Why Is The Arnold Schwarzenegger Hit 'Kindergarten Cop' Being Banned?

[janterry]

(let me make the title more clear than Newsweek did - it's been banned from a film festival and there are calls for more so-called banning - but it's still a movie and people can access it. The 1990 PG-13 Arnold Schwarzenegger film was slated to be shown at a drive-in film festival in Portland, Oregon)

Newsweek Why Is The Arnold Schwarzenegger Hit 'Kindergarten Cop' Being Banned?

It looks like the crime comedy Kindergarten Cop has been given a permanent time-out. The 1990 PG-13 Arnold Schwarzenegger film, which was slated to be shown at a drive-in film festival in Portland, Oregon has been removed from the lineup. Anti-police critics, lead by local author Lois Leven claimed that the film promotes "school-to-prison pipeline" and romanticizes over-policing." The film has also been likened to Birth of a Nation, along with Gone With the Wind.
and

"What's so funny about School-to-Prison pipeline?" Leveen tweeted on August 1. "Kindergarten Cop-out. Tell @nwfilmcenter there's nothing fun in cops traumatizing kids. National reckoning on over-policing is a weird time to revive Kindergarten Cop. IRL, we are trying to end School-to-Prison pipeline."

"There's nothing entertaining about the presence of police in schools, which feeds the 'school-to-prison' pipeline in which African American, Latinx, and other kids of color are criminalized rather than educated," she added. "5- and 6-year-olds are handcuffed and hauled off to jail routinely in this country. And this criminalizing of children increases dramatically when cops are assigned to work in schools."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/news/why-is-the-arnold-schwarzenegger-hit-kindergarten-cop-being-banned/ar-BB17BA3f

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. Next to be banned: "It's a Wonderful Life," for trivializing drunk driving. NT

[janterry]

3. lol

[MaryMagdaline]

2. Leveen is right. What was funny in the 90s is pretty

Horrifying now. The movie was part of a culture that sold us on the militarization of police. Unintentionally but the message is there.

[Hortensis]

4. I don't remember much except that it's almost entirely white.

My memory may drop a fringe character someplace, but I remember thinking that the darker-complected/tanned white guy they chose for the villain was about as dark as it got. (Just grabbed a picture to check my memory, and they also dyed his hair black for the part.) Pandering to those audiences who enjoy Ozzie and Harriet fantasies isn't reason to ban, of course, just came to mind.

[BannonsLiver]

19. That's quite a pant load

There are a ton of 80’s and 90s Comedies that are still very funny today. Unless one is completely joyless, of course.

[MaryMagdaline]

32. Sure

That must be it.

[BannonsLiver]

33. It must be

The position that nothing funny was made in those decades is moronic. Incredibly so. What a bizarre POV.

[Demsrule86]

5. Ridiculous...love that movie...just bought it off of Amazon.

[janterry]

8. My daughter liked it when she was younger

and I was happy to have a copy for her to watch

[Demsrule86]

34. I think it is fine...if people don't like a movie than don't watch it.

Right?

[Layzeebeaver]

6. I think this is rather tenuous

Every movie has something that will trigger someone about something - Drugs, violence, race, politics, class, hell, even the weather when its not represented to some persons view of reality.

Based on this logic, every movie from the 90's could be banned for some reason.

How about Top Gun - romanticising war and middle east aggression by the west.

Every movie is a cultural time-capsule - you have to watch it with some level (even small) awareness of the culture and ideas of the time - and also the motivations of the actors and producers.

No one is going to stop watching Gone with the Wind. Are they going to withdraw any awards?

Banning a minor film like K-cop proves nothing except for the poor judgement of the managers of the film festival. The could have chosen a more relevant film concerning the school to prison pipeline to schedule and THEN ban it. The stoopid is strong with these ones... All they have done is create non=relevance for their decision.

Exactly what relevant aspect of the school to prison pipeline is represented? And were were children criminalised? Let me check the plot synopsis...

[janterry]

10. +1000

n/t

[Yeehah]

7. It's their film festival and they can show whatever movies they want

Click bait title - the movie is not being "banned."

[MaryMagdaline]

9. Exactly

[lunasun]

11. +1

[Mariana]

13. There was a similar flap when one radio station decided

they wouldn't play a creepy Christmas song anymore. People went on and on as if the song had ceased to exist. And I was told I was "passive-aggressive" for pointing out that the song was still available for purchase, and anyone who liked it could buy it and play it whenever they wished.

[Polybius]

27. Baby It's Cold Outside isn't creepy

It's a classic that belongs on the radio. I don't only want to hear it at home, I want to here it in December while I'm shopping at Macy's.

[Mariana]

28. There are many, many radio stations that have never played it.

Did you ever once squawk about all those stations depriving you, before this one additional station decided to cease?

[Polybius]

29. I agree with you that it's their choice

I just prefer to hear it in stores.

[gratuitous]

16. Can that incredibly simple and reasonable answer possibly be true?

Yes. Yes it can.

I suspect "Kindergarten Cop" was original selected because parts of it were shot in Oregon, and Oregon has a real affinity for any movie that has recognizable scenes in Oregon. I've only seen "Kindergarten Cop" once, expecting some fish-out-of-water comedy setting up Arnold Schwarzeneggar for sight gags and such. And part of it is. But then it takes a real dark turn, and has a lot of violence that many parents wouldn't want their kindergarteners to see.

If you absolutely must see "Kindergarten Cop," it hasn't been banned and is readily available for purchase. Probably on the shelf right next to another 80s movie that hasn't aged well, "Arthur" starring Dudley Moore and Liza Minnelli.

[dmr]

30. It was supposed to be its 30-year anniversary showing.

I think all of this is ridiculous.

My memory of it was
• a cop trying to catch a bad guy
• a big guy exasperated by little 5 year olds. That was funny.
• the very beautiful scenery.
• it was a love story.

We've got to stop looking for or finding fault in people, places and things. Nothing is perfect in this world.

[Yeehah]

38. Then let's stop finding fault for people who choose movies for their film festival

They can play whatever they want for whatever reason and I couldn't give two shits.

[dmr]

39. I agree.

We all have free will. Choose to watch or don't. I don't care either.

[Buns_of_Fire]

12. And if you rent it, don't watch it in the "master" bedroom!

That'll be two strikes against you, right there. Just one more strike and George Soros is gonna come and getcha.

The whole damn country is losing its mind.

[Blue_Adept]

25. I love it when I see the same comments here as Breitbart

[Raine]

37. Yup, exactly! 👍 nt

[greenjar_01]

14. There was a thread here the other day on how Americans consistently overestimate crime numbers

Americans simply believe the crime rate is much higher than it is - a completely outsized perception of the crime rate across all political and demographic categories. What a mystery. However can that happen?

We are inundated with copaganda ideology from the time we're very young, and it never stops. Copaganda literally floods our popular culture, making us feel like we're surrounded by violent criminals and only an omnipresent police force can save us.

There are going to be a lot of folks in this thread noting how ridiculous it is to "ban" Kindergarten Cop. Yes, fine, maybe even I agree with them (it's not being banned - a community was presented with a different opinion and decided to show something else - what a horror!). But if we really want societal change, we have to at least think about the effect of our popular entertainment being a massive flood of cop ideology all the fucking time and in every fucking genre. "It's just a movie." Yeah, sure it is.

[muriel_volestrangler]

18. Drama needs dangerous situations. Of course there'll be a lot of police in popular culture

This film even ends with Schwarzenegger giving up being a cop to become a teacher.

If you're concerned with perception of crime, I'd suggest starting with news reporting. Because people do actually know the difference between fiction and real life, and news reporting is about real life; the problem is whether it's representative.

[Baitball Blogger]

15. It's a tumah.

[muriel_volestrangler]

17. Dear God, this appears to be real

Leveen really made a fool of herself (I notice she's now hidden her tweets). An extra showing of the John Lewis film is a good thing; but there's nothing wrong with a film in which a cop goes undercover to find a witness to a murder, that is nothing to do with the school, or children. It's got fuck all to do with "the School-to-Prison pipeline" or "over-policing", and any "cops traumatizing kids" in it is obviously comedy. My main objection to it would have been that it wasn't that funny a movie.

[displacedtexan]

21. Astoria, Oregon gets tons of tourist dollars

because of Kindergarten Cop & The Goonies.
It's about 90 minutes north of Portland, and it's where you cross the river into Washington.

[MurrayDelph]

23. We also get some traffic from Short Circuit

The small jail that the Fratelli brothers break out of is now a film museum, right across the street from The Flavel House. Both of these places, by the way, are on that street with the impossibly-steep hill (which they close on wintry days to keep cars from finding themselves floating in the Columbia River, six blocks away).

[dmr]

31. Oh, WOW to your last sentence!

Really? Wow!

[displacedtexan]

36. Thanks for the info!

We fly to Portland and drive to Long Beach Peninsula, where we have a vacation place. We always stop in Astoria before crossing the river on that magnificent bridge.

[jmowreader]

35. Astoria is very close to the mouth of the Columbia River

[Shrek]

20. Not the reason I would have guessed

I figured someone was objecting to the kid who said "boys have a penis, and girls have a vagina."

[MurrayDelph]

24. I saw it when it first came out

(and had not yet moved to Astoria)

We were disappointed that when he's carried out on the stretcher, Arnold didn't tell the kids "I'll be back."

[Iggo]

22. Wow.

This thread.

Okay!

[Polybius]

26. This is why I can never go too far left

Extremism is bad. Unfortunately, people under 25 seem to be going that route.