Kindergarten Cop cancelled, compard to Birth of a Nation

[dead0man]

link

NW Film Center had planned to kick off Cinema Unbound, its summer drive-in movie series at Zidell Yards, on Aug. 6 with a screening of the 1990 action-comedy Kindergarten Cop.

Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as a police detective who goes undercover as a kindergarten teacher in order to bust a drug dealer, the movie was filmed in Astoria, Ore., and celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. NWFC had planned to show the film "for its importance in Oregon filmmaking history," according to a press release.

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On Saturday, Portland author Lois Leveen—whose writing credits include contributions to The New York Times and The Atlantic and the book The Secrets of Mary Bowser, a novel based on the life of a slave-turned-Union spy—took to Twitter to excoriate the organization for leading off its series with the movie.

"National reckoning on overpolicing is a weird time to revive Kindergarten Cop. IRL, we are trying to end the school-to-prison pipeline," she tweeted. "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. Five- 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."

In a message sent to WW over the weekend with the subject line "Kindergarten Cop-Out: Why Does NW Film Center Think There's Anything Fun About Cops Traumatizing Schoolchildren," Leveen elaborated on her concerns.

"It's true Kindergarten Cop is only a movie. So are Birth of a Nation and Gone With the Wind, but we recognize films like those are not 'good family fun,'" she wrote. "They are relics of how pop culture feeds racist assumptions."

"Because despite what the movie shows," she continued, "in reality, schools don't transform cops. Cops transform schools, and in an extremely detrimental way."

It should be noted that Schwarzenegger's character in Kindergarten Cop, John Kimble, is not a school resource officer. Rather, he's a detective working undercover to catch a drug kingpin whose ex-wife and son live in Astoria.

thank Og people were saved from the racist assumptions from Kindergarten Cop

[dead0man]

<this was supposed to be in Off Topic>

[T'Chenka]

"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. Five- 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."

Bruh...

[brucejoel99]

[NewYorkExpress]

While I agree with removing positive depictions of police officers from media, comparing Kindergarten Cop to Birth of a Nation is ridiculous.

The latter is meant to be taken seriously.

The former isn't.

[DINGO Joe]

While I agree with removing positive depictions of police officers from media, comparing Kindergarten Cop to Birth of a Nation is ridiculous.

I'm not going to pull up screenshots to prove my point, but Arnold has always leered at the camera just like the man in blackface in Birth of a Nation leered at the white women.

[NewYorkExpress]

While I agree with removing positive depictions of police officers from media, comparing Kindergarten Cop to Birth of a Nation is ridiculous.

I'm not going to pull up screenshots to prove my point, but Arnold has always leered at the camera just like the man in blackface in Birth of a Nation leered at the white women.

Again, Birth a nation is meant to be taken seriously. Kindergarten Cop, isn't.

[free my dawg]

police reform pls

[John Dule]

Kindergarten Cop also has the infamous line "Boys have a penis, girls have a vagina." Obviously this kind of neo-Nazi recruitment tool has no place in our modern society.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Random idiot says stupid thing on twitter.  In other news, water still wet; all that and more at 11:00.

[Progressive Pessimist]

That's a bit of a stretch, but it's also a stretch to call it "canceled." I don't know how many more times I can roll my eyes at the term, but it's not like the movie is banned from ever being shown anywhere. If people want to watch it they can still watch it in some way. I imagine that now we'll get a lot of people watching it just out of spite for this move.

Also, slightly controversial opinion possibly, it's really not that good of a movie.

[dead0man]

That's a bit of a stretch, but it's also a stretch to call it "canceled."

I intentionally didn't put it in quotes because this movie was canceled.  It was going to be part of an event, then, as jdb says above "one random idiot" complained and the powers that be canceled the movie.

I don't know how many more times I can roll my eyes at the term

that's all most of us are doing when we bring stupidity like this up.  Obviously not showing a stupid kids movie from 30 years ago isn't a big deal.  Certainly less of a big deal than entire episodes of Community getting pulled because an Asian man dressed up as a mythical creature, which itself is still tiny potatoes when compared to a cop murdering a man slowly in broad daylight with hundreds of people around.

Also, slightly controversial opinion possibly, it's really not that good of a movie.

that's not controversial at all, it's a garbage film...at least that's how I remember it.  It's been a long time.  I can't imagine it's held up well.  The festival was only playing it because it was filmed in the area, not because of it's artistic merit.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Certainly less of a big deal than entire episodes of Community getting pulled because an Asian man dressed up as a mythical creature

Gotdammit. This is about the elf thing, isn't it?

[Frodo]

If there is any movie I would compare to 'Birth of a Nation', it would be 'Gods and Generals' which is basically neo-Confederate Lost Cause propaganda that cast the Confederacy and its leading figures just as sympathetically.  

[GoTfan]

If there is any movie I would compare to 'Birth of a Nation', it would be 'Gods and Generals' which is basically neo-Confederate Lost Cause propaganda that cast the Confederacy and its leading figures just as sympathetically.  

Oh definitely and it's also a garbage film.

Only Jeff Daniels comes out of with a modicum of credit.