Malicious Masterpieces
These are films that are competently made works;
yet they are made in the service of discriminatory messages or themes.
yet they are made in the service of discriminatory messages or themes.
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- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsLillian GishMae MarshHenry B. WalthallThe Stoneman family finds its friendship with the Camerons affected by the Civil War, both fighting in opposite armies. The development of the war in their lives plays through to Lincoln's assassination and the birth of the Ku Klux Klan.[RACISM]
The story depicts a slave rebellion, in which the slaves are framed as barbaric rapists intent on overthrowing White society, and the KKK are framed as heroes who must "stop them." - DirectorFred C. NewmeyerSam TaylorStarsHarold LloydMildred DavisBill StrotherA boy leaves his small country town and heads to the big city to get a job. As soon as he makes it big his sweetheart will join him and marry him. His enthusiasm to get ahead leads to some interesting adventures.[ANTISEMITISM]
Vilifies Judaism, by framing Jewish bankers as greedy thieves. - DirectorLotte ReinigerCarl KochA handsome prince rides a flying horse to faraway lands and embarks on magical adventures, which include befriending a witch, meeting Aladdin, battling demons and falling in love with a princess.[RACISM/PRO-FASCISM]
"Arabia" symbolizes Germany and "China" symbolizes all non-German races; the metaphor being used to compare "Arabia's" civility to "China's" barbarism. The film also features an indigenous African, depicted as subhuman and more ape-like than the other characters.
[RAPE CULTURE]
A woman is raped, which is played as "romantic." - DirectorClyde BruckmanBuster KeatonStarsBuster KeatonMarion MackGlen CavenderAfter being rejected by the Confederate military, not realizing it was due to his crucial civilian role, an engineer must single-handedly recapture his beloved locomotive after it is seized by Union spies and return it through enemy lines.[RACISM/REVISIONISM]
The main character is a pro-slavery confederate, and the antagonists are abolitionists unionists. To render him sympathetic, the film erases the fact confederates owned slaves. - DirectorJean VigoStarsDita ParloJean DastéGilles MargaritisNewly married couple Juliette and a ship captain Jean struggle through marriage as they travel on the L'atalante along with the captain's first mate Le père Jules and a cabin boy.[RACISM]
The male protagonist regularly uses the N-Slur, which is framed as "endearing." - DirectorLeni RiefenstahlStarsAdolf HitlerHermann GöringMax AmannThe infamous propaganda film of the 1934 Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg, Germany.[PRO-FASCISM]
Heroifies Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party. - DirectorJohn FordStarsJohn WayneClaire TrevorAndy DevineA group of people traveling on a stagecoach find their journey complicated by the threat of Geronimo and learn something about each other in the process.[RACISM/PRO-COLONIALISM]
The film is essentially a monster movie, where the "monsters" are Indigenous Tribes. - DirectorVictor FlemingGeorge CukorSam WoodStarsClark GableVivien LeighThomas MitchellA sheltered and manipulative Southern belle and a roguish profiteer face off in a turbulent romance as the society around them crumbles with the end of slavery and is rebuilt during the Civil War and Reconstruction periods.[RACISM/REVISIONISM]
Presents the fall of the Confederate South as "tragic," and suggests a "hopeful" future in which we'll return to it. The film frames the Confederate South as utopian by erasing the poor treatment of slaves from history.
[RAPE CULTURE]
Contains a "humorous" rape scene; specifically in which the protagonist is raped, but is then "okay" with it because she enjoyed it. - DirectorSamuel ArmstrongNorman FergusonWilfred JacksonStarsSterling HollowayEdward BrophyHerman BingRidiculed because of his enormous ears, a young circus elephant is assisted by a mouse to achieve his full potential.[RACISM/BLACCENTS]
A group of crows are presented with "humorous" mock-black accents. One of the crows is literally named "Jim Crow." - DirectorFrank CapraStarsJames StewartDonna ReedLionel BarrymoreAn angel is sent from Heaven to help a desperately frustrated businessman by showing him what life would have been like if he had never existed.[RAPE CULTURE/RACISM]
The film's protagonist has a Jim-Crow era maid, who is presented as moronic and nosy. Said maid is sexually harassed, which is framed as "humorous."
The protagonist also sexually harasses his intimate partner, when she is naked and he refuses to give her back her clothes, which is framed as "humorous." - DirectorOrson WellesStarsOrson WellesMicheál MacLiammóirRobert CooteThe Moorish General Othello is manipulated into thinking that his new wife Desdemona has been carrying on an affair with his Lieutenant Michael Cassio when in reality, it is all part of the scheme of a bitter Ensign named Iago.[RACISM]
The main character, portrayed in blackface by Orson Welles, is portrayed as initially "civilized" until a white protagonist manipulates him into revealing his "true" aggressive nature when he murders his white spouse; therefore, presenting an anti-mixing narrative. - DirectorClyde GeronimiWilfred JacksonHamilton LuskeStarsBobby DriscollKathryn BeaumontHans ConriedWendy and her brothers are whisked away to the magical world of Neverland with the hero of their stories, Peter Pan.[RACISM/BLACCENTS]
White voice actors play Indigenous characters. Indigenous peoples are also "humorously" mocked as silly or primitive. - DirectorElia KazanStarsMarlon BrandoKarl MaldenLee J. CobbAn ex-prize fighter turned New Jersey longshoreman struggles to stand up to his corrupt union bosses, including his older brother, as he starts to connect with the grieving sister of one of the syndicate's victims.[PRO-MCCARTHYISM]
The story depicts a protagonist "ratting outing" his friends as gangsters in the criminal underworld.
This metaphor is a justification for the film's director, Elia Kazan, having falsely accused many of his peers in the film industry of being communists. - DirectorClyde GeronimiWilfred JacksonHamilton LuskeStarsBarbara LuddyLarry RobertsPeggy LeeThe romantic tale of a sheltered uptown Cocker Spaniel dog and a streetwise downtown Mutt.[RACISM/BLACCENTS]
Two secondary antagonists within the film, a pair of Siamese cats, "humorously" vilify Chinese stereotypes. - DirectorJohn FordStarsJohn WayneJeffrey HunterVera MilesAn American Civil War veteran embarks on a years-long journey to rescue his niece from the Comanches after the rest of his brother's family is massacred in a raid on their Texas farm.[RACISM/PRO-COLONIALISM]
The antagonists of the film, played by white actors in blackface, are Indigenous Americans framed as aggressive and warlike.
Characters in the film who've escaped being their hostages "become" Indigenous, as if being possessed by a "demonic entity." - DirectorWilliam WylerStarsCharlton HestonJack HawkinsStephen BoydAfter a Jewish prince is betrayed and sent into slavery by a Roman friend in 1st-century Jerusalem, he regains his freedom and comes back for revenge.[RACISM]
A secondary Black character, played by an english actor in blackface, is "humorously" framed as moronic and sexually aggressive. - DirectorBlake EdwardsStarsAudrey HepburnGeorge PeppardPatricia NealA young New York socialite becomes interested in a young man who has moved into her apartment building, but her past threatens to get in the way.[RACISM]
Mr. Yunioshi, played by a white actor in yellowface, is "humorously" framed as moronic and sexually aggressive. - DirectorJerome RobbinsRobert WiseStarsNatalie WoodGeorge ChakirisRichard BeymerTwo youngsters from rival New York City gangs fall in love, but tensions between their respective friends build toward tragedy.[RACISM]
The film's story depicts Latinx characters, played almost entirely by white actors in blackface doing mock-latin accents, who are "humorously" framed as moronic and violent. - DirectorTerence YoungStarsSean ConneryUrsula AndressBernard LeeA resourceful British government agent seeks answers in a case involving the disappearance of a colleague and the disruption of the American space program.I. PART OF THE 'JAMES BOND' MISSIONS
[RACISM]
Dr. No, played by a Canadian actor in yellowface, is a mixed-race antagonist. He is specifically half German and half Chinese, making him a mix of the "two most evil races."
[ABLEISM]
Antagonist has a physical disability, which is depicted as an "evil" characteristic. - DirectorTerence YoungStarsSean ConneryRobert ShawLotte LenyaJames Bond willingly falls into an assassination plot involving a naive Russian beauty in order to retrieve a Soviet encryption device that was stolen by the organization Spectre.II. PART OF THE 'JAMES BOND' MISSIONS
[HOMOPHOBIA]
The villain of the film is a lesbian rapist.
[MISOGYNY]
The film frames Bond physically assaulting women as "romantic." - DirectorGuy HamiltonStarsSean ConneryGert FröbeHonor BlackmanWhile investigating a gold magnate's smuggling, James Bond uncovers a plot to contaminate the Fort Knox gold reserve.III. PART OF THE 'JAMES BOND' MISSIONS
[RAPE CULTURE/HOMOPHOBIA/MISOGYNY]
Presents homosexuality as a mental disorder, that can be "cured" by a straight man's corrective rape. - DirectorTerence YoungStarsSean ConneryClaudine AugerAdolfo CeliJames Bond heads to the Bahamas to recover two nuclear warheads stolen by S.P.E.C.T.R.E. Agent Emilio Largo in an international extortion scheme.IV. PART OF THE 'JAMES BOND' MISSIONS
[HOMOPHOBIA]
The villain of the film is a gay man.
[RAPE CULTURE/MISGOYNY]
Bond raping a women, by threatening her job if she refuses, is framed as "romantic."
[ABLEISM]
Antagonist has a facial disfigurement, which is depicted as an "evil" characteristic. - DirectorLewis GilbertStarsSean ConneryAkiko WakabayashiMie HamaJames Bond and the Japanese Secret Service must find and stop the true culprit of a series of space hijackings, before war is provoked between Russia and the United States.V. PART OF THE 'JAMES BOND' MISSIONS
[RACISM]
James Bond, played by a Scottish actor in yellowface, "surgically becomes Japanese" as a disguise.
[ABLEISM]
Antagonist has a facial disfigurement, which is depicted as an "evil" characteristic. - DirectorGuy HamiltonStarsSean ConneryJill St. JohnCharles GrayA diamond smuggling investigation leads James Bond to Las Vegas where he uncovers an evil plot involving a rich business tycoon.VI. PART OF THE 'JAMES BOND' MISSIONS
[HOMOPHOBIA]
The antagonists of the film are a psychotic gay couple.
[MISOGYNY]
Bond brutally murders two women by drowning them. - DirectorGuy HamiltonStarsRoger MooreYaphet KottoJane SeymourJames Bond is sent to stop a diabolically brilliant heroin magnate armed with a complex organisation and a reliable psychic tarot card reader.VII. PART OF THE 'JAMES BOND' MISSIONS
[RACISM]
The film's antagonists are a joint conspiracy of Harlem pimps and indigenous Africans, smuggling heroin into the US to kill Americans.