Canceling the counterculture

I poured myself a drink, settled into the sofa, and started the film. The first thing the screen displayed was the original content advisory, a PG that had been earned for violence, sexuality, drug use, and foul language. The foul language proved to be laughably little, limited as far as I noticed to one long “sheeeit” as Butch and Sundance made their leap from a mountain crag into the rocky river rapids far below. And as for drug use, I think somebody mistook period-correct hand-rolled cigarettes for the marijuana sort.

But before the 20th Century Fox fanfare announced the beginning of the movie, another rating was displayed. It too was PG, but the reasons offered for the rating given had changed. Violence was still cited, but gone were the warnings about sexuality, drug use, and foul language. Instead I was notified that I was about to be exposed to “adult content” and “outdated cultural depiction.”

Outdated cultural depiction? This is one of the warnings added over the last few years to vintage films to declare that movies made ages ago often come with attitudes no longer acceptable. Disney has slapped the warning on any number of its animated features, everything from Dumbo (notorious for its stereotypically black crows) to Aladdin (with its Near Eastern bazaar full of Middle Eastern grotesques and lyrics describing Arabia as a barbaric place “where they cut off your ear if they don’t like your face”). The Aristocats — ‘nuff said.

MGM apologizes for the Tom and Jerry maid character (known as “Mammy Two Shoes,” as she was typically seen below the knees) with the disclaimer that the cartoons “may depict ethnic and racial prejudices that were once commonplace in American society.”

And when it comes to films flagged for cringe-inducing characterizations, let’s not even mention Gone with the Wind.

But Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid? That’s not from the irredeemable 1930s, ‘40s, or ‘50s. It was released in the groovy explosion of with-it movies at the end of the ‘60s, when the Motion Picture Production Code had collapsed. Butch is no John Wayne Western (which the cancelers of cancel culture have demanded be canceled). It’s a post-modern, sly, knowing sort of film noted for exploding cowboy cliches. What could there be in it that so offends modern morals? I watched warily, on the lookout for outdated cultural depictions.

It wasn’t long into the movie that the first offense presented itself: “Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head.” What else besides outdated cultural notions can explain putting a Burt Bacharach and Hal David ditty in a Western?

Or how about the section of the film in which Butch and Sundance are pursued by the super posse? “Who are those guys?” the outlaws sputter. They wonder if the men chasing them are led by the West’s toughest lawman, Joe Lefors, recognizable at a distance as he always wore a “skimmer.” Again, we have an outdated cultural depiction. I am quite sure there are no notable lawmen today known for wearing a straw boater.

And I couldn’t help but agree with whoever is doing the new warnings. The part of movie in which Butch and Sundance get chased by Bolivian police and chase them off in return must be addressed. It’s not that Bolivia’s finest are characterized as Keystone Kops. No, the problem is once again with the soundtrack. All the chasing around is scored with the dubba-dubba-dubba-dubbas of some Swingle Singers impersonators. If that’s not culturally out of date, I don’t know what is.

All kidding aside, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is an icon of ‘60s counterculture. When even the counterculture comes in for tut-tutting disparagement, you know that our modern minders are every bit as ambitious as Hays was. It seems the censorious impulse is never culturally outdated.

Eric Felten is the James Beard Award-winning author of How’s Your Drink?