The world has changed a lot over the decades, including the type of things that multinational entertainment conglomerates would allow to be released (let alone produced) in today’s politically correct world.
Part #1 of this series covered 5 movies that could not be made today.
Here are five more examples that would never be made today.
Gone With The Wind (1939)
The most successful movie of all-time (based on ticket sales) wouldn’t have a snowball’s chance in Hell of being greenlit today. First, you couldn’t make a movie where the main characters (Rhett and Scarlett) are rich, slave owning Southerners during the Civil War, despite the fact that both of them are severely flawed, terrible people, slavery aside. Despite this, these are also complex and have various opinions on the Civil War and Reconstruction that are at least interesting. For instance in the scene below, Rhett lays out how the South can’t possibly win to a bunch of gung ho aristocratic rebels.
You also couldn’t make a 4 hour long movie and release it in one piece (can’t give the customer’s too much for their money and you have to get in as many screenings per day as possible).
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
An absolute classic also released in 1939. A musical that is partially in Black and White (technically Sepia) for part of its runtime which features people dressed up in costumes to portray the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Lion. Today they would ditch the music, elaborate sets and CGI everything, especially the characters mentioned above. The opening and ending in Sepia? Forget it.
Animal House (1978)
This movie has a lot of objectionable things that wouldn’t fly today. A couple of standout examples are: getting an underage girl drunk and then contemplating sexually assaulting her unconscious body and a girl saying she studied “Primitive Cultures” and then immediately cutting to Otis Day singing on stage.
Don’t even get me started on the “Thank You God!” gag.
1941 (1979)
Steven Spielberg’s attempt at making a movie in the vein of Animal House has a lot going against it. First, is the runtime, which clocks in at an absurd (for a comedy) 146 minutes.
Next you have the anti-Japanese language, while time period accurate would get the HuffPost, George Takei and the ACLU rioting in the streets.
Toss in the racial stereotypes of the Japanese and that would be enough for Rachel Maddow and Samantha Bee to enter the rioting fray.
If you got rid off all of the offensive material, you’d end up with a 65 minute long movie about a fist fight at a USO Dance, and most of that stuff ranges from medicore to terrible.
Saturday Night Fever (1977)
What? How could a fun movie about dancing with a great soundtrack make the list? If you are asking yourself this question, then you have probably never seen this movie or if you have you are misremembering it. Although the soundtrack is great and there are some great dancing scenes of John Travolta at the disco this is in no way a fun movie.
It is a depressing movie about these miserable guys in Brooklyn that are racists, sexist losers. Consider the last 10 minutes which feature: an attempted rape, a gang rape and guy comitting suicide by jumping off the Verrazano Bridge. What a crowd pleaser!
