Breakfast At Tiffany's ruthlessly censored

It's so stupid about Mr Yunioshi - it's a joke - have actual Chinese people ever complained?

That scene was never funny and in bad taste. But fuck censorship. It's not a children's movie. So just put a warning before it. We need to address the uncomfortable things about the past rather than try to ignore it.

But those scenes are so central to the movie’s message!

r1, yeah, they have

[quote]It's so stupid about Mr Yunioshi - it's a joke - have actual Chinese people ever complained?

You know what's stupid? You not knowing the difference between Chinese people and Japanese people.

What I find even more problematic is that this film encouraged an entire generation of Americans to think the store is called "Tiffany's."

[quote]You know what's stupid? You not knowing the difference between Chinese people and Japanese people.

Considering he was neither, not at all.

If you're looking to feel superior to someone you picked on the wrong guy, gurlfriend.

What's next? Redubbing Lucy in Mame?

R8 I'm available!

TV channels have been cutting movies for both content and time for decades, and now suddenly you're all up in arms about it. Sure, why not.

If it was an old children's movie I can understand censorship because little kids are too young to understand certain things from a historical point and you don't want certain imagery normalized to them. But Breakfast at Tiffany's is a film for adults based on a story written for adults. The yellowface was a mistake and absolutely wrong but censoring it won't make it go away. Ignoring racism in history will just lead us to repeat it.

Even at the time, the Hollywood Reporter and Variety said that Rooney's character was offensive.

Imagine how offensive it had to be for newspapers in 1961 to say something about it!

[quote]Ignoring racism in history will just lead us to repeat it.

Jesus tapdancing Christ, we're not going to build new Japanese internment camps if some TV channel doesn't show the Mr. Yunioshi character during a showing of this movie!

Absolutely ridiculous to claim that racism will get worse if, sometimes, we don't show some stupid racism from 1961.

I dunno. THere's something to be said for reminding people how commonplace the shitty racism on display here was.

But of course, viewers of Japanese descent might be repelled so why?

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that Asian people in the U.S. don't need reminding about how bad racism used to be.

The idea that a person of one race isn't allowed to satirise or portray a person of another race (which has been going on since the dawn of man) is Wokist idiocy at its best. And because the Woke offence is inherently idiotic, it will only be a passing craze. A decade or two decades from now it will be looked upon with amazement.

Regardless of whether people need to be reminded of racism or not (though I feel too many rather pretend it doesn't exist). Censorship of art is still wrong just because people don't like it.

[quote]If you're looking to feel superior to someone you picked on the wrong guy, gurlfriend.

Apparently not.

That the Rooney character should stand for every asian who ever lived, rather than merely one humorous eccentric, is part of the nonsense of the Woke offence.

And I said, "What about BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S?"

She said, "I think I remember the film;

And as I recall, I think we both kind of liked it."

And I said, "Well, that's the one thing we've got."

It's so weird when white people bleat on about how minorities should just buck up and not take offense but white people are the most delicate flowers on earth.

R7. He could be Pakistani for all we know!

I love how R7 wants to prove she's not an old fart by spelling "girlfriend" with "u."

Well done, auntie!

I think it'll be sooner than two decades. The country is already shifting right, politically. People want a return to normalcy, which is what conservatism is. I think that by 2030 the pendulum will have swung to the right. This current PC/woke culture will be a thing of the past by then.

R23 My issue is they seem to want to sanitize the past and have us ignore racism for some colorblind fantasy when the world isn't like that. Unfortunately, even among people of color there is animosity and tribalism.

Blackface, redface and yellowface were offensive but it's an uncomfortable part of history. Just like those confederate statues which while I don't agree should be displayed in public but preserved in museums. The most vile aspects of human nature must be out in the open and condemned to remind us to keep ourselves in check.

Censorship has always led to trouble. We need to instead of hiding certain unsavory imagery. Have discussions and debates on it. Educate our children on it. Ignoring stuff like racism and xenophobia doesn't make it go away.

[quote]I love how [R7] wants to prove she's not an old fart by spelling "girlfriend" with "u." Well done, auntie!

I love how queeny you sound, even when you write.

*while I agree should not be displayed in public but instead in museums

R26. Unlikely. Unless society undergoes a general regression, the clock never turns back. Although politically, conservatives often prevail, that is due to the unrepresentative nature of American democracy.

With some foresight perhaps, Al Jolson made sure toppling his gravestone would be a real chore.

The US is becoming like a Banana Republic with the gap between the rich and poor widening and little to no middle class. Conservative authoritarianism always rises in those circumstances. It doesn't look pretty so far.

[quote]People want a return to normalcy, which is what conservatism is.

Sure, nothing says "normal" like Ted Cruz, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Ron DeSantis. It's super-normal to ban abortion, declare that legislatures can just pick whatever president they want and allow mercury in your drinking water.

Normal.

[quote]I love how queeny you sound, even when you write.

Only old people think queeny is an insult. Or even say queeny.

Back to your hot cocoa, granny.

[quote]And because the Woke offence is inherently idiotic

You know what's inherently idiotic--other than not knowing how to spell offense? Still using the word "woke." Keep up, Fox-watching grandpa.

[quote]You know what's inherently idiotic

Yeah, we do. Provincial yank queens who don't realise the rest of the world doesn't spell offence with an 's'.

[quote]Only old people think queeny is an insult. Or even say queeny. Back to your hot cocoa, granny.

If you're so young you should be Sunday-morning-fucking your BF, not hissing at eldergays on DataLounge...old gurl.

[quote] TV channels have been cutting movies for both content and time for decades, and now suddenly you're all up in arms about it. Sure, why not.

It’s perfectly fine to ruin a movie so that the rich get richer — but editing out bad sequences because they’re bigoted is INTOLERABLE!

People are getting very upset.

Americans are SO touchy about everything.

Did woke start in America? I genuinely don't know. Must have.

Faggot

[quote] Provincial yank queens

Tail’s wagging the don’t now, ain’t it?

"Woke" is such a helpful word. As soon as I see it, I know to ignore everything else the person writes.

Saves so much time.

Did Capote ever trash Mickey Rooney?

This is why I bought the full Charlie Chan collection on DVD. Eventually all of this stuff is going to stop being shown or cut out on broadcast TV.

I love BAT but have always wished I could see the movie with the Rooney sequences edited out so I could just lose myself in the damn thing and not have him stomping in every fifteen minutes smearing shit everywhere

What I find even more problematic is that this film encouraged an entire generation of Americans to think the store is called "Tiffany's."

You mean prior to this film everyone referred to it as "Tiffany And Company"? Did they also say they were going shopping at "R. H. Macy And Company"?

We don't like censorship.

Oh but it is OK for Asian Akwafina to speak in a black vernacular. So woke!

[quote]You mean prior to this film everyone referred to it as "Tiffany And Company"? Did they also say they were going shopping at "R. H. Macy And Company"?

No, the store is called Tiffany, not Tiffany's.

Just as a store is called Macy's, not Macy.

It's not that difficult to understand, you obtuse thing.

PLEASE R46! She's a high-toned queen, and anyone so common as to say 'Tiffany's' is marked down as TRASH.

Which is amusing because, apart from a few Elsa Perelli pieces, Tiffany has been flogging mostly trash since beyond its Gilded Age glory days.

All criticism of Mikey Rooney's portrayal as dated racism aside, it should be removed for its amateurish levels of unfunny, hammy, community-theater-level bad acting.

Yes, even in the old song, "Santa Baby" it is referenced as "Tiffany", not Tiffany's.

^Not R49

Censorship treats people as children who can't figure out how they should feel about something.

[quote]Censorship of art is still wrong just because people don't like it.

Editing commercial art is part of the deal, and "Breakfast at Tiffany's" was made during a time that everyone involved knew that if the movie made it to television, it would get edited for content.

The movie was leased to TV channels with the agreement that it would or at least could be edited. Channel 5 would have HAD to have had a similar agreement, and the owners of the film who leased it to them would have had to have agreed.

Trying to reframe this by changing the context and calling it "censorship" is factually wrong.

This is not censorship.

r43 Capote was angry about the Hollywood bastardization of his novel, mainly changing the character based on him from gay to a hetero leading man. He also hated the casting of Hepburn as Holly since he based her on Marilyn Monroe. Who's going to believe Audrey Hepburn grew up on a farm in Oklahoma?

A remake is needed.

Rightwingers want you to be incensed about a movie being edited for television, saying it's censorship and it's the woke liberal leftist Commie scumbags takin' away yer freedumz.

That's why it's the Daily Mail pushing this nonsense.

Well even before wokeness became a thing I always thought those scenes ruined what would otherwise be a classic film.

[quote]This is not censorship.

Ah! So removal of characters perceived as racist from a work of art isn't censorship, merely, er - editing for time, perhaps?

Thanks Mr. Wizard. Leftist evasion at its finest.

[quote] Breakfast At Tiffany's ruthlessly censored

RUTHLESSLY

The gestapo BURST into the station and fired a flamethrower at the movie

[quote]unfunny, hammy, community-theater-level bad acting.

I'll probably save a rant on this for another time, but I've seen some very good acting in community theater - plenty of well known actors started on the local level. So tired of it used as a universal put-down (by people who probably never saw any - or only the worst of it).

[quote]Ah! So removal of characters perceived as racist from a work of art isn't censorship, merely, er - editing for time, perhaps?

Please direct me to the threads where you complain that the removal of words like "shitload" from Blazing Saddles for network TV showings is censorship.

I'll wait.

Really it’s due a remake where Fred can be a gay gigolo

[quote]She's a high-toned queen, and anyone so common as to say 'Tiffany's' is marked down as TRASH.

[quote]Which is amusing because, apart from a few Elsa Perelli pieces

It's "Peretti," OP et al. Guess you're trash, too.

All the Feigin scenes in Oliver are next on the censor's list??

I can’t help but laugh at claims of LEFTISM because a total cringe bit of bigotry is taken out of a mediocre movie.

Yes they are running around in beards and berets over at massive for-profit corporation Paramount, planning collectivism and the dictatorship of the proletariat!

For Fox zombies, anyone who doesn’t want the USA to become a tinpot rightwing-strongman-state is ipso facto a “leftist.”

RUTHLESS LEFTIST WOKIST CENSORSHIP

MR. YUNIOSHI DISAPPEARED; WESTERN NATIONS DOOMED

What is cringe-worthy is the hypocrisy of selective "censorship".

[quote] Really it’s due a remake where it actually tells the story as capote wrote it

FTFY

Being part Italian-American I was much more offended by Sally Tomato! The stupid name, and the depiction of the only Italian-American character in the movie as a gangster stereotype - and played by a Jewish actor - as usual!

I mean we could do this all day.

All of Alec Guinness's scenes in Majority of One and A Passage to India are next on the censor's list??

[quote]All the Feigin scenes in Oliver are next on the censor's list??

At a bare minimum, if you're going to pretend to care about "censorship" of certain characters then you're going to have to fucking know how to spell them.

R72 Hypocritical bigotry should be trivialized/ignored due to spelling errors.

No, r73, I just think it's pretty interesting that nearly everyone on here who has the vapors over "censorship" is really kind of stupid.

[quote]It's so stupid about Mr Yunioshi - it's a joke - have actual Chinese people ever complained?

[quote]apart from a few Elsa Perelli pieces, Tiffany has been flogging mostly trash

[quote]All the Feigin scenes in Oliver

The Fagin scenes in Oliver Twist caused a lot of trouble (in the 1948 David Lean version - where Fagin was played by Alec Guinness). They were heavily cut, in the US. Dickens himself, in his own lifetime, got a lot of criticism for the character, and I believe apologized for the stereotyping.

[quote] I was much more offended by Sally Tomato! The stupid name,

Exactly — Sally tomato, red weirdos, the way white kids dance in early 60s movies. So corny. If the late 60s hadn’t happened we would’ve needed to invent them.

R75 And yet it continued in the 1968 version. And in Dickens book. Which has not been on anyone's censorship list. Neither has The Merchant of Venice. Or Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited. Or Chaucer.

Lots and lots of highly selective hypocrisy and bigotry.

[quote]All of Alec Guinness's scenes in Majority of One and A Passage to India are next on the censor's list??

You forgot Lawrence Of Arabia.

I'm sure many people here are aware of the huge hit Gone With The Wind was in Japan- on stage - first as a non-musical, later as a musical - with Japanese actors in both blackface and whiteface. I have no objection to it. People are only outraged outraged if white people do it, about other races.

R78 At least Omar Sharif was Egyptian. But yeah, Guinness and Griffith need to be censored.

Another on for the censorship list: Yul Brynner, The King and I

Addendum R79 Anthony Quinn too.

[quote]And in Dickens book. Which has not been on anyone's censorship list. Neither has The Merchant of Venice. Or Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited. Or Chaucer.

Every single example you listed has been censored and on banned books lists.

You're doing this on purpose, aren't you?

R77 I understand your point and agree - but there was a big difference with the 1968 version - Fagin's ethnicity was really played down and there weren't the exaggerated facial features Guinness had. The 1948 version was right after WWII and it seemed particularly insensitive and regressive to Jewish groups after the Holocaust. Something I totally understand.

Guinness as Fagin

Ron Moody as Fagin

Memoirs of a Geisha - Michelle Yeoh (Malaysian), Zhang Ziyi and Gong Li (both Chinese) playing Japanese. How insulting!

[quote]Every single example you listed has been censored and on banned books lists.

Really? Which banned books lists exactly? Because its Jew hatred is still being rationalized.

What's odd is that there is a doc on the making of the film and Blake Edwards discusses the racism in the film. He makes no justification for it and regrets it. He could have cut it himself but chose to let it be as it always was.

Rooney was spot-on. But people don't like to have a mirror held up to themselves.

[quote]So tired of community theater used as a universal put-down

Any of us who have friends who think they are actors have had to sit through community theater. Yes, there can be decent performance but, more often than not, they are really bad. Usually, because you get someone who can sing, but can't act. Or vice versa. Or people who can do neither but always wanted to be a star.

Community theater was created for the people on the stage, not the audience.

Whenever you have to go to community theater or an off off Broadway show because a friend is in it you always regret the friendship.

Well if they ever remake the film they can hire that guy as Yunioshi.

Sex scenes used to be routinely cut from broadcasts of films. This really isn’t anything new.

When I first saw the film as a teenager I had a huge crush on George Peppard as Fred. He was so handsome in this movie and I wanted him to be a gay man who just treats Holly as his friend rather than a lover.

The new short version is called "Snack at Tiffany's".

Was there any explanation for why Lula Mae Barnes from Hicktown, USA ended up with a vaguely European accent? Was it supposed to be part of her transformation into Holly Golightly? The movie danced around Holly's profession. Did the novella make it more clear that she was a lady of the evening?

For R7, R20, and R43

[quote]Even the author of the novella to which the film owes its name, Truman Capote said it was ‘the most miscast film’ he’d ever seen; “it made me want to throw up. Like Mick Rooney playing this Japanese photographer. Well, indeed I had a Japanese photographer in the book, but he certainly wasn’t Mick Rooney.”

BLAKE EDWARDS??!

Well, no fucking wonder!

I was talking about level of acting in community theater - not level of production when there is hardly any money to work with. I never saw a lot of musicals but some of the comedy and drama is very good. Anyway my point was people like Henry Fonda, Dorothy McGuire, Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, Robert Pattinson. ("The mega-famous Twilight star says he “owes everything” to community theatre"), James Spader ( friend of mine was in a local play with him when he was younger), Chris Evans, Kristen Chenoweth, Emma Stone - all started in community theater and didn't just become good actors because they were professionals.

Are you telling me that Mickey Looney wasn't Asian?

The scenes are shit but can we leave them in please so everyone can see for themselves how blatantly racist it was? I don't need censors telling me what to see and what not to see, like helicoptering parents cutting the Schnitzel for their spoiled 16-year-old. This has to stop.

I watched Breakfast at Tiffany’s somewhat recently (maybe 2-3 years ago) after not having seen it for decades. The Rooney scenes are jarring not only for how racially offensive they are but for how out of place that dumb slapstick portrayal is to the look and feel of the film. His scenes are distracting, and they really took me out of story.

I don’t care whether his character gets edited out of DVD releases or future screenings, I don’t really have a dog in the hunt. I probably won’t ever watch it again regardless — that Rooney performance makes me too uncomfortable to watch it as-is, but editing out the character altogether would probably hurt the plot.

I agree that it's insanely dated and offensive, but that's not a reason to censor it. When I watch Breakfast at Tiffany's, I look forward to it, if only to watch with bewildered astonishment that such a terrible comedy bit could have found its way into a big studio movie. And, of course, it's always sobering to see how Mickey Rooney's star had faded since the 40s.

This thread is giving me the Mean Reds.

"It is terrible, *especially twee* Audrey Hepburn..."

The Republicans who bitch about stuff like this are currently trying to pass "Don't Say Gay" bills and bills banning "divisive" concepts and "Critical Race Theory" (which they can't even define )

What else do you expect from a country whose prime minister described black peoples as piccaninnies with watermelon smiles and gay men as tank-topped bum boys?

Keep your house in order, British Bulldogs.

I know I am in the minority, but I really do not care for Audrey Hepburn.

She was a pretty, if anorexic-looking, clotheshorse, but she seems so fey and inauthentic.

It's more than a little funny and more than a little telling that the ones who pretend to get to most ginned up about the WOKE CENSORSHIP MOB can't point to anything of any consequence.

It's constantly low-stakes shit.

A high school doesn't want to do "Grease." Someone thinks the grossly racist "Me So Solly!" act of Mickey Rooney as a Japanese man should go.

These are not big deals. And yet the bitches who bitch pretend it's the end of Western Civ.

As if they just finished reading Thucydides in the original Greek.

Since Hollywood is so fond of remaking movies, imagine a new Breakfast at Tiffany’s but cast more true to Capote’s story. A Marilyn Monroe type who is obviously a call girl, a gay Paul being kept by an older woman, a Japanese actor for the landlord who isn’t slapstick comic relief.

I think the actress who played Joan on Mad Men in a blonde wig for Marilyn? She has the right voice.

Why censorship? Can’t people just fast forward the bits they don’t like?

I think they should have done a remake several years ago when Michelle Williams was young enough to play the role.

I haven't read the book but why would an older woman keep a gay man? He would be puking all over her if he was expected to be more than a walker.

r52 I can't figure out what(Tiffany or Tiffany's) Marilyn Monroe's character sings in the film "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes."

[quote] The yellowface was a mistake and absolutely wrong

Big deal

Editing a piece of film or art that is of its time is absurd. Like putting fig leaves on ancient statues. His portrayal is stereotypical and ham fisted but not sure how it is different from Miss Swan on MadTV or Anjelah Johnson's Nail Salon bit.

Let's leave Mickey Yunioshi alone. It's part of the film, it was 1961 and it's done. It's over. This is so important?

If it was a Japanese movie with a Japanese actor doing a caricature of a Caucasian neighbor reacting in a frustrated way, I'm sure most Americans would find it hilarious and totally acceptable. That's what I find strange.

R114 "But stiff back, or stiff knees, you stand straight at Tiffany's"

[quote]The US is becoming like a Banana Republic with the gap between the rich and poor widening and little to no middle class. Conservative authoritarianism always rises in those circumstances.

R32 Ever hear of the Russian Revolution?

Asians find Mickey Rooney’s Yellow-Face Portrayal on “Breakfast At Tiffany’s” to be offensive.

[quote]If it was a Japanese movie with a Japanese actor doing a caricature of a Caucasian neighbor reacting in a frustrated way, I'm sure most Americans would find it hilarious and totally acceptable. That's what I find strange.

I bet you find a lot of things strange because you don't seem very perceptive. For starters, Caucasian Americans would never watch a Japanese movie.

It's also Woolworth, not Woolworth's.

Japanese media does stereotype. White people especially Americans are portrayed as aggressive, sexual and obsessed with guns and lawsuits, other Asians as dishonest and greedy and black people as musically talented and athletic. It's even less politically correct than American media because Japan is more racially homogeneous.

[quote]He also hated the casting of Hepburn as Holly since he based her on Marilyn Monroe.

No, Capote wanted Monroe to play Holly. He based Golightly on his friend Marguerite Littman.

R5 Educate us dear and tell me why I need to know or care?

Has anyone blamed Breakfast at Tiffany's for all the attacks on Asians in NYC?

r126/r127 takes pride in his ignorance.

R128 I was just going to say how odd it is that people now wear their ignorance as a badge of honor.

R129 just like some SJWs wear smugness and unearned superiority as their badge of honor.

R128 and R29 should visit Chinatown NYC and see how interested and knowledgeable they are about the various cultures that surround them!

^ R129

R122 and would your generalization apply also to black and Hispanic Americans? Tokyo Story, High and Low, Vengeance is Mine, Black Rain and Onibaba are Japanese films, and they are among my favorites?

A 'little bit' of censorship like this ends up with Gone With The Wind being burnt. Books being burnt. Everything being burnt.

The idiot responsible needs to be bitch-slapped into next week, and then sacked.

One of the things I find very funny is when younger people point out things like misogyny and racism in some older films, but would never dream of demanding the censoring of misogynistic or racist lyrics in rap music.

I've just read this FANTASTIC article at Unherd ("Iz dat a Right Wing site?" No, moron.) by an author about 'Sensitivity Readers' - the reviewers at her publishers who check books for triggering text. It's drawdropping. One of the best reader comments, on the article, applicable to this and much else is:

"you’ve missed a central point about the term culture war. It’s a war.... The use of virtue is a cloak. Wars must be fought. It’s not about being nice to these people, it’s about reducing their influence to peddle their victim ideology."

Sure and when you've convinced yourself that black people and asian people and trans people are enemies in a war and that their claims of oppression are just lies used to peddle their victim status and oppress YOU, well then you can do anything you want to them and you're virtuous. You're only defending yourself. Right?

and sometimes a garage pull is just a garage pull

R137 Maybe read the article before ranting.

You mean the article that drawdropping?

R139 INCELs don't read. They just rant.

Was Marilyn offered this and turned it down? I read that her "mentors" The Strasbergs advised it would hurt her career to play a prostitute.

"Tolerance will reach such a level that intelligent people will be banned from thinking so as not to offend the imbeciles." – Dostoievski.

[quote] "Tolerance will reach such a level that intelligent people will be banned from thinking so as not to offend the imbeciles." – Dostoievski.

Damn those Russian trolls.

Guinness as Prince Faisal in Lawrence of Arabia.

He's fucking VIOLET but still sounds like Obi-Wan Kenobi 😂

Yes, Dostoyevsky was a TERF.

It does also star the Divine Miss Patricia Neal as 2-E:

"Is it really only 3 weeks since I left you in Rome?"

[quote]INCELs don't read.

"Incel" isn't an initialism, you dingus.

The last few days' worth of comments are just useless culture war whining from losers who don't have anywhere else to post their incessant "Rap music has BAD WORDS and BLAAACKS don't care! The Japanese are racist to us WHITES!!!" crap. Good use of time, everybody. Lives well lived.

[quote] It's so weird when white people bleat on about how minorities should just buck up and not take offense but white people are the most delicate flowers on earth.

So, to combat stereotyping you are going to stereotype white people?

R148 'dingus'? So INCEL!

R149 the 'armchair revolutionary' @ R148 feels criticizing a 60-year-old film will make the world a better place for all those Asian Americans under assault in NYC!

Criticizing a film is part of the free speech you pretend to care about, r151, and has been said a million times, the film is a commercial product which has been shown edited on TV for 60 years. It couldn't have been shown edited on Channel 4 without express permission from the owners, who obviously gave that permission.

You're only riled up about THIS edit because the Daily Mail told you to be upset about it. Sad that you can't think for yourself.

R152 and so pro active! and EZ which is why it appeals to basement dwellers.

Also R149: "You pretend to be for tolerance but why don't you tolerate my hatred of Jews!! Check and mate!!"

When you show movies like "Breakfast at Tiffany's" or "Gone With the Wind," you provide context to the racist and sexist attitudes and mores of the time they were produced. TCM does this well.

What is more troubling is the censorship Hollywood practices on its films in order to have access to the Chinese market. Take "Bohemian Rhapsody" for example. There's a great deal to criticize over the film's treatment of Mercury's character overall, but for the Chinese market Hollywood whitewashed his sexuality and drug use completely.

[quote]A 'little bit' of censorship like this ends up with Gone With The Wind being burnt.

Like Atlanta?

[quote]You pretend to be for tolerance but why don't you tolerate my hatred of Jews!! Check and mate!!"

R154 Uh, no Adolph. Your Jew hatred is socially entrenched, not only tolerated, but accepted and rewarded. You can spew all the Jew hatred you want, with much social support and little social consequence.

This is nothing compared to what I went through during the tryouts of my musical version. My God, the attacks I suffered when I was only doing my best to sing and dance.

Having seen parts of it over the years, I recently watched "Breakfast at Tiffany's" straight through for the first time. Here are my thoughts:

It was a good movie and deserves to be a classic.

Audrey Hepburn was perfect as Holly Golightly. I don't think anyone could have played the character better. Truman Capote however, hated the casting of the film and it was said he wanted Marilyn Monroe to play Holly. Thank God that never happened. Considering Monroe's unprofessionalism if she had been cast the movie would have been in trouble from Day 1. Plus casting Monroe would have changed the character entirely; the character would have been a lot more Marilyn Monroe than Holly Golightly.

Mickey Rooney as Mr. Yunioshi was a broad comic caricature, considered funny back then but totally racist and unacceptable now. I myself thought Rooney's portrayal of the put upon Ynioshi, always having to buzz in ditsy Holly Golightly because she forgot her key, was quite funny. Rooney said conflicting things about the role. In his 1991 memoir" Life is Too Short, “ he said "I was downright ashamed of my role in Breakfast at Tiffany's and I don't think the director, Blake Edwards, was very proud of it either." He was more defensive in 2008, after a Sacramento screening of the film was canceled after there were protests over Rooney’s portrayal. “They hired me to do this overboard, and we had fun doing it. Never in all the more than 40 years after we made it—not one complaint. Every place I've gone in the world people say, ‘God, you were so funny.’”

Patricia Neal and Martin Balsam and Buddy Ebsen were quite fine in their brief supporting roles. Buddy Ebsen's career was rejuvenated after his portrayal of Doc. It helped him get cast as Jed Clampett.

George Peppard was pretty to look at but very unappealing. Blake Edwards didn't want him in the role of Paul. He wanted Steve McQueen, who no doubt would have been a hell of a lot better, but McQueen was under contract and was unavailable. So Peppard got the role of Paul/Fred. But nobody liked working with him. He was "pompous" and "overanalyzed everything."

"Cat" was a hell of an actor. A scene stealer.

Blake Edwards can only do slapstick. He doesn't know how to handle normal adults.

Why haven't I been cut out of this movie?

Why haven't I been 'ruthlessly censored' out of this movie?

it is unwatchable and dated because of that performance. The novella has problematic language too but it's a memorable read. The film goes downhill after the opening scene.

Blake Edwards at his most sophisticated.

(Poor Julie suffered in silence)

[quote] The novella has problematic language too

R163 What does the word 'problematic' mean… according to you?

Girls. GIRLS. You're all ching-chong, ching-chong.

Paramount can censor themselves if they want to. Nobody really cares, you can go rent an unaltered copy if you want to. Nobody's forcing them to, unlike the various laws that the right wing is trying to pass in the states. Honestly white victim-hood is what is really out of control.

using the word coon is problematic for me. Holly dreams of having green- eyed "coony" babies with the Brazilian stud she stole from Mag Wildwood.

They need to censor Thoroughly Modern Millie. You would get one half the movie, no Bea Lillie and no ending but you would get Julie as you love her.

They need to censor 'Flower Drum Song'

Oh God I love Flower Drum Song. I just watched the bluray twice. What gorgeous music. And an amazing cast. Sunday is such a dazzling number and worth the entire movie. How was Umeki not nominated for an Oscar? When she takes out the rose and tells Shigeta she no longer loves him it is one of the most heartbreaking moments in a musical.

The movie is currently free to watch (uncensored) on YouTube.

[quote] dazzling romantic comedy

No, it was a rather sad, overlong film about two sad people (and I understand that both of them were supposed to be prostitutes).

She was anorexic and he was flabby.

R56 He didn't base the story on Monroe, he wanted Monroe as holly. In the novella, Holly is a prostitute and Capote thought Hepburn did not look like a hooker. Monroe was trashier looking apparently. The actual story was autobiographical and In reality, he had a neighbor who was a prostitute.

[quote] If you're looking to feel superior to someone you picked on the wrong guy, gurlfriend.

Clearly not, since at this point you have only 4 upvotes, while he has 48.

As Annette Funicello would say, "You lose!"

[quote]Sir Richard Eyre, informs: "It is terrible apart from Audrey Hepburn"

Fuck you, Dick.

He also forgot Buddy Ebsen and Suzy Parker!

Marilyn was Holly in real life. Grew up poor in Los Angeles (this was old L.A. when it was rural and backwater and settled by white Southerners). Was desperately trying to cultivate a sophisticated and worldly image. Insecure about her lack of education. Used sex to get ahead. Was still unhappy regardless. Gay men seemed to gravitate to her.

Audrey didn't have an easy life but she's too European. Not cornfed or hillbilly in the American sense.

[quote](this was old L.A. when it was rural and backwater and settled by white Southerners).

I think that's a bit of an exaggeration. Quite a bit, actually.

Mickey Rooney was hilarious in Breakfast At Tiffany's. Maybe that's racist, but how do you stop yourself from laughing, if something strikes you as funny? As kids we always told each other when the movie would be on, to see him. There are actually other stereotypes in the movie, but since they're white stereotypes (like Italian gangster "Sally Tomato" - who I don't think is even played by an Italian) it's "okay." The world is burning down around us and this is what people choose to worry about. '

Are there nude photos of gorgeous George Peppard?

I've seen commercials from other countries where Americans are stereotyped as cowboys, drunk rednecks or fat tourists. The U.S. is not the only place biased representation of others happens/happened.

The California Surfer and Valley Girl are popular American stereotypes abroad, too.

Miss Gorightly? This time I'm a-warning yuuu! I am definitely this time going to calling the poreece!

I read this as “Breastfed at Tiffany’s” and thought well of course someone was upset….

I hope the PC brigade doesn’t come for Judy’s rendition of “Waitin’ for the Robert E. Lee” in Babes on Broadway.

The people who whine about the censorship brigade want to ban books about racism and LGBT people. And they're trying to blame violent movies and violent video games for school shootings

The film is just another abomination by the reliably underwhelming Blake Edwards. Audrey is pretty but George Peppard was the one i couldn't take my eyes off of.

Remake it with Lindsey Lohan and Sean Hayes.

[quote] underwhelming Blake Edwards.

Hollywood at its most unintelligent and unattractive.

I always thought that if you had to depend on a second source, like TCM, to explain to you how elements of certain films such as "Gone with the Wind" can be viewed as problematic, then you obviously didn't pay attention in history class, and you have no ability to think and analyze for yourself.

Brideshead Revisited has the "n-word" in it and the mini-series of it has it in it, too. They should both be banned!

Better save those DVDs and Blu-rays of your favorite classic movies. They'll probably be coming for John Ford's westerns pretty soon.

R192 Especially as we are slowly realising Ford was a secret homosexual.

[quote] "Gone with the Wind" can be viewed as problematic A female character in that story stole my soul.

[quote] Who's going to believe Audrey Hepburn grew up on a farm in Oklahoma?

It was Tulip, Texas, you philistine.

[quote]A remake is needed.

Absolutely not!

[quote]Audrey Hepburn was perfect as Holly Golightly. I don't think anyone could have played the character better. Truman Capote however, hated the casting of the film and it was said he wanted Marilyn Monroe to play Holly.

Truman Capote wrote the fucking book. You think you know better who should have been cast for his creation?

[quote]Considering Monroe's unprofessionalism if she had been cast the movie would have been in trouble from Day 1.

What are you? A producer? Yes, she was trouble towards the end of her life, but she worth it. Look at her in "Some Like It Hot" and "The Misfits." You think Audrey Hepburn would have been better in those roles because she was more "professional?"

"I always thought that if you had to depend on a second source, like TCM, to explain to you how elements of certain films such as "Gone with the Wind" can be viewed as problematic, then you obviously didn't pay attention in history class, and you have no ability to think and analyze for yourself."

I always thought that conservatives who bitch about "woke" things not only didn't pay attention in history class, they probably dropped out of school like Lauren Boebert. Shouldn't you be busy taking books about racism out of libraries or something? TCM doing an intro segment about a movie is not banning it.

"They'll probably be coming for John Ford's westerns pretty soon."

Zero DVDs have been banned. Try harder. And tons of movies are edited for tv, usually for things like sex and swearing

[quote] Truman Capote wrote the fucking book. You think you know better who should have been cast for his creation?

Yes, Truman Capote was pretty nuts. His judgement was not exactly sound.

[quote] What are you? A producer? Yes, she was trouble towards the end of her life, but she worth it. Look at her in "Some Like It Hot" and "The Misfits." You think Audrey Hepburn would have been better in those roles because she was more "professional?"

I know a fair amount about how movies are made. Marilyn Monroe was a terror to work with. When BAT was being made into a movie she was in terrible shape, addicted to pills, mentally unstable. That's a major reason why she was never seriously considered for the role of Holly Golightly. It was well known that Monroe showed up hours late for work (if she showed up at all), didn't know here lines and thus would have driven the film way over budget and delayed its completion. She wasn't right for the role anyway. She was too overblown sexually, too much a of sexpot.

[quote]Sir Richard Eyre, informs: "It is terrible apart from Audrey Hepburn...The kindest thing would be to burn the film."

So is he advocating burning films? Book, too, probably. Great...

*Books

[quote] Marilyn was Holly in real life.

Uh, no. Even being the "kook" that she was Holly Golightly was nowhere near the train wreck that was Marilyn Monroe.

R199 - none of that makes Audrey Hepburn "perfect" in the role. A business decision {probably valid) to not cast Marilyn doesn't mean she wouldn't have been much better in the role.

[quote] A business decision {probably valid) to not cast Marilyn doesn't mean she wouldn't have been much better in the role.

She was too sexy, too much of a blatant sexpot, to play Holly Golightly. Hepburn's performance (and her look) was iconic. Monroe could never have done that.

[quote] iconic

A devotional painting of Christ or another holy figure, typically executed on wood and used ceremonially in the Byzantine and other Eastern Churches.

All this fuss and no one mentions how insufferable George Peppard was in his role?

Think how many 'name' actors had to turn down the role before they offered it to Peppard...

R136: Loved this comment at the your link:

"Someone needs to start up “Insensitive Publishing” to publish unbowdlerised literature. I find it extraordinarily offensive that a publisher should subject their author to the inane commentary of snivelling semi-illiterates bent on destructive ideological criticism."

The entire movie should be censored along with anything else that overrated anorexic twig of an "actress" starred in. As Emma Thompson said, she couldn't sing, she couldn't act.

[quote] Emma Thompson

Has a talent to Annoy!

I'm not a conservative, R197. Just because I don't like (or need) to be lectured by TCM about why "Gone with the Wind" has elements to it that are problematic, just means that I understand what the issue is already.

I can make a decision about what to watch or not watch, on my own. I am not for censorship.

^^^^ - If you feel you're being lectured, then you might be the target audience. I've never perceived the TCM host as lecturing about anything. They give informative presentations before a movie starts and sometimes, if the movie has some problematic scenes, they give some background about it. They don't lecture.

And just because you (think you) understand the issue already doesn't mean everyone has, you narcissistic fuck.

Those disclaimers from TCM and Disney are very condescending and annoying like everyone about to watch the film is a very stupid person. I have to agree with the other poster. So now when there is any brown face in a movie(I'm looking at you Peter Sellers and Alec Guiness and Jean Simmons) we need disclaimers. And of course you can't do the musical The Mystery of Drood anymore.

'The Mystery of Drood.'

was eliminated from my posts twice.

[quote] A devotional painting of Christ or another holy figure, typically executed on wood and used ceremonially in the Byzantine and other Eastern Churches.

There's more than one definition of "Iconic." Another is "Very famous or popular, especially being considered to represent particular opinions or a particular time."

"They'll probably be coming for John Ford's westerns pretty soon."

[quote]Zero DVDs have been banned. Try harder. And tons of movies are edited for tv, usually for things like sex and swearing.

I wasn't suggesting DVD would be banned. I meant people should save their DVDs if they want to see the films in their original state, because they will be being censored more and more for streaming or cable - or broadcast. As in: if you save your DVD for Breakfast At Tiffany's, you can watch it in its original form, which you may prefer. As opposed to a censored version.

PS If you don't want to save your DVDs, don't. You won't hurt my feelings.

For fuck's sake, you have broken my heart. At least have the decency to break my ass, too.

Emma Thompson is a smug, overrated cunt who seems to think she is much more intelligent and aware than she actually is. However Hepburn truly is awful in a lot of the BAT scenes such as the one with her "mean reds" and her Belgian accent makes no sense for the character unless Capote wrote Holly as someone who put on a vaguely European accent in order to sound more sophisticated and fashionable.

Was the Hays Code still being applied when the movie was made? Wasn't Holly clearly a prostitute in the novella? The film makes it seem like she was just a geisha or courtesan type who spent time with men and didn't necessarily have sex with them.

I'm normally anti-censorship, but I'm also allergic to Mickey Rooney, especially in this particular role.

Dilemma!

This confection needs to be "ruthlessly censored".

[quote]her Belgian accent makes no sense for the character unless Capote wrote Holly as someone who put on a vaguely European accent in order to sound more sophisticated and fashionable.

If she had a Belgian (Flemish) accent, it's very slight. Her accent usually passes for British, I think she was trained in elocution in England. She was convincing as an American in several films. Holly is supposed to be someone who re-invented herself, so Audrey's manner of speaking actually works for the character. When we find out she's really Lulu Mae it comes as a shock, as it should.