12 Classic Movies That Got Away With Problematic Scenes

The Special Edition rereleases of Tom & Jerry and Looney Tunes starts with a statement read by Whoopi Goldberg. In it, they talk about how attitudes towards race have changed, and rather than delete the racist depictions, the decision was made to leave them in because otherwise, it would be like pretending these attitudes never existed at all.

It was roundly praised as a classy move which met the issue head on but avoided meddling in the past.

But the fact is that not all movies age well, and they don’t come with a similar disclaimer.

Either because of our changing attitudes as a society, more minority representation on screen or just the goal posts for comedy moving, these films (or at least certain scenes in them) likely wouldn’t fly today.

Does that make them bad movies though? Well, not quite. If you’re not part the minority being mocked you might still be able to enjoy them, or even if you are but can appreciate that times change, there’s no need to necessarily throw the whole movie out.

It’s definitely worth bearing in mind before a rewatch though that there are some seriously problematic scenes here.

Starting off with one that’s a little tame compared to some others here, but it still treats one of its most popular characters unnecessarily harshly.

Natalie, the sweet new employee of the Prime Minister is frequently fat shamed during the opening act. It would be unpleasant regardless of her size, but the fact actress Martine McCutcheon is just a regular sized woman makes it very strange too.

It’s like the script was written for her to be chubby, but they instead cast a woman with a pretty normal body shape but kept the mean jokes in there.

Except it wasn’t, because McCutcheon confirmed the role was written specifically for her. She added that the idea was supposed to be that she saw herself as flawed, but David sees her as perfect. It’s a cliched message anyway and doesn’t really land.

Mark’s obsession with Juliet (Andrew Lincoln and Kiera Knightley) could qualify here too, except that the movie didn’t really get away with it. The creepy, stalkerish tendencies of Mark and his insecure fake apathy towards Juliet are frequently brought up as being very weird. The film wants us to think it’s sweet, but it just plainly isn’t.