Comments on: “Breakfast At Tiffany’s” invades, thousands flee

By: DB

DB — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 22:22:10 +0000

“Holiday Inn” is a great movie, with one of the best dance scenes in any film, but that blackface scene is just dreadful. Because of that, it’s a movie that you can’t go around recommending willy-nilly, even though you’d like to. Another one is “Swing Time”, a brilliant Astaire/Rogers musical with a blackface “tribute” to Bojangles. I have a feeling Steve Cohn’s head would explode if he ever saw either film.

By: Fargo Pentameter

Fargo Pentameter — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 21:32:16 +0000

I think the City ought to institute a policy of only booking movies that are intentionally offensive. They’d probably choose better movies that way. Let’s start with a John Waters retrospective.

By: Melly

Melly — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 19:47:15 +0000

We’d better never see any old westerns then…the shame of not thinking of hiring authentic Native Americans. The total shame of it all. We could look back at the old films and say, “look how far we’ve come”..but nooooooooooo.

By: HeyMeg

HeyMeg — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 19:31:53 +0000

This is all reminding me of the time I forced my husband to rent “Holiday Inn” starring Bing Crosby. I had seen it many times, but only on TV. I sold him on what a charming movie it is, so romantic and sweet, blah blah blah. Only to realize that the TV versions had cut out the gigantic scene in the middle of the movie featuring Bing Crosby in blackface, along with a number of other horrifying depictions in a dance number “celebrating” Abraham Lincoln Day. I guess what I’m trying to say is it could be worse.

By: DB

DB — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 19:24:04 +0000

Personally, I would have liked to see them replace the movie with a Bela Fleck concert documentary, because that’s something the whole family can enjoy.

By: Turty Squip

Turty Squip — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 18:56:01 +0000

I love that Micky is being harassed for an appology over this. Too bad we can’t force Al Jolsen to appologize for the Jazz Singer. But all is not lost: Shirley Maclaine played a couple of asian characters; Gene Wilder, Jackie Chan (playing an American Indian), and Shawn and Marlon Wayans all played to outragous stereotypes, and are still around! Have at ‘em for an appology.
And then don’t forget Julie Andrews trying to play a guy, playing a girl, playing a guy (or was it the other way around?). Time to start editing them films to clear out ALL the offensive stuff. I hope people without fathers arent’t offended by Star Wars’ “I AM your father”…
At least we can show the cleaned-up movies in a park without a controversial origin. Oh- wait…

By: Stickie

Stickie — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 18:18:27 +0000

Ha, got it. I appreciate the long history of making fun of…. THE MICKSTER.

By: pointfinder

pointfinder — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 18:07:56 +0000

I enjoy the DB.

“All in all, this was a good post…”

Rooney “…was the number one star… in the world, you hear me? Bang! In the wooorld.”

Props to anyone that can place that reference…

By: Stickie

Stickie — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 18:06:25 +0000

Ratatouille made light of both the hunger and eating disorder problems of urban rats. Shame.

By: CoolDMZ

CoolDMZ — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 17:43:14 +0000

Thanks, DB. I’m glad you were able to look past the absence of any discussion of Zydeco and enjoy the post.

pointfinder: quotefest indeed, especially when Mr Rooney is reached at home for comment. He should be stoked he can even remember being in the movie at his age!

By: DB

DB — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 17:32:16 +0000

When the activist Fa claims that “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” is “arguably the most racist anti-Asian film in American cinematic history”, it shows, if nothing else, his glaring ignorance of the history of American cinema, especially considering that Rooney’s is a minor character. Personally, I never would have scheduled that movie in the first place, given the obvious time-capsule racial caricature of the character (also, it’s just not great). But then, whenever the movie is remembered fondly in clip shows and AFI lists, all anyone recalls is “Moon River” and Audrey Hepburn’s hats. All in all, this was a good post, with some very salient points; however, I should point out that Magagnini writes about racial issues for the Bee, so this story is very much in his purview.

By: pointfinder

pointfinder — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 17:29:43 +0000

Oh, this one is a quote-fest:

“I wasn’t going to make everybody happy editing out the scenes, and I’m never going to make everybody happy,” he said. “Let’s have a fun, relaxing evening and not get embroiled in controversy.”

So, why did you pull the movie?

“Ratatouille,” rated PG, is an animated film featuring rats in the kitchen of a French restaurant. Cohn didn’t expect animal rights activists to protest, since “rats are pretty well-represented in the movie.” But the film’s depiction of “stuffy French people” might offend somebody.

This is one of those things where you are reminded that we’re all just walking a tight rope every day of our lives. Can’t we all just agree that we hate everyone equally?