Are all films <5 years problematic in some way

[anon666]

I guess it might be a sign of rapid progress, but recently I've watched:

Pretty Woman
Dirty Dancing
Bend it like Beckham

All of which have a girl/woman falling for an authority figure. It really looks creepy to a modern eye. Or does it? Am I being too Gen Z about the whole thing?

It's not the age gap as such. It's the same old troupe of creepy old man shags young blond bird. I could count on one hand how many times it is reversed so a younger man falls for an older woman.

Saturday Night fever is particularly bad.

What about the constant explicit sex scenes in modern shows? That's no better.

Another person just looking for problems in media past/present. Honestly how boring is your life to have this much time on your hands to be offended like this?!

Pretty Woman has always been absolutely grim- that’s nothing to do with changing mores.

But I think one thing that has changed is that (some) people now expect films to be moral exemplars, that if something is presented in a film it’s necessarily presented with approval, and the only characters who behave badly will be clearly identified as baddies. It’s such a simplistic approach to fiction. In another context it really struck me in some of the responses to Cat Person (the short story that went viral a few years ago))- people trying to point out ways in which the female protagonist had behaved badly, like it was some sort of gotcha. But protagonists have always behaved badly, made mistakes, shown human failings of all kinds. That’s part of what makes fiction rewarding. The idea that it’s a bad film if it shows people being bad feels like a massive step backwards, culturally.

Yes, because you are of your generation, presumably you are struggling to understand the next.

It is very common for older people to think younger people are doing life wrong, and that society is going to hell in a handcart, but the reality is the ratio of dickheads is roughly the same whatever birth year you look at.

I'm old, but happy to be termed 'woke' by the type of twats who use the term. I was woke 30 years ago, just people called me 'PC' then.

But these films shouldn't be banned or not exist due to poor parenting from a few, its the equivalent of a parent in my DSs class sending a group WhatsApp asking everyone in the class to stop their DCs going on the PlayStation during the week as her DC tantrummed when she asked him to come off.

I can totally understand how some people may believe these films to be similar to RL, I admit I didn't really think of it from your point of view, I still don't think anything should change but just shows why the kids PSHE lessons are so important at school and to ensure they consist of the correct content for teens.

Life isn’t woke. It never was and it probably never will be.
Older men have always fancied younger women. Younger women have always fancied men in positions of power. Not all, but many.
Sometimes it’s ok and it works out. Sometimes not. Most of the time people end up with partners of a similar age because the other is a bit of a fantasy. Hence movies…….

I was always impressed with how the abortion storyline was dealt with. In a great many american films/tv shows they always portray abortion as utterly vile and the woman must be punished by dieing or losing her maaaaan. Remember in The Walking Dead, how everyone treated Lori for wanting to have an abortion in the middle of a zombie apocalypse ffs!

On the "older man/younger woman" thing - I remember when I first watched The Handmaids Tale and thinking Nick was so much younger than June. He actually wasn't though was he, we (the audience) were just not used to seeing a woman in a relationship with a man her own age so it made it look as though Nick was the younger one. Interesting to me.

I would say people of average intelligence can think quesions at the same time as doing other things so it is not about having time on your hands.

If someone is the type not to think, it is not due to having no 'time on your hands' but not having an active brain, I'd suggest.

Whatever you think, it doesn't really require empty time to do it.

I've been on that thread.

I didn't see much despair they're putting up with it, more sadness and frustration that it's a constant thing to battle against

Yes! And has anyone else noticed how the sex positions seem to have changed. I've noticed on about 80% of things I've watched, the norm now seems to be 'taking the woman from behind'. Just when you think we might be making some progress ... 🤨

Dirty dancing is also the only example I can think of where a woman has an abortion and it is the right decision for her. Any judgement is aimed at the doctor that butchers her and the prick who got her pregnant.

If you get a chance, have a look online at the original script. It would have been a very different, and much better movie, imo. Very gritty.

There has been a huge moral shift. I watched History Boys with my teens, remembering it as being about a teacher who inspired his pupils to think beyond their ordinary lives. DC asked why I had recommended a film about a paedophilic teacher who preys on his pupils.

We watched Withnail, which I remembered as being a hilarious film about two louche out of work actors. DC asked why I had recommended a film about a predatory, sexually abusive older man.

Also during lockdown I watched a lot of Alan Bennet's Talking Heads. I know he was a dear old national treasure but almost every monologue I watched had really perverted, creepy sexual material at its heart. a mother lusting after her own teenage son and her friend saying that's normal, she lusts after her own son too? Ew. And the creepy one about the wife being blindfolded and forced to have sex with all the neighbours... I ended up thinking Bennet was a really creepy seedy man with a very skewed idea of sexuality.

Pretty woman was meant to be a light a fluffy film, with dark undertones from the prostitution - a modern day fairy tale, not to be taken seriously. I still like it

There have always been people branded 'liberal' 'pc' ' woke' by the other side, all the way through time.

Life is complicated and humans are messy but that doesn't mean we all have to think any old shit shown on film is fine.

Misogyny in films is real and evident in some cases. So is homophobia, so is racism, so is class prejudice.

You can tell a story of e.g. an age-gap relationship in a way that rings true or a way that looks like a pervy old director's naff fantasy.

ended up thinking Bennet was a really creepy seedy man with a very skewed idea of sexuality

You know it’s fiction, not autobiography?

I think some of this stuff is also related to growing old ourselves. I remember seeing Dead Poet’s Society as being about an inspiring teacher who encouraged his pupils to throw off the shackles of social expectations…watched it again recently and I saw this but also a teacher who crossed boundaries and sacrificed his pupils to his own ideas of what was right. But I think that’s because it’s a good film- it’s morally complex and that means it can bear both interpretations.

😂😂😂

“Cuties” is much less than 5 years old and one of the most vile child sexualised movies I’ve ever had the displeasure to watch 30 minutes of. I’d take dirty dancing over that any day of the week.

This.

Huge generalisations coming now.

I love that the youngsters are critically evaluating older movies and understanding what makes the situations portrayed problematic.

I hate that the youngsters do not critically evaluate the current media they are consuming.

You should write that as a Black Mirror episode!

One of the reasons is, it’s easier to film without touching, the actors can do it with a deflated Pilates ball between them.

This is such an interesting post and it really sums up an issue I’ve had even at uni. People criticising creative writing in workshops with ‘the narrator comes across like not a nice person’ or deriding texts like Confederacy of Dunces because the protagonist is unlikeable, with no passing thought that perhaps that is an authorial choice.

If literature, film etc is to be any good, it likely won’t have the protagonist ‘goodie’ who does everything correctly and is morally superior, and the antagonist ‘baddie’ who the author consistently reminds us is wrong and bad. If that’s what you want to read or watch then it’s probably best to stick to works aimed at very young children.

Some people will looks for fault in all films and music from the past.

It’s no different to how some of the stuff being made made now with woke virtue signalling content will look ridiculously hilarious in the future.