While what you refer to as "2018 thoughts" are certainly having their time in the sun this year, they have actually existed for decades if not hundreds of years. I think the thoughts are only new to the powers-that-be who control media exposure. As a 63-year-old woman, I can tell you that I already had those thoughts watching the movie as a young teen, and my mother and grandmother had had them when the film was new. We all found the film silly enough to allow us to ignore the icky underpinnings--honestly, Jane Powell's vibrato was more of an issue for me.
But, in general, whether I choose to watch something depends on my mood. Sometimes I have no patience for the way women/black people/Native Americans/disabled people are treated. Other times, I can ignore the negatives and enjoy the positives.
Not long ago, I introduced my niece to the old film, "Waterloo Bridge." For those of you who don't know it, it is in some ways beautifully romantic and in others horribly punishing. But when I watched it with my niece (24 years old) we didn't even get far enough for that dichotomy--she was already totally annoyed by the fact that the man makes all the decisions and the women just follows. No one told her to feel that way. It wasn't because it was 2018. It was because it was unpleasant for her to watch, as an independent woman who makes her own decisions. We turned to something else, and I was a little sad that she wouldn't get to enjoy the romance, but I knew it wouldn't be romantic to her.
As for Annie Hall--it used to be one of my all-time favorite films. Now I can't even watch it. |
