What’s Aged the Worst?
The rampant racism; the treatment of women
In the discussion (8)
Approx. transcript time · 00:32:55Read transcript
- Annette O'Toole's girlfriend could have used a couple more scenes, though the film commits to her maitre d' job and shows her frustrated at the restaurant repeatedly; not seeing Eddie for twenty-five minutes, revealed like the shark in Jaws, is a weird choice in retrospect, although it grounds the desperation of turning to a federal prisoner after a prison break and a cop shooting within twenty-four hours.
- Reggie Hammond's stuntman is visibly not Eddie Murphy in two cutaways of the fight, looking twenty years older; the bleeped basic-cable version makes this one of the most savage cable movies, with Midnight Run the Mount Rushmore of films that cannot air on TNT; watching it knowing what happens in Another 48 Hours has not aged well, though one host does not really mind the sequel and is told to save that for the end.
- One host names the rampant racism the winner, saying it gets worse every year and wondering how this can be a favorite movie; the other says the treatment of women has aged worst, beyond Annette O'Toole's flat storyline: prostitutes, Jack choking Billy Bear's girlfriend at the end to learn whether he is upstairs, two women hit, and topless women on beds as eighties set dressing; conceded as great points.
- The film's one bad influence on a host was introducing the word 'trim', which had a short life in American vernacular and left that host alone on it; the other was thirteen and did not know what was going on, but hearing Eddie Murphy swear in a movie was part of the greatness of seeing it in 1982.
- Eddie is the greatest profanity user of all time, like watching Jordan shoot, with Pryor the only comparison; a Profanity Mount Rushmore draws Tupac, George Carlin, Sam Jackson and Pesci, and listeners are invited to send nominations to the mailbag.
- The racism leads to maybe the worst apology in movie history after Jack's slurs, some rarely heard; Nolte reportedly kept proposing slurs to Eddie Murphy on set, to Eddie's bafflement, and a 2008 documentary has Nolte saying much of their dialogue was improvised; Jack's apology that he was just doing his job keeping Reggie down meets Reggie's reply that doing your job doesn't explain everything, then a laugh and friendship, and Jack tells his captain Reggie has more integrity than any partner he has had.
- Whether the movie teaches anything about race relations or just rides a wow factor; the answer is that in 1982 America was still racist and a lovably irascible racist cop like Jack Cates was realistic, on the heels of the Detroit and Watts riots and the 1975 Massachusetts busing riots; it made sense for the character but ages badly because the audience is meant to really like him.
- One host still likes Cates despite his bad acts, being so used to them, though a fresh viewing shocks; later films such as Last Boy Scout, Die Hard 3 and Rush Hour soften the older cop into racially tinged condescension followed by a confrontation, and nothing dealt with it this explicitly; a comparison to rooting for Neil McCauley in Heat, and curiosity about how viewers under twenty-five would react, since Reggie defuses it in the bar scene.