4th of July 2022 and Dialogue

I spent my 4th of July with friends having a barbecue and watching classic martial arts movies. I did not mean for this to happen, but we watched Future Cops which was made in the 90’s, Bloodsport which was made in the 80’s, and Blackbelt Jones which was made in the 70’s. While all of them were cheesy in their own ways (and Future Cops was just flat out bizarre), they were all products of their time from the music, dialogue and the clothes that they wore.

One thing that was very noticeable was that the farther back we went, the less “politically correct” the dialogue became. Many of the things said in Blackbelt Jones could not be said today, and there are arguments that it is for the better, and arguments that it is for the worse. The argument could be made that dialogue today in entertainment is reserved and at times, robotic. Of course, others would argue that the dialogue back then would be too offensive for today’s audiences.

Creatively speaking, the less restrictions, the freer the work. However, there is an audience that needs to be appealed to, so some level of restraint has a necessity. Sometimes, this can get controversial, and other times, creative people have managed to find the right balance.