Baby Face And The Production Code Film Analysis

In chapter two of The Cultures of American Film, the main focus is the establishment of studios. As demand for films rose in the early 1900’s, production companies needed to expand; this lead to the creation of large scale studios.

In the film Babies Thomas Balmès elegantly and wordlessly captures the first year of life through the eyes of four unique cultures. This film follows four babies Panijao from Namibia, Mari from Japan, Hattie from the United States, and Bayarjargal from Mongolia. The main purpose of the film is to show how the four cultures differ in their behaviors with infants. One of the striking differences is the role the parents play in the documentary and how they interact with their newborn infants. In contrast, the film also shows the similarities in infancy even in vastly different environments and cultures.

To understand why the fall of the production code was so prolific to the film industry one must first understand the production code and how it worked. This was a code that regulated what filmmakers could say, what kind of content their films could contain, and introduced an early version of the rating system that we know today. This kind of censorship was as detrimental to this art form as censorship can be. With a media as widespread as film, so many people see it on average that it can largely change a perception of a population or keep

Hayes said the Code set up “high standards” for producers. He was the head of the Motion Picture Producers and Directors Association or MPPDA, a group of film companies under a trade association. The films the members of the MPPDA produced took about approximately 70 to 80 percent of all US films.

But, by the 1960s, producers and directors began to take back what was rightfully theirs, their freedom to make and produce whatever movies they wanted. Movies without the Code’s approval were being released and becoming huge film hits anyway. This took away from the Production Code’s power and responsibility. Often times they undermined themselves.

Allan’s homosexuality was one of the demands that had to be met. Homosexuality was most likely a taboo subject that people would not bring up, but producers had to find out what was okay and what was not okay to put in films. There was no official censorship to undergo of any movie being released at the time of Kazan’s film adaptation. However, the producers had volunteered for investigation by the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) and CLD (Catholic Legion of Decency). CLD however strictly forbid showing such content like Allan’s sexual preference in action. MPAA had been known as the Hays Office. The name Hays comes from the first president of the office in 1922. When a couple years later, J. Breen was president (1934), he had enforced demands that prohibited sexual, violent, and swearword actions. After several cuts to the film to maintain a positive and high audience, eventually demands were met and the film was accepted. Even though this was one of the few changes made in

The production code Filmmakers especially excelled in the 1930’s because they became obsessed with the idea that they could start breaking the rules and restrictions that society placed on them. They started to explore controversial themes such as obscenity and the criminality of the human psyche (the human soul, mind or spirit), both conscious, unconscious and in totality. However with this new material, and the production of films like “freaks”, came critics. Groups of traditionalists like the Catholic church were thrown into a sense of moral panic. They insisted that the studios should have a set of regulations to stick by to avoid any obscenity or controversy being shown to the audience.

This concept of censoring was new during the Depression, with movies becoming popular with a younger generation, many different religious and government affiliations wanted to limit exposure to certain situations, such as sex, drug use, and other sordid circumstances especially in horror. Unfortunately, Freaks was infamous for its horrific scenes and sexual innuendo, many of these associations were also offended by the exploitation of the abnormalities of the actors. Fueled with these issues, many censorship boards could begin their effort in limiting the topics of the horror film industry. “They did not ask to be brought into the world. But, into the world they came.

It is not out of the ordinary to hear people say things along the lines of: “movies nowadays are just too blatantly sexual” or “older movies were so uptight”. Of course, much of this has to do with age and the rating of the film being viewed. However, it would not be too out there to assume that the individual has yet to see anything pre-code, or even pre-pre-code either. From the ‘sexy dancing’ of Metropolis, to the ‘dangerous woman’ of Baby Face, or up to modern times with the strip scenes of Magic Mike, the film industry’s censorship platform had been a constant source of friction between production and distribution, as well as with different audiences. By specifically addressing the censorship process that went into the distribution of

The 70’s decade represented a very experimental and uncertain time for the film Industry. Due to financial instability, the Hollywood studio system had collapsed. The invention of the television too had a disastrous effect on audiences attending movie theaters as many people were inclined to stay at home because they had children and did not want to pay for a movie and a baby sitter. Artistic freedom was on the rise though due to a dramatic change in censorship regulation --- the abandonment of the Production Code and the decreased clout of the Catholic Legion of Decency. The Production Code was a set of moral guidelines for the film industry that existed from 1930 to 1966. It also

1970s American cinema can be viewed as an extension to and, to a certain extent, the aftermath of the cultural explosion that took place in the previous decade. Jon Lewis, in his book American Film, argues that around 1968 a new auteur renaissance befell Hollywood. Directors like Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Robert Altman, and several others came to the forefront of film and received generous funding from the studios for their projects. The cause of this can be traced to the change in censorship laws which took place during the ‘60s; where the studio-model of filmmaking had prospered under the old strict PCA censorship rules and regulations, the only model that seemed

In 1900-1950 every movie in the world was rated before being released. The government, of the country in which the movie was made always did this. In 1956 the rules were changed. Each movie’s script was now required to go before a Film Board, before being produced. If approved the company was allowed to go on with production. In 1968 the Film Board of the Motion Picture Association of America adopted

The movie industry became a big hit in America after 1910. These movies were silent movies so therefore; we didn’t have the problem with vulgar language. The first spoken movie was in 1927, called The Jazz Singer. At that time, the movie industry was so worried about keeping his or her audience happy and didn’t want to offend anyone. That we didn’t have the problems that we have today. In 1922, William H. Hays founded the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America. This organization, which later became the Motion Picture Association of America, established a code to make sure that all movies produced in America followed certain moral standards. Foul language, nudity, the use of words that had sexual overtones to

“Violence...Sex...Art” (Krämer 2005) was used to aptly describe the American New Wave Movement in cinema. On screen nudity, explicit violence, coarse language, and subject matter that were once taboo shocked audiences and became a prominent feature in the films of the movement. With the collapse of the studio system, which controlled Hollywood since 1910 (Thompson, Bordwell 2010), the time came for new filmmakers educated in their craft to take hold of the American film industry and forever change it. The rating system was introduced, meaning that the filmmakers had free creative reign over their films, as they were not constricted to making films that were suitable for all audiences. The result of this massive change in cinema

The push for regulation of the motion picture industry picked up steam in the 1920’s. The coming of sound allowed for films to be much more realistic and obscene than silent films. In an effort to sell tickets and pique the public interest, movie studios began to make sexualized, profane, and violent movies. The late 20’s birthed stars like Mae West, whose character almost solely on sexual quips and innuendo. In response to these films, Daniel Lord, a Jesuit priest, submitted a production code to the studios, in 1929. Much like the public is concerned currently with the effects that violent video games can have on adolescents and society in general, Lord was particularly concerned with the moral degradation the movies could have on society. Consequently, he created a code that likely only a G rated modern movie would pass now. However, fearing the economic consequences that a catholic boycott or governmental ban would have on Hollywood profits, the Motion Picture Production and Distributors Association of America (MPPDA), which was made up of the biggest