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30 Movies That Teach Terrible Lessons, As Pointed Out By People In This Online Group
Interview
Remember watching something in a movie you wanted to repeat? Well, fiction is not only there for escapism; many writers/filmmakers want spectators to be wiser and adapt lessons characters learned to real life. They convincingly use words, directing, cinematography and music to portray emotions. Of course, not every film has a profound lesson in it. Some are pure entertainment or teach bad lessons. And that's ok.
Anime and gaming fan Micu was thinking about what an "awful message" the musical Grease delivers and asked Reddit "What's a movie that teaches a really bad lesson?" She received over 6k responses. Rom-coms and action movies got a lot of smack in the thread. Scroll down for the best ones, and an interview with Micu.
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#1
just about every rom com that teaches men that 'no' means 'keep trying' instead of 'f&%k off'.
#2
Any movie that teaches the idea that if you're persistent, then you'll get the girl/guy.
Micu herself gave some opposite examples—the good lessons. "I recently watched ‘Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop’ which was about loving yourself as well as all your flaws and accepting love from other people. Also, ‘Dead Poet Society’ teaches you to seize the day."
#3
Grease : If He cannot "rise" to her level - She should "sink" to his.
#4
Fifty Shades of Grey.
It’s a movie about a guy who was ab$#ed perpetuating the cycle of abuse with the thin veneer of “it’s okay because he’s rich and this is how BDSM works.” The f%^k it does; almost all the characters are all sh$^ty people. Period.
#5
13 reasons why. Not a movie, but is basically plays to the fantasy of any teenager who’s thinking of harming themselves how everyone will run around afterwards trying to piece it all together and they’ll still be a big part of peoples lives when they’re gone.
The sad reality is that this is not true and it’s a terrible message to give to kids.
earringnut 3 years ago
As a suicide surviver I can confirm that people don't grow souls just because someone died. If they didn't care when you were alive they won't care when you're dead. The flip side is anyone who did care is deviated.
If Micu was making a movie with an unusual moral, she would want to communicate that good isn't always rewarded with good: sometimes the good goes to bad people instead, to give spectators expectations of "just how the world works."
#6
Cats. It teaches impressionable Hollywood producers that it's a good idea to make a movie like Cats.
#7
The whole Twilight series. Edward and Jacob are both controlling pricks at best, and Bella is too spineless to put them in their place.
"My love dumped me, so I'm going to engage in reckless behavior."
"My love is dead, so I'm going to commit su&%#de by cop."
"My love is in a relationship with someone else, so I'm going to try to force myself on her so she will change her mind."
If you want some professional input about how bad the relationships are in Twilight, check out Cinema Therapy on YouTube.
#8
Any romcom. You're about to get married, but you met a really cool person you had a connection with. Now your fiance seemed... Off. They aren't the right person for you. Leave them for that stranger.
Talking about sending messages, movies are treated as a powerful tool for propaganda. While today's Hollywood is more influenced by the audience, award shows, and other countries' censorship, from 1934 to 1968, the industry was self-regulated by the strict Hays Code.
#9
Love Story. "Love means never having to say you're sorry!" What the hell were they thinking?
#10
The Sex and the City Movie… and series. Big leaves Carrie time and time again over the years. This teaches that if you stick around your toxic relationship the man might finally change and commit to you…even after 10 years!
With that said, I love SATC! Watching it in my 20’s I saw Carrie finally get her man. Watching it in my 30’s I cringe and just wish Carrie would have stayed with Aiden.
Ellie Rosser 3 years ago
I am 100% team Aiden, but glad he didn't get stuck with Carrie, she would have made him miserable!!
#11
Most high school movies. There's nothing wrong with wearing glasses. Characters barely ever study etc.
The Hays Code was influenced by moral panic from spectators and politicians as well, but many of the rules wouldn't fly in todays US. It prohibited things like interracial dating, French kisses, evoking empathy towards criminals, etc. In fact, in one of the movies mentioned in this list, Cinema Paradiso, a filmmaker shares memories of stealing cutout frames of kissing from a small-town cinema in Italy, where they were censored by a local priest.
#12
50 shades of gray. Creepy dude gets viewed as elegant and mysterious just because he’s rich
#13
40 days and 40 nights. It's about a girl who's a total slot but she decides to challenge herself not to have sex for 40 days. She's doing fine until her friend makes a website about it and a being pool starts. Suddenly everyone is trying to get her in bed.
Meanwhile she meets this really great guy who teaches her that love doesn't have to involve sex, you can have a great time and even be intimate without f@#king.
Still, she's so horny, you guys. At the end of the 40 days, she literally handcuffs herself to a bed to keep from letting anyone f@#k her.
The pool is up to huge amounts of money now.
Then her ex boyfriend walks in. He sees her tied up, so he ra&#s her. He claims the prize money and literally rides off into the sunset.
The s*#^ty girl is upset because her awesome new boyfriend might not accept her now that she cheated on him by being r&#ed but it turns out he's ok with it.
Oh wait oops I accidentally reversed the genders of all those characters.
#14
Lots and lots of romantic movies. Maybe you can just walk up and kiss someone like in The Notebook if you’re Ryan Gosling. In reality, though, get consent first ffs.
Any action movie where someone disarms someone who has a knife. Don’t try that. If possible, run the fuck away.
Fifty shades of grey. Shit writing aside, that’s not how you do bdsm, relationships or anything in between. It’s not romantic. It’s creepy. Why in the fuck did anyone like that movie?
In 1934-1941, as divorce rates grew, Hollywood's screwball comedies, like His Girl Friday, It Happened One Night, and Adam's Rib started incorporating the theme of remarriage, which later was recognized as a subgenre by philosopher Stanley Cavell, who dedicated a whole book to it in 1979 called Pursuits of Happiness: The Hollywood Comedy of Remarriage. It's important to note that female characters in these films were independent and still chose to come back to their husbands, even though these screwball comedies show marriage as a miserable situation.
#15
Revenge of the Nerds can’t even claim it’s satirical. The nerds are just as bad - if not worse - than the jocks. Yes the jocks started it by running a few pigs through their party. What the nerds do is far worse but really only at the expense of the easier targets - their women.
Other than the humility of losing in what is effectively a few competitions they cheat at (along with some Tigers Balm in their jockstraps), the Lambdas don’t really get revenge on the jocks, they take it out on their women.
First they spy on them in the nude. Then they distribute the nude photos to the school. Finally Lewis r*^es Betty Childs. All because like four girlfriends helped the jocks with the pigs?
And the idea that it’s okay because Lewis is good in bed is beyond disturbing. She doesn’t just accept it, she decides she’s “in love with a nerd.” That movie was written by some serious incels.
Susie Elle 3 years ago
Almost all 90's comedy movies are like this. "I have a problem with this guy so I'm gonna get his girlfriend or wife in bed and then somehow it's all her fault in the end!"
#16
Overboard - she has amnesia so he convinces her she is his wife & mother to his 3-4 kids. Then he has sex with her.
So r#^ey.
Vicky Z 3 years ago (edited)
The original story described is from the 80's with Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell and not the picture above which is the remake!(edit:picture was changed after my comment) In the remake is the other way around! It was already cringe even for the 80's and i have no idea who decided that this story had any place in today's society!!
#17
a lot of disney channel stuff aimed at teenage girls. the protagonists are bi&$hy and manipulative and use their looks to get what they want disguised as empowerment
Fabian Meresse 3 years ago
Typically, Richie Rich. Would slap that kid, also uses money to get whatever he wants...including power on women. Really bad bad values there
On the other side of the world, the first Commissar for Education in the Soviet Union remembered Lenin saying "that of all the arts, the most important for us is the cinema." He recognized the capabilities of cinema as a thought-shaping tool in a country with a large percentage of illiterate people. The Commisar stressed the importance of showing films in remote villages where people hadn't seen any, thus propaganda there would be even more effective.
#18
Passengers with Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence. It's okay to develop Stockholm syndrome and fall in love with the guy who basically ruined your life and manipulated you.
#19
My Best Friend's Wedding - Hey, I know a way to show my support for my best friend. Lets sabotage his wedding to a perfectly lovely girl.
Franc Esca 3 years ago
It's a great movie and one of the only realistic ones. A woman realizes too late she lost her love and embarrassing hurts people acting like a complete suitcase trying to win him back. the only unrealistic part is when he forgives her.
#20
Not a movie, but the kids' show "Caillou" is fucking terrible. It's made for kids at the age where they copy everything they see, and the main little fucker in the show crys and whines the whole time, so kids who watch it become insufferable.
Bad lesson for kids, good lesson for parents who will learn about "modeling."
What have you learned from movies? Have you learned the Heimlich maneuver to save a choking person? Threw a similar party to Project X? Became concerned about the fabric of reality and privacy after The Matrix and The Truman Show?
#21
Shrek teaches it's okay to inflate innocent animals into balloons and let them float away to their probable death
#22
Pretty mild example but Justice League.
The moral of the story is basically that a team is nothing without their strongest member. Basically it’s contradicting the moral of what teamwork even stands for in the first place.
#23
Oft cited, but for good reason - Revenge of the Nerds. R@#ey stalkers are the heroes here.
Enlee Jones 3 years ago
A year or two ago Cracked.com did an article about this movie and how problematic it is, especially the hero of the movie technically committing rape by deception. An alarming number of commenters saw nothing wrong with this and said they’d do the same thing if given the chance. o.0
#24
Didn't want to let the kids see Jackass. Gave in. Ńext day, the very next day, they were sliding down a staircase in a laundry basket.
Fabian Meresse 3 years ago
''Don't try this at home'' And chill out, if you let your kids watch Jackass, maybe YOU are the nut one
#25
Chicken Little oh my GOD that freaking chicken’s father did not give an f about his son until he was the big star of the town
Brian bell 3 years ago
Hollywood seems to make most fathers into clueless a-holes. Most Dads I know try to do their best even when they are a little clueless. Another shitty movie for that was Inside Out. Made me not like the movie because of how they depict the douchy dad.
#26
Not a movie, but Paw Patrol. All the adults are incompetent and require a kid with 5 dogs to deal with their every problem.
#27
Hocus Pocus, Max gets relentlessly harassed and bullied almost the entire movie for being a virgin
glowworm2 3 years ago
I was actually quite surprised when rewatching this movie in college (hadn't seen it since I was a kid) and discovering that the "virgin" bit was so thoroughly emphasized. Especially because it's Max's little sister who keeps bringing it up. Someone who shouldn't even know what a virgin is to begin with at her age.
#28
Any movie where a couch or car door is used as cover in a firefight.
That's concealment really...
A .22 will go through a car door or a couch.
A car isn't even cover like in Jon Wick or anything. Rifle rounds will zip right through unless it's a solid engine block hit.
#29
Christmas with the Kranks teaches us that adults should not be allowed to spend Christmas however they like, and they must bow to peer pressure and do what other people want them to do.
C. D. McCullum 3 years ago
Free Frosty!! Such crap, what if you don't celebrate, will your crazy neighbors harass you every December?!
#30
The intern - teaches if your boyfriend cheats on you because he can't stand how successful you are, it's your fault and you should forgive him
What do you think ?
Troux 3 years ago (edited)
The Little Mermaid: Want to win the man of your dreams? Be attractive, naked, and silent. Also, it's totally acceptable to completely and suddenly abandon your home, family and friends in pursuit of this one person.
Zedrapazia 3 years ago
Don't forget to mention she's only seen said man once, has never actually spoken to him and doesn't know him at all.
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Daria B 3 years ago (edited)
I might get schooled and downvoted for this, but - no, I'm not going to defend any of these films, I dislike most of these tropes just as much as everyone else - I just think we should change our approach to how we see the entertainment industry. It's entertainment, not documentary. We shouldn't expect a work of fiction to teach us anything. If it does teach something good, besides being entertaining, that's wonderful, but not every film is there to teach anything. So many nice films have been ruined by this approach because people taught it "was teaching a bad lesson", while really, no, the film was just supposed to make you reflect upon what you just saw, possibly making you create your own new thoughts. And, before you school me on how sensitive is the youth, I was always taught that fiction is no reality and thus need not be emulated in real life. Heck, there are things that are funny BECAUSE you wouldn't do them in real life.
Daria B 3 years ago (edited)
So, yes, please, change the cliché tropes, but let's not get all self-righteous about it. End of my Ted Talk. *bows*
Load More Replies...
Randolph Croft 3 years ago
Any movie where the protagonist is suddenly thrust into a new adventure and expects to become a super-pro in a stupidly short period of time. As opposed to taking years to learn the art/craft/skill needed to succeed.
Jane Doe 3 years ago
Ha. South Park ep where Stan had to learn to ski to win a race against rich high school kids. Stan: dude, I’m 8, I’ve never been skiing before! Montage song about becoming an expert in ten minutes.
Load More Replies... Troux 3 years ago (edited)
The Little Mermaid: Want to win the man of your dreams? Be attractive, naked, and silent. Also, it's totally acceptable to completely and suddenly abandon your home, family and friends in pursuit of this one person.
Zedrapazia 3 years ago
Don't forget to mention she's only seen said man once, has never actually spoken to him and doesn't know him at all.
Load More Replies... Daria B 3 years ago (edited)
I might get schooled and downvoted for this, but - no, I'm not going to defend any of these films, I dislike most of these tropes just as much as everyone else - I just think we should change our approach to how we see the entertainment industry. It's entertainment, not documentary. We shouldn't expect a work of fiction to teach us anything. If it does teach something good, besides being entertaining, that's wonderful, but not every film is there to teach anything. So many nice films have been ruined by this approach because people taught it "was teaching a bad lesson", while really, no, the film was just supposed to make you reflect upon what you just saw, possibly making you create your own new thoughts. And, before you school me on how sensitive is the youth, I was always taught that fiction is no reality and thus need not be emulated in real life. Heck, there are things that are funny BECAUSE you wouldn't do them in real life.
Daria B 3 years ago (edited)
So, yes, please, change the cliché tropes, but let's not get all self-righteous about it. End of my Ted Talk. *bows*
Load More Replies... Randolph Croft 3 years ago
Any movie where the protagonist is suddenly thrust into a new adventure and expects to become a super-pro in a stupidly short period of time. As opposed to taking years to learn the art/craft/skill needed to succeed.
Jane Doe 3 years ago
Ha. South Park ep where Stan had to learn to ski to win a race against rich high school kids. Stan: dude, I’m 8, I’ve never been skiing before! Montage song about becoming an expert in ten minutes.
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