We seem to be living through a phase of the so-called “cancel culture” these days. Just this week, dr. Seuss Enterprises announced that they will no longer publish six lesser-known books by the famous children’s author due to offensive and racist depictions. Mr. Potato head is now asexual. Some episodes of The Muppet Show has special warning labels on Disney +. Aunt Jemima is on the syrup shelves. In a wave of re-evaluation of cultural images with which we grew up in our American lives, a new and more sensitive spotlight is presented on the way we view the past through the prism of a more politically correct 2021.
In this regard, Turner Classic Movies (TCM), the WarnerMedia cable channel dedicated to the loving presentation of Hollywood’s film heritage, from the beginning of the medium to the present, also jumped into the fray, announcing that it will be the primetime program. devote. every Thursday for the month of March starting tonight with a new series called “Reframed: Classic Films In The Rearview Mirror.” The network puts it this way: “AAll the films in this series are legendary classics, but if we look at them, we see them in a different cultural context. We often see problems now that we may not have seen when they were made, whether it be about race, gender or LGBT issues. TCM’s five hosts take turns making a roundtable introduction to each of the films where they will discuss these 20th century films with a 21st century perspective. The goal is never to censor, but to simply give every classic rich historical context. ”
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The series starts tonight and focuses on Away with the wind, seven brides for seven brothers, Hitchcock’s Rope and 1939s The four feathers. The opening film, starring Oscar-winning MGM David O. Selznick from 1939, starring Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh, has already undergone a critical reconsideration by TCM’s new brother and sister HBO Max, who made it from his budding streaming service removed during the races of last summer unrest and consequence of a Los Angeles Times opinion piece by screenwriter John Ridley who criticized the film for glorifying slavery and the perpetuation of racist stereotypes about African Americans. At the time, the streamer said that it would eventually be restored with a discussion of its historical context and a condemnation of the very depictions … If we want to create a more just, just and inclusive future, we must first make our history recognize and understand. It finally returned a few weeks later, accompanied by a 4 1/2 minute video introduction by TCM host Jacqueline Stewart, who now placed it in the context of the public, as well as an hour-long panel discussion that recorded at the TCM Classic Film Festival in 2019 that investigated. the intricate history of the beloved epic.
In addition, TCM does its own programming that focuses on a selection of films made in one era, which in some respects may play quite differently in this era, at least without context. ‘I think over the last few years, just as the world has changed and the culture has changed, we at TCM have really tried to tend towards it and be more than just a place for pure nostalgia, but also to be a place that really can be an important part of today’s cultural conversation, even though we show films from the past, ‘said TCM co-host Dave Karger, explaining why the network decided to expand on what HBO Max started. ‘The idea has been proposed that we will host all five of this month-long series, where we will watch a dozen true classic films, but view it from a more contemporary point of view. And the idea is not to embarrass these films or to scold these films, but just to lay out some of the context for some of the content that in some extreme examples today may feel shocking, out of place or even offensive. “
Karger says there is no suggestion about censorship. These films are not cut, and TCM is proud to present films as made without commercial interruption. But he says the world has changed in a big way since many of their movies started airing on the channel, which Ted Turner, the founder and original owner, created to showcase his purchase of the famous MGM library, including the crown jewel and his favorite of all time, Away with the wind. ‘I think it’s important to look at. You know, in some cases the United States was just outside World War II, and you know that male and female gender roles were very different then than they are today. The way people looked at LGBT issues was very different, ‘he said, noting that homosexuality is often seen as just a psychiatric disorder in many of the films from previous eras that are TCM’s bread and butter. for programming.
The hosts also had input into the selection of some films in the series. Alicia Malone, co-presenter, for example, suggested including something about the way transgender people and gender identity are treated. This led to the inclusion of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, what I had to confess, I never thought of. ‘I think the trans community is often left out of these conversations, and just look at it again through another modern lens of what it means to have a villain who dresses like his mother (like Anthony Perkins in Psycho), and when they mention the word transsexual in the movie, which is obviously a very outdated term, they talk about it being a mental illness. And so, all of this can be problematic when we look at maybe the consequences of real life to have a trans character or a cross-decoration, something very comical to laugh at or something horrible to consider monstrous, especially if ‘you see the studies that most Americans encounter an image of a transgender person through film and television rather than in real life,’ ‘Malone said.
Some of the movies that will be released next month are Guess who’s coming for dinner, The Jazz Singer, The Searchers, Swing Time with Astaire and Rogers, Stagecoach, Tarzan the Ape Man, My Fair Lady, The Children’s Hour, Gunga Din and more.
One of the films in the series is 1961s Breakfast at Tiffany’s with his memorable performance of Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly. However, she was not there. Recently, there was a report that Paramount was fishing to get the rights to make the film again; I suggested to a friend of mine in the studio that a better idea would be to release the original version again and cut Mickey Rooney out of it. Problem solved, right? Rooney played a tumultuous Asian stereotype, which was filmed by director Blake Edwards in the film to laugh cheaply. It would be better off in retrospect without that character, but censorship is just as bad.
‘We talked about that movie and how much, you know, the whole storyline where Mickey Rooney’s character feels out of place, is intolerant and all, for the rest of the movie, so you can see an argument for putting things out there. cut, ”Malone said. ‘But of course, at TCM, I know we all feel very strongly about keeping movies intact and also continuing to play movies, even if it’s problematic, because it allows us to have these discussions rather than just ignoring it and pretending it never existed. ”
Karger added: ‘I got really tired of seeing the phrase throwing away the culture, on all sides, and I like to watch what we do, instead of canceling, it’s contextualising, it’s a conversation, to use some other ‘c’ words. And I think it’s a much more productive way of doing things. And as Alicia said, we are not going to pretend it does not exist, but we are also not just going to put everything on a pedestal and say it was wonderful. You can not show Breakfast at Tiffany’s without discussing and trying to understand the offensive portrayal by Mickey Rooney, which Ben Mankiewicz really helped me understand when we talked about this series about why it happened at that point. ”
Another of the movies tonight is the frothy classical musical Seven brides for seven brothers, an Oscar nominee for 1954 for Best Picture. What may be wrong that? ‘It’s such a wonderful musical. It’s a pleasure to watch. “The choreography is athletic and impressive, and then you have, you know, the whole issue of the brothers kidnapping the women, and so it speaks to the idea of male domination as a romantic idea and consent and all those issues,” Malone said. explain. “But again, this is not necessarily a film that you would think would be involved in this series, but if you look at it with a modern eye, you can see certain things and reasons why they are problematic and why some people do not. enjoy watching it. But I think a big part of the fun of doing the series was having all these discussions and trying to just come up with different ideas and just wrestle with the gray area, I think, is really very important . ”
The ‘gray area’ is what this series is about: a way to watch classic movies and still love them, but possibly in new ways as well.
‘I think there’s a wonderful mix that touches on a wide range of issues, and what I really love, and I know that Dave and the other hosts feel the same way, is that we can have these extensive conversations that sometimes we don’t normally talk about. film, ”Malone said. “But because each of these films is a time capsule of when they were made, we can really dig into what society was like back then, how it is now, and how far we still have to go.”
Here is the complete schedule:
Thursday 4 March
20:00: Gone With the Wind (1939) (Ben, Jacqueline, Eddie)
Midnight: Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954) (Alicia, Dave, Eddie)
2 hours: Rope (1948) (not offered)
3:30: The Four Feathers (1939) (not offered)
Thursday 11 March
20:00: Woman of the Year (1942) (Eddie, Alicia, Ben)
22:15: Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967) (Jacqueline, Alicia, Eddie)
12:15: Gunga Din (1939) (Ben, Jacqueline, Dave)
02:30: Sinbad, the sailor (1947) (not offered)
04:30: The Jazz Singer (1927) (not presented)
Thursday 18 March
20:00: The Searchers (1956) (Ben, Alicia, Eddie)
22:15: Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961) (Dave, Alicia, Ben)
12:30: Swing Time (1936) (Jacqueline, Dave, Eddie)
02:15: Stagecoach (1939) (not offered)
04:00: Tarzan, the monkey man (1959) (not presented)
Thursday 25 March
20:00: My Fair Lady (1964) (Dave, Jacqueline, Alicia)
11pm: The Children’s Hour (1961) (Alicia, Dave, Eddie)
01:00: Psycho (1960) (Ben, Alicia, Jacqueline)
3 o’clock: Dragon Seed (1944) (not offered)