Would you edit Mickey Rooney out of Breakfast at Tiffany's?

Would I edit it out? No way. Nor would I edit "Birth Of A Nation" or old time westerns or any other kind of art that reflects the times and the attitudes of the period in which they were created. Any art worth it's salt, in addition to reflecting current or future times, is a road map of where we were. The urge to erase or change the segments of our past that we now find embarrassing has the effect of erasing the history of how we got here. That leaves us in danger of repeating the same mistakes. Travel down that road at your own peril.

 

There goes the PC Police again, picking on "Birth of a Nation"! Yet another case of a group of overly-sensitive people who just can't take a little ribbing.

 

I don't expect this to change anyone's view on issue but since it is relevant I decided to post it from Wikidpedia's
entry on I.Y. Yunioshi

In a 2008 interview about the film, Rooney said he was heartbroken about the criticism: "Blake Edwards...wanted me to do it because he was a comedy director. They hired me to do this overboard, and we had fun doing it....Never in all the more than 40 years after we made it – not one complaint. Every place I've gone in the world people say, 'God, you were so funny.' Asians and Chinese come up to me and say, 'Mickey you were out of this world.'" Rooney also said that if he'd known people would be so offended, "I wouldn't have done it".[11]

 

If I edited out everything in every movie that I thought was stupid most movies would only average about a 20 minute running time...

 

I watched it with my much younger spouse a few weeks ago, and we both cringed during the Rooney scenes but little was said other than "that's awful!".

I had a harder time explaining what an answering service was when we watched an early-70s movie last weekend.

 

Actually, Mr. Rooney, they said: "Mricky, you war owtta dissa worl!"

 

Insensitivity or ignorance. Difficult to tell which.

 

So would you edit it out?

 

Never mind changing mores, I don't see how anyone thought this was a good idea even at the time. I mean, it just jars with the tone of the rest of the movie. And even if it was felt necessary anyway, why use an aging hack like Rooney to do a "yellowface" shtick? Was he tight with Blake Edwards or something? There were certainly oriental actors who could've used the work and I doubt the hoi polloi would've clutched their pearls about it.

Anyway: nah, I wouldn't edit it out, although I could see excising it from a personal viewing copy.

 

You mean Rooney's performance or the numbskull's "joke" upthread?

I would not edit anything out of a completed, released film, or any other work. I also wouldn't let my children see "Breakfast at Tiffany's", "A Day at the Races", "Holiday Inn", or even "Sixteen Candles" without a sitdown before and after to discuss the contents of the movie, and why the scenes and characters are offensive to our family.

I own "Birth of a Nation", I've seen it probably a dozen times, and I've shown it in its entirety to a class of high school students. It's pretty much impossible to tell the story of movie history without it, and it's also impossible to tell the story of racial and ethnic stereotypes in movies without it, since it is a benchmark in that regard as well and set a tone that would last for decades. I think the first time I saw the film was on PBS, at midnight, but I know that TCM has aired it in prime time, with discussion before and after. It should always be seen.

 

Parody of Rooney's awful performance.

 

So the answer is "both" - insensitivity and ignorance.

 

I think the problem will eventually take care of itself. The film is increasingly dated and irrelevant to modern audiences. I still enjoy movies from the silent era forwards but it is a select few that seek out these films. Most are educated enough to know that they are a product of and reflect the values of the time in which they were produced.

http://whatculture.com/film/10-hilarious-movie-moments-that-would-get-banned-now.php

 

Welcome to my ignore list. I have zero tolerance for personal attacks on forums.

 

I feel sorry for you, and anyone you have to interact with in real life who is markedly different from you.

 

I'm not singling you out; your POV is not uncommon and you received some likes for it.

There is nothing wrong about humourous racial stereotyping, unless it is not funny. Russell Peters has made a career out of it and he is funny. His audiences are multiracial and you see them laughing. This is healthy. We are far more advanced as a society if we can bring this stuff out in the open and treat it with a light heart. Eddie Murphy did a skit on SNL in white face to show how much easier it is to be white. It was ridiculous but it had to be, otherwise it would not have been so funny.

A poster on this thread attached a video of East Asian kids being offended. As John Cleese mentioned, we should not pander to them. Why not post a video of East Asian kids who can handle such videos without taking it personally - a sign of emotional health. The problem with people such as those kids in the video is that their attitude distances people. Who wants to hang out with people who readily take offence? People adapt to tiptoe around them and ultimately it hurts the offendees the most. It certainly limits openness and honesty.

My biggest concern is that when we get all agitated by something like this performance in BIT we are trivializing real radical racist behaviour. We humans have demonstrated our ability to be truly horrendous to each other and that should never be taken lightly. I won't give examples out of respect for the forum rules - some posts, including mine, are already dancing on the line. Feel free to PM me if you want to discuss further.

I will not respond publicly any more (for real this time! ).

 

Who decides if it's funny? Some people think Rooney was hilarious in "Tiffany's", while others think he was as unfunny as could be - who wins?

And the notion that people aren't "emotionally healthy" because they find a gross ethnic stereotype to be offensive perplexes me. Shrugging your shoulders when someone portrays your ethnicity as subhuman is a sign of emotional health?

Much of this thread seems bizarre to me...

 

It's not just you Colin. . .

 

Yes, there is. What do you do for a living? Do you include "humorous racial stereotyping" in your day-to-day interactions with your co-workers? Do you engage in it with your children, or your neighbors' children?

What a perverse, couched, blame-the-victim mentality you have.

 

Let me just say there is a difference between racism and racial stereotyping as people are confusing the two of them and calling them the same thing.

Racism is:

"the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races.

• prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior."

Notice the key components to racism. Racial stereotyping, in and of itself, cannot be considered racism. It must establish the motivation of trying to distinguish inferiority or superiority to another races and be prejudiced, discriminatory, or antagonistic toward other races to be considered racism.

 

when did the interest to revise historical film, etc. start?

 

I remember back in the 1960's when I was a youngster they revised many of the original early editions of the Hardy Boys books...

 

"Political correctness" of what stripe? All parties and points on the political spectrum practice it with their own spin.

 

Does anyone describe themselves, or people they are philosophically aligned with, as being politically correct? Isn't that term used primarily as a pejorative--perhaps as a way to disenfranchise the, um, "politically correct" speaker?

 

Problem is, even when we acknowledge our mistakes, we repeat them anyway.