Movies in the '80s were a bit of a wild west when it comes to political correctness: The Goonies, Revenge of the Nerds, Short Circuit to name just a few.
But they're not the only ones. Here are nine more '80s classics that we adore – but which would raise a few eyebrows if they were made today.
1. Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure
Really? Even Bill and Ted?
Yes, really.
Ted "Theodore" Logan and Bill S Preston Esq are painted as loveable (if not always particularly bright) scamps, which is why we love them. What we don't love so much is that after they hug (Bill thought Ted was dead), they break apart and shout "FAG!" in unison.
(That word showed up again in the sequel, Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey, where this time Keanu Reeves's Ted calls Satan a "fag". Which shows that things weren't much better by 1991.)
2. Gregory's Girl
Gregory's Girl remains a brilliant feel-good teen romcom and was pretty forward thinking for the early '80s, featuring as it does a girl playing football with boys (and being easily the best in the team) without making it a big deal.
There's one scene, however, that feels a bit... weird when watching back today. In a rare scene involving only adults, two male teachers (including Taggart star Alex Norton) are having a laugh about their students, including young "Sandra and Alison", who have baked them some cupcakes. Their description of them? "Very nice girls, very clean".
Then, when one of the teachers asks the other if he's "still getting those poems from Jean", he responds saying: "We are dealing with the emotions of a vulnerable, sensitive, 16-year-old... redhead", then bites the cherry off one of the cakes like it's totally fine. If this were real he'd be getting a call from Operation Yewtree any second now.
Then there's the weird scene where PE teacher Mr Menzies teaches Dorothy a clever football move in the showers. Now, we're not saying anything actually happens, but there's an odd moment where she dances up close to him as they move closer into the showers while steam covers them. Maybe we've just been corrupted in the 30-plus years since it was made and it was totally innocent, but... yeah.
And let's not forget the moment where Gregory's old pal Billy visits the school, now working as a window cleaner. Billy's former teacher Miss Welch makes it pretty damn clear she misses him, seductively telling him to "come up and see me some time". What the hell is going on at this school? No wonder poor Gregory is so randy.
OH and did we mention the scene where the teenage boys spy on a nurse getting undressed? We're surprised half the town isn't on a register somewhere.
3. Weird Science
Two nerdy boys create their perfect woman (Kelly LeBrock), complete with to-order boob size, on their computer. She has to obey their every command. Also she's a magic wizard who can conjure up cars and do mind control and stuff. Fortunately they do not use her as a sex slave (but only because they're too shy). Instead they use her to convince two other girls to dump their boyfriends and go out with them instead.
John Hughes' movie is a cult classic (particularly among teenage boys, we suspect) but its gender politics are super-dodge. Also – had it been two nerdy teenage girls who had conjured up a magic older man (complete with bespoke knob size) who took showers with them, threw a party in their house, and told people their relationship was purely sexual, that would also be VERY MUCH NOT OKAY.
Here's a picture of Robert Downey Jr with a bra on his head.
4. The Woman in Red
Sorry Kelly LeBrock, but you were not having a good run in the '80s. This now frankly bizarre movie is about a "happily" married man (Gene Wilder) who accidentally spies Le Brock's knickers when she's doing a Marilyn over a grate. He becomes obsessed by her, egged on by his mates, and almost manages to get into bed with her, when her husband unexpectedly comes home.
Oops! But that's okay – at the end he gets a smile off a newscaster who he'll now presumably aggressively pursue behind his wife's back without any repercussions.
5. Tootsie
You won't find many movies on this list with 10 Oscar nominations and a place in the Library of Congress's National Film Registry. But while Sydney Pollack's acclaimed film of a hard-on-his-luck and hated-in-Hollywood straight male actor secretly dressing up as a woman in order to get a daytime TV part was seen as being "culturally significant" at the time, no-one voting probably reckoned that in 2017 it would be for all the wrong reasons.
Watching Tootsie back now is to remind yourself how far the world has shifted in such a short space of time. And while the well-made film tries for the same anti-sexism agenda as Nine to Five, with bum-slapping bosses chastised and gender roles at work explored, using a male character as the vessel for the story undercuts much of the goodwill.
Instead of struggling with deep issues of gender or identity crises, Dustin Hoffman's comically high-pitched Michael Dorsey-turned-Dorothy Michaels is simply an arrogant would-be achiever who will do anything to be successful. It's like Gordon Gekko does The Two Ronnies.
That's not to mention the stereotypes, the homophobic gags and the general attitudes of the time ("The only reason you're still living is because I never kissed you," says one suitor when learning the truth) and the general ridiculousness that a bewigged and shiny-nailed Hoffman, like, say, Benny Hill, is suddenly the hottest thing on slice bread pervades, even before you get to the inevitable "man learns things" ending.
Also… Dustin Hoffman.
The film's most fitting legacy is that the only person who won one of those 10 Oscar noms was a woman: best supporting actress Jessica Lange.
6. Soul Man
What Tootsie is to sexism, Soul Man is to racism. C Thomas Howell's rich white boy decides to cheat the system by "OD'ing on tanning pills" so that he can apply for a Harvard Law School scholarship for African-American students. Throw in a bad wig and some crass stereotypes, and how could hilarity not ensue?
Of course, he eventually learns a valuable lesson blah blah blah, but we'd argue that it is a lesson that could have been learned without the need for an hour and a half of 'comedy' blackface (with a bit of the still-very-much-alive "white saviour" narrative thrown in for good measure). Why James Earl Jones signed on for this, we'll probably never know.
7. National Lampoon's vacation
The dog. Dude, that dog! Chevy Chase's Clark is the patriarch of the family, and to the extent that there is one, our hero. But when he gets lumped with Aunt Edna and a dog he doesn't like, he forgets to untie it from the bumper of his car and drives off, killing it horribly. Cold.
Also this bit from a couple of young teenagers:
Cousin Vicki: I'm going steady, and I French kiss.
Audrey Griswold: So? Everybody does that.
Cousin Vicki: Yeah, but Daddy says I'm the best at it.
Eeeewwwwwww.
8. Heathers
Yes, Heathers is a satire, so while it features a lot of talk about teenage suicide, for example, it's certainly not encouraging it. Instead Veronica (Winona Ryder) and JD (Christian Slater) are the Bonnie and Clyde of their oppressive cliquey school who go on a blackly comic murderous spree.
The movie's a corker but there are a couple of things that would make it totally not okay today. Firstly: guns in school – not cool or funny (both JD and Veronica carry guns at various points). But also we're not sure about the homophobic setting up of Kurt and Ram, who JD plants with "homosexual" items like (gasp!) bottled mineral water to make the police think their deaths were a gay suicide pact. It's kind of a joke about homophobia, but… still.
9. Coming to America
Eddie Murphy's Prince Akeem of Fictional African Nation Land is sick of all the subservient sex slave women of his nation (and presumably the rest of the continent too). Those crazy Africans! With their sex slaves and benign despots!
Oh, and James Earl Jones is in it again. Darth Vader, how could you?
