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A politically-correct guide to film censorship

By Tim O'Hare - posted Wednesday, 15 July 2020


With 'Gone With the Wind' pulled from streaming platforms, the opportunity for more politically-correct meddling into the movies people watch has never been greater and we must not stop until only films conforming to the values of a 2020 reader of The Guardian are allowed.

Of course, once the values of 2020 are obsolete, we must limit film choices further because the only way we are to progress as a society is if everyone thinks the same.

So below is an overview of some of the movies that need to be pulled.

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D.W. Griffith's 'Birth of the Nation' (1915) is already unavailable across the major streaming services, but we can't stop there. We must recall every DVD and VHS copy and retrospectively strip it of all honours and awards.

The Wizard of Oz (1939) follows Dorothy (an archaic representation of a female) who journeys along a yellow-brick road to see a Wizard (why does she need the help of an old white man? Why isn't she already empowered?) and, along the way, meets a host of eccentric characters including a Scarecrow, Lion and Tin Man. Could it be that these characters are stereotypes of disadvantaged minorities or is this just a harmless children's film? It would be safest if we ban it.

Charlie Chaplin's 'The Great Dictator' (1940) spoofs Hitler which could be traumatic for holocaust survivors and other minorities. His speech (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_kNTOGHOF0), which affirms the need for unity across all races is unhinged hate-speech and should be promptly banned.

'Citizen Kane' (1941) is about a rich, dead, white male and it shows, in the end, that he is just as human as the rest of us, having lived a life of love and loss and, in the end, dying alone. Clearly that is inappropriate for this day and age, the only part for a rich, white male should be the villain.

'The Searchers' (1956) is about a gun-toting and backward southerner who is bitter about the South losing the Civil War. Get rid of this movie, and the whole filmography of John Wayne!

'Rear Window' (1954) is the story of a peeping tom, 'Vertigo' (1958) is about a stalker and 'Psycho' (1960) portrays a proud, nonbinary person as a psychotic killer. Time to pull them all!

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'The Magnificent Seven' (1960) was not very magnificent, featuring seven white males. Don't they know that it is diversity that gives us strength?

'To Kill a Mockingbird' (1962) glorifies the patriarchal justice system that finds a man innocent of rape. It is thanks to this justice system that prioritises due process and the rule of law that women are afraid to come forward about rape allegations. It needs to be banned.

In 'The Graduate' (1967) young Benjamin Braddock is manipulated into sex by a more powerful woman. This is offensive to male-on-female victims of sexual assault for showing that it can go both ways. Get rid of it, I say!

'Willie Wonka & the Chocolate Factory' (1971)'s titular character is a ruthless neoliberal with no care for health and safety regulations and he runs his factory off slave labour. Clearly this movie is responsible for children of the 70s growing up and thinking capitalist oppression is okay and this movie, and its 2005 remake, should not be allowed.

'The Godfather' (1972) is full of outdated ethnic stereotypes and it promotes hetero-normative family dynamics. In the name of diversity and inclusivity we must remove it!

'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' (1975) needs to be renamed as 'cuckoo' is an inappropriate term for the mentally ill. Likewise, 'Mad Max' (1979) should be renamed to 'Mentally Unwell Max'.

'Star Wars' (1977) is a far right-wing fantasy featuring a young reactionary who takes up arms against an Empire in order to save a Princess who is oppressed by the ultra-conservative, damsel-in-distress archetype. Time to outlaw it!

Both 'Raging Bull' and 'The Shining' (1980) have protagonists who are wife-beaters.

'The Silence of the Lambs' (1991) features Anthony Hopkins as a cannibalistic serial killer despite the fact that, as far as the world is aware, Hopkins has never killed or eaten another human being. It is therefore inappropriate for that actor to portray Hannibal Lecter without having the lived experience of being a serial killer and such casting only perpetuates the casting of conventional, white, male, heterosexual, non-serial killer actors to the detriment of actors who are outside those identities.

Tom Hanks won back-to-back Oscars for playing first a gay man and then disabled person in 'Philadelphia' (1993) and 'Forrest Gump' (1994) respectively, despite being neither gay nor intellectually impaired. Some would say that this is testament to his versatility, I would say that it was bigoted and narrow-minded casting and I demand that these Oscars be returned!

'Schindler's List' (1993) is triggering for victims of the holocaust and, though its hero saves the lives of countless Jews during the holocaust, he was a privileged, straight, white male and a card-carrying member of the Nazi Party and a person's identity is far more important than their actions.. Similarly, we need to ban 'Lincoln' (2012) because Abraham Lincoln was a Republican.

'The Shawshank Redemption' (1994) is set predominantly in an all-male prison and has not even close to fifty-fifty gender representation. We need to reshoot it with female prisoners.

Likewise 'Fight Club' (1999), which tells the story of white-collar men getting together in underground fight clubs as an outlet for their repressed masculinity spurns gender parity in the clubs. Time for it to be pulled from streaming services and a reboot starring Melissa McCarthy to be commissioned.

'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy (2001-03) is a near faultless adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy series, unfortunately that series is full of jingoistic worship of the West with xenophobic portrayals of the East. Why did Peter Jackson have to focus on capturing the spirit of the books and instead focused on capturing what he could foresee to be the values of 2020 from his vantage point in the early 2000s? Hopefully the upcoming Amazon Lord of the Rings series will correct these mistakes with its commitment to casting people of all races as elves (described as 'fair' in the books) and maybe just maybe it will show that Orc lives matter.

'Selma' (2014) tells the story of the well-known, white supremacist, Martin Luther King Jr. who was guilty of the hate-speech of dreaming of the day where men were judged 'not by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character'. This is offensive for today's Black Lives Matter generation.

Of course, James Bond is a chauvinistic, imperialist, white male in a boy's fantasy about the continuation of the British Empire, and he will have to go. To rectify his inter-generational popularity, it is high time that the Bond films were remade with a plus-sized, differently-abled, nonbinary, transracial person in the lead who serves not her Majesty's Secret Service, but the interests of global justice.

So, what's left? The new Star Wars trilogy, the all-female, 'Ghostbusters' (2016) and the all-female, 'Ocean's Eight' (2018), 'Terminator: Dark Fate' (2019) and the latest Charlie's Angles reboot (2019) all conform to contemporary politically-correct standards. The audience response to most of these movies was pretty lukewarm, but audiences don't know what's good for them.

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About the Author

Tim O’Hare is a Sydney-based, freelance commentator, originally from Brisbane. He has written about a range of subjects and particularly enjoys commenting on the culture wars and the intersection between politics, culture, sport, and the arts.

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