A planned drive-in screening of the Arnold Schwarzenegger-starring movie in Portland, Oregon is pulled after an author claims that the 1990 film glorifies the traumatization of children by police.
- Aug 6, 2020
AceShowbiz – “Kindergarten Cop” is under scrutiny amid the protests of police brutality in the U.S. as part of the Black Lives Matter movement. A planned outdoor screening of the Arnold Schwarzenegger-starring movie in Portland, Oregon has been canceled following accusation that the movie romanticizes over-policing.
The 1990 film was selected by the NW Film Center to open a “Cinema Unbound” summer drive-in movie series at Zidell Yards. The choice was made to honor “its importance in Oregon filmmaking history” along with a tie-in to its 30th anniversary.
However, NWFC has had a change of heart after a complaint about how the film is exploitative and has no comedic or redeeming qualities. Portland author Lois Leveen went on a Twitter rant to point out her issue with the film, comparing it to “Gone with the Wind” which was recently pulled from HBO Max after claims that it romanticizes slavery.
“What’s so funny about School-to-Prison pipeline? Kindergarten Cop-Out: Tell @nwfilmcenterthere’s nothing fun in cops traumatizing kids. National reckoning on overpolicing is a weird time to revive Kindergarten Cop. IRL, we are trying to end school-to-prison pipeline,” she began. “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.”
“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,” the left-leaning author continued. “Yes, 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 added. “They are relics of how pop culture feeds racist assumptions. KINDERGARTEN COP romanticizes over-policing in the U.S.”
Responding to the criticism, NWFC has since replaced “Kindergarten Cop” with documentary “John Lewis: Good Trouble”, in honor of the late congressman. NWFC, however, claimed that the cancellation of “Kindergarten Cop” drive-in screening had nothing to do with the tweets and instead credited “overwhelming demand” and with its “staff and community members” for the change.
Lois later slammed the organization for failing to acknowledge its blunder. “I think what you meant to type was, ‘Yes, we made a grave error in not realizing the implicit racism in that programming decision. We apologize and are rethinking who makes our programming decisions hereafter,’ ” she tweeted. “How deep a white normativity hole will @nwfilmcenter keep digging?”
Source: Movies - aceshowbiz.com
