BY: Amanda Jane Stern

Sometimes a movie is so unforgivably misguided, you have to wonder how did it ever get made? Who greenlit this film? Other times, you find a movie that is so progressive, you’re happily shocked it got produced. These nine movies, whether positive or negative, may make you wonder, how did it get made?

Crash 

No, we don’t mean the movie that beat Brokeback Mountain for Best Picture at the 2006 Academy Awards. Though that film has its own issues. We’re talking about the 1996 David Cronenberg movie. Yes, Cronenberg has always been known as a weird director, but this movie, based on a controversial book of the same name, takes it to a new level. Crash follows a film producer played by James Spader who gets involved with a group of symphorophiliacs. What are symphorophiliacs? People who are aroused by car crashes.

Gigli

It’s the movie that will ruin any fond memories of Thanksgiving turkey. It relied on cashing in on the real-life romance between Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez to pull it through. However, that attraction did not translate to the big screen. And honestly, it shouldn’t have. The plot centered around mobsters Larry Gigli (Affleck) and Ricki (Lopez), who become embroiled in a kidnapping. Gigli is attracted to Ricki, but Ricki is a lesbian, who turns straight for him. Can we agree never to make another movie where a lesbian ends up falling for a man because of his magical penis or whatever? It’s both homophobic and biphobic. By 2003, this was already an outdated trope.

Girl Stroke Boy

You’ve likely never heard of this 1971 British indie movie, but not only was it progressive in 1971, it is still very liberal today. The film centers on a man named Laurie, who brings his Caribbean girlfriend Jo home to meet his white, upper-middle-class parents. The Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner theme goes further when it turns out Jo is a trans-woman. Yes, this movie is very 70s, but its portrayal of transgender woman is significantly better than more recent celluloid depictions of transgender individuals. In the film, the only person who questions Jo’s gender identity is Laurie’s mother and her close-minded behavior makes her the butt of every joke. And while they were not able to get a trans woman to play Jo, they did cast a performer known for their gender fluidity.

High Noon

Yes, this Gary Cooper-starring Western is undoubtedly the best movie on this list. It is considered one of the best Westerns ever made. But, getting this picture from script to screen was quite a feat. High Noon came out in 1952, during the red scare in America. In fact, during production, screenwriter Carl Foreman was called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) for his alleged ties to Communism. His failure to cooperate landed him on Hollywood’s blacklist. For the film to be released, Foreman sold off his project shares to his former business partner and moved to England. Add to that, John Wayne, the notorious anti-Communist, actively campaigned against this film. John Wayne took credit for being the one to drive Foreman out of the country.

Making Love

In 1982, movies that positively portrayed gay men were almost nonexistent. ABC produced the TV movie That Certain Summer in 1972. Then in 1974, the indie film A Very Natural Thing got a theatrical release that reached a small audience. So, when Making Love came out in 1982, it was groundbreaking. But it was not an easy movie to get made. Screenwriter Barry Sandler pitched it to ABC since they made That Certain Summer. But that film was chaste and Making Love showed physical contact between the leading men. But two women, Claire Townsend, the head of development, and Sherry Lansing, the newly appointed president of 20th Century Fox, decided to take a risk and greenlit the project. And thus, the first major studio motion picture to portray gay men positively and romantically was released.

Movie 43

The fact that this movie got made is pretty astonishing. Nobody wanted to do it. After this anthology was turned down by the first studio that initially said yes, producer Charles B. Wessler shopped it around. Finally, Relativity Media gave him the green light. Troubles didn’t end there. Before shooting started, several writers backed out of the project. Some of the film’s actors, like Richard Gere, had to be strong-armed into participation. Overall, it took more than four years to complete. And, was it worth it? Well, considering most of the actors who ended up taking part in the movie have since disavowed it, and it’s regarded as one of the worst movies ever, probably not.

My Father The Hero

This movie is like if someone read Lolita, got to the part where Humbert Humbert takes Dolores to The Enchanted Hunters hotel and then thought, you know what would make this even better? Why don’t we make it a rom-com and make Humbert Humbert her father? Yep, this movie centers around a vacationing 13-year-old Nicole (Katherine Heigl), who decides to pretend her father, Andre (Gérard Depardieu), is her lover. It is all to impress an 18-year-old guy she has a crush on. How this mess got made is astounding. And to top it off, why anyone thought it was ok to parade a pre-teen Heigl around in a thong bathing suit is genuinely confounding. Even worse, it is a remake of a French film of the same name. How this movie got made not just once, but twice, is mind-boggling.

Psycho

No, we don’t mean the iconic 1960 Alfred Hitchcock classic that happened to be the first movie to show a toilet flushing on camera. And is credited with bringing about the definitive end to the Hays Code (an industry-developed set of moral guidelines). We’re talking about the 1998 remake directed by Gus Van Sant. It’s generally not a good idea to remake a classic like Psycho,  or anything by Hitchcock, for that matter. But even more misguided, Van Sant decided to make a shot-for-shot remake of the original with a new cast and in color. It only heightened the disparity between the two versions. It makes us wonder, why did Van Sant think this was a good idea in the first place? And why didn’t anyone stop him?

Soul Man

Finally, the most misguided film (on a list that includes My Father The Hero) is Soul Man. C. Thomas Howell stars as Mark Watson, a pampered, rich white boy who has to pay his tuition to Harvard Law School. How does he raise the money? He uses tanning pills to turn his skin “black,” so he can qualify for a scholarship for minorities. Yes, this is a movie from 1986, years after we’d already come to the overwhelming conclusion that blackface was a major no-no. A film about a spoiled white teen learning to empathize with people of color by wearing blackface is not the way to handle racism.