Often, in discussions about old movies, someone will say, “That movie couldn’t be made today.”, and inevitably someone else will disagree.

  • MagicShel@lemmy.zipEnglish
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    3 months ago

    Blazing Saddles.

    Probably the Blue Brothers, but for different reasons. I feel like most of the blues legends are gone.

    • YeahIgotskills2@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      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.

      • MagicShel@lemmy.zipEnglish
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        3 months ago

        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.

      • MagicShel@lemmy.zipEnglish
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        3 months ago

        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.

  • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
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    3 months ago

    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…

    • TrackinDaKraken@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
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      3 months ago

      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.”

      • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
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        3 months ago

        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?

          • A_cook_not_a_chef@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            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?

              • A_cook_not_a_chef@lemmy.world
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                3 months ago

                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.

                • Wildmimic@anarchist.nexusEnglish
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                  3 months ago

                  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.

                • Davel23@fedia.io
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                  3 months ago

                  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.

                • TrackinDaKraken@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
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                  3 months ago

                  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.

            • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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              3 months ago

              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.

      • AskewLord@piefed.socialEnglish
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        3 months ago

        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.

        • Elshender@fedinsfw.appEnglish
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          3 months ago

          Even the D&D episode of Community was removed due to one of the characters cosplaying as a dark elf.

        • TrackinDaKraken@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
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          3 months ago

          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.

      • socsa@piefed.socialEnglish
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        3 months ago

        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.

  • Norin@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Stalker from 1979. Any attempt at it today would be a boring action movie with none of the original thoughtfulness.

    • AskewLord@piefed.socialEnglish
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      3 months ago

      huh, that isn’t a hollywood movie, it’s an art film.

      plenty of weird art films still get made.

    • [object Object]@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      ‘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.

  • DFX4509B@lemmy.wtfEnglish
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    3 months ago

    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. [https://www.avpgalaxy.net/2007/03/12/mpaa-hard-r-rating/](This old AVPGalaxy post should shed some light on what the hard R rating entails)

    • moondoggie@lemmy.worldEnglish
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      3 months ago

      American History X would be tough just because of all the picketing of the movie for being so mean to Nazis.

    • unknownuserunknownlocation@kbin.earth
      0·
      3 months ago

      The General actually first bombed at the box office, leading to Buster Keaton being much more restricted in what he could do. Only later did it become a classic, deservedly so.

        • hansolo@lemmy.today
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          3 months ago

          Functionally, it’s not exactly that far off from using AI to remove the clothes of someone. Just with no computers involved, and many more creeps.

          • Pommes_für_dein_Balg@feddit.org
            0·
            3 months ago

            Also, imagine the casting process.
            “We’re looking for a teenage girl who’s, like, really hot and willing to play a sexual role.”
            Jodie Foster and Kelly Preston, both 18 at the time, auditioned but they said “Nah, we’ll go with an underage actress instead. But then we’ll need a body double, so who among these applicants looks like a teenager in the nude the most?”

            • hansolo@lemmy.today
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              3 months ago

              Oh no, Brooke Shields’s parents, specifically her mom, pimped her out relentlessly. She was peddled around NY and LA as jailbait. There’s some magazine cover that says something like “is it pedophilia or is it art?” Peddling straight up CP of pics of Brooke naked and like 14. It was specifically a national Brooke Shields creepiness.