To ask what films you see differently now than when you watched them as a kid/teenager?

[Pandaparty]

We rewatched Mrs Doubtfire last night. As a kid, I was so on Daniel's side and didn't have much sympathy for Miranda (Sally Field), and couldn't warm to Stu (Pierce Brosnan) at all. Now though, I'm with Miranda all the way. She traded in a husband-child for a man who she can depend on and who loves her kids. Daniel's such a sleaze when they're at the pool too, making the women feel uncomfortable.
(I suppose our outgoing Prime Minister is a good example of people being prepared to overlook huge personal failings if someone is charismatic/"fun" enough.)
Anyway. What other films do you look at completely differently now than when you first watched them?

ET has a surprisingly amount of swearing/bad language in it — watched it recently with my 9 y o and was a bit horrified! She however was delighted to learn a few colourful new terms 🤦‍♀️

Back to the Future, too, and a fair few other classics. I hadn’t realised there was so much swearing in 1980s “family” films. They did for a while, to be fair, dub or edit out some language for eg. BBC Christmas Day showings or plane viewings; but I’d definitely seen most of these films with the original edit, and clearly hadn’t registered at all how much swearing was considered normal.

Especially as it features the song 'Thank Heaven For Little Girls.'

In a similar vein, Daddy-Long-Legs (the book as well as the film). Packaged as romance but the 'hero' is actually coercive and creepy AF. I've not seen the film in years so can't remember how close it is to the book, but certainly in the book (which I re-read recently) the coercion, control and predatory-ness stick out a mile. As a kid I thought it was romantic, though. barf

I was coming on to say Mrs Doubtfire from the thread title. Controlling man child who takes the piss out of his wife and won't pull his weight, so she breaks up with him. Yet he can't stand her moving on so he infiltrates her home and tried to break up her new relationship. And we are supposed to think he's the good guy

we aren't supposed to see those actions as right though and he does realise in the end what he did was wrong. He was doing the wrong thing for the right reasons-to see his kids and save his family but he does understand in the end that it was wrong and redeems himself in the end.

As another poster said I think we have to give some leeway to comedy as it usually needs some meanness and hyperbole for it to work. It's pretty hard to build comedy on the mundane.

She descends into being a “psycho bitch”; he is not judged or punished in the same way

because he is not a psycho in the film, he has an affair just. She takes it to a different level and yes she is being supported here.

As I recall the book her family deliberately hid from him her problems until after they were married and she became someone else's problem, he felt cheated by them,

This whole thread demonstrates the dangers of watching and interpreting films etc in light if current beliefs and as parents!

No-one had even mentioned Henry VIII films and his way of disposing with unwanted wives and his lack of knowledge of genetics in determining the gender/sex of a baby!

As I recall the book her family deliberately hid from him her problems until after they were married and she became someone else's problem, he felt cheated by them,

Yes , that's right they did and he was. They even concealed her real age (a much lesser deceit of course).

Though, as I said earlier in the thread, Rochester, could have housed her in less than ideal conditions, which he thought would have hastened her demise but couldn't bring himself to do that.

Agree with the pp about interpretation of the word 'creole' in the context of the time period.

Not a film but Mr Bean. I loved it as a kid, put it on Netflix to show the kids and I just thought "What an absolute dickhead"

If you think Bender and Claire would get together afterwards you kind of missed the point of the film tbh

I loved the Box of Delights as a kid. We've had the box set for a few years so I got my (then) 10 yo DS to sit down and watch it with me a couple of years ago. He sat through it, but he wasn't impressed. Yes the special effects look crap now. Yes the acting could be better (although Robert Stevens' Abner Brown was pretty good). But I still enjoyed it!

Also got him to watch the original Ghostbusters with me a few months ago. I hadn't seen it since I was a teen and although we both found bits of it funny "Yes, he has....no dick!" I was embarrassed by the special effects and total corny-ness of it all. Agree with a PP that Venkman is a sleazy shit. Yuck. And my DS was really shocked by Venkman and Sigourney practically having sex when she's all zombiefied and alienised. He's just not used to watching things like that now, aged nearly 12. I must have been about 8 or 9 when I first saw Ghostbusters and I don't remember that scene having any impact on me whatsoever!

DH has gone off all James Bond films. He used to watch them over Christmas holidays every year.
About a couple of years ago he cleared them from hard drive, he just said "That's Wrong" about the attitudes to the women. Massive age differences; predatory almost by definition. His opinion!

As I’ve got oldet, I’ve found I’m
incteasingly sympathetic towards Cruella de Ville, and much less fond of the irritating fuckimg puppies.

...look at all those typos. That’s how agitated baby Dalmatians make me.

Grease! Loved it as a teenager. Now as a mum of a teenage girl I hate it!

Raising Helen . I loved it first time around . Pastor Dan ( John Corbett , who I normally really like ) came across a bit predatory. He reminded me of Paul Hollywood at times.

Big , when Tom hanks sleeps with that woman when he's really a child is shocking

American Beauty. The mum is someone who works really hard and has a ridiculous husband who makes goo goo eyes at his daughter’s friend and jacks in his job.

Twilight. The only sensible character is Bella’s dad (although that was obvious when the film / book first came out).

Not a film but the Thorn Birds.

Wrong for a few reasons but Father Ralph's interest in Meggie was more obvious from the beginning and probably quite inappropriate at times.

Robocop, originally I just viewed it as a moronic action movie but now realise it was a satirical masterpiece about the power over our lives we give to big businesses.

Not a film but a TV series, Last of the Summer Wine has aged appallingly. Whether it's Compo sexually harrassing a woman over several decades or Clegg calling his deceased wife a stupid bitch, it really doesn't sit comfortably now. Goodness knows how it survived so long. You can sort of understand in the 70s it was a different era, it was probably pretty tame back then, but how it lasted well into this century I've no idea.

Oh yes Last of the Summer Wine @Dotjones
It really hasn't aged well, though I think a new series would be nice. I could think of some great actors who'd do it justice.

The harassment of Nora would probably be uncomfortable now. Also the affair between Howard and Marina and the long suffering wife, Pearl.

In the book, Rochester tells Jane that Bertha hastened her mental deterioration by her own excesses. In those days, it was easy for a man to commit even a totally 'sane' woman to an asylum, and Rochester risked his life and seriously injured himself by trying to rescue Bertha from the fire; so he clearly had.the intention of 'doing right by her' even if, by modern standards, he treated her badly.

Fraser- used to like it as a teen. Now all I can see is him going on dates and sleeping with women and it's because he's looking for The One, it's romantic... And Roz does the same with men and she's a slut and it's used to put her down all the time.

Regarding Jane Eyre and Bertha Mason, I find these essays interesting:
lithub.com/charlotte-bronte-may-have-started-the-fire-but-jean-rhys-burned-down-the-house/

victorianweb.org/authors/bronte/cbronte/cho10.html

In the book, Rochester tells Jane that Bertha hastened her mental deterioration by her own excesses. In those days, it was easy for a man to commit even a totally 'sane' woman to an asylum, and Rochester risked his life and seriously injured himself by trying to rescue Bertha from the fire; so he clearly had.the intention of 'doing right by her' even if, by modern standards, he treated her badly.

Yes, quite right.

Though my comments above were following on from discussing a pp's mention that Mr Rochester made her ill (might be paraphrasing here). They may have her thinking of the Sargasso book, possibly.

I think a Jane Eyre read along thread might be welcomed in the book section. There's been such a lot of interest and discussion here.