Unfortunate Implications/Film: Difference between revisions
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Times where movies portray things in an [[Unfortunate Implications|unfortunate way]].
{{smallcaps|Important Note:}} Just because a work has [[Unfortunate Implications]] does ''not'' mean the author was thinking of it that way. In fact, that's the point of it being ''unfortunate''. So, please, no [[Justifying Edit
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== # ==
* ''[[300]]'' has several:
** Beyond the idealization of hardcore eugenics and other fascist ideals, practically all of [[300|the Persians]] with major speaking roles, most infamously the messenger, are played by actors of Sub-Saharan African descent, and Brazilian actor Rodrigo Santoro's skin color was darkened when he played Xerxes. This introduces a racial element to the otherwise cultural and political struggle. In real life, Persians tend to be much lighter skinned.
** The real Ephialtes wasn't Spartan or deformed, and only wanted a reward, but [[Frank Miller]] strongly changed this aspect of the story. The physically deformed, "defective" Ephialtes now "lives down to his physical unfitness" by betraying the athletic - and correspondingly morally upstanding - heroes to the Persians. This element was added to give Ephialtes a more interesting motive than simple greed, but also seems to suggest that their systematic eugenic cleansing practice (directly inspiring similar practices by the Nazis) was fully justified, and the problem was simply that one of them got away; along with [[Beauty Equals Goodness]]. The [[Unreliable Narrator]] justification doesn't work for this one.
** Hell, the whole movie is teeming with such implications. Just for starters, there's the contemptuous description of Athenians as [[Paedo Hunt|"boy-lovers."]] That becomes hypocritical (not to mention hilarious) when you remember how prevalent homosexuality was among the Spartans themselves. ([[They Just Didn't Care|Not that Miller cares]], though, making them all heterosexual.)
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== A-E ==
* In the live action adaptation of ''[[Aeon Flux]]'', there's a secondary character who accompanies Aeon in a bid to infiltrate the bad guy's home. Said character is a black woman. Said black woman genetically altered her feet so they would be ''hands''. Like a monkey. Which black people are often compared to as a stereotype.
* [[Catherine Breillat]]'s ''[[Anatomy of Hell]]'' appears to espouse that all men hate women, and that gay men hate them even more; and that in fact male homosexuality is just an expression of men's inherent misogyny. Apparently, the only reason why one might consider the act of dipping a used tampon in a glass of water and drinking it unenthralling is because of men's fear of women's bodily functions.
** Oh, hell, that's tame by Breillat's standards. She just usually gets in trouble with feminists; "Fat Girl" and "Romance" in particular have some nasty things to say about women in general and the "unattractive" in particular.
* [[Mel Gibson]]'s film ''[[Apocalypto]]'' caught a lot of controversy because of its portrayal of the Mayan civilization as a [[Crapsack World|dark, corrupted hell hole]], and it got worse with the final scene in which {{spoiler|the arrival of the Spaniards acts as a [[Deus Ex Machina]]}}, since, for some people, this had the implication {{spoiler|that the Mayans deserved to be subjugated because they needed to be saved by the Europeans.}}
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** Depending on the telling, moreso than others. Given that the original story was encouraging arranged marriages, the implications in ''that'' probably were intentional.
** In the original telling the Beast was very polite and courteous as he tried to make up for his hideous appearance.
* Although hardly the only flaw in Uwe Boll's series of ''[[
{{quote|It's not that Boll didn't put competent female characters in the movie. He just didn't make Rayne one of them.}}
* ''[[Braindead]]'' (aka ''[[Dead Alive]]'') has a few very prominent racial stereotypes in its opening scenes. We have a "gypsy-like" family with outrageous accents reading tarot cards, the female lead immediately stalking the male lead thanks to reading said cards, aboriginal people who could have been in a fifties pulp fiction story, and a black man dancing off with money paid reluctantly to him by a white authority. It's [[Uncle Tomfoolery]] and exploitative of Roma stereotypes.
* ''[[Breakfast at Tiffany's]]'' features Mickey Rooney in yellowface.
* In the [[Pee
** [[Science Marches On|Um, modern-day birds are now considered by scientists to be the last surviving dinosaurs, so they're not "totally" extinct]] Though, the unfortunate comparisons of a mass genocide still remain in the special.
* In the original ''A Christmas Carol'', Dickens left Scrooge's profession open-ended, and his hatred of Christmas came from a series of past misfortunes; as a child he really rather enjoyed it. However, in [[The Muppet Christmas Carol]] they change the character ever so slightly for some Unfortunate Implications. This Scrooge is a miserly money lender ... with a Hebrew name ... who has never celebrated Christmas ... It's obviously unintentional, but considering modern audiences are probably more familiar with negative Jewish stereotypes than they are with 19th century Puritans, it seems like the writers could have done a LOT more to distance themselves. Especially as the most damning elements are the ones that they added in themselves.
** Say what? Scrooge in the novel is named Ebeneezer (and is clearly called that in almost every non-modern-dress adaptation) and it's pretty clear from page one that he is a commodities trader and moneylender and landlord, which, again, turns up in almost every single film version. If anything the 1951 version starring Alastair Sim goes farther in making Scrooge look like a complete [[Jerkass]], showing how he and [[Affably Evil]] Marley stab old Fezziwig metaphorically in the back and then acquire their business by taking advantage of another investor being an embezzler (none of which is in the book.) ''That'' version does add the unfortunate implication that it's better to stick to your principles even if it means your outdated business model fails, and your employees all end up out of work. Also, [[Did Not Do the Research|Scrooge is not a Puritan.]] The Puritans were a seventeenth-century sect that got run out of England. About the only thing that [[The Muppets]] added were songs and puppets and singing vegetables.
* The movie ''Christmas With The Kranks'' has the protagonists decide not to celebrate Christmas. The reaction this gets is pretty insane to say the least, with the neighbors harassing the Kranks endlessly to celebrate it and put up decorations like the rest of the neighborhood. They finally give in when their young adult daughter decides to come home to visit. The very fact that not celebrating Christmas is seen to be some kind of unforgivable sin is bad enough, but then the film hammers home the idea that fighting against the established conformity--no matter how much you disagree with it--will get you nowhere and you should do never do otherwise. [[Roger Ebert]] [https://web.archive.org/web/20130112213413/http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=
* In the 2010 remake of "[[Clash of the Titans]]", almost everyone in the hero's party was a character or creature from Greek mythology. However one of the party members was a [[Fantasy Kitchen Sink|Djinn,]] [[All Myths Are True|a creature from Islamic mythology]] which appears in neither the original myth the movie is based on nor the original 1981 version of the film. During the confrontation with Medusa, the Djinn gets close to Medusa and [[Action Bomb|"uses black magic to explode his core" as a means of attacking her]], [[Suicide Attack|killing himself in the process]]. [[Fridge Horror|In short]], he was a [[Religious Stereotype|Muslim]] [[Unacceptable Targets|suicide bomber]]. Not may people I know [[Getting Crap Past the Radar|picked up on this.]]
** Keep in mind that the Djinn was a good guy blowing up an evil monster, which raises a whole new set of Unfortunate Implications.
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** Creighton Prison is divided into cliques. This, in itself, is not unfortunate. However, both cliques consist entirely of Blacks and Hispanics, respectively. Making things even worse, Creighton is described as a prison for the worst kinds of criminals
** [[Goldberg|Burke]], the only white prisoner, has suffered a [[Miscarriage of Justice]].
** To underline, the problem is not the existence of prison cliques composed of blacks and Hispanics, because you can find those in every prison in the US. The problem is the part where in this world white people apparently don't go to prison at all unless they're framed. (In a real prison you'd have ''three'' major cliques -- the blacks, the Hispanics, and the
** Twitch is basically a [[Ethnic Scrappy|walking]] [[Uncle Tomfoolery|stereotype]].
* ''[[Happy Feet]]'': All of Mumble's [[Sidekick|sidekicks]] are rather over-the-top Hispanic stereotypes, and the girls they talk to are likewise. These penguins are meant to be the positive alternative to the rather over-the-top stereotypically religious and clannish elder penguins.
* The 1942 movie ''[[Holiday Inn]]'': the musical number for February (Lincoln's birthday). [[Values Dissonance]] is one thing but this... Holy. Shit. A big blackface minstrel show about [[Abraham Lincoln]]. Naturally it gets cut when on TV (even in 1942, controversy forced Irving Berlin to alter the offending word "darky" to "negro").
** Even some of the ''characters'' think it's a dumb idea (in-story, the blackface was a last-minute addition, to disguise one character so she wouldn't be recognized by others).
* ''[[The Hottie and The Nottie]]'' isn't even subtle about its VERY dubious moral. Basically, it contends only hot chicks such as Paris Hilton are worthy of love and that any woman who isn't "hot" deserves only to spend the rest of their life alone and miserable. Are you born ugly or plain? Hard luck!
** There's the thing, though. That's not an unfortunate ''implication'', that's ''the explicit message of the film''.
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** A [[The History Channel|History Channel]] program about Archeology credits the Indiana Jones films for inspiring them to become archologists and explains that in its day Archeology WAS grave robbing (As mentioned above), making this more a case of [[Values Dissonance]].
** ''[[Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom]]'' is even worse, especially during the feast scene, with Indians eating live snakes, monkey brains, eyeball soup and giant bugs. A great many Hindus are vegetarians, and monkeys are revered in Hinduism. The film was actually banned in India for its "racist portrayal of Indians and overt imperialistic tendencies". Ultimately the plot of the movie has some justification in the fact that the spread is provided by an evil cult of murderous Thuggee who have a separate culture from the outside world. In the novelization of the film, Indy notices that the food does not fit common Hindu strictures.
** ''[[Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull]]'' continues the trend, even though it was released in 2008. If nothing at all, the film blatantly over-simplifies Cold War tensions, and is particularly anvilicious regarding nuclear warfare. And let's not forget the South American savages, back with a vengeance!
*** Given that it followed the formula of following the movie styles of its time period, that could be more of [[Deliberate Values Dissonance]].
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* ''[[The Last Airbender]]'', the [[Live Action Adaptation]] of ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]''.
** The casting. It started with white actors being cast as the East Asian and Inuit-inspired heroes, then the villains were cast as dark-skinned, minority actors only playing either extras [[Mighty Whitey|who couldn't do anything until the heroes intervened]], [[The Mole|a poor villager revealed to be a spy]], or just a plain foot masseuse, etc.
** Most of the prominent [[Action Girl]] characters have either been removed (Suki, Smellerbee, June) or lost their badassery (Katara). Even the agency of most female characters is gone, as Yue goes from making the decision to [[Heroic Sacrifice|sacrifice]] herself to resurrect the Moon Spirit (like in the cartoon) to basically being told to do so by Iroh.
** Changing Chinese calligraphy into "Asian-inspired" pictorial language (a.k.a gibberish) yet try to make pronunciations of character names more "authentic".
** In Shyamalan's defense, he did note that [[Mukokuseki|"Animes are intended to be racially ambiguous."]] Unfortunately, he managed to choose one of the few "animes" in which ethnic differences ''were'' significant because they were intended to mirror specific cultures in history.
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** [[Truth in Television]], to some degree: keep in mind that when the film was made, it wasn't so long ago that Irish and Jewish people were discriminated against for jobs. Still unfortunate, though.
* ''[[The Matrix]]'' films has the protagonists perfectly willing to kill innocent civilians in their war against the machines, arguing that [[With Us or Against Us|anyone who isn't actively supporting them is the enemy]], which is, in essence, the philosophy of every terrorist organization.
** This wasn't an accidental implication. The makers MEANT for the audience to doubt as to who the "good guys" are in the movies. They also clearly modelled the "freedom fighters" after a terrorist group; this point is even mentioned in the movies.
** It becomes more mixed when you consider that they are fighting an enemy that can manifest nigh-invincible killing machines wherever it wants, by 'jumping' into the body of anyone not a member of the Resistance. "Anyone who isn't with us is against us" becomes a statement of literal fact in that kind of situation.
* [[Million Dollar Baby]] Implies that disability means that life is not worth living, or worthy to live.
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** Then there's the cannibalistic Pelegosto savages who worship Jack as a god and want to free him from his mortal body by eating him. The chief of the Carib Indian community had some very nasty things to say to Disney over it. (Ironically, if the Carib people ever did practice cannibalism, it was more or less the ritual kind of the film -- or so says [[That Other Wiki]].)
** And then there's the overall theme, especially in the sequels, that piracy is synonymous with liberty. Liberty meaning I can rape, kill, pillage and nobody should stop me at all!
*** It's understandable that it comes across that way because these movies are utterly fantastical in pretty much every other respect, but the reason this part is in there is because it ''is'' historically accurate. A lot of the people who were once considered "pirates" simply didn't agree with overly restrictive trade companies and government-cronyist monopolies and struck out to do business on their own. Not very many of them were criminals at all.
* The original ''[[Planet of the Apes]]'': The crew of astronauts are three men and one woman and it is clearly stated that she was to be the Eve on the new planet. So, if everything had gone according to plan, the offspring of the astronauts would have to reproduce with their half-siblings. And considering the following generations, inbreeding would cause a lack of genetic diversity. ({{spoiler|From a genetic standpoint, it's probably a good thing they ended up back on Earth.}})
** Also, for a film series that is meant partially as an allegory on racism, its portrayal of the various ape species [[Broken Aesop|doesn't exactly fit together with its message.]] Chimpanzees are calm, compassionate and rational and are portrayed as the heroes who are opposed by the dogmatic, backwards-thinking Orangutans and the aggressive, brutish Gorillas. In ''Escape from Planet of the Apes'', Zira, the chimpanzee scientist, calls the gorillas "a bunch of militaristic nincompoops", and we're not supposed to find anything unsound about that.
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{{quote|"The message of Rules of Engagement is the necessity to kill all those who actively oppose the United States and that the murder of women and children is acceptable in such cases."}}
** This example counts as something of a [[Shocking Swerve]]. Throughout the movie, the Marines' attack on the protesting crowd was presented as abhorrent as it was believed that only a few people in the crowd were actually armed and that the Colonel (played by [[Samuel L. Jackson]]) overreacted by ordering his men to [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill|open fire on the entire crowd, armed or not]]. It was only after finding the security videotape that the audience finds out that 90+% of the crowd was in on the attack and that Jackson was justified (legally if not morally) in opening fire on a crowd of civilians.
*** Errrr, if 90+% of the crowd is armed and firing then that isn't a crowd of 'civilians'. At that point you are under enemy attack, and returning fire is both legally ''and'' morally justified.
*** The Geneva Conventions use the words "combatant" and "noncombatant" instead of "military" and "civilian" for precisely this reason. If you're shooting at soldiers they are perfectly justified in shooting back at you, and whether or not you have a uniform on at the time makes no difference.
** In the DVD commentary the director said the original scene was supposed to be unclear about whether the crowd was actually shooting, or if that's just what [[Samuel L. Jackson]] convinced himself into believing. However, the test audience [[Viewers are Morons|wanted a literal interpretation]], so that's what the film ultimately got. Also the Arab doctor is one of the people with the most moral fiber (note how he is able to make a tough choice when none of the American witnesses can).
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* ''[[Saw]] VI'' seems a pretty great sequel... until you realize that the script suggests that William saved the right people, who ''[[Men Are the Expendable Gender|happen to be all female]]''. They even manage to destroy the point they were trying to make (William's policy only granted healthcare to young healthy people) by putting a female character against a male one. No points for guessing who isn't picked...
* The climax of ''[[Scrooged]]'' teaches us that it's perfectly okay to threaten innocent people with a shotgun, as long as you're spreading Christmas cheer!
** Or if they're pompous jerks trying to steal your job.
* ''[[Shallow Hal]]'': It's all about the ''inner'' beauty of Gwyneth Paltrow's character, we're told, and her weight is irrelevant... but we should still laugh at an "apparently" thin woman weighing down the front end of a canoe like a seesaw and wearing a nightie that could cover an elephant.
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** Not helped by the fact that he did in fact prepare to relocate a group of Native Americans in "Journey's End."
** Used in-universe with the [[Star Trek]] Genesis Arc: The Genesis Device is intended as a quick and easy way to make a planet habitable, but David Marcus and Dr. McCoy realize it could just as easily wipe out an inhabited planet.
*** David Marcus' objections to Genesis' existence look a tad hypocritical when you consider that he ''invented the bloody thing in the first place''.
* ''[[Star Wars]]'': Many examples in both trilogies, though mainstream controversy only really erupted over prequel examples.
** The faction representing good and light accepted a slave army of clones to fight their battles.
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** In the film's defense, these are less Unfortunate Implications and more their stated intention. It's suggested (though admittedly subtly) that, in Universe, Simple Jack was a serious film that was shunned just because its protagonist was too disabled, rather than because it featured offensively crude stereotypes. Adjusting for the same amount of comedic inflation seen in the fake trailer for Satan's Alley, Simple Jack would probably be seen as akin to John Malkovich in Of Mice And Men.
** Similarly, Kirk Lazarus kind of needed the bluntness of Blackface in order to make their point explicit. Considering the character not only satirises Hollywood Whitewashing, but also Black stereotypes in movies ([[Magical Negro]] and [[Scary Black Man]] to name but two), it would have had far more Unfortunate Implications had the character been played by a Black actor (in Whiteface for the framing, a la Watermelon Man).
* ''[[Twilight (novel)|Twilight]]'' may give young girls a bad view of relationships. Ignoring the sparkling, Edward fits into all the stereotypes of an abuser/stalker; the worst example is stealing Bella's car engine anytime she wants to do something. Considering how many ''Twilight'' fans absolutely FAWN over Edward, this might lead to some problems. [https://web.archive.org/web/20130708134529/http://www.squidoo.com/cullenabuse As seen here]. And there's PLENTY MORE where that came from.
** Plus their age difference--Edward is a hundred-year-old vampire, while Bella is a teenage girl.
*** A hundred-year-old vampire with the physical and emotional maturity of a seventeen-year-old.
** In ''Eclipse'', Jacob starts to act almost exactly like a rapist. This includes excusing a forced kiss on Bella by saying "She's confused, she doesn't know what she wants!" He's supposed to be Bella's [[Love Triangle|other love interest]]. In other words, Bella is choosing between a guy who is a stereotypical stalker and a guy who shows signs of being a rapist. There's also Bella and Jacob's kiss, which is all well and sweet, until you consider that he only got her to kiss him after he threatened suicide for not dating him.
** See the fairly substantial section on Twilight in the literature section for more details on the series.
** To elaborate further, Bella putting herself in harm's way to get Edward's attention turns this into textbook example of sadomasochistic collusion, i.e. a kind of relationship you really, really want to avoid.
** [[Roger Ebert]] criticized the film [https://web.archive.org/web/20110917110218/http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=
** In the first part of Breaking Down, the movie discuss ''abortion''. [[Rule of Cautious Editing Judgment|And I'm going to leave like that.]]
** Though not quite as harmful as the undertones of abuse, the series portrays the parents as complete idiots. Bella's mother is often compared to a child and it is implied that Bella took care of her rather than the other way around. Bella's father is depicted as completely unreasonable for being concerned about his daughter's safety, mental health, and future. That's right, kids, ignore your parents' advice and marry that dangerous, possessive guy who used to stalk you. Your parents just don't understand what's he's really like!
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== U-Z ==
* At the end of ''[[Universal Soldier]]'', Van Damme and Lundgren are having their big showdown, but Lundgren is just too tough. When Lundgren starts beating up Van Damme's girlfriend, he rallies and fights even harder, but he's still not strong enough. Then Van Damme grabs some more super-soldier serum and shoots up, giving him the strength to defeat Lundgren. So we learn is that if you want to get stronger, your personal willpower and the drive to succeed aren't enough. You need drugs...then again his opponent was an undead super soldier killing machine, outmassed him by at least 30 kilos, was taller by at least 40 cm and most had been injecting himself with the exact same drugs for half the movie. So...
** 'If your opponent has superpowers, your odds of beating him go a lot better if you have superpowers too' might not be a perfect message, but it is a
* The Irish short film "What Would You Do" has all the good characters with definite pronounced Irish names (Saoirse, Sean, Aoife, Roisin) while the evil [[Alpha Bitch]] has an English name (Jessica).
* In ''[[X-Men (film)|X-Men: First Class]]'' the two non-American good guys (Irish Banshee and Scottish Moira McTaggart) are turned into Americans while the non-American bad guy (Magneto) gets to stay non-American.
** There's also the fact that the only prominent non-white characters in the movie {{spoiler|are killed off or join Magneto}} within the first twenty minutes of the movie.
** And both prominent female mutants {{spoiler|end up with Magneto at the end.}} Apparently you have to be born white, male and American to be a proper X-Man.
** Not to mention what happens to poor Moira at the end. {{spoiler|Distrusted by Charles to the point that he [[Mind Rape|wipes her memory against her wishes]], then treated as a weakling by the other CIA men for having feelings when SHE was the one to discover the mutants in the first place...}}
*** This may have been [[Deliberate Values Dissonance]], based on cultural norms of the American 1960s. Moira was shown to be very competent throughout the film, so her superior's regarding her sudden memory loss as female incompetence just makes them look even more [[Jerkass]].
** And then there's the villain trying to convince the new mutants to join his team. He rattles off several reasons, the first mentioning the word "slavery". As he says it, the camera zooms in on Darwin, the only African-American member of the squad.
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