Often, in discussions about old movies, someone will say, “That movie couldn’t be made today.”, and inevitably someone else will disagree.
My highschool physics teacher said the Nazis recorded X-ray video of Holocaust victims knees as they walked. Because MRI machines and other medical imagers aren’t large enough to walk around in, the films are still one of the best sources of how the bones actually move naturally under load in situ surrounded by the connective tissue.
The radiation dose required to expose regular film at 24 frames a second killed the subjects.
I really hope they don’t ever make movies like that again.
unfortunately China took up the mantle on medical torture with the Uyghurs.
In 2021 my friend’s roommate said you couldn’t make a movie like Borat these days. I immediately pointed out they made a Borat movie the year before.
I didn’t point this out, but he claimed to be 6’2" while being a few inches shorter than me, and I’m 5’11".
Cleopatra. There’s no way anyone would release a 4 hour historical drama as a movie. It would be a TV series these days.
They made it twice. We’re overdue for another one.
Some ones I’ve seen recently: Scary Movie. The Witches. Dressed to Kill. Cape Fear.
There is literally a new cape fear movie coming out, with Javier Bardem as Max.
Austin powers. It really didn’t age well, even though it was fairly progressive at the time.
Battle of Britain.
All the old warbirds are in museums now
If you have a Nebula subscription, Lindsay Ellis has a fascinating video about Blazing Saddles and why it really couldn’t be made today, but not for the reasons you’d think; it has more to do with the history of the Western genre and the state of race relations in the US than “political correctness.” I wish she’d put it on Youtube.
So I guess that’s my roundabout answer: any movie that “couldn’t be made today” is probably because of larger social forces than just “too much swearing/violence/nudity/etc.”
Pootie Tang.
Sah dah tay, my damie!
Sah Dah Tay!
Say, Sine Yo pity on the Runny Kine
ITT
You couldn’t make the sixth sense either, because people would already know the ending.
But seriously, some racist stuff in there would never fly
Richard Pryor helped write the movie. The racists components were intentional as they were period relevant and ripe for mocking
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.
Blazing Saddles.
Probably the Blue Brothers, but for different reasons. I feel like most of the blues legends are gone.
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.
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.
deleted by creator
Tropic Thunder
Eh. I think a comedy could still get away with black-face today.
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.
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.
Even the D&D episode of Community was removed due to one of the characters cosplaying as a dark elf.
You can def watch the Sunny blackface scenes on youtube.
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.
You’d get lynched if you make something like this today.
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, fun fact, the original Robocop almost got an NC-17 (then X) rating for violence alone and had to be edited 13 times to get downgraded to a hard R* rating.
*Hard R in the movie rating sense, is when an R-rated movie truly earns that R rating through having a lot of violence, gore, swearing, explicit content, or a combination of those factors. It’s when an R-rated movie is teetering on the edge of getting upgraded to NC-17, basically. This old AVPGalaxy post should go more into what the hard R rating entails. The original Robocop got downgraded to this from the NC-17 rating it almost got (X when that movie was in production) after 13 edits like I said.
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.
Jurassic Park, Terminator 2, TMNT ‘89, Lord of the Rings.
Whatever the JP franchise is now, it will never go back to full scale animatronics, and without Stan Winston’s magic, it’ll never be quite what the first (and a bit of the second) were.
Cameron himself can’t recreate the magic of T2 even if his films make billions. He never risks having to “nail this in one shot” stunts.
As for TMNT. Nobody gives a shit they’re suits, we could suspend our disbelief and watched mindblowing performances by great stuntmen in some of the most advanced animatronics ever. Michael Bay can’t even fathom how much better that is.
The Hobbit was plagued by a lot of problems, but I don’t know if even Jackson could pull off the practical effects with digital overlay magic that was the first trilogy if he tried.
That era of Hollywood, practical first, digital to enhance (sparingly) is gone it seems. It’s sad Hollywood has forgotten that that boundary pushing era was what made those films iconic. Rexy had weight, she literally tore a car apart. You can see the chaos of the semi landing in the canal. The turtles hit. The Riders of Théoden truly rode for ruin. Tell me you don’t get giddy when you know that scene is about to hit.
Project Hail Mary was practical first. Real sets, real puppet, with digital enhancements. There is a scene that was filmed with loads of LEDs on wires to cover the shot in blinking red lights. I think it pays off hugely and the film is better for it all.
At the moment I think it’s an outlier and most films will continue to just film green screens and tennis balls but it might herald the return of practical, maybe even full-scale animatronics! I can only hope.
I hope that film wins awards, genuinly good sci-fi made by people who understand movies and dont just fix it in post. It fealt real, the sinple trick of not having sound if the camera is not in a place with atmosphere is one of the most important little details. 2001 gets it right, Firefly gets it right, but if you can hear lazers in space, your just bring a wizard in 0g.
In the sequel of The Thing they first used animatronics and later replaced them with CG. I’m still angry about what could have been an awesome movie. With CG it looks just bad.
Jurassic Park used CGI for many of its dinosaur scenes, they weren’t all animatronic.
What animatronics were used in LOTR? Gollum was CGI.
I’m not saying you’re wrong but some of your examples don’t seem right.
As I said, practical first, digital secondary or to enhance seems to be the secret sauce of creating something stunning. Most of the intimate shots with Rexy and the kids are practical. When she busts through the sunroof and tries to eat them… terrifyingly real because there’s a “real” thing attacking them. LOTR is real for a different reason- physical armor, cast of thousands. Compare the Rohirrim and armies of Mordor in that movie to the unified CGI mess that is the Battle of Five Armies in the Hobbit. Even using physical miniature sets for the big locations like Minas Tirith gives them weight.
You know I was just thinking about this the other day. Netflix will put out their standard 10 hour “epic” and the world still manages to feel a tenth the size, and there will be a tenth of the action as any one of the three hour LOTR movies. It really makes me appreciate just how masterful those movies were, and how every artistic license they took with the original material feels more than justified.
Who is JP? Why is everyone throwing letters around assuming everyone else will understand.
The first two words of his comment were “Jurassic Park”…
Tiptoes. Gary Oldman was on his knees the entire time. I can’t believe this was even made in 2003.
The fuck? Howd they go and cast Oldman in the role as a little person when they had Peter Dinklage already in the film. Dinklage is a fantastic actor. And oldman playing the role on his knees seems akin to blackface.
The trailer says its the role of a lifetime.
That trailer legit feels like a skit.
I can’t believe this is the first I’ve heard of this.
“In the role of a lifetime”
Looks a mildly interesting film. But no way is that Oldmans “role of a lifetime”
Yes! Maybe it’s the role of someone else’s lifetime.
Gary played at least a dozen roles that would have been career defining for a lesser actor. Haha.
The list time I saw this posted somewhere, it was an extended version. I believe McConaghy and Beckinsale did have a dwarf baby and Matthew was the one that couldn’t deal with it. Can’t remember if Kate ended up marrying Oldman.
