Movies you like that would be considered 'problematic' today

[Sin Agog]

I really enjoy the Hanzo the Razor trilogy, which is about an Edo enforcer who interrogates his victims by impaling them with his giant phallus.  It stars the guy from the Zatoichi movies, and they're basically really good samurai flicks with a softcore element thrown in, but fuck me they simply don't past muster in today's enlightened times (no snearing tone when I type that).  And yet I like them anyway*, and a lot of equally awkward movies, except now I have a nagging Jiminy Cricket in the back of my head whenever I watch them (or that could be an actual cricket caught in the woodwork), which is just as it should be.

Any films you like that you maybe shouldn't?


*especially his penis training regiment, which consists of hitting it with bamboo sticks and ramming it into bags of pebbles.  Gotta keep your weapon in good working order

[Default to the negative]

Lady and the Tramp was my favourite Disney film when I was a child. In the woke year of 2018, I can see that it certainly has some 'issues' for us to contemplate and stroke our beards over.





I still like it, though.

[Sin Agog]

Those Sonny Chiba Street Fighter movies Christian Slater sees in True Romance all have the titular character raping female assassins at some point.  Can't go around doing that, Street Fighter, even if they were trying to kill you. Otherwise, great action movies, but that does dent the character's cool a whole lot.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I really like 40's noirs, so most of them?

[Monsieur Verdoux]

been a long time Peckinpah fan so i've always had this problem baybee

[Keebleman]

Birth of a Nation.  It's silent and, despite quite sophisticated montage and action scenes, technically quite primitive so it's problematic for those reasons.  Hence I no longer screen it for prospective life partners.  Especially if they're black.

[wooders1978]

The Party with peter sellers, I don't reckon that would fly in todays climate - very funny film though

[Danger Man]

If 'Friends' is now problematic then I think it's safe to say that just about every movie I have ever liked, with the exception of Pixar's output, is problematic.

[Shit Good Nose]

The Party with peter sellers, I don't reckon that would fly in todays climate - very funny film though

I'm very fond of it as well, although I think it escapes quite a lot of that criticism because, ultimately, he becomes the hero of the film doesn't he.  Obviously it's still Sellers doing brown face, which is a problem these days of course, but then 1) it's Sellers being a chameleon again, 2) it's at least sympathetic and not ridiculous minstrel type makeup and 3) it was the 60s.  It also wasn't the first time he played an Indian character.  And it's a very popular film in India as well, if that gives it any slack.

Admittedly it's been a while since I've seen it, but I also seem to recall that he starts out in the film as an idiot who just happens to be an Indian in America - I don't remember anything specifically relating his idiocy to him being Indian.

[Sexton Brackets Drugbust]

You ain't heard nothin' yet.

[Famous Mortimer]

Any classic-era Jackie Chan movie, for when bog-standard sexism isn't doing it for you.

[Shit Good Nose]

Any classic-era Jackie Chan movie, for when bog-standard sexism isn't doing it for you.

You can expand that to any Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese movie, and there's still quite a lot of it about now.  Also cf. their disregard for people with disabilities and mental health issues.

[madhair60]

Seminal comedic masterpiece Ace Ventura: Pet Detective is quite difficult to revisit given the prominence of Jim Carrey's anti-vaccination views nowadays.

[Howj Begg]

Seminal comedic masterpiece Ace Ventura: Pet Detective is quite difficult to revisit given the prominence of Jim Carrey's anti-vaccination views nowadays.

And, you know, the horrific OTT transphobia

[itsfredtitmus]

Any classic-era Jackie Chan movie, for when bog-standard sexism isn't doing it for you.

theres a bit of a rapey scene in police story

[Danger Man]

1) it's Sellers being a chameleon again, 2) it's at least sympathetic and not ridiculous minstrel type makeup and 3) it was the 60s.  It also wasn't the first time he played an Indian character.  And it's a very popular film in India as well, if that gives it any slack.

It also helps that he really looks genuinely Indian when he browns up. Why not get an Indian to play the part then? Because Sellers is a comedy genius.

My father was from India and he loved this film so case closed, no returns.

[LORD BAD VIBE]

I'm surprised To The Devil a Daughter still plays on the Horror Channel and has just been released on Blu-Ray given that Natassja Kinski has a full frontal nude scene despite only being 15 at the time it was shot.

[Sebastian Cobb]

It also helps that he really looks genuinely Indian when he browns up. Why not get an Indian to play the part then? Because Sellers is a comedy genius.

My father was from India and he loved this film so case closed, no returns.

What about the fake Indian in Short Circuit?

[Sebastian Cobb]

Any classic-era Jackie Chan movie, for when bog-standard sexism isn't doing it for you.

I don't remember First Fight or Rumble in the Bronx being that bad.

Jackie Chan claims never to have played a villain, as he takes his role model status seriously. Unfortunately he is lying: 1976's Killer Meteors

[Shit Good Nose]

What about the fake Indian in Short Circuit?

Ignoring the brown face due to "the times" (and, again, it's very sympathetic makeup as far as ethnic-ing up a white man goes), I think I'm right in saying that Fisher Stevens fooled Indian audiences in the same way that Bob Hoskins fooled American audiences in Who Framed Roger Rabbit.  He studied for months on the accent alone with a coach, which IIRC is from a very specific part of India.  And, again, it's not just some "p**i half-wit" that is the butt of all the jokes.  He did make Johnny 5, after all.  Let's also not forget he is the main protagonist in the sequel...

Unfortunately he is lying: 1976's Killer Meteors

And 1973's Rumble In Hong Kong. 

Plus the numerous blink-and-you'll-miss-him parts very early in his career where he typically played thugs and gang members.  But those were just extra/stunt parts to be fair.

[Danger Man]

Ignoring the brown face due to "the times" (and, again, it's very sympathetic makeup as far as ethnic-ing up a white man goes), I think I'm right in saying that Fisher Stevens fooled Indian audiences in the same way that Bob Hoskins fooled American audiences in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. 

They probably heard the name Ben Jabituya and assumed he was from somewhere else. The only Jabituya in the world is Ben.

How's that for racial stereotyping. Don't even bother to give him a real name, just do some fucking thing that sounds like you could be waving your hands around when you say it.

Or maybe he's Pakistani.

[Famous Mortimer]

I don't remember First Fight or Rumble in the Bronx being that bad.

Okay, that's one (no idea what "First Fight" is, I can't see it on his IMDB page). What about the dozens of others that are that bad, though?

[CaledonianGonzo]

Lady and the Tramp

Bits of Peter Pan don't hold up either:

https://youtu.be/Y_at9dOElQk

[Shit Good Nose]

We may as well just say pretty much anything made until the very late 90s/early 00s and close the thread.  And re-open it again in a few years time to see what has become a no-no in the interim.

[itsfredtitmus]

what's the least 'problematic' film before the 90s?

[Danger Man]

We may as well just say pretty much anything made until the very late 90s/early 00s and close the thread.  And re-open it again in a few years time to see what has become a no-no in the interim.

The Love Guru (2008) Brownface
Dragonball Revolution (2009) Yellowface
21 (2008) Asians in real life replaced by whites in movie
Transformers: Revenge of the fallen (2009) Alien robots all talk like Bronx gangsters
White Chicks (2004) White stereotyping
The Passion of the Christ (2004) Not very nice to Jewish people


Mandingo (1975) Not closing the thread until this gets discussed. It's well shite.

[itsfredtitmus]

always gets back onto blackface

[itsfredtitmus]

"well then, is chris morris or vic and bob allowed to do blackface?"

[CaledonianGonzo]

[Sebastian Cobb]

what's the least 'problematic' film before the 90s?

If you look at some of the golden age films they seemed like they were becoming progressive, especially in films about women like All About Eve, but then McCarthyism happened and everything seemed to go backwards.