MovieChat Forums > Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1975) Discussion > Times Have Changed

Times Have Changed

posted 15 years ago by crazykharvey
11 replies | jump to latest

I watched this movie last night. I saw it a long time ago but didn't remember much. I noticed several things that would not fly these days and doubt this movie could be remade by today's standards of living without major changes:

1) The mom would probably have DCFS all over her for leaving the kid in a hotel room alone day after day and before that, night after night. At home, I don't think it would be a major thing but in a hotel room, probably. I know here in Illinois, 14 is the legal age that you can leave your child home alone. Some states it's younger but the gist of it in all states seems to be that a SHORT (I didn't search for their definition of short) period of time is acceptable under the age of 14.

2) Audrey's mom AND Tommy's mom would probably be screaming at each other and pointing fingers for the kids being drunk and picked up by the cops. In fact, DCFS would probably be in on this one too.

3) Tommy would be considered hyper or ADHD in these times. My 12 year old was watching this with me and asked what was wrong with him. Now I think he was just a kid being a kid but today, they are all labeled as having some neurotic disorder.

4) Looking sexy to get a job and the loud nasty banter that went on in the diner wouldn't fly today either. I thought it was funny but again, these days it would not fly.

Those are just a few things that would be much different if the movie was made today. I don't agree with all of them, I just know that a lot of it wouldn't fly by today's standards.

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] willydoe71 15 years ago

I too agree on all counts. It's kinda refreshing to see some of that behavior, living in today's world.

One other big difference is the view of ones age. In this movie, Alice says to Harvey Keitel "I'm a 35 year old woman" or something, that sounded as if she was saying she was way too old for his 26 or 27 year old character, and making herself sound as if she was almost over the hill. Hell, I'm almost 38 now and I still think of myself is being very young, and my wife is 10 years older than I am.

[–] StarrySkyWaltz 14 years ago

I agree with all of his points too, and your point about her saying "I'm a 35 year old woman" as if she's sooo old and here he was only 27 years old, lol. Funny how times change.

[–] sonofbeach-sheet 11 years ago

Plus a 12 year old kid by himself all day unsupervised! In today's world, you have 12 year olds in day care because parents are so paranoid about predators!

[–] otakucode 11 years ago

I always enjoy watching older movies to observe social changes in attitudes. Earlier in the day I had watched a silent educational film from 1931. In it a man talks about when he was 17 he fell in love. The woman he fell in love with looked to be in her mid-30s. But since no one had told him anything about love, he didn't understand his own feelings and was shy. She got bored and left him for a man who looked to be in his mid to late 50s. Apparently age was not much of a concern back then. Then I saw Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore and noticed the same part you did. She acts like 35 is too old for a 27 year old.

The whole point of the 1931 educational film was to encourage parents to teach their children the truth about sex and relationships from the earliest ages to spare them the suffering that comes from being ignorant or misinformed. Today parents go to absurd lengths to preserve the illusion that their children are neuter creatures with no humanity to them until they're 18 years old (then they expect maturity to develop overnight).

[–] sonofbeach-sheet 11 years ago

Another thing, the final confrontation between Alice and her boyfriend in the diner was around children! Laura Dern sitting out there eating ice cream. We musn't let a child's ears hear such grown up things anymore!

That was so much the norm with her son and Jodie Foster preteens, yet they're pretty much on their own most of the day. I think kids that age today wouldn't survive alone for the most part.

[–] fbm72751 10 years ago

During the 1960s as a pre-teen, yes in many areas of town and where we lived, it was safe to leave a kid unsupervised as I was with both parents working. I went to a parochial school near downtown, rode the city bus and never had anyone approach me with illicit ideas. Second a good part of this was filmed in Phoenix, my birth town. Very little remains the same now as it was in 1973-74. I instantly recognized the area and very little is the same today even though many of the scenes were filmed in industrial areas consisting of warehouses, trucking company terminals and one truck stop (the Roadrunner) which is long gone.

[–] Tommen_Forever 8 years ago

3) Tommy would be considered hyper or ADHD in these times. My 12 year old was watching this with me and asked what was wrong with him. Now I think he was just a kid being a kid but today, they are all labeled as having some neurotic disorder.

Its a possible he had a neurotic disorder. Those "labels" didn't just come out of thin air. They were developed and categorized with scientific data. We know a lot more about the brain now than we did then.

4) Looking sexy to get a job and the loud nasty banter that went on in the diner wouldn't fly today either. I thought it was funny but again, these days it would not fly.

Women had to look sexy to get a job in the 70s. Even today, women are valued mostly for their looks and objectified constantly.

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[–] goldenagefilmstv (178) 2 years ago

"Women had to look sexy to get a job in the '70s."

Sorry, but that is ridiculous.
It's simply not true.

There were any number of
non-glamorous, average-, even frumpy-looking women who held full-time jobs throughout the 1970s, and before. Their skills were valued---though not as highly as they should have been, i.e. not as highly as men's.

[–] R_Kane (15828) 2 years ago

This is an outdated movie, not worth watching, that begat a terrible TV series (“Alice”) with a titular actress nearly as worthless as Ellen Burstyn, the eara’s equivalent of Zendaya.

Hint: Kris Kristofferson is in the movie? Do. Not. Watch.

He was fucking Janis Joplin, which is why she recorded his “Me and Bobby McGee” song and why he became almost famous. Poor Janis.

[–] TheArgentinian (7069) 2 years ago

all shitty opinions.