5 More Wholly Inappropriate '80s Movies That Taught Me All My Life Values
4. The Toy (1982)
The Toy was a delightful little remake of the '70s French Film "Le Jouet" and starred comedy greats Richard Pryor and Jackie Gleason. It tells the tale of Jack Brown, an unemployed newspaper reporter who is forced to take the job with the local Governor (whom secretly funds the KKK) as his 9 year old son's "toy." After the initial humiliation the boy Master Bates (get it), who is emotionally estranged from his father, forms a bond with Jack which culminates with an insane crash of the local KKK's fundraiser. Although back in the 80's it may have been classed as a family film, it has enough sexual overtones, discriminatory rhetoric and downright racial profanity that nowadays the censors may not have been so forgiving. Especially with the aforementioned "Master Bates" reference.
Lesson Learnt: Racial equality
This film does a lot to establish that racial prejudice is not only a bad thing but can be detrimental to society. And as a child I learnt all that this movie had to teach. Without Jack Brown's guidance not only would young Master Bates (That will never get old) most likely have turned into a racist neanderthal but the relationship between him and his father would've remained strained well into adulthood. Not bad for a "black man living in the South". One week with Jack pretty much saved the whole family years of expensive therapy that may have gotten them nowhere.
He also shows us the evil of organised racial hatred when he takes on the vile Klu Klux Klan but in a lighthearted way that is not as confronting as other films or documentaries on the matter. Not to mention how much fun he is to hang around. I have to admit, I wanted my own Jack Brown as a young child as I could have used a role model like this man.
Alternate Lesson: Stand up and Take Initiative
One of the main subplots of this film is Richard Pryor not only pointing out the injustices of inequality but the need for workplace reform when it comes to racial discrimination. After witnessing his father demonstrate how powerful money can make you (in yet another scene where Ned Beatty has to take off his pants), Jack and Master Bates set out to report on what they saw with their own newspaper. Although some may say that the way they went about it might have been a little dastardly, it doesn't change the fact that young Master Bates ends up learning the experience and satisfaction of an honest days work. Not to mention how powerful the truth can be. He was taught not only to stand on his own feet as a man (highlighted by the metaphor of the child walking on stilts by himself) but to take initiative against what is wrong and to stand up for what he believed in. Not a bad lesson for any child, regardless of what the censors may tell you.
