(Republicaninformer.com)- In a column at The Daily Wire, film critic Christian Toto suggests six popular films of the past that would never get a green light if they were pitched today: “The Bad News Bears,” “Some Like It Hot,” “The Toy,” “Shallow Hal,” “I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry,” and “Dirty Harry.”
Toto points out that the screenplay of “The Bad News Bears” includes racial epithets that would prevent it from being produced today. He said given the current climate in Hollywood, any “retelling” of the film would look nothing like the original.
It’s obvious why the 1959 comedy “Some Like It Hot” wouldn’t get made today since it is two men who go on the run disguised as women. Toto argues that nobody in Hollywood would dare to pitch a story about two white straight males dressing up as women to hide from the mob. He suggests it would only get a green light if the film cast two drag performers.
Toto said the 1982 Jackie Gleason comedy “The Toy” wouldn’t get made since the “toy” in question was a black man (played by actor Richard Pryer).
While “Shallow Hal” isn’t that old, being released in 2001, Toto said with the “fat acceptance” movement, the film could never be made today since current objections to “fat shaming” have made fat jokes obsolete.
The same can be said for the 2007 Adam Sandler/Kevin James comedy “I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry.” In the brief intervening years, making a film about two straight white guys who pretend to be a gay couple to secure insurance for James’ children would be objectionable in today’s Hollywood environment.
When “Dirty Harry” was released in 1971, some liberal critics objected to the Clint Eastwood classic, Toto writes. Noted film critic Pauline Kael blasted the movie at the time describing the character as a “fascist.”
But no producer in Hollywood would green light “Dirty Harry” today, not because he was a cop who went after the bad guys on his terms, but because Harry often mocked their ethnic accents while doing it.
