Frankie and Johnny: harassment as a romantic plot in the 90's
I picked up this VHS from the thrift store, "Frankie and Johnny." It has Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer on the cover, they look working class. I thought it was going to be a cute, heartwarming romantic comedy. Instead, it was an excruciating 2 hours of feeling uncomfortable, triggered, disgusted. What the fuck were writers in 1991 thinking?? The whole movie is a plain rape culture apology. The only interesting part of this film is the class subtext about pre-gentrification New York. If you look it up on IMDb, the movie's plot is summarized like this: "Johnny, a former convict, gets a job as a cook in a local diner. There, he falls in love with Frankie, an emotionally wounded waitress whole love he is determined to win her love." So basically, when they say "determined to win her love", it means even without her consent . In fact, watching this film almost unbearable as Frankie spends most of the movie looking annoyed and uncomfortable and telling Jo