4 Classic Movies That You Simply Couldn’t Make These Days
The world is a very different place today than it was when some hit movies were made. With advances in technology and changes in the way people feel about race, politics, religion and gender, some titles that were a hit way back, just couldn’t be made in this day and age. Let’s run through our top 4 classic movies that you simply could not make today.
Blazing Saddles (1974)
This groundbreaking movie, directed by Mel Brooks, stars Gene Wilder and Cleavon Little. Quite possibly the funniest spoof ever made, the Blazing Saddles storyline is centred around Bart (Little), the new sheriff in town, who has a lot of trouble winning over the locals in his new home, mostly due to the colour of his skin.
The plot is clearly a satirical attack on racism, but due to the fact that the movie contains many racial slurs, it was recently given a trigger warning on streaming platforms. According to an HBO Max spokeswoman, “The intro was added to ensure that the film was put into the proper social context.”
With such sensitivity around the topic of race, there is absolutely no way that Blazing Saddles could be released today, regardless of its underlying anti-racist message.
21 (2008)
We all know the story of the team of students and mathematical geniuses, who travelled to Las Vegas to beat up the casinos by counting cards. Young Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess) is taken under the wing of card counting expert and MIT professor Micky Rosa (Kevin Spacey) as he aims to pay off his medical school debt.
The team wins millions of dollars, but eventually find themselves in great danger when a brutal security official (Lawrence Fishburne) gets involved. But here’s the thing. Due to the proliferation of internet casino sites these days, there wouldn’t be any need to play blackjack at a physical casino and get into any trouble at all. The 21 gang could have simply consulted an online gambling guide, looked up a fully licensed online casino, found out what payment methods it accepted and funded their accounts accordingly.
In fact, such casino comparison sites would even have allowed the MIT squad to easily compare welcome bonuses and promotions, which could have been exploited to further boost their earnings. And just think how much they would have saved on expensive Las Vegas hotel rooms, flights and cab rides up and down the strip, just by playing online. In the modern era, this movie just makes no sense at all.
Sixteen Candles (1984)
This movie by acclaimed director John Hughes was all the rage back in the day, with Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall both winning awards for their performances in Sixteen Candles. It is regarded as something of a classic, but these days, viewers are beginning to take a different view.
At one point during the film, Caroline (Haviland Morris) finds herself passed out drunk in a car. Having now lost interest in her, boyfriend Jake (Michael Schoeffling) turns to Ted (Hall) and says “have fun”, after commenting that he could have violated her “in ten different ways” had he wished.
A scene which implies sexual assault at best, and that in all honesty, seems pretty clearly to be about rape, simply wouldn’t make it through the edit in the era of cancel culture.
Me, Myself & Irene (2000)
This classic Jim Carrey title depicts the main character as suffering from some kind of multiple personality disorder, presenting this as schizophrenia. To say that the subject is handled insensitively, would be putting it mildly. In fact, the movie’s tagline “from gentle to mental”, would certainly make people wince if published today.
What’s particularly interesting about this movie controversy, is that people were outraged even at the time of release. There were protests about My, Myself and Irene by the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, which rightly claimed that the film portrayed harmful stereotypes about schizophrenia.
A spokesperson for the organisation described the movie, as well as its promotional campaign, as showing “gross ignorance and insensitivity”, as well as perpetuating factual inaccuracies about the condition. She added, “unfortunately, no one will learn to recognize symptoms and understand the onset of the disorder by watching Me, Myself & Irene, because 20th Century Fox has chosen to present an utterly false depiction.”
Garon Cockrell is the Founder and Editor of Pop Culture Beast and host of The Pop Culture Beast Show. He founded the site over seven years ago to have a place on the internet to write about the things he loved. Since then, Garon has become a best-selling author (Demonic and Other Tales), an award winning screenwriter (Best Screenplay 2013 Motor City Nightmares Film Festival), and a cast member on the top rated podcast, Never Not Funny.