Yes, but NOTHING SACRED is a comedy, and we're invited to laugh at how she, once she realizes she's not really going to die, plays the saccharine "caring" people who are profiting from her supposed illness for suckers.
The humor carries its own critique of how we treat the dying and disabled, which it sounds like SIDE EFFECTS really doesn't do.
Well, that’s the difference between studio system productions and modern Hollywood. There was a blunt honesty about real life in the older movies that current filmmakers cannot possibly replicate.
I don't know if I agree with that, David—the Motion Picture Production Code neutered most sorts of "blunt honesty" that might in any way, shape, or form make the "Christian White Majority" that Production Code Administration head Joseph I. Breen approved of "uncomfortable". I'm kind of surprised NOTHING SACRED got past them, honestly!
"Blunt honesty about real life" has always been in short supply in Hollywood—there have been brief periods where it pushed past the failure of "The Dream Factory" when the "dreams" weren't popular, but it wasn't long before "The Dream Factory" reasserted itself: With the enforcement of The Production Code by the mid-1930s, with the anti-communist Witch Hunts of the late 1940s-early 1950s...and with Steven Spielberg and George Lucas dominating Hollywood with their beloved escapist fantasies in the mid-1970s.
I'm wonder if Francis Ford Coppola ever felt befriending Lucas was akin to letting a cuckoo into his "New Hollywood" nest, once his former protégé and HIS buddy Steve got so successful selling rehashed Flash Gordon and Republic Serials to the world...!
This is such an interesting analysis. I love when the veil is pulled back from ableism, myself having internalized so much of it before coming to acceptance of my own disability. Thank you for a deep dive on a movie that I initially perceived as entertaining but superfluous. I love how your mind works, Noah.
I saw it when it came out and had the same reaction (entertaining but superfluous.) Have been thinking more about disability rep which is why I thought I'd rewatch it...and was kind of horrified.
The story reminds me of the 1930s film "Nothing Sacred", where Carole Lombard plays another faux-victim (of radiation poisoning in that case).
I haven't seen that, but the "diabled person faking" trope is pretty common!
Yes, but NOTHING SACRED is a comedy, and we're invited to laugh at how she, once she realizes she's not really going to die, plays the saccharine "caring" people who are profiting from her supposed illness for suckers.
The humor carries its own critique of how we treat the dying and disabled, which it sounds like SIDE EFFECTS really doesn't do.
it does not, alas.
Well, that’s the difference between studio system productions and modern Hollywood. There was a blunt honesty about real life in the older movies that current filmmakers cannot possibly replicate.
I don't know if I agree with that, David—the Motion Picture Production Code neutered most sorts of "blunt honesty" that might in any way, shape, or form make the "Christian White Majority" that Production Code Administration head Joseph I. Breen approved of "uncomfortable". I'm kind of surprised NOTHING SACRED got past them, honestly!
"Blunt honesty about real life" has always been in short supply in Hollywood—there have been brief periods where it pushed past the failure of "The Dream Factory" when the "dreams" weren't popular, but it wasn't long before "The Dream Factory" reasserted itself: With the enforcement of The Production Code by the mid-1930s, with the anti-communist Witch Hunts of the late 1940s-early 1950s...and with Steven Spielberg and George Lucas dominating Hollywood with their beloved escapist fantasies in the mid-1970s.
I'm wonder if Francis Ford Coppola ever felt befriending Lucas was akin to letting a cuckoo into his "New Hollywood" nest, once his former protégé and HIS buddy Steve got so successful selling rehashed Flash Gordon and Republic Serials to the world...!
This is such an interesting analysis. I love when the veil is pulled back from ableism, myself having internalized so much of it before coming to acceptance of my own disability. Thank you for a deep dive on a movie that I initially perceived as entertaining but superfluous. I love how your mind works, Noah.
I saw it when it came out and had the same reaction (entertaining but superfluous.) Have been thinking more about disability rep which is why I thought I'd rewatch it...and was kind of horrified.