An initial look without any added context could make someone roll their eyes and wonder why Reframed Classics would even be necessary, but the fact is that in today’s world there are simply too many people that look at the past and want to either forget it, erase it, or otherwise censor it since the past was, for all intents and purposes, more than a little troubling. The depictions of people of color and various ethnic backgrounds and origins were in fact shown in a very stereotypical light since…wait for it…they were a product of the time. Like it or not, the movies from back in the day weren’t PC and they weren’t bound by the hyper-sensitive ideas that people want to push today. Funny enough, the ideas that people agree with today aren’t so different from what they’ve been protesting, and in fact, the need to censor so much is even worse than the content that people are trying to get rid of or hide away since trying to forget the history that brought people to this point is in some ways akin to stating that it never happened. There have been movies that have been made that have shown various people and entire races in an ill light, there’s no doubt of that, but there’s one thing that people can do that doesn’t have to do with censoring or constantly complaining about it. They can simply not watch the movies they don’t agree with.
It’s not too hard to believe that at one point and time if a person didn’t like a movie or what it represented, they could choose not to watch it and be just fine for the lack. But in this day and age, that’s not enough apparently since people feel the need to erase or censor what they disagree with no matter if other people happen to like it and want to watch one movie or another. Reframed Classics is all about giving the proper context and letting people know why it’s important to keep these old movies around, as they’re going to attempt to remind people that yes, these movies might be a problem when it comes to ‘woke’ thinking, but they’re still a part of American culture and are in a sense a type of roadmap showing where we once were and how we came to be where we are now. The only problem with that is the fact that back in those days it’s more than obvious that there were issues with equality and there were problems that many people simply weathered because ‘that was the way it was’. That explanation doesn’t fly now to be certain, but trying to erase or censor movies that depicted such things is still not a wise move since as the hosts have agreed, it’s akin to stating that it never happened.
How many people can remember growing up in the 80s and 90s, with plenty of offensive material that was doled out to us on a regular basis? How many of us became racists? How many were turned into spoiled individuals that now exist with an abundance of privilege that we didn’t earn? Did the movies from back in those days really do anything other than amuse and entertain us? Or was it some insidious plot to alter our thinking and make some of us feel empowered and superior to others, while others were meant to ‘know their place’ or some other such nonsense? If you’re laughing then congratulations, you saw past the noise of those times and had a good experience at the theater or at home watching your favorite movies, which were probably in some way racist by the standards used today. Again, it’s easy to laugh at this because movies are what they’ve always been, a form of entertainment that may or may not carry an important message on how people should think, react, or live. Even with such messages laid into the movies, it’s very easy to take them as entertainment and move on while acknowledging that yes, there is a point, and yes, people should treat each other like people. But the fact that it’s necessary to explain to people these days the context of these older movies and why they’re important is enough to make a person shake their head and wonder what’s going to happen in the next two to three decades if people can’t find a way to toughen up every now and then when it comes to social issues, especially considering that what they see in the movies depicts something so much worse than what most will live through today.
The movies we watch are meant for entertainment, plain and simple, and anything beyond that is bound by the perspective of the person watching. But it would be nice if people could focus on that first point instead of jumping to any conclusions.
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