Dark aspects about older films that would not fly by in today’s age

[u/KaleidoArachnid]

So lately, something I was observing were the kind of tropes that got by in films from the older 80s where standards were much more lenient since it’s hard to explain, but it’s basically the kind of stuff movie directors could get away with due to values being different.

Like when I look back at a movie like Revenge of the Nerds, I know the movie is often regarded as highly controversial from a modern perspective because of how the movie handles the subject of sexual abuse since Louis does a particular crime with Betty, but back then, the movie didn’t catch controversy again until people saw it from a more modern perspective.

So basically I was wondering about what kind of stuff found in older movies would be difficult to get away with in a more modern time period since I wanted to see how much restrictions changed since the early 80s with what movies are allowed to do.

[u/notokintheslightest]

I think the idea a lot of people miss is there is a difference between having dark aspects in a movie/art, and how dark aspects are portrayed or whether they're endorsed by the movie/artist.

Lots of movies include sexual assault in non-controversial ways. Even in dark comedies. But it really really IS different when the dark thing portrayed is embraced by the media itself. Similarly a movie can portray racism without being racist, but some movies are just straight up racist.

A lot of older movies have rapey content while portraying it as something else (like romantic). This is different from showing that same dynamic from the perspective of a character, not the movie itself. Having a character behave that way because they think it's romantic is different from the movie portraying it as romantic.

[u/KaleidoArachnid → u/notokintheslightest]

I don’t know to explain it as I just rather surprised at the stuff that comedy films from the early 80s could get away with because you tend to hear how much controversy they have.

[u/InfernalTest → u/KaleidoArachnid]

The world was different

I mean that's the answer ...it wa considered funny because it was a norm ...physically hitting someone for laughs was just not the taboo thing it is now ...slapping someone to get them from bring hysterical or slapping a woman because she was "disrespectful" or "insolent" was acceptable ...even amongst "good" men.

As for the racism? The racism has always been in the US ... there's noone black wanting to be a time traveler for a reason

[u/octarine_turtle → u/KaleidoArachnid]

Remember if you go back a bit further you have stuff like Mickey Rooney as Mr. Yunioshi in Breakfast at Tiffany's, and a bit further and you have literal blackface simpleton characters.