MovieChat Forums > Sixteen Candles (1984) Discussion > Mean-spirited

Mean-spirited

posted 13 years ago by lizzyben04
85 replies | jump to latest

I watched this movie because I'm such a fan of Hughes' other films (Breakfast Club, etc.), but I was surprised by how mean-spirited & even offensive this movie was.

Racism - the "gong" whenever the Chinese guy is mentioned, endless jokes about his Chinese name, really over the top stereotyping, "a black guy??" etc.

Sexism - joking about rape, the 'hero' Jake giving his drunk girlfriend to a horny 14-year-old to drive safely home, w/the implication that he can score, Jake kicking the door closed on his girlfriend's hair & leaving her there, older sister turned into a fool at her wedding. There was a theme of humiliating/humbling the "blonde chick" throughout really.

General meanspiritedness - the periodic shots of a girl in a brace trying to drink, dance, etc, for laughs.

I don't know, this movie left a bad taste in my mouth. And this is from someone who likes Hughes movies, or even Farrelly movies. I'm used to un-PC stuff in comedies, but maybe the difference here was the general kind of meanness that seemed to run through the movie. Flame away, but I was wondering if anyone else felt the same way.

[–] Tri-State_Skater 10 years ago

Yes, it was mean. Apparently the Long Duck Dong actor didn't think it would end up as racist as it did. You just never know when you make a movie.

I would feel weird watching this movie with my Asian friends at a party. I don't want them to feel bad. Asians always end up being a joke.

I haven't seen the movie in awhile so I would have to watch it again for the other mean spirited moments.

I will admit that I enjoy this film, but it has a lot of problems.

[–] bhilburn 10 years ago

No it wasn't mean. Anyone who is offended by this probably gets offended by everything anyway.

If you were watching this movie at a party with Oriental friends, they were probably laughing and enjoying the movie like most everyone else did. Except for the perpetually offended ones.

Mean spirited moments? Are you serious?

The only problem here is people who have problems with everything.

Goooooonnnnnnnggggggggg!

"check the imdb cast list before asking who portrayed who in movies please"

[–] jefgg 10 years ago

In the United States "Oriental" is often considered an antiquated, pejorative, and disparaging term. John Kuo Wei Tchen, director of the Asian/Pacific/American Studies Program and Institute at New York University, said the basic critique of the term developed in the 1970s. Tchen has said: "With the anti-war movement in the '60s and early '70s, many Asian Americans identified the term 'Oriental' with a Western process of racializing Asians as forever opposite 'others'." In a press release related to legislation aimed at removing the term "oriental" from official documents of the State of New York, Governor David Paterson said: "The word 'oriental' does not describe ethnic origin, background or even race; in fact, it has deep and demeaning historical roots".

[–] Furrerd 10 years ago

In a press release related to legislation aimed at removing the term "oriental" from official documents of the State of New York, Governor David Paterson said: "The word 'oriental' does not describe ethnic origin, background or even race; in fact, it has deep and demeaning historical roots".

This I didn't know. I just liked the sound of 'Orient' or 'The Orient'. The word, removed of any meaning, has a nice sound and I like the way it flows from my mouth when uttered. When I would hear 'The Orient', the connotations were of beauty, wealth, adventure and fun. Maybe that came from childhood viewings of 1970's Trans America airlines commercials and maybe reading about Marco Polo.

The n-word always sounded horrible and had no redeeming quality as a sound utterance.

How much of what words sound pleasant is absolutely tied to meaning or connotation is something I'm not clear on. Maybe it's been studied by some research team.

Parenting books? Parenting books, I thought that..those were a joke? - Linda Belcher

[–] jefgg 10 years ago

I think it is still acceptable to refer to things as "Oriental", but not people.

[–] funomatic 8 years ago

What's wrong with orient.

"Freedom is fought, not earned"

[–] liscarkat (18373) 2 years ago

That's a load of woketarded horseshit. Oriental means eastern, nothing more, because the Europeans encountered Asians to the east. There is nothing "deep and demeaning" about it, except in the low-powered minds of those who find it offensive. If somebody wants to be demeaning, the words "gook", "chink", "slant", and "slope" serve that purpose. Oriental is totally benign.

[–] Naneki1 10 years ago

It's a comedy. A high school comedy. High School, the training ground for mean-spiritedness. And it's 30 years old. There are quite a few 'bits' in the film that would bother people 30 years later. Sign of the times. Just look at it as the 'time capsule' of the 80s that it is now.
je suis prest

[–] witster18 10 years ago

welcome back to part 6, and the continuation of the whussification of America...

[–] bhilburn 10 years ago

Gooooooooong!!!!

"check the imdb cast list before asking who portrayed who in movies please"

[–] HorrorFanatic24 9 years ago

Omg go away troll

[–] HorrorFanatic24 9 years ago

You should stick to happy Disney movies

[–] bhilburn 9 years ago

Gooooooonnnnnnnggggggggggggg!!!!

"check the imdb cast list before asking who portrayed who in movies please"

[–] residentevil6901 9 years ago

If you're a Liberal Democrat I can see how or why it would offend you.

[–] AllEighties 9 years ago

I'm a liberal Democrat and not offended.

I think it's closer to a question of whether you are a Millennial or not than anything else.

Hughes was just joking on everyone and it's not like people of any era, even today, don't do and say all sorts of stuff, he didn't make a PC movie and polish things up, he just showed it all. He wasn't celebrating it.

[–] AllEighties 9 years ago

Plus, it seems a bit ironic so that many Millennials are in love with sitting inside all day blasting each other to bits with super realistic graphics, have no problem blasting gangster rap celebrating all that it does, want all of their movies dark, darker and darker than dark and more violent (otherwise it's 'corny' or 'shallow'), and are the only generation of kids to ever shoot up their schools with regularity (obviously this applies to almost no particular Millennial, it's just that something in the culture is going on that allows it to now happen for some minuter than minute fraction when even for that fraction it used to be unthinkable- although I suppose once the first time it happens, the copycat phenomenon alone can account for some bit of it), have no problem with hipsters sneering at everything and tearing down everything as being awful, and yet go insane because they dared have a shower scene in a PG movie or because some character said something that wasn't P.C. or some swimsuit model is thin (like most young people are) and not plus size.

I'd say the 80s teen movies, whatever else, had a lot more heart to them the most of the 90s/00s ones which seemed mostly just about max shock and gross out value, how is that better?

Sure the 80s were less PC (and in some ways that was bad and PC has done good things too for sure) but the overall youth culture was a bit more upbeat, positive and gentle in a way than in the mid-late 90s and 00s overall and people were more chill, less wary, less easily upset overall.

[–] residentevil6901 8 years ago

I hear ya, they let their phones do the thinking for them as well.

[–] gcarras (2770) 7 years ago

The world got more PC by the 80s as far as kids tv..sixteen candles is a 1950s song title, seemed like another Grease type 50s movie lol.

[–] wolverineland 9 years ago

I went to high school in the 80s and it was a different time than. It wasn't an over-homogenized P.C. social media addicted nightmare that life has become now for so many people. It was a great movie then and it's still a great movie. I don't care about all these stupid over analysations people now all of sudden have about this film.

[–] 9 years ago

[deleted]

[–] AllEighties 8 years ago

It was realistic though. He showed it all. And it wasn't as raw vulgar as most of the stuff got in 90s and beyond and still had more heart in the end.