Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Films that would not be made now

714 replies

Samcro · 28/12/2024 22:00

I know it’s a topic that has been done before.
but what film do you think would not be made now and why?
mine is, every which way but loose.
yep the Clint Eastwood film with the orangutan

OP posts:
sashh · 29/12/2024 11:16

theriseandfallofFranklinSaint · 29/12/2024 09:27

@TiredEyesToday what's so awful about the Temple of Doom? 😯 I love that film.

It's stuffed with lazy racist stereotypes. It has a child speaking the wrong dialect of Chinese.

I'm not Hindu but I doubt people were too happy at a goddess being portrayed as just a sub plot, also why has a Hindu leader got a Sikh name?

HardenYourHeart · 29/12/2024 11:16

Jellycatspyjamas · 29/12/2024 11:12

Another Clint Eastwood film 'The Bridges of Madison County' would also not be made today. It's a beautiful film. However, the age gap is cringe, he goes after a woman he knows is married and despite having a good relationship with her husband she cheats on him. She even falls in love with the other man and contemplates leaving him.

Why would it not be made today? Lots of movies have complex love relationships at their core with age gaps etc. Not a movie but most of Greys Anatomy would be wiped out in one fell swoop if age gaps etc relationships and infidelity were unacceptable as story themes.

But this love story is not that complex. She is a cheater and he is a bit of a predator. It's more the justification of their actions that I have a problem with. It's all so romanticized.

Ihopeyouhavent · 29/12/2024 11:18

This thread makes me sad 😿

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

Jennyathemall · 29/12/2024 11:18

sashh · 29/12/2024 11:16

It's stuffed with lazy racist stereotypes. It has a child speaking the wrong dialect of Chinese.

I'm not Hindu but I doubt people were too happy at a goddess being portrayed as just a sub plot, also why has a Hindu leader got a Sikh name?

So it could be made today, and thanks to google would be more accurate.

NobleDeeds · 29/12/2024 11:19

HardenYourHeart · 29/12/2024 11:04

Another Clint Eastwood film 'The Bridges of Madison County' would also not be made today. It's a beautiful film. However, the age gap is cringe, he goes after a woman he knows is married and despite having a good relationship with her husband she cheats on him. She even falls in love with the other man and contemplates leaving him.

The story-line is fucked up and these characters aren't redeemable. But I was totally on their side the first time I watched it. Years later, when I thought about it, I feel cleverly manipulated into excusing behaviors that do not align with my own values.

Edited

Do you not watch a lot of films, or even read novels? Adultery as a subject is as old as the hills, and it hasn’t gone away! I’m confused by why you imagine a film about an affair ‘wouldn’t be made now’? People fall in love with people other than their perfectly nice spouses all the time…?

From what I remember about the novella, there isn’t a particular age gap — casting an actress 20 years younger than the leading man is certainly a (depressing) norm of casting, but that hasn’t gone away, either…

Jellycatspyjamas · 29/12/2024 11:19

Maybe it’s the fact that language has changed, but why did I view it so differently when I first watched it?

I think things hold different meaning for us as we grow and gain life experience. I watched Pretty Woman as a teenager and just thought how glamorous - I had no real exposure to prostitution before then. As an adult I absolutely see the harm, because I understand issues of consent and exploitation in a different way.

The same with Grease, as a teenager I thought it was a jolly high school romp, most of the sexual references passed me by. As an adult I wondered what the hell my mum was doing letting me watch it. As a mum I watched it with my DD and we talked about the idea of changing who you are for someone else.

It’s not that the movie changes but as we grow and develop we see things differently.

NewFriendlyLadybird · 29/12/2024 11:21

Sossijiz · 29/12/2024 05:54

The History Boys (largely sympathetic portrayal of a predatory teacher)
Lost In Translation (significant age gap between the hero and heroine would not be to modern tastes, even though they don't actually have sex)

The History Boys play is still on the GCSE English Literature syllabus. It’s more nuanced than you suggest.

HardenYourHeart · 29/12/2024 11:22

NobleDeeds · 29/12/2024 11:19

Do you not watch a lot of films, or even read novels? Adultery as a subject is as old as the hills, and it hasn’t gone away! I’m confused by why you imagine a film about an affair ‘wouldn’t be made now’? People fall in love with people other than their perfectly nice spouses all the time…?

From what I remember about the novella, there isn’t a particular age gap — casting an actress 20 years younger than the leading man is certainly a (depressing) norm of casting, but that hasn’t gone away, either…

I think I have touched a nerve a nerve with mentioning 'The Bridges of Madison County'. Yours is the third condescending response I have received on my post.

I will state again, what I have a problem with is the excusing and romanticizing of their behavior.

weareallcats · 29/12/2024 11:23

SnakesAndArrows · 29/12/2024 09:10

Art Garfunkel.

My first cancel the cheque experience 😂. I’ve just logged on to so many notifications of people correcting me, when I acknowledged my mistake the first time someone pointed it out, just a few posts after the original…

Jellycatspyjamas · 29/12/2024 11:25

But this love story is not that complex. She is a cheater and he is a bit of a predator. It's more the justification of their actions that I have a problem with. It's all so romanticized.

People romanticise infidelity all the time, in movies and in real life. How many times have you read on here “we have such a good connection, no one has ever made be feel like this” about their affair partner, only to be brought down to earth with a bump. People do justify their actions when they cheat, it’s human nature and I think the movie does a good job of portraying that side of things while the audience sit thinking “what the hell are you doing”.

Movies do a great job of depicting humanity in all its guts and glory, giving insight into lives and ways of being that we haven’t experienced - it would be a shame to loose that because of offence.

Z0rr0 · 29/12/2024 11:25

Saw Pulp Fiction again this year for its 30th anniversary and thought there's no way that would get made today. Which is unfortunate because Tarantino, tho a dick, did a lot for cinema then and subsequently. His scene in particular as Jimmie talking about 'dead Nigga storage' would never get made today. Maybe that's fair, I don't know, but it was of the time and how Americans were speaking to each other and I don't remember there being a massive backlash about it at the time.

Jellycatspyjamas · 29/12/2024 11:29

I will state again, what I have a problem with is the excusing and romanticizing of their behavior.

That doesn’t mean it shouldn’t have been made or wouldn’t be made now. There’s a difference between movies that show humanity in all its glory - as unpalatable as that may be - and movies that were not seen as problematic at the time but which portray cultural norms that have rightly moved on.

Nanny0gg · 29/12/2024 11:30

Alondra · 29/12/2024 06:35

Not a film, a TV series - MASH.

Why??

One of the best series ever. Brilliant writing and brilliant acting. And one of the most poignant endings ever

It really did show how humour was used to diffuse the absolute horror all around.

Or is it the casual sex/sexism?

It is of its time. Leave it alone

Samcro · 29/12/2024 11:33

ChessorBuckaroo · 29/12/2024 10:33

Normally I would agree, but the class act that is Day-Lewis is probably the only able bodied actor in the world who could do it and it be acceptable. Very compassionate man with great integrity.

He also got Arthur Miller (his father in law) to eventually see his own son who has down syndrome having completely shunned him for years.

as the parent of an adult with severe CP. I will politely disagree.
as I said I have not watched it as I don't want to see someone pretend to have CP.

OP posts:
Nanny0gg · 29/12/2024 11:34

bifurCAT · 29/12/2024 07:32

Shawshank Redemption - gay rape scenes in prison

Wolf of Wall Street - all the women are basically trophy wives

Transformers - basically a parade of hot, sweaty women

Most old Disney movies: as long as you're pretty, you're set.

Fast and the Furious (franchise) - where did all the women's clothes go?!

Indecent Proposal

The Truman Show - a woman PAID to be his wife, have sex, etc live on TV
....sooo many implications in this movie.

Shawshank Redemption? Surely there IS gay rape in prison? Or are you objecting to the way it was depicted?

Jennyathemall · 29/12/2024 11:35

HardenYourHeart · 29/12/2024 11:22

I think I have touched a nerve a nerve with mentioning 'The Bridges of Madison County'. Yours is the third condescending response I have received on my post.

I will state again, what I have a problem with is the excusing and romanticizing of their behavior.

So accurate then?

westisbest1982 · 29/12/2024 11:39

It’s so depressing seeing so many wonderful films listed but I’m glad most of them
are still available to watch.

I don’t think anyone’s said the Kubrick version of Nabakov’s superb book (Lolita).

NonPlayerCharacter · 29/12/2024 11:44

NobleDeeds · 29/12/2024 11:08

I don’t necessarily disagree with most of that, but the film (unsurprisingly, given its date) doesn’t interrogate the idea that men marry to have a woman take care of them (Adam proposes to Millie because she’s a hard worker, and she only objects once she finds out she’s been ‘hired’ to take care of seven men, not one), and it’s jokily fine with the sort of Stockholm Syndrome that depicts six kidnapped women gradually softening towards their kidnappers while captive, and the culminating ‘joke’ that the townspeople, intent on hanging the brothers for kidnapping their daughters, acquiesce to a mass shotgun wedding when all the brothers claim to have fathered Hannah the baby, making the six unmarried women ‘damaged goods’ and needing to be married off.

Indeed, it's not unproblematic, but I also don't think it's as problematic as many think.

I think it's actually quite clever the way the kidnap sequence is played as a joke, which is obviously partly to make it easier to forgive the brothers, but also to get you carried along in the spirit of it like they are... until they actually get home and now it's actually not funny at all. The girls are terrified and sobbing, their families are beside themselves, Millie is utterly furious and the brothers are now paying the price, and the whole mood falls drastically. Makes you realise it really was not OK.

I didn't think the shotgun wedding was about women being damaged goods, just about legitimising the baby they all claimed to have! And making the men take responsibility.

FestiveFruitloop · 29/12/2024 11:46

The first thing that springs to mind is a song from a film, rather than a film itself: 'Thank Heaven For Little Girls' by Maurice Chevalier, from Gigi. It's completely innocent in context, but would probably still cause a raised eyebrow in this day and age.

On a similar note, the scene where Shirley Temple sings 'On The Good Ship Lollipop' to a plane full of smiling men in Bright Eyes just feels all wrong nowadays despite there being no actual dodgy content.

Thinking about it, it's actually quite sad how cynical society has been forced to become due to the actions of pervs. 😒

FestiveFruitloop · 29/12/2024 11:50

Oh, and I just thought of Daddy-Long-Legs... wealthy benefactor changes an orphaned teenage girl's life but also manipulates her into falling for him (or believing she has, anyway).

I loved the book of this as a kid (less so the film) and it was depressing to return to it as an adult and see that 'Daddy's' actions have coercive control/sexual predator stamped right through them like a stick of rock.

desperatedaysareover · 29/12/2024 11:51

StoorieHoose · 29/12/2024 09:12

I'm still none the wiser to why The Wedding Singer wouldn't be remade?

i read the question as ‘what film would not be made now’ meaning, made exactly as it stands, without any changes for modern sensibilities or current audience expectation. ‘What film would not be remade’ is an even better question, you could argue any film, even one which had an exploitative/racist/misogynistic script at the time of writing, could be remade if there was the will to make enough alterations. Imagine GWTW 2025. That would be a tough script to write and remain true to the source but it’d be an interesting job. Would it ever be remade is even more fraught.

The Wedding Singer is deceptively complicated treatment of gender roles and a vivid example of how cinema’s attitude towards and treatment of harassment has changed in the post #MeToo era.

Julia is constantly groped, sexualised and objectified, though pointedly not by Robbie. A lot of the comedy comes from ‘ew aren’t men gross.’ We don’t view men of all ages openly salivating over the youthful female form as comedic now. I also can’t see the Bar Mitzvah scene being written that way now, though at the time it seemed quite even-handed and witty, if hugely unlikely.

Julia’s narrative arc is her wanting to marry Glenn and then deciding on a kinder, more considerate man. Her journey of self-discovery is ‘better to wed for love and compatibility’ than to cling onto what her society regards as a good spouse - rich and successful - at the obvious price of her future happiness.

In the wedding dress/mirror scene she imagines Robbie instead of Glenn. Her internal life seems entirely dominated by the desire to marry.

Julia’s characterisation wouldn’t pass now. Even with the acknowledgment that the 80s were more misogynistic than the 90s, Julia has no real mission other than wishing to be a wife and to be loved - or by being just so adorable that she makes Robbie to want to raise his game in order to be loved by a good (i.e isn’t bothered about his career success) woman.

It actually tackled gender roles by clever use of irony. Robbie ignores horrible advice and his big declaration to her includes the line ‘let me do the dishes.’ That was apparently revolutionary for a man living in the imagined 80s. But I was an adult in the 90s and life wasn’t massively different. I remember dudes talking about the film and the main point of interest was Drew Barrymore’s upper thighs.

It’s a good-hearted film, really funny in parts, but in The Wedding Singer 2024 the jokes would be different and Julia would be too. It’d possibly also feel formulaic, as many films now do, and as a result miss the mark.

Nanny0gg · 29/12/2024 11:53

taxguru · 29/12/2024 08:20

Danny wanted Sandy as she was. She didn’t need to change to get him. He changed more to get her! Anyway, they’d known eachother for the entire school year. Not many teens would have waited a year before doing the deed!

This was the 50s remember!

Pinkywoo · 29/12/2024 11:56

Ace Ventura, his reaction to finding out he'd kissed a man would not be ok now!

UnstableEquilibrium · 29/12/2024 12:00

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective

And a bit of a niche one, but I love watching the opening numbers from the Tony's award show. They're mostly great, especially Neil Patrick Harris's ones. And then on YouTube I found the 2015 one, with Alan Cumming and Kristen Chenoweth. "I love them, this will be great! Why haven't I seen this one before?"

It opens with the dated (even at the time) joke "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and those of you who don’t identify as either". It's under-rehearsed and underpowered. And then they pull Harvey Weinstein out of the audience and sing to him for what feels like an hour about how great he is......

FuckItItsFine · 29/12/2024 12:03

I watched Never Been Kissed recently. David Arquette plays Drew Barrymore’s older brother who also pretends to be a student to try and make her cooler. At one point he says the line “We’ve got some underage hotties on our hands here” 😬