Movies That Would Be Cancelled Today

Ten films that got away with it because nobody at the studio was checking.

Entries
10
Category
Film
Updated
  1. A film camera on a tripod in a jungle clearing, a canvas director's chair tipped over and explosion smoke drifting through the trees.

    10. Tropic Thunder

    Ben Stiller · 2008

    Robert Downey Jr. in blackface, as satire of an Oscar-hungry method actor, with a castmate calling it out in every scene. More than 20 disability groups picketed the premiere over the Simple Jack subplot. Stiller said in 2023 he makes no apologies. Noted.

  2. A boxy 1980s home computer crackling with lightning on a teenager's desk, a smoking floppy disk beside it.

    09. Weird Science

    John Hughes · 1985

    Two teenage boys build a woman on a computer, and Kelly LeBrock's whole job is serving them. The Washington Post called the role demeaning in 1985, so this one didn't need hindsight. Anthony Michael Hall also does a stereotyped Black voice in a blues bar. Busy film.

  3. An indoor pool in a mod 1960s Hollywood living room overflowing with soap suds, a toppled tray of hors d'oeuvres at its edge.

    08. The Party

    Blake Edwards · 1968

    Peter Sellers in brownface as an Indian actor who wrecks a Hollywood dinner party. Blake Edwards directed, seven years after Mr. Yunioshi, so this was a pattern. Satyajit Ray and Indira Gandhi were both fans. The makeup still has not aged.

  4. A ramshackle 1950s roadhouse on stilts over a Florida swamp at night, a pink neon tube glowing, a convertible parked out front.

    07. Porky's

    Bob Clark · 1981

    A sex comedy built around teenage boys peeping at girls in the school shower. Siskel and Ebert both condemned how it treated women; Ebert called the peephole scene smarmy. It became the highest-grossing Canadian film ever. Two years later Clark made A Christmas Story.

  5. A rain-soaked lab bench with scorched circuit boards and a tangle of cables, lightning flashing through the window.

    06. Short Circuit

    John Badham · 1986

    Fisher Stevens, a white actor, played Indian engineer Ben Jabituya in brownface and colored contacts, then came back for the sequel. In 2021 he said the role haunts him and he would never do it again. The robot was the more convincing human.

  6. An empty football stadium end zone at dusk with a giant inflatable dolphin pool toy lying on the turf.

    05. Ace Ventura: Pet Detective

    Tom Shadyac · 1994

    The climax reveals the villain is a trans woman, then has a room full of men vomit about it. Netflix's 2020 documentary Disclosure used it as a case study in how Hollywood taught audiences to see trans people. It made $107 million. The dolphin was fine.

  7. A birthday cake with sixteen lit candles on a glass dining table in a dark suburban kitchen, an unopened present beside it.

    04. Sixteen Candles

    John Hughes · 1984

    Two problems: an exchange student written as a stack of Asian stereotypes, and a subplot where the dreamboat hands his passed-out girlfriend to a freshman. Molly Ringwald, its own star, re-examined it in The New Yorker in 2018. Everyone remembers the cake.

  8. A fraternity lawn at night littered with tipped lawn chairs, toilet paper in the trees and a calculator left on a picnic table.

    03. Revenge of the Nerds

    Jeff Kanew · 1984

    The hero puts on a mask and has sex with a woman who thinks he's her boyfriend, and the film plays it as a win. In 2019 Kanew told GQ it wasn't excusable and he wouldn't like it if it were his daughter. The nerds were not, it turns out, the good guys.

  9. A spilled bottle of small brown tablets on a law library desk beside a stack of thick leather-bound casebooks and a crimson scarf.

    02. Soul Man

    Steve Miner · 1986

    A white student takes tanning pills to pass as Black and claim a Harvard Law scholarship meant for Black students. A white actor in blackface, as a premise. The NAACP protested. C. Thomas Howell later called it adorable and harmless. It made $35 million, which explains 1986.

  10. A paper coffee cup and a pastry in a white bag on the sidewalk outside a dark jewelry store window at dawn, an orange cat asleep on the step.

    01. Breakfast at Tiffany's

    Blake Edwards · 1961

    Mickey Rooney plays Holly's Japanese neighbor as a white actor in yellowface makeup and prosthetic teeth. Producer Richard Shepherd wanted a Japanese actor; Edwards overruled him, then later said he wished he'd never done it. The rest of the movie is lovely. That's the problem.

Honorable mentions

  • A lone tollbooth in the middle of open desert with no fence on either side, a saddle on the ground beside it.

    Blazing Saddles

    Mel Brooks · 1974

    Everyone assumes it tops this list. Co-written by Richard Pryor, and the racists are the joke every single time. Brooks has said you couldn't make it today. The Library of Congress put it in the National Film Registry in 2006, which is the opposite of cancelled.

Dishonorable mentions

  • A heavy locked film vault door at the end of a dim corridor, a bluebird perched on its handle.

    Song of the South

    Harve Foster and Wilfred Jackson · 1946

    Disney's plantation musical has never had a complete U.S. home video release, and Bob Iger said in 2020 it is not appropriate in today's world. Splash Mountain became Tiana's Bayou Adventure in 2024. The studio cancelled it before anyone else could.

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