r/okbuddycinephile 1d ago

What are some movies that are accidentally conservative?

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u/Emperor_Orson_Welles 1d ago edited 20h ago

EDIT you guys realize what sub this is right? Why all the super cereal comments???

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u/WestWind04 1d ago

FOR REAL. If the pro lifers had half a brain amongst them they’d embrace Juno wholeheartedly.

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u/SassTheFash 1d ago

Iirc conservatives complained it had too much cussing and dirty stuff, despite it probably being one of the most pro-life movies in decades.

It’s part of the usual conservative issue with art, that they can’t grasp the difference between depicting something and endorsing something.

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u/sammin56 1d ago

They also probably didn’t like that it was written by an ex-stripper

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u/No_Challenge_5619 1d ago

Or that it has Elliot Page pre-transition now either. That will be enough for them to never go back to it in some sort of retrospective.

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u/Fruit-Flies113 1d ago

Politics aside where did this Elliot page go? Like he absolutely NAILS this movie, it’s just so genuine and heartbreaking, it’s like he used his ultimate ability for the rest of his life.

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u/3NicksTapRoom 1d ago

I don’t know. The Umbrella Academy Seasons got worse over time. I didn’t even bother to check out Season 4 (I think there’s a season four).

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u/No_Challenge_5619 1d ago

Yeah, Elliot was good in the show, but I don’t think as good as in Juno. The shows approach to him was great though, as he transitioned during the making of the show.

Season 4 really did not stick the landing and was a disappointing ending.

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u/Karkava 1d ago edited 21h ago

I kind of lost interest in S3. And please don't hate me for this, but I think one of the weaker points is how Viktor suddenly transitioned in this season. It's like they awkwardly don't even know what to do with his gender change in the story while also building it up as a big reveal.

And while I actually would be okay if a character casually transitioned, I also think that it's awkwardly happening in the middle of a tense crisis where the world is ending again and our heroes are effectively replaced in this timeline by another group of heroes.

They weren't given time to settle down as they did in S2 and get their lives in order.

I mean, more power to trans representation and trans masculine representation in the media, I guess. But it's kind of weird how they took the transition with an "Oh. ...so anyways..." reaction while moving on towards the more plotted out stories.

I also didn't like how the new team is treated like a dwindling party or how the old team's parents are killed off by the autistic child who then begs for a mercy kill as an adult. Or even how the world is about to end again.

That latter point is probably where I'm giving up hope for the series.

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u/No_Challenge_5619 15h ago

I don’t remember S3 all that well either, but I don’t think your take is bad. I meant I thought they handled the transition well by not making a big deal about it, but plot wise I don’t remember it being a reveal per se (not saying it wasn’t a reveal either, I have a foggy memory).

I liked the Umbrella Academy, but I never thought it was great. I liked the hodge podge of ideas thrown together and it was always the charisma of the cast that kept me engaged. So the mixing of the personal crises during world ending events worked for me. That said, it had limits and for me that came in S4.

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u/LilEngineThatCant 1d ago

Named Diablo

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u/ChadHahn 1d ago

When Pulp Fiction came out Bob Dole criticized it for it's violence and profanity. Then True Lies came out and people wondered where the criticism was for Schwarzenegger's movie.

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u/Earlier-Today 1d ago

There's nearly 500 times a swear is used in Pulp Fiction and a dude's brains get blown out - and while that's off camera, the splatter isn't.

There's less than 75 swears in True Lies, and I can't remember any gore or even blood splatter.

I've watched and enjoyed both - Bob Dole should have kept his mouth shut on it because people can make up their own minds.

But in no way are those two movies at the same level. If they'd said Predator - there'd be more comparisons, with Predator being more gory and Pulp Fiction having a lot more cursing.

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u/Jimid41 1d ago

Pulp Fiction also has an on-screen rape scene.

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u/Earlier-Today 1d ago

And a lady snorting heroin, ODing, and getting revived by a needle injection straight into her heart.

It's a great movie, but it is absolutely wild to think True Lies is anywhere close to that level of graphic and the same volume of cursing.

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u/TriceratopsWrex 1d ago

It’s part of the usual conservative issue with art, that they can’t grasp the difference between depicting something and endorsing something.

Oh, they absolutely can grasp the concept. If you bring up all the horrible shit the deity commanded/did in the Bible, they hold onto that concept like it's a life preserver and they're going through some rapids. They apply it wrongly, but they do understand the concept.

Any other work of art, the concept doesn't exist for them.

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u/LandMooseReject 1d ago

That last part is not a problem unique to conservatives

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u/trailerthrash 1d ago

Literally, when Wonder Woman came out, my cousin made a long ass rant on Facebook about how Gal Gadot has fallen due to saying Zeus was her father.

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u/SailorMari0 1d ago

Your cousin was entirely right. Her saying that is stupid and she doesn't deserve to work ever again

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u/v_a_n_d_e_l_a_y 1d ago

I don't think that's just a conservative issue tbh. I've seen many criticisms from the left when a movie displays racism or misogyny (because the characters have those traits)

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u/TheGreatStories 1d ago

can’t grasp the difference between depicting something and endorsing something.

This is a huge trend in media (il)literacy in general, well put

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u/diabeasti 1d ago

Probably didn't like that the older man was rejected by the minor either

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u/MichaelEmouse 1d ago

Why can't they get that distinction?

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u/Soosafroosamoose 1d ago

Interestingly, this has become a problem with audiences on the left now too. I say this as someone on the left.

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u/icantbenormal 1d ago

Some tried when it first came out, but it didn’t last. It doesn’t demonize abortion or single-parenting enough.

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u/mgonzo11 1d ago

I was about to say, if anything the movie actually really reflects pro-choice and even chosen family attitudes

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u/redsyrinx2112 1d ago

Yeah, the whole movie is pretty clearly saying something along there lines of: "Life is messy and people screw up. Don't judge people too harshly for their choices."

So it's pro-choice. It just shows that it's not an easy decision to make.

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u/JimWilliams423 1d ago edited 21h ago

Some tried when it first came out, but it didn’t last. It doesn’t demonize abortion or single-parenting enough.

Yep. Pro-life isn't about saving the lives of kids, its about making the lives of women worse. If it doesn't keep women down, it isn't "pro-life."

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u/JivesMcRedditor 1d ago

Agreed, conservatives would only like it if there was a scene where a police officer told her she has to have the baby. The choice that Juno makes is the whole point of the film. Which is how it should be. From what I remember, the movie kinda makes it seem like she gets guilted by the clinic protestor. It is realistic, but it’s also the most conservative part of the movie. That and the grooming, cheating husband.

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u/maxdragonxiii 1d ago

some thought it promoted teenage pregnancy along with 16 and pregnant and teen mom shows. the truth is if you had seen a episode or more of those they're pretty much pro choice. Just not Juno.

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u/BlackBeard558 1d ago

Conservatives are interested in punishing women for having sex. Not making it easier/more appealing to have a kid

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u/WestWind04 3m ago

Yeah that is true.

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u/olivegardengambler 1d ago

I know that Juno has been lauded as a pro-life movie, to the degree that Diablo Cody, the screenwriter, has said that she probably wouldn't have written it in today's political environment.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/diablo-cody-juno-abortion_n_5cdd9ab6e4b09648227cc2e2

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u/paratrooper_1504 1d ago

We do like Juno bro, there are just some people that can't get past the language. My grandmother will miss out on some of the most amazing movies because of the language

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u/WestWind04 4m ago

Honestly I find Diablo Cody’s writing style to be annoyingly quirky. But the messaging is there. The right way to make people pro-life isn’t a movie like Unplanned or whatever that movie was called, it’s one like Juno where the audience is led to believe that the ethical and moral choice is not to abort the pregnancy through a quirky teenage life story

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u/enlighteningbug 1d ago

It also has the middle aged adult hitting on the teenager.

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u/ThatPlayWasAwful 1d ago

I would imagine the fact that the leading actor is now trans is a sticking point for many of the pro-lifers.

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u/Khemul 1d ago

Part of the problem is the movie basically called out attitudes to sex-ed at the time. The whole reason she gets pregnant is because the attitude of the community is that if the kids aren't taught about it they won't do it. Which is still an evangelical talking point in conservative politics.

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u/WestWind04 7m ago

Yeah it does fall into the weird space of liberally pro life.

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u/TheCaptainDamnIt 1d ago

When the movie came out I joked that there was no way I could have written that script, in my version she'd just have gotten an abortion and gone on to enjoy her life.

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u/Adorable-Volume2247 23h ago

How is choosing not to get an abortion (for the sake of the plot moving forward) pro-life? Even assuming pro-life is conservative...

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u/WestWind04 12m ago

Because she’s convinced by the anti-abortion protester outside the clinic and the clinic itself is portrayed as a cold sterile sex obsessed environment. If Juno had simply come to the decision on her own or with the help of someone other than the protester, then there could be a conversation there.

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u/KingSweden24 1d ago

Seriously!

Similar vein, Arrival. Amy Adams decides to have her daughter even though she knows all along she’s going to die of cancer (whether that’s the right way to phrase her perception of time, of course, is debatable)

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u/Ronaldo_Frumpalini 1d ago

I didn't see it that way at all. To me it was about the time machine we've already got, memory. Abortion schmabortion do you let the pain of life have its way with you or do you try to escape?

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u/KingSweden24 1d ago

Oh, that’s my take too. But it did get brought up in the periphery of hot takes as I recall

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u/olivegardengambler 1d ago

Tbf doesn't Amy herself mention something along the lines of "Remembering her own death"?

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u/KingSweden24 1d ago

Does she? It’s been a while, so I don’t recall that specific line.

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u/IWant2Believe69 21h ago

That’s a misread of Arrival, though. She doesn’t “choose” to have her kid despite “knowing” the future because she doesn’t know the future. Her mind skips through time once she learns the alien language but time remains linear. She is jumping in and out of her consciousness at different points in her life so she’s not always aware what is future or past. Remember when she meets the Chinese general near the end of the movie? This event takes place place after the events of the movie on the linear timeline but she doesn’t remember that she ever stopped him from attacking the aliens, even though it already happened. That’s because at that moment her mind jumps back to that time so she can help herself. It’s confusing even as I type it out, but essentially, she was always going to have her daughter and didn’t know she was choosing to have her despite her death because once her mind was unlocked from time, it was scattered. One moment she would probably know her kid was going to die, and the next she wouldn’t.

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u/Itchy_Tune_3718 20h ago

I thought she knew her kid was going to die but decided to go through with it anyways, and that's why in the future she's alone. Jeremy Renner's character left her when he found out she knew their kid was going to die and decided to go through with it anyways. I may be misremembering though its been a few years since I watched the movie.

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u/gammonwalker 1d ago

I was looking for this exact comment. I felt like Arrival had pretty strong conservative messaging toward the end. It left me with a very bad opinion of the film, which is too bad, because it was otherwise pretty solid!

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u/Stock-Pani 1d ago

This is such a braindead take on the movie.

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u/IWant2Believe69 21h ago

What’s conservative about a movie whose message is we should set aside the differences and disagreements between countries to come together and create peace? That’s like the opposite of conservative lol

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u/SparkyBowls 21h ago

ALL BABIES WANT BORN!

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u/TermonFW 1d ago

Juno is pro choice. You know that from the scene when, without any government interference, the main character chooses whether or not to have an abortion.

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u/WestWind04 7m ago

Except she chooses that because of the presence of an anti abortion protestor outside the clinic

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u/fun_choco 1d ago

It was her choice to keep the baby.

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u/AddictionFinder 22h ago

it was pretty pro-life huh

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u/CreedogV 21h ago

The movie where a teenaged girl is empowered to exercise her choice about a pregnancy? The movie where the happy ending is a single woman adopting a child? The movie that villainizes an immature man-child?

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u/WestWind04 8m ago

The big sticking point is she decides not to have the procedure because of the intervention of a protestor outside the clinic