A fourth go-round for Breakfast at Tiffany's???, it's a great film but...cone on.

Skip

It's not just that movie but a whole new (old) line of films.  Sunset Boulevard, Funny Face, Sabrina, Roman Holiday.  I'm not sure what to make of them yet because most of these already have pretty solid transfers.  I'll wait and see, but if it's just new features, I'll be passing on the whole line.

Everyone keeps telling me this is a great film, but I cannot watch it. Mickey Rooney's imbecilic characterization of a Japanese person causes me to revolt against the film and I cannot continue.

How do I edit him out?

Quoting VibroCount:

Quote:
Everyone keeps telling me this is a great film, but I cannot watch it. Mickey Rooney's imbecilic characterization of a Japanese person causes me to revolt against the film and I cannot continue.

How do I edit him out?

I'm simply speechless.

Skip

Look, I'm not saying we need to ban the film, or even the scenes with Mr. Yunioshi. All I know is I found his portayal of the Japanese landlord offensive when I first saw the film 47 years ago, and even though I have it on DVD and my wife and daughter watch it on occasion, I still find it painful to see this "funny" performance, so... I've never made it past the first few minutes of when it is on screen -- which is very early in the film.

I also find the subject matter of "Birth of a Nation" offensive, and most Charlie Chan and Mr. Moto films bothersome as well. I know they need to be seen and placed in their historical context. I've watched many of them. I can stand it. But for some odd reason, Mr. Yunioshi just gets under my skin and fires my anger button. Sorry. Just me. Discuss the film all you like, I'll enjoy the discussion. But please don't force me to witness this bad joke again.


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Edit:

Okay, I've thought about it some more. I ask myself why does this one performance bother me so much? Why am I far less offended by Charlie Chan, Mr. Moto, and other depictions of other races acted by white performers? Why do Mr. Yunioshi and Sakini (by Marlon Brando in "Teahouse of the August Moon") bother me so much? And I think I might have an answer... Mr. Yunioshi is a very weak character -- in many ways he is a Barney Fife/Don Knotts over-the-top wimp. And over-the-top wimp is enough, without adding to it the racial stereotype of having the Japanese-American played by a white man in buck teeth and massive glasses, overacting at a pace unknown by Knotts. If Stepin Fetchit's and Mantan Moreland's roles were played by white men in blackface, it would add the additional insult of their weak characters being played by members of another race -- and of the race in power.

To this day, Rooney claims to have meant no offense in this role -- his current wife speaks well of their love of Chinese food and art. 

Quoting VibroCount:

Quote:
I ask myself why does this one performance bother me so much? Why am I far less offended by Charlie Chan, Mr. Moto, and other depictions of other races acted by white performers?

I'm guessing it's because the landlord was made a racial stereotype purely for laughs. Not necessarily a weak character, more one-dimensional. We watch those scenes as an audience and know that the only reason the landlord was made Asian was to make us laugh at him.
Characters like Charlie Chan I think are born through naïvety more than malice. We are meant to take Charlie Chan (semi-)seriously as an Asian character, and as he is a great detective, he gets our respect too. Obviously it would have been so much better if an Asian actor had played him, but there you go.
I personally only find things racist if the intent was to offend or ridicule that particular race, so I have no problem with characters like Charlie Chan, or Fu Manchu, even the characters in "One of our Dinosaurs is Missing" taken in their historical context.
In this day and age, with the wealth of multi-cultural actors available, there is no reason for this kind of race-swapping anymore, unless of course it's to make a point (Tropic Thunder), but I see no reason to judge 50-odd year old films using present-day values.

@Skip
And Song of the South a great masterpiece? It's a minor work at best! It's not PC attitudes that keeps that film in the vault, it's Walt Disney's fear of looking anything less than white than white (no pun intended)!

Quoting mdnitoil:

Quote:
It's not just that movie but a whole new (old) line of films.  Sunset Boulevard, Funny Face, Sabrina, Roman Holiday.  I'm not sure what to make of them yet because most of these already have pretty solid transfers.  I'll wait and see, but if it's just new features, I'll be passing on the whole line.

Yep, this whole re-release series is annoying. My girlfriend loves Audrey Hepburn. Needless to say, I had the first editions of Sabrina, Roman Holiday, Funny Face and Breakfast at Tiffany's. I then bought her the Anniversary Edition of Breakfast which was a huge improvement and is a really nice box. Then they quietly released a re-mastered Funny Face which I imported (unfortunately the UK edition which is incredibly ugly, which I didn't know before because there isn't a single cover online and there's no profile in the db either, no one owns this ...), less than a year ago. And now they're releasing them all again?!? The worst thing is that they look worse than the old editions (at least Breakfast). Some of the ones I already own are parts of boxsets which makes matters even worse because I can't sell them. Sunset Boulevard is also part of a set, together with Houseboat (no re-release yet) and To Catch a Thief iirc. It just sucks...

Quoting skipnet50:

Quote:
Cliff:

Please don't take this wrong and I am glad to see you thinking about it. But it is attitude's such as yours that prevents one of Walt's greatest masterpieces from being brought to DVD and why for awhile until the fans got the panties and bunch Warner Bros. was editing some of their cartoons. This is called political correctness and there is no place for it in my opinion. Film is art, and should not be edited to prevent people from being offended, they have no right to not be offended, if they don't like it then they don't have to watch it or buy it, but don't let that attitude prevent me from owning Mona Lisa if i want it. You probably don't like Al Jolson either.

Since you mentioned the race issue, i would argue that is the thin-skinned attitude of some that causese the conflict. For example, if a poll were to show that 95% of white people supported John McCain there would be howls of racism heard from the atlantic to the Pacific, well polls do show that 95% of African-Americans support Obama, do you hear howls of racism, do you even hear any blacks acknowledge thier OWN racism which is far more blatantly obvious than what I see elsewhere today.

Skip

Now you've made a few assumptions about me which have no basis in reality.

I love Song of the South... the songs remain some of the best in any animated feature. (Otherwise, why would they still be used in all of Disney's Splash Mountains?) I believe nothing needs to be hidden -- all racism ought to be viewed forever, lest we forget.

I simply find that I cannot watch this film. Over and over again I read what a great film this is. I suspect my daughter's love of it comes from Gossip Girl's love of it (& my daughter has read every Gossip Girl book & faithfully watches every TV episode). I would not ban it -- I simply, jokingly, ask if I can watch it without Mr. Yunioshi. That way I might fully enjoy it (or at least see what happens after he is introduced).

You assume I'm a member of the PC police. You are wrong. I dislike racism in all its forms, but hiding it -- censoring it -- will never fix it. If Mrs. Rooney cannot understand the differences in attitudes between Chinese culture and Japanese culture and why it means as much as it does to people descended from there, then I guess she believes all Irish people are British.

I celebrate diversity without embracing tribalism. To so fully characterize one nationality as a gesture of humor I find painful. Even in 1961 this portrayal was offensive to many. In the 45th anniversary edition DVD release, producer Richard Shepherd repeatedly apologizes for this, stating "If we could just change Mickey Rooney, I'd be thrilled with the movie." Director Blake Edwards does not apologize for the portrayal, although he does say he would cast someone else if he had the chance. When both the producer and the director find problems with this portrayal, why cannot I?