Some movies age like fine wine. While others, such as Zeffirelli’s nudie-cutie Romeo & Juliet, become so problematic over time that it’s almost impossible to watch them without squirming. In recent years the rise of identity politics and the #MeToo movement has led to an inevitable increase in previously “innocent” titles confined to the sin bin. These include the comedy classic Groundhog Day, which revolves round the duplicitous seduction of a TV producer (Andie MacDowell). Or there’s Never Been Kissed, a Drew Barrymore rom-com about a male teacher falling for his underage student. And the family favourite Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is a musical adaptation of the rape of the Sabine women that plays like a Technicolor advert for Stockholm syndrome (kidnapping as romantic gesture).
Some films, however, contain scenes that have always been uncomfortable to watch, but conscientious audiences are calling them out now. Think of the argument between Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen) and Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) in Raiders of the Lost Ark when, reflecting upon their strange romantic past, Marion cries: “I was a child! I was in love! It was wrong and you knew it!” Or there’s the “comedy” highlight of Ace Ventura: Pet Detective when Jim Carrey’s hero realises that the female police chief he briefly kissed was once a man. He immediately vomits. Because? Gay kissing is bad enough, but trans kissing? Or there’s Judd Nelson’s bad boy Bender from The Breakfast Club, who sexually abuses Molly Ringwald’s Claire under a library desk. And, naturally, they fall in love.
The most unsettling scene of all is in that dreamy adaptation of Truman Capote’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Here the hopeless protagonist Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn) spars with her Japanese neighbour Mr Yunioshi. He is played by Mickey Rooney in “oriental” make-up. As a character he is stupid, clumsy and lecherous, and has a “hilarious” comedy accent — “Miss Go-Right-Reee! You disturb-a meee!” A low point for everyone concerned.
