Often, in discussions about old movies, someone will say, “That movie couldn’t be made today.”, and inevitably someone else will disagree.
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North, starring elijah wood.
North was a multiple nominee at the 15th Golden Raspberry Awards in six categories including Worst Picture and Worst Director for Rob Reiner.
I had that on VHS when I was a kid, and absolutely loved it! Still have gone memories of Bruce Willis in it but if I’d watch it today, it’d probably be shit lol. I’m not going to destroy those good memories like I did after rewatchind Dude, Where’s My Car.
there were some…interesting…choices made. lol but idk if it deserves the “worst movie of all time” title. the scene that sticks out in my memory is when he is trying out the Inuit (i think?) parents and they send the grandpa out to sea on an iceberg to die lol. i liked bruce willis in it tbh
I don’t remember it that well, but for a 7 year old, it was great 😝
Battle of Britain.
All the old warbirds are in museums now
Welcome to the Doll House.
Had to look this up, holy fuck that goes from 0-100 fast…
Blazing Saddles
Seriously. Legal would crucify you before youd even finished exhuming the cast.
Blazing Saddles.
Probably the Blue Brothers, but for different reasons. I feel like most of the blues legends are gone.
I watched this recently. I agree it couldn’t be made the same, but it amazes me how many people miss the point. The racists were the ones we were supposed to laughing at, not with.
I think people laugh at the racists for different reasons. Some because they are ridiculous, others because they are saying what the people wish they could.
Blazing saddles was (loosely) remade in 2022 as paws of fury
Sorry about the “up yours, slobber face.” You will of course have the decency not to tell anyone I talked to you?
Idk. It would have to be a REALLY loose adaptation.
I take your meaning but it is a remake and Mel Brooks is involved so…
Yeah I think it’s cool. I’ll have to give it a watch.
A lot of the blues legends are gone and a large number of Americans would be upset that they hate Illinois Nazis.
Also used cars cost wayy too much these days.
Yeah they would get sued to oblivion. Fucking copyright law.
Also; most of the actors are dead.
Also you’d need to revive the Bolivian cocaine industry to 1980’s levels.
Tropic Thunder
Eh. I think a comedy could still get away with black-face today.
It really isn’t blackface though, in the sense that blackface is meant to be a caricature which diminishes black culture and behavior. The RDJ character was written as kind of the opposite - the “blackface” character is shown to be sane, courageous and even wise, while the actor playing the character is shown to be an out of touch Hollywood twat.
any black-face media has been systematically removed from the internet. you can’t stream any episode of any show that has it. you can typically only watch that content on DVD.
You can def watch the Sunny blackface scenes on youtube.
Even the D&D episode of Community was removed due to one of the characters cosplaying as a dark elf.
Hmm. Okay, I haven’t paid much attention to that. Although Tropic Thunder does seem to be available for streaming on several major platforms at the moment. Paramount, Amazon, Apple, Tubi, to name a few.
You’d get lynched if you make something like this today.
and inevitably someone else will disagree.
Because literally any movie could be made today…
Whether it would be shown in theaters or even assigned a rating is different, but anyone can make a movie about anything today.
There was some valuable discussion to be had even just 20 years ago. But in 2026 anyone saying:
That movie couldn’t be made today.
Doesn’t know what they’re talking about. Like, they’re basically just saying they don’t understand what a film festival is…
Pretty Baby. A mainstream movie, distributed nationwide, by Paramount. Could not be made today.
Now you’ll say, “well, there would need to be changes, of course.”
Set in 1917, it focuses on a 12-year-old girl being raised in a brothel in Storyville, the red-light district of New Orleans, by her prostitute mother. Barbara Steele, Diana Scarwid, and Antonio Fargas appear in supporting roles. The film is based on the true account of a young girl who was sexually exploited by being groomed to engage in prostitution as a child, a theme that was recounted in historian Al Rose’s 1974 book Storyville, New Orleans: Being an Authentic Illustrated Account of the Notorious Red-Light District.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretty_Baby_(1978_film)
They could absolutely make that today, especially if casting an 18+ actor to play the lead…
Like, who do you imagine stopping that unless you think it would require graphic and illegal material?
“well, there would need to be changes, of course.”
I haven’t seen this movie, but are the required changes casting an adult for nudity in the film? Was that not a thing in the 70s?
Nope. See also: Romeo and Juliet from 1968. While it is probably the best adaption of the story ever, underage actors and nudity is somehow frowned on today.
I still don’t understand. I saw the wiki linked earlier as well. Is the claim that a film about a child being sexually abused cannot be made today? Because I don’t think that is the case.
Or is it because there would probably be an actor that is 18 cast? I don’t see that being a different film. If you want to argue that casting a 16 year old or an 18 year old changes the film, then you could say that not casting Brooke Shields changes the film. It seems like a ship of theseus argument at that point.
If your argument is something else, I’m interested to hear. I had never heard of this film before and have not seen it, so I could very well be missing something.
My 2 cents: She was 11 when the movie was shot - it’s one thing to replace a 16 year old with a 18 year old actor, even with a similar story, but there is not one 18 (or even 16) year old you could put into that role and say it’s still the same movie. The psychological impact of being confronted with literally a child’s body in this context is not comparable in my opinion.
The question is not whether a similar movie could be made, it’s if the movie itself, as it exists currently could be made. And Pretty Baby absolutely could not.
Pretty Baby, the movie made in 1978, could not be made today. If all of those people could be transported forward in time, including 11-year-old Brooke Shields, they would not be allowed to make that movie and distribute it. Yes, could be made now with an 18-year-old actress, as it could have been then, but that’s not what was made, so that movie could not be made now, as it was made then. That’s the whole point of the question. So that exact movie couldn’t be made now.
Stalker from 1979. Any attempt at it today would be a boring action movie with none of the original thoughtfulness.
huh, that isn’t a hollywood movie, it’s an art film.
plenty of weird art films still get made.
‘Stalker’ isn’t a studio film, same as Tarkovsky’s other films. They are ‘auteur’ films. ‘Stalker’ doesn’t even really follow the novel.
Directors who want to make slow films, make them still. See e.g. ‘Boyhood’. Of Russian films, try ‘Hard to Be a God’, the last film of Alexey German, made in 2013. There’s a whole movement called slow cinema, with extreme examples like Lav Diaz’s work having runtimes of up to ten hours. The second-longest ever cinematic film was made in 2024.
EVERYthing made by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buster_Keaton
We’ve got laws, now, against the insane shit they did on-set, back then…
Lives were too-cheap, back then…
_ /\ _
One of his stunts literally broke his neck.
He was told by his doctor about it 9 years later.Agree, but the problem with doing it today would be they couldn’t get insurance to cover it.
Trading Places. It should be a Christmas classic but…
I put it on last Christmas for my kids, not realizing the version I’d always seen on TV was heavily edited. Had to turn that off pretty fast.
( . )( . )
Look, boobies!
–Mark Watney
I just googled and read the movie is rated R in the US! And Coming to America too!
Here they are rated 12, 6 if adults are present.
So your comment made me smile a bit.
This and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation have been our family Christmas movies for decades!
Bad Santa for me.
I’m autist, so i watch a lot of the same shit. I think I’ve watched Christmas Vacation at LEAST 400 times. I’ve watched it multiple times in a row. as in, once, then rewinding it and watching again. It’s my ALL TIME favourite movie.
The blackface is a little out of step with the times. Tough to edit that part out.
Curtis’s “Sweedish” accent was at least as offensive…
Austin powers. It really didn’t age well, even though it was fairly progressive at the time.
American History X, easily. In fact that movie had a troubled production during the time it came out, but it would be censored to hell and back were it made today.
The original Robocop as well because Hollywood is too scared of violence nowadays.
American History X would be tough just because of all the picketing of the movie for being so mean to Nazis.
That movie wouldn’t see the light of day if it were to be made today.
Some ones I’ve seen recently: Scary Movie. The Witches. Dressed to Kill. Cape Fear.
Any of the stunts Buster Keaton pulled.
Down Periscope. It is the best and most accurate submarine movie in existence.
“Buckman! There was a fingernail in my food, ya fatass moron! Yesterday, it was a Band-Aid!”
Buckman: “Sorry, sir. The Band-Aid was holding the fingernail on.”
