Controversy surrounding 1961 film "Breakfast at Tiffany's"

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Of course, what I have in mind is Mickey Rooney’s portrayal of an over-the-top Japanese stereotype. Ben Mankiewicz acknowledged the situation on Turner Classic Movies. However, whoever wrote this review didn’t seem to have any real problems with Rooney’s performance. I know times have changed, but I would like to know what Catholics should think of Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Rooney’s appearance in particular.
 
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Given that it was made almost 60 years ago, I don’t worry about it too much. All the movies back then contained things that would be considered highly objectiionable today.

We have also had movies since then that promote over-the-top Asian stereotypes with actual Asians playing the parts, such as “Sixteen Candles”.
 
Rooney probably wasn’t the best casting choice for that movie, but it’s not a big deal. It’s still a good movie. I think people nowadays can be just a little overly sensitive about these things.
 
I don’t think the casting of Rooney was done with the intention to offend or make fun of the Japanese. I think Yunioshi is a caricature and obviously isn’t in the best taste - he shouldn’t have been cast for the role, but I don’t think there was any ill intent.

I think the bigger picture is that we should set out every day with the intentions of showing God’s love to everyone we encounter, and take into consideration their feelings and backgrounds so we can be as respectful and kind as possible.
 
zosch said:
I don’t think the casting of Rooney was done with the intention to offend or make fun of the Japanese. I think Yunioshi is a caricature and obviously isn’t in the best taste - he shouldn’t have been cast for the role, but I don’t think there was any ill intent.
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Yunioshi as portrayed in the film would have been a caricature and probably offensive even if played by an Asian actor.

I think we could also make a good case that in the Pink Panther movies by the same director, Inspector Clouseau as played by Peter Sellers in the later movies had become a caricature of a Frenchman as well. Comedy relies on a lot of caricatures. I suppose this gets set aside because Clouseau wasn’t a member of a racial minority group, the French didn’t complain, and the Pink Panther movies were broad comedies across the board, as opposed to "Breakfast at Tiffany’s " being more of a drama or at least a dramedy.
 
The only significance of that song to me is “road trip” music. It seemed to always be on the radio when I would be driving from Kansas to New Mexico to work on my cabin.
 
As the Retroactive Racial Outrage forces continue to capture the culture, can it be long before the New York Times has to apologize for its “Japs Bomb Pearl Harbor” headline of Dec. 8, 1941. Perhaps they should have said “Allegations that military forces of the mighty Japanese Empire have been active in Hawaii” should have been used instead. And of course there are all those WWII movies full of racial slang and ethnic stereotypes that will need to be banned. Clearly “Bridge on the River Kwai “ couldn’t even be made today.
 
Hollywood movies back then had lots of objectionable content back then… like traditional morality.
 
I really liked Breakfast at Tiffany’s. As for Rooney’s performance, first time I watched it, I was just annoyed Rooney distracted the entire movie away from watching Audrey. Rooney’s performance should have been cut so there could be more Hepburn.

Rooney’s performance is very inappropriate…different time.
 
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And the numerous movies that forever stigmatized Italians as Mafia types…
 
Pitcairn17 said:
As the Retroactive Racial Outrage forces continue to capture the culture, can it be long before the New York Times has to apologize for its “Japs Bomb Pearl Harbor” headline of Dec. 8, 1941. Perhaps they should have said “Allegations that military forces of the mighty Japanese Empire have been active in Hawaii” should have been used instead. And of course there are all those WWII movies full of racial slang and ethnic stereotypes that will need to be banned. Clearly “Bridge on the River Kwai “ couldn’t even be made today.
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We can recognize that something is inappropriate and offensive while still recognizing the context of the time. We don’t have to say that Mickey Rooney is a racist to say that the portrayal is a racist caricature; this isn’t moral outrage so much as recognition that racism was once commonly accepted, and this portrayal is an example of it.

This doesn’t mean that Breakfast at Tiffany’s is morally objectionable, but it does contain material that we can easily recognize as inappropriate, and that this material was made in a time when mainstream culture did not always recognize such offenses for what they were. In modern times we can look at the film with a better understanding, and we may feel that it is inappropriate to use it as casual entertainment given this better understanding, but this doesn’t have to amount to moral outrage against those that created it.

Peace and God bless!
 
Yes, including Breakfast at Tiffany’s itself. If I remember right, Audrey Hepburn works for a gangster named “Sally Tomato”.
 
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“Traditional morality”? I take it you haven’t actually seen “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” then, have you?

The main characters are a young guy who’s a paid boy toy for a rich older woman, and a party girl who was married at 14, ran out on her husband to come to New York and marry a rich man, and pays her rent by delivering messages to a mobster in prison. The two main characters shoplift and spend the night together. Yeah, that movie is just chock full of Traditional Morality.
 
Then you have Bing Crosby in blackface in Holiday Inn. I think we can be thankful that we are seeing changes in what is considered acceptable/entertaining. I appreciate they show these films and address the issues. “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
 
I remember John Wayne as Genghis Kahn and the other night I watched Jeff Chandler as Cochise.
They were different times in cinema.
 
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