There is almost no aspect of life that hasn’t changed in the last 40 years — and sometimes drastically. How we consume media, how we interact with one another, how we communicate, how we think, the words we use … it’s all almost unrecognizable from the early 1980s.
And so it can sometimes be quite jarring to pick up a classic film of 40 — or as little as 30 or 20 — years ago. While the content of the actual movies themselves never change (unless George Lucas is somehow involved), hits of previous eras can become timeless classics or dated oddities very easily purely by the changes in the attitudes of the viewers watching them. Older films might contain storylines or characters or language that contemporary audiences now find distasteful, objectionable, or just out of touch.
Take the 30 movies listed below. In their day, they were all sizable hits. A couple were absolute blockbusters; a few even won major Academy Awards and were considered amongst the best motion pictures of their respective eras. But they look very differently when viewed through a modern lens. We’re not saying these movies should be forgotten or discarded. We simply want to observe how the times have changed, to the point where these 30 films would have a very hard time even getting made today.
80s Movies That Could Never Be Made Today
90s Movies That Could Never Be Made Today
These movies include some of the biggest of the decade — a few even won Academy Awards. But all of them would have trouble getting made today.
2000s Movies That Could Never Be Made Today
These movies include some of the biggest of the decade. But all of them would have trouble getting made today.
