The first Disney film rated R was this sharp and underrated satire

The big picture

• Touchstone Pictures has released the first Disney film rated R-rated,
  Down and Out in Beverly Hills
  a satire on the nouveau riche in 1980s America.
• Down and Out in Beverly Hills
  It is a spiritual sequel to the film by director Mazursky
  Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice
  examining social complexities.
• The film empathizes with both the upper and lower classes, challenging social norms through its depiction of wealth and poverty.

In 1984, desperate to expand its audience beyond children and families, the Walt Disney Company created Touchstone Pictures with the intention of making films aimed almost exclusively at adults. It didn’t take long for Touchstone to release the first R-rated Disney film, and it was about as far removed from anything the House of Mouse had ever produced up until that point: Paul Mazurski‘S Down and Out in Beverly Hills. What is noteworthy about the studio’s first non-kid-friendly film is not the use of foul language, but his satire on the nouveau riche in Ronald Reagan’s America. It’s almost radical that Mazursky, who began making films in the 1960s, managed to turn a class-conscious message into a Trojan horse in a major corporation’s attempt to increase profits, but that was the magic of the 1980s.

What is “Down and Out in Beverly Hills” about?

nick nolte plays Jerry Baskin, a homeless man who walks the streets of Los Angeles with his beloved dog, Kerouac. When Kerouac disappears, a distraught Jerry tries to drown himself in the Beverly Hills swimming pool of wealthy coat rack magnate Dave Whiteman (Richard Dreyfuss). Dave rescues Jerry and offers him his huge house, much to the dismay of his New Age-obsessed wife, Barbara (Bette Midler), and their housekeeper, Carmen (Elizabeth Pena), with whom Dave is having an affair. Yet Jerry wins everyone over with his easygoing charm, including the family dog, Matisse, who has been visiting a canine psychiatrist. Things change so dramatically for the Whiteman family that Dave begins to regret his generosity, especially when Jerry begins sleeping with Barbara, Carmen and her daughter, Jenny (Tracy Nelson), who returned home from college.

Down and Out in Beverly Hills it was a remake of Jean Renoir1932 classic Boudu saved from drowningwhich was adapted from a 1919 play written by Rene Fauchois. Both I will do it AND Down and out They target the bourgeoisie, mocking their condescension towards the lower classes and the limits of their willingness to help them. While I will do it examine this within 1930s Parisian society, Down and out updates the story to 1980s America, when consumerism and greed were rampant. Mazursky uses the bones of I will do it as a means of harshly criticizing baby boomers for abandoning the ideals of 1960s radicalism for Reagan-era conservatism. In this way, Down and out It is a continuation of the themes that Mazursky had explored throughout his career, especially in his first film, Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice.

“Down and Out in Beverly Hills” is a spiritual sequel to Mazursky’s “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice”

Mazursky made his directorial debut with the 1969 film Bob and Carol and Ted and Alicethat examined the burgeoning counterculture through the eyes of upper-class Californians. Middle-aged couple Bob (Robert Culp) and Carol Sanders (Natalie Wood) decide to get more in touch with their feelings after a weekend retreat, much to the chagrin of their more conservative friends Ted (Elliot Gould) and Alice Henderson (That’s Cannon). Although primarily marketed to audiences as a polyamorous sexual farce, the film explores the struggles of an older generation trying to stay relevant during changing times. Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice have become stagnant in their comfortable lives and want to shake things up by embracing the free-love movement led by baby boomers.

Down and Out in Beverly Hills explores a similar territory to B&C&T&Aonly this time, Baby boomers grew up in the same complacency as the Sanders and Hendersons. Dave and Barbara have become so comfortable in Beverly Hills that they are almost catatonic, unable to relate to each other and who vent through extramarital activities (shopping and yoga for Barbara, work and an affair for Dave). When Jerry jumps into their pool, rehabilitating him becomes a way not only to liven up their dull lives, but also to prove that they have not abandoned the ideals that galvanized them in their youth. They may be rich, but that doesn’t make them bad people… or so they hope.

For Dave, Jerry represents something much deeper (and more selfish) than the desire to do a good deed. After stumbling into wealth through building a successful business, Dave encourages his new friend to try capitalismeven offering him a job in his coat hanger factory. Yet Jerry remains a free spirit, and his refusal to conform to society’s rules intrigues Dave, who finds himself increasingly drawn to what he perceives as the authenticity of poverty. He even goes so far as to spend a night on the beach with Jerry, sleeping outside and eating food out of a garbage can, which is the closest he’s come to a real experience in a while. Yet the limits of his magnanimity are tested when Jerry gives Carmen some books on socialism and begins treating Barbara’s headaches with “physical” therapy.

“Down and Out in Beverly Hills” finds empathy for the upper and lower classes

When Jerry arrives in the Whitemans’ yard, he regales them with tales of his colorful past: a failed acting career, a globetrotting life of fortune and adventure, the tragic loss of a sister to cancer. All of these things combine to paint a portrait of a man who gave up a life of prosperity for a life of poverty, and feels no regrets about it. Yet in the end, his fantastical stories turn out to be just that: stories. He’s told the Whitemans exactly what they wanted to hear, a series of fantastical stories that would explain how a person could fall through the cracks of society, when in reality no explanation would ever be enough.

While the 1980s were a time of great wealth and prosperity for many, it was not for everyone. Reagan’s theory of Trickle-Down Economics, the idea that tax breaks for the rich would somehow trickle down to the poor, was a great boon to those at the top, but never quite worked for those at the bottom. Jerry’s refusal to cash in is in stark contrast to everything the ’80s stood for, and completely turns the Whitemans’ world upside down.

Yet, for all his criticisms of the upper class, Down and Out in Beverly Hills is surprisingly optimistic about their ability to change. While it is specific to one of Los Angeles’s wealthiest suburbs, it could be representative of any part of America, as those who have been fortunate enough to avoid poverty look the other way from those who haven’t. The Whitemans have been able to keep this reality under wraps until he literally splashes around in their pool. They try to make Jerry a member of their group, cutting his hair and buying him new clothes, but he eventually reverts to his old rags, rummaging through a garbage can. It is at that moment that they finally see him for what he truly is: a human being.

Down and Out in Beverly Hills is available to watch on Prime Video in the United States

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