As civilization evolves, great cinematic moments may become sour in the rearview mirror. Sandy (Olivia Newton-John) modifies her appearance and conduct in the film Grease in order to satisfy Danny (John Travolta) (1978). Additionally referred to as “The Jim Crows” for the birds in Dumbo.
Numerous Academy Award-winning films have deteriorated over time. By 2021, these eleven Academy Award-winning films will still be creating controversy.
Green Book, the 91st Best Picture Oscar winner, soon became a contentious issue following its theatrical premiere. Although the Mahershala Ali-Viggo Mortensen blockbuster was a critical and commercial triumph, numerous critics expressed concern about the film’s portrayal of African-Americans.
Here are some Oscars-awarded movies which we’d think to be a bit controversy nowadays.
The Silence of the Lambs
The portrayal of Buffalo Bill in the Academy Award-winning picture The Silence of the Lambs has also been called into doubt (played by Ted Levine). Buffalo Bill is well-known for dressing up as the female victims he slaughters and wearing their skins. Despite the claims of Clarice (Anthony Hopkins) and Hannibal (Jonathan Demme) that transgender identity has nothing to do with violence, Bill (Jody Foster) is not transgender (even director Jonathan Demme admits that Bill is not intended to be transgender).
“Knowing a narrative’s objective does not imply s***,” Vox TV journalist Emily VanDerWerff tweeted. They heard a strange serial killer masquerading as a lady when they watched SotL. They were told that “Buffalo Bill is not a transsexual person.”
The Help
According to critics, The Help, a 2011 historical drama based on the novel of the same name, relies too much on white actors to convey Black stories. Eugenia, as represented by Emma Stone, fantasizes of writing a book on the bigotry she meets while working as a maid in white Jackson, Mississippi homes. Aibileen Clark (Viola Davis) believes she has “betrayed myself and my people” as a result of her performance in The Help, which she argues has been “produced through the filter and muck of institutional racism” over time.
According to Bryce Dallas Howard, the film’s star, “The Help is portrayed through the perspective of a white character and constructed mainly by white narrative.”
Dallas Buyers Club
In this biographical drama, Ron Woodroof (Matthew McConaughey), an AIDS sufferer diagnosed in the 1980s, is portrayed as a drug dealer to HIV/AIDS patients. One of these patients is Rayon, played by Academy Award winner Jared Leto. The role of a transgender actor (Leto) was given over in favor of a heterosexual actor. Furthermore, the role was seen as a way for Ron’s character to transcend his homophobia and transphobia. Rayon is characterized as an item rather than a person.
American Beauty
The presence of disgraced actor Kevin Spacey (who won an Academy Award for his role as Lester Burnham) makes it tough to rewatch American Beauty (Spacey).
Since the #MeToo movement swept Hollywood in 2017, his name has been linked to it. Anthony Rapp, a 14-year-old boy, accused Spacey of making a sexual attempt on him in 1986. Spacey has categorically denied the claim. As a result of Rapp’s accusations, other men have come forward to say that the House of Cards star sexually assaulted them. Spacey delivered a statement regarding his “pretty horrible intoxicated behaviour” at the time.
Forrest Gump
Many people are bewildered by Robert Zemeckis’ Academy Award-winning film about a learning-impaired young man (Tom Hanks) who has the opportunity to witness some of history’s most significant events…. Disabled people and Vietnam War veterans are usually included on the list as a result of Forrest Gump’s representation of them. Jenny (Robin Wright), Forrest’s best friend, is shown as a child who is sexually molested by her father, performs in nude clubs, romances jerks, and eventually dies with AIDS at an early age.
Forrest is redeemed, according to Matt Glasby, a British GQ writer, by sex with Jenny, fathering a brilliant (and Haley Joel Osment) child, and then dying. The criminal thriller directed by Paul Haggis was nominated for Best Picture, Original Screenplay, and Film Editing. Some believe that Crash oversimplifies racism and racial stereotypes. Crash features “not a single human being,” according to Ta-Nehisi Coates, an Atlantic writer, in 2009. Arguments and propaganda collide, each caught aback by the other’s strangeness. An Academy Award-winning picture for its nihilistic, meaningless variety.
