Tropes that became problematic

[u/KalzK]

The Persistent Suitor: A guy who is after the girl and just wont take no for an answer. Nowadays we just call stalking and harassment, but it used to be romantic. Example: The Notebook (2004), Noah asks Allie out while she's on a date with another man. She refuses, but he threatens to let go and fall unless she agrees to go out with him.

Comedic Woman On Man Violence: Mostly seen in anime, recently it has decreased a lot but years back every show had a woman hitting a guy and showed it as funny. Example: Toradora!, where the quintessential tsundere, Taiga, beats up the MC regularly.

Kid Bags Adult Baddie: I remember a few of these, sometimes it was to show how cool and awesome a kid was because an adult woman fell for him, now it's just seen as problematic shit. Example: Blank Check, the woman likes the kid and kisses him telling him to look for her in 10 years.

[u/Keepitsway]

Might be a bit touchy, but white saviors in film.

[u/Grovyle489 → u/Keepitsway]

A lot of inspirational true story movies fall in that category. Macfarlane, Freedom Writers, The Blind Side, they got one thing in common and it’s white people helping them out of a rut

[u/pixelatedpotatos → u/Grovyle489]

Wasn’t the story of the blind side revealed to be a sham?

[u/Grovyle489 → u/pixelatedpotatos]

You’re right! The player it was based off filed a lawsuit IIRC

[u/beary_neutral → u/pixelatedpotatos]

Michael Oher, the player that it was about, got cheated out of royalties by his "adopted family". The movie also made him into a bumbling idiot who didn't understand football or... anything, really.

[u/arfelo1 → u/beary_neutral]

They also hadn't adopted him. It was a conservatorship

[u/versusChou → u/arfelo1]

Also the movie portrays the mean NCAA accusing them of doing all that stuff just to funnel Oher to Ole Miss as ridiculous when it turns out that's basically exactly what they did.

[u/hanks_panky_emporium → u/beary_neutral]

But he could stop an air bag with one arm with relatively minor injuries. Relatively.

Go figure.

[u/IrregularPackage → u/pixelatedpotatos]

calling it a sham is not quite right. a couple years ago, the player the movie was about found out that not only did the people never actually adopt him, but that he had instead basically signed a bunch of his rights away to them, and he didn’t have nearly as much money as he thought he did

[u/AggravatingFlow1178 → u/Grovyle489]

Broadly speaking it is normally "people of means/privilege" helping those without.

So in western culture especially up through the 1990's, that meant white helping non-white, which meant black.

[u/Kaytea730 → u/AggravatingFlow1178]

But even in the movie version of the Green Book, where the Black man is the one of money and privilege we still end up with a movie that focused more on the lower class white guy that was the hired driver becoming a better person and rescuing his employer, even to the point of getting his racist extended family to accept his Black Employer for the holiday so he wouldn’t be alone.

That movie ends up more appeasing white guilt/white savior complex and the Black character was the one with money and privilege, not the white character.

Since yall don’t believe me:
https://shadowandmovies.com/what-is-the-white-savior-trope-green-book/#Green_Book

https://www.brego.net/article/green-book-is-a-poorly-titled-white-savior-film/

https://www.theroot.com/the-blind-side-and-other-films-that-use-the-white-savior-trope/slides/6

https://www.vice.com/en/article/green-book-is-another-unneeded-white-peoples-guide-to-racism/

[u/south153 → u/Kaytea730]

The green book is not a white savior film. It’s a story of a man overcoming his prejudice.

[u/Kaytea730 → u/south153]

He takes it upon himself to react to his boss’s treatment at the college concert hall without being asked, He saves his employer from the dive bar fight, the YMCA, The cop when they get pulled over, and getting his racist family to allow Dr Shirley to have Christmas with them.

Almost every reaction is done without or even against his employer’s wishes and without considering the consequences of his actions. The only action he takes with his employer’s permission is at the dinning hall/restaurant where Dr. Shirley places whether he will play despite not being allowed to eat there, in Lips hands.

The movie has a white guy repeatedly saving a Black man from a variety of conditions without being asked to by the said Black man. Thats pretty much the definition of a white savior trope.

Does he also happen to tackle his inner hatred towards Black people? Yes. But that doesn’t negate that it ended up as a white savior trope

[u/Kaytea730 → u/south153]

The book is about that, the movie ended up being more about white guilt and white savior complex.

[u/SuperDirtyDan64 → u/Kaytea730]

You do know the main character is Italian, right? He's not considered white, at least not during the time period the movie is set in.

[u/Deathoftheages → u/SuperDirtyDan64]

The movie is set in '62. Italians were white for a long time by then.

[u/NehuRed → u/Kaytea730]

What book?

[u/Kaytea730 → u/NehuRed]

The book the movie is based on

[u/NehuRed → u/Kaytea730]

There is no book, its an original screenplay

[u/Kaytea730 → u/NehuRed]

Its based on real life experiences and an actual book “The Negro Motorist Green Book” which is where it gets its name. Yet, the actual book that its all based on has less than 20 minutes of screen time

[u/NehuRed → u/Kaytea730]

You clearly responded:

"The book is about that, the movie ended up being more about white guilt and white savior complex."

In response to someone saying:

"It’s a story of a man overcoming his prejudice."

And then you said:

"The book the movie is based on"

You were clearly talking as if the movie is based on a book with an original story. The Negro Motorist Green Book is just a guidebook—the movie isn't based on it narrative-wise. It's just a book they use because it's a road trip with a person of color. It has no story about a "man overcoming his prejudice," as you claimed.

[u/NehuRed → u/Kaytea730]

The movie is about them both saving each other and Shierley honestly doing most of it, it obviously focuses more on Lip's side because his son is the co writer

[u/LowlySlayer → u/Grovyle489]

The Blind Side. The beautiful true story of a white woman's desire to own a black man.

[u/VanGrants → u/Grovyle489]

blind side fucking sucks

[u/ZeronicX → u/Grovyle489]

I think the only film to really explore the "White Savior" trope and its effect is Lawrence of Arabia.

[u/DengarLives66 → u/Grovyle489]

Does McFarland, USA get a pass because the coach’s name is actually Jim White?

[u/DengarLives66 → u/[deleted]]

Too humorless to enjoy how on the nose his name is, huh?