Variety Wants to Add Warning Labels to These Other “Problematic” Movies

We’re wholly convinced that most people sneered with disdain at HBO when the suits decided that they could no longer air Gone With The Wind without affixing it with a short introduction explaining that certain depictions and attitudes seen in the Civil War-era film are out of sync with our modern, anti-racist sentiments. This urge to go back and condemn movies (and people) who aren’t as “woke” as the millennials of 2020 is nonsensical, pointless, and endlessly tiresome. Does anyone really believe that adding “context and framing” to a 1929 movie changes one damn thing about anything?

Well, apparently the scolds at Variety do, because they not only support HBO’s decision to attach a warning label to “Gone With The Wind,” they want Hollywood to go even further. To that end, they came up with a ridiculous list of “10 Problematic Films” that could also benefit from retroactive finger-wagging.

“It’s now widely accepted that despite being a beloved classic, ‘Gone With the Wind’ needs an explanation of its context when it’s screened on TV or in theaters,” author Tim Wise said, without evidence. “HBO Max says it will eventually restore the Oscar-winning film to the service, but with ‘context and framing.’ It’s a start, but Hollywood’s vaults are filled with movies that could benefit from an explainer or disclaimer about outdated depictions of race, sexuality, disabilities and more.”

So here are some of the movies that Variety believes should no longer be screened without an introduction by some historian or social justice professor explaining all the problematic parts to audiences:

Dirty Harry – because it “mocks liberal judges and do-gooders.”

Forrest Gump – because it’s “actually hostile to protesters, activists, and the counterculture.”

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom – because the “villains are portrayed as primitive and bloodthirsty foreigners.”

The Silence of the Lambs – because it “depicts the criminal’s transgender identification as part of his mental illness.”

Our absolute favorite is the inclusion of 1994’s True Lies, which earns a place on the list because “the Arab characters are religious fanatics or terrorists, or both.”

Yeah, if it weren’t for Arnold and James Cameron, no one would ever associate Arabs with religious fanaticism and terrorism.

We suppose that digging through the Hollywood archives for problematic material counts as a light touch in an era where people are unironically trying to abolish the police, but still, don’t these people ever feel the hot cringe of embarrassment when publishing this pandering nonsense?