Friday Amber Ruffin Show saw the host doing his best Ben Mankiewicz parking in a leather chair next to some potted plants and complementing one of the Turner Classic Movies’ newer programming segment (and more controversial for its racist relatives), Redesigned classics. As Amber explained to the uninitiated, old films used to be serious problemsmatic when viewed through our current (and yet woefully unsteady) lens. Therefore, TCM has made some contextualized / retroactive excuses for the occasional / constant blind spots of film companies, offensive casting choices and simply misguided prejudice. Long-cherished films by The jazz singer (Al Jolson in black face), Gone with the Wind (slavery is not so bad!), Rope (gays are emotion killers), Children’s time (gays are guilt laden depressives), Dragon Seed (literally everyone in “yellow face“), and Breakfast at Tiffany’s (Mickey Rooney as Mr. Yunioshi – ’nuff said) had a thoughtful prologue added to them examining the complex issue of the things we love, sometimes containing things that we emphatically don’t love.
But what about those movies that are not only unloved classics, but also painfully recent because they need some “era-era” context? That’s where Amber’s Redesigned flops goes into. First, the Can be slightly underestimated John Carter, which Amber notes is “widely recognized as the biggest box office failure in history” (depending on your metric). Beginning in full-fledged scholar mode, Ruffin explained that the notorious financial failure appears as his hero, “a Confederate soldier going to Mars, and …” wait, wait. Ruffin’s analysis practically stopped there, noting in shock that the film came out on oh-so-a long time ago, year of … 2012. “I thought it was a silent film!”, Observed a perplexed Ruffin, before proceeding.
Unfortunately, from 1999 The 13th warrior he was equally lacking in reframing, with the Spanish Antonio Banderas playing a Muslim poet. (Ruffin did not mention the Flavored from the UK cacophoall the other 12 “vikings” in the film, but, hey, one insensitive casting choice at a time). Asking incredulously if Omar Sharif was unavailable, Ruffin was doubly stunned by the revelation that the legendary actor was not just interested.he John McTiernan– directed pump in a minor role, but I thought it was bad enough to retire from acting for a while. Dude, hard stuff, but Ruffin was characteristically optimistic moving up to second place on the flop of all time (again, depending on your measurement), 2013’s The Lone Ranger. After all, that starred Hammer Armie. AND Johnny Depp. How Dizzy. “OKyes, that was stupid, they were stupid, ” he waved a hand at a Ruffin who had seen enough, adding, “This segment is over.” Still, with Hollywood History in this area, Reframed Flops will certainly return, especially as Ruffin recently revealeded the good news that her show itself was renewed again, this time until September.