- Photo 1:
- Photo 2:
- Photo 3:
Movies are time capsules of the period in which they're made. Our culture is constantly changing, so when we look back at classic - and not-so classic but maybe just a few-years-old films - we're bound to be struck by things we may not have even noticed on the first viewing.
As our cultures evolve and we hopefully become better at recognizing systemic advantage, injustice, inequality, and prejudice, we begin to spot those jokes and plot lines in old movies that just aren't funny; they're mean and punching down.
- Photo:
From Redditor u/AMerrickanGirl:
Manhattan. Forty-four year old Woody Allen has affair with 17 year old Mariel Hemingway. How art imitates life.
- Actors: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Mariel Hemingway, Michael Murphy, Meryl Streep
- Released: 1979
- Directed by: Woody Allen
Hard to watch?
- Photo:
From Redditor u/SuddenlyThirsty:
40 days and 40 Nights. No one lives like that in San Francisco or works at a tech firm designing websites to make money like that. But most importantly, that ending would not fly. Victim blaming when he gets raped by his ex-girlfriend??? It’s just so wrong.
- Actors: Josh Hartnett, Shannyn Sossamon, Vinessa Shaw, Paulo Costanzo, Maggie Gyllenhaal
- Released: 2002
- Directed by: Michael Lehmann
Hard to watch?
- Photo:
From Redditor u/Lelo-Of-Kah:
Pumpkin. Sorority girl falls in love with a (severely) developmentally disabled kid and ultimately takes his virginity.
- Actors: Christina Ricci, Hank Harris, Brenda Blethyn, Dominique Swain, Marisa Coughlan
- Released: 2002
- Directed by: Adam Larson Broder, Anthony Abrams
Hard to watch?
- Photo:
From Redditor u/Quitthesht:
Horrible Bosses 1: Charlie Day's character is getting constantly sexually harassed and assaulted by his dentist boss (Jennifer Aniston) and she threatens to tell his fiancé they had sex (using photos she took of her simulating sex with him while he was under anesthesia) if he doesn't have sex with her by his wedding day.
The movie flips between joking about his situation and portraying it as a sincere issue, but the ending culminates in him getting definitive proof of her harassing/blackmailing him (as well as sexually assaulting unconscious patients) and tells her that if she goes for his marriage he'll go for her dental license and put her in prison. It's a really empowering scene for victims of sexual harassment and assault.
Then they ruin it all in Horrible Bosses 2 by having him shot and unconscious in hospital whereupon she rapes him and tells him that she did so when he wakes up. Oh, but it's all okay now because she got what she wanted so now she's not interested in him anymore so he's “safe” from her advances now. They even show him distraught at being raped and she tells him to suck it up and promises not to tell his wife, she suffers no consequences for this and the movie ends shortly after with her getting off scot free.
- Actors: Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis, Jennifer Aniston, Colin Farrell
- Released: 2011
- Directed by: Seth Gordon
Hard to watch?- Photo:
From Redditor u/KerchBridgeSmoker:
American Pie. Using a secret camera to broadcast naked high school students on the internet.
- Actors: Jason Biggs, Shannon Elizabeth, Alyson Hannigan, Chris Klein, Natasha Lyonne
- Released: 1999
- Directed by: Paul Weitz
Hard to watch?- Photo:
6From Redditor u/Hydrokratom:
Big is a f*cked up movie.
Josh loses his virginity on his 13th birthday to a 30 year old woman.
Susan unknowingly is a child molester, and she was in love with him too. The conversation she had with Jon Heard implies that she’s dated/slept around a lot with guys in that office. She tells him “Josh is different, because he’s a grown up.” Then she finds out he’s mentally a 7th grader.
And think of how traumatized the mother would be.
- Actors: Tom Hanks, Elizabeth Perkins, Robert Loggia, John Heard, Jared Rushton
- Released: 1988
- Directed by: Penny Marshall
Hard to watch?
- Photo:
From Redditor u/krljust:
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997). Kevin Spacey is a rich closeted homosexual who murders his much younger lover.
- Actors: Kevin Spacey, John Cusack, Jack Thompson, The Lady Chablis, Alison Eastwood
- Released: 1997
- Directed by: Clint Eastwood
Hard to watch?- Photo:
From Redditor u/Educational-Bill-429:
Wedding Crashers. It has a full on rape scene and because it’s a guy he’s supposed to move on and ends up with the girl.
- Actors: Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn, Christopher Walken, Rachel McAdams, Isla Fisher
- Released: 2005
- Directed by: David Dobkin
Hard to watch?
- Photo:
From Redditor u/DaveGrohl23:
The Notebook (2004), back then people thought it was cute and romantic. But, the dude hangs off a ferris wheel and threatens to kill himself unless the girl dates him. In all honesty even then it was really creepy.
- Actors: Ryan Gosling, Rachel McAdams, James Garner, Gena Rowlands, James Marsden
- Released: 2004
- Directed by: Nick Cassavetes
Hard to watch?
- Photo:
10From Redditor u/algy888:
For me it’s the movie Arthur with Dudley Moore. It’s about a “lovable drunk” and like the first scene is him having a humorous crash while driving hammered. Oh, we all chuckled…
- Actors: Dudley Moore, John Gielgud, Liza Minnelli, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Jill Eikenberry
- Released: 1981
- Directed by: Steve Gordon
Hard to watch?- Photo:
From Redditor u/bell37:
Peter Pan. There is a whole song and dance about making fun of [Native Americans].
- Actors: Bobby Driscoll, Kathryn Beaumont, Hans Conried, Bill Thompson, Heather Angel
- Released: 1953
- Directed by: Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske
Hard to watch?- Photo:
From Redditor u/meathookromance:
Overboard. A man takes advantage of a woman that has amnesia and forces her to raise his kids.
- Actors: Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell, Edward Herrmann, Katherine Helmond, Mike Hagerty
- Released: 1987
- Directed by: Garry Marshall
Hard to watch?
