Mickey Rooney must be breathing a sigh of relief.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of Rooney’s “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” and folks in New York wanted to celebrate by banning the film from a public viewing.
A freshly scrubbed “Breakfast” print was set to be shown Aug. 11 at Brooklyn Bridge Park, but a gaggle of New Yorkers felt Rooney’s stereotypical Asian character shouldn’t be seen in public. A petition to hurl the film down the memory hole began in earnest, but according to New York Post blogger/film critic Lou Lumenick only 300 folks e-signed up.
That means not only will the “Breakfast” go on, a second screening has been added three days earlier in Manhattan.
To which I say, bravo – even though I’m not a fan of Holly Golightly in the least.
Few would argue that Rooney’s character isn’t a hackneyed physical portrayal topped with a cartoonish Asian accent. But “Breakfast” is part of pop culture lore, and there’s nothing overtly hateful about the presentation.
And, if “Breakfast” is no longer fit for public perusal, where does that leave other films which don’t mesh with 2011-era mores? Should we nix the Bond franchise for treating women like disposable objects? How about films showing one-dimensional Native Americans? They can pry my “F Troop” reruns from my cold, dead hands.
The furor over “Breakfast” after all these years would be better channeled educating the public on quasi-racist characters in film history and why they existed in the first place. Preventing “Breakfast” from screening stops that healthy conversation cold.
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I thought F Troop treated Indians as smart because they set up tourist traps to make money.
I think John Wayne playing Gehngis Khan is offensive to Mongolians and should be banned.
I think Joel Grey playing the Korean master in “Remo Williams; The Adventure Begins” was offensive to Koreans and must be banned.
How many other offensive roles can we think of?
Everyone understands what was wrong with that, don’t they?
What we won’t understand if we white-wash the past is that it doesn’t take an evil person to be wrong about something. We also won’t understand how attitudes have changed or why.