (IMDB says an uncredited Joss Whedon doctored the script and is responsible for the dialogue so there you go.)  And unlike a movie like Con Air, it doesn't feel acutely 90s.  Also, the background acting, which can be hit or miss in a disaster/action move, is really good.  All the bus patrons were appropriately scared/upset without being over the top or distracting.  Except of course for Helen.  Poor, hysterical, doomed, Helen.  Probably the most telling thing that it's still a good movie is that all the things to poke fun at ("Cahns!", a bus that defies physics, and all the secondary damage caused by the bus) are things that we've been poking fun at for 25 years anyway so it's not as if we were too distracted by buses blowing up to realize it wasn't a very good movie to begin with.  Of all the "Die Hard on a...." movies, this one is probably the best.  Oh, and one more thing, the score also holds up without being cheesy.  It's low key iconic.  You hear it and you know exactly what movie you are watching.    

Edited August 8, 2019 by kiddo82