most politically incorrect things in olds movies

[Panthro]

Or how about Ingrid Bergman calling Sam "that boy" in Casablanca?

 

[Batnam]

How about Tanner Boyle in the original Bad News Bears! "All we got on this team are a buncha Jews, sp*cs, n**gers, pansies, and a booger-eatin' moron!"

 

[danoyse]

There's nothing sincerely insensitive about Blazing Saddles, and the "quasi-blackface" on Pluto is stretching.

It's not stretching at all. That part was actually edited out of the cartoon when it was aired on the Disney Channel in the 80s, and there's been plenty of discussion on animation sites about the racial stereotyping on some of the old Disney shorts, including that one. Warner cartoons were much worse.

And no one was calling Blazing Saddles sincerely insensitive. I think everyone discussing about it liked the movie (I think it's hilarious).

The point of this thread is politically incorrectness in older films. When films could get away with stereotyping gender and race. A Disney character in blackface certainly fits the bill.

 

[Brian Braddock]

I gotta go with the dog's name in 'The Dam Busters' personally;

Anyone who's seen the film knows what I'm talking about.

 

[ultimatefan]

edit I was replying at Dandy Man, who asked why we cared about things done in old movies, but I thought it was the last post on the thread, and it wasn´t.

 

[Brian Braddock]

Ultimatefan - who's your response and facepalm aimed at?

 

[Panthro]

This has to be the king of politically incorrect things in old movies - taking white actors & essentially "painting" them to look like they belong to some other ethnicity, like Laurence Olivier in "Khartoum" or pretty much every Western of the John Wayne era where a white guy played an "Indian".

 

[Thundarr]

Or David Carradine starring in Kung Fu. Of course that's TV, but the principle's the same.

 

[Brian Braddock]

Yeah, that was pretty atrocious. I mean, rejecting a real Chinese lead [Bruce Lee] and giving the role to a white guy, only to try and pass him off as Chinese?

C'mon.............

 

[Thundarr]

Yeah, that was pretty atrocious. I mean, rejecting a real Chinese lead [Bruce Lee] and giving the role to a white guy, only to try and pass him off as Chinese?

C'mon.............

I know. However it was a sign of the times. Nearly all of the above mentioned examples were. Back in the day, no one could conceive of giving a major role to a black actor, even if the character himself were black, so they used white actors in blackface. Prime example, Amos & Andy. In later years, when black people started getting cast for black roles, the best they could get were playing slaves in the old south or servants to a modern white family.

Hiring native Americans to play "indians" in John Wayne westerns was also an unheard of concept. So they used white folks in brown make up.

Most Mexicans in the spaghetti westerns were played by Italians, due largely to the fact that the films were shot in Italy (hense the term "spanghetti western").

Often times Asians would be played by short white folks wearing Chinese or Japanese clothing, fake buck teeth, and squinting to make it appear that their eyes are slanted. When Asians were finally being hired to play Asians, it was always in minor roles, like railroad workers in westerns or working in Chinese restaurants and laundrymats in more modern settings.

Heck, the network even complained that Bruce "looked too oriental" to play a role as important as Kato. The producer had to go to them and say, "Of course he looks oriental! He is oriental! He's playing an oriental! Kato is oriental!" Of course then he went and stabbed Bruce in the back by casting David Carridine in the lead role of Kung Fu.

 

[Octoberist]

I think the funny thing was that many people thought that David Carradine was either half Asian or mystical, when he was not. He was just typecasted ever since. I mean, he's no more 'Asian' then his brother Keith.

 

[xmenfilesfan05]

I enjoy how shrill Snow White is in the Disney film, how much she enjoys cleaning after those darn dwarfs and how much she nags them. Just as a woman should, bake them pies while they're off at work.

 

[Donnie Darko]

How about Tanner Boyle in the original Bad News Bears! "All we got on this team are a buncha Jews, sp*cs, n**gers, pansies, and a booger-eatin' moron!"

When I saw the title of this thread, Tanner was the first thing that came to mind.

 

[Carcharodon]

One of the Marx Bros movies made a joke about "darkies" once. Ouch.

LOL once?? They did it all the time.

 

[childeroland]

Seconding the dog's name in Dam Busters.

Looney Tune/Merrie Melodies' Censored Eleven.

 

[El Payaso]

Oh, I remember an awful movie with Glenn Ford. It was set in WWII I think and the main oriental role was played horridly by... Marlon Brando.

Not only was terrible in terms of stereotyping but also had a most terrible ending.

 

[SuperFerret]

It's not stretching at all. That part was actually edited out of the cartoon when it was aired on the Disney Channel in the 80s, and there's been plenty of discussion on animation sites about the racial stereotyping on some of the old Disney shorts, including that one. Warner cartoons were much worse.

And no one was calling Blazing Saddles sincerely insensitive. I think everyone discussing about it liked the movie (I think it's hilarious).

The point of this thread is politically incorrectness in older films. When films could get away with stereotyping gender and race. A Disney character in blackface certainly fits the bill.

I wouldn't call red lipstick and a green two-face look "blackface", but we are talking about racial stereotypes and such, and that typically breeds more sensitivity than is usually necessary, so it's not surprising that it's been edited.

 

[Carcharodon]

Oh, I remember an awful movie with Glenn Ford. It was set in WWII I think and the main oriental role was played horridly by... Marlon Brando.

Not only was terrible in terms of stereotyping but also had a most terrible ending.

If Brando wanted to be a convincing Asian, the movie should have had a...happy ending.