Phil Williams Commentary: Do we really need warning labels for classic movies?
Is it possible that some of the movies we consider classics would never be made if today’s cultural taboos had been applied?
One of my all-time favorites, “The Outlaw Josey Wales” starring Clint Eastwood was a classic movie about an anti-hero constantly put in the position of helping others. How many solid, manly one-liners are in that one movie?
”Dying ain’t much of a livin’ boy.”
”Hold on Granny, hell is comin’ to breakfast.”
”You gonna pull those pistols or whistle Dixie?”
A great movie, but horror of horrors, Josey Wales rode for the Confederacy! Could they make that movie today?
Current pop culture is so keen to avoid offense and cover up history that it begs the question of whether a movie hero like Josey Wales or Rooster Cogburn or anything played by Mel Gibson, would be allowed to hit the modern big screen.
Movies have always served as entertaining diversions: The smell of popcorn, crowds lining up to have their tickets torn, the larger-than-life heroes and heroines. Hollywood was about great stories designed to spark the imagination and create a distraction from life for a bit. But not anymore.
Movies are no longer a diversion, but a teaching point. Movies must have trigger warnings. We must be saved from ourselves. One look at the warning labels on certain products will tell you that there is an overtly desperate and ongoing attempt to save us from ourselves. Someone somewhere somehow did the ridiculous and now we all get to pay for it.
Like the folding baby stroller with the warning that says: “Remove baby before folding” (Oh wow). Or the box of rat poison that says “Warning: has been found to cause cancer in lab mice.” (Well, it’s rat poison, sooo….) Or the package of brass fishing hooks that says, “Caution: harmful if swallowed”. (Just don’t tell the fish because that’s kind of the point).
But equally as silly are the warning labels tagging our classic movies.
The British Film Institute recently placed audience warnings on two classic James Bond movies to warn the audiences that they “may contain outdated attitudes that may cause offence” (sic).
Disney recently began adding warnings to classics such as “Dumbo” and “Lady and the Tramp” to inform viewers that they are potentially controversial, although you may not be able to watch them and figure out why.
Disney warns its audiences that the movies may contain “outdated cultural depictions.” The full warning is a paragraph long and actually states that Disney views their own movies as being “wrong then and are wrong now” and goes on to say that “rather than remove this content, we want to acknowledge its harmful impact, learn from it and spark conversation to create a more inclusive future together.”
I’m sure that leaving them up for viewers has nothing to do with the fact that they are making money by streaming them for people to pay to watch.
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) has joined in and taken steps to warn us against such horrible classics as “Breakfast at Tiffany's,” ”My Fair Lady” and ”Gone with the Wind.” TCM has decided to start each movie with a brief roundtable discussion in which a panel of experts will discuss the troubling content with context given to the times in which people used to live. You know, back when we used to just enjoy going to the movies for fun.
TCM’s charitable largesse and well-meaning advice about the heinous behaviors of Scarlett O’Hara are riveting entertainment with a dose of guilt. I’ll just use that time for a last-minute bathroom break.
Apparently, if you are over the age of 20 you can’t watch anything that you used to watch without being cautioned that it may have detrimental effects on your mental health. But the warnings are finally wearing thin.
Comedian and commentator Bill Maher recently began breaking the ice by calling out liberal hypersensitivities. Maher created a hilarious skit of fake warning labels for classic movies using the very lines that liberals trumpet. For “The Wizard of Oz” he said, “Warning: this movie depicts a powerful woman of color murdered by a rural white girl.” For “Sleeping Beauty,” “Warning: a prince kisses an unconscious woman without consent.” And for Alfred Hitchcock thriller “Psycho,” “Warning: this movie inaccurately portrays the lives of the vast majority of transgender motel owners.” Well played, sir!
I feel certain that if a director, script writer or producer took the idea for the great movies of yesterday to studios of today they would be lawyered into non-existence. Could they get approval for “Blazing Saddles” (Probably not)?
What about great flicks like the “The Breakfast Club” (were the characters diverse enough?) or “Mean Girls” (where someone was bullied, which was kind of the point), or “Home Alone” (which featured classic child neglect and child endangerment) or “Tropic Thunder” (with Robert Downey Jr. playing “a dude playing a dude disguised as another dude” all while wearing black-face makeup).
We don’t always have to be saved from ourselves, and we certainly don’t need trigger warnings on “My Fair Lady”.
Life is hard, and if “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” scares you then you should get a helmet.
In the meantime, roll that footage and pop that popcorn, and let’s just enjoy a good movie.
Phil Williams is a former state senator from District 10 (which includes Etowah County), retired Army colonel and combat veteran, and a practicing attorney. He previously served with the leadership of the Alabama Policy Institute in Birmingham. He currently hosts the conservative news/talk show Rightside Radio on multiple channels throughout north Alabama. The opinions expressed are his own.
This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: Phil Williams on the increase in warning labels for classic movies
