Motion Picture Production Code

The Production Code Administration emerged in 1934. It was the organic outgrowth of a backlash to immorality in film perceived since the 1920’s (Gomery & Pafort-Overduin, 2011). As an entertainment medium, film was revolutionary: all of the sudden, vivid snippets of life could reach a mass audience. Not long after motion pictures enthralled the country, producers began to recognize the opportunity to attract larger audiences – and increase profits – by filming stories involving provocative subjects and thus stimulating the people’s sense of wonder (Gomery & Pafort-Overduin, 2011). A natural outgrowth of this trend was the increasingly transgressive nature of motion pictures. In an age characterized by both economic and social progress, a backlash against new ideas

Since the 20th century, censorship in films has become a serious problem. As I have found online, In 1907 Chicago enacted the first movie censorship law in America. Throughout the years there has been many changes to censorship. But what is censorship in films? In The New Censors: Movies and the Culture Wars (1997), Charles Lyons defined "film censorship": "In the context of film production, distribution, and exhibition, censorship refers to a set of practices by institutions or groups, either prior to or following a film's release, that result in the removal of a word, scene or entire film from the market place" (p. 6) (Film: Censorship) .But I think that in modern world censorship should exist. Shows like “Dexter” should be censored because people can copy he violent content they see and use it in real life to abduct, torture and kill people. Despite the fact that “Dexter” is my favorite show, I have to take side of choosing to censor such shows. For example in 12th episode of season 4, I find a lot of violence and blood. In this episode, a serial killer Trinity learns Dexter’s

The debate on censorship in the movie industry has always been whether censorship is an effective way of quality control for the content being published in movies, or it is a direct violation of freedom of speech. I personally believe in the latter. Why should the content creator be responsible for what the viewer’s take on their content? The film industry has an art to it that makes every consumer of every movie take on a different perspective of the content they are consuming. But there will always be someone looking at this argument and go “Yes, I agree. But the reason why humans desire the removal of censorship is to attain freedom, and freedom gives power, and with great power comes great responsibility, and surely we don’t want to leave that much power to someone”.

Based on the document, the most important factor in motion picture producers’ decision to issue the “Don’ts and Be Carefuls” memo was concern that the government would censor what they believe was not just for movies. There were many factors that led producers to talk about the “Don’ts and Be Carefuls.” Some factors were not even that serious to have discussions about, but it had to be talked about because the government would deem just about anything inappropriate and immoral. Some don’ts and be carefuls were “profanity, the nude, the illegal traffic in or actual using of drugs.” (2) The government seems like they did not want anything to influence society in a negative way, so they would try to censor movies from releasing anything negative.

The current content rating system in use for film, the MPAA, is the only content rating system that is legally enforced in the United States. For this reason, the system has caused controversy. Many have claimed that the system is unbalanced, as the MPAA bases the level of appropriate content for all people in the United States off of the opinions of an unidentified council of people over the age of forty (Jenkins). The stance on how the system’s effectiveness is a relative stance, however, the secondhand effects of the system are obvious and existing today. Decisions have been made by film distribution companies that have affected the way films with objectionable

Censorship of media on television, news, or in movies is nothing new. This has been going on for decades. Knowing that movies, cartoons and media in general could influence the thinking of the general public, the general feeling was that it needed to be controlled. The most prominent point related to this problem was in the 1930s when the Hays Code was put into place in Hollywood as a set

One major area in which there is much argument on censorship is that of television. Since its invention earlier this century, television has become the most popular format for entertainment. We can be entertained, informed, and inspired by programs on

Censorship has became a controversial topic during recent years due to people's perception of concepts such as sex, violence, and hate speech. Many people and governments want things such as those to be erased from media and art to prevent them within our society. Others however, feel that children and others should be exposed to aspects such as these and that restricting the use of them in the arts would be a violation of their 1st amendment. Both sides have strong, deeply rooted views based in law, morals, or religious belief. Both sides also, however, have points that seem slightly extreme. For years the government and people of the United States and many other countries have worked to “shield” our population from violence, sexuality, and

In The New Censors: Movies and the Culture Wars (1997), Charles Lyons defined "film censorship": "In the context of film production, distribution, and exhibition, censorship refers to a set of practices by institutions or groups, either prior to or following a film's release, that result in the removal of a word, scene or entire film from the marketplace" (6).

The beginning of the 20th century was a tumultuous time for all those involved in the process of American filmmaking. There was a massive disconnect between what filmmakers were creating, what exhibitors wanted to show, and what audiences wanted to see. This was exasperated by the introduction and transition from short serial films to the feature. Exhibitors imported assumptions that the public at large wished to see short, individual act films reminiscent of Vaudeville because they were primarily lower class and in the past enjoyed “low art.” In actuality, however, audiences of all socioeconomic backgrounds were wanting the more compelling stories explored in longer features.

Ever wonder why all the television programs, internet sites, movies and music- audio or video- everyone is so enveloped in has those rating tags, blocked out content, bleeped out words or 'explicit content' labels? Well, that's all a form of censorship. Censorship for movies and television programming regulated effortlessly, as the visual media were approved to have deep

An issue that has remained prevalent throughout most of history is filtering and censorship. Perhaps one of the more controversial topics discussed within this course, filtering and censorship directly relates to my future career goal of being a filmmaker. While I’m undeclared at the moment, the idea of making films in the future has always been of interest to me. Filtering and censorship often holds an important role within the cinema as it sets the standard for what can and cannot be shown on screen. This paper is intended to describe the negative effects that filtering and censorship has on the film industry and those that work within it. The sources in this paper will range from various books and journal articles about censorship in film.

The studios were desperate to claw their way back, because they were suffering huge loses. In order to prevent this from hitting completely rock bottom, they came up with ideas: innovative use of technology, experimenting with new genres. Stereophonic sound systems and wide screen formatting was used by the studio systems to make the movies louder and larger. Movies had to discover and reach out to newer audiences: teenage population and liberated women became the target markets for the movie makers. New genres, such as Film Noir, Westerns, Teen movies, Epics, and War films. Westerns especially were very popular as it depicted the contrasting thematic subjects: civilization versus wilderness or the good versus the bad. John Ford, was by far the most successful director of Western genre with super success films like “Stagecoach” (1939), and “The Searchers” (1956). Film Noir became the choice of genre of Hollywood. In the post war scenario, these Noir films, which discussed post war capitalism, racial issues, and even the black list, appealed to a new generation of movie goers. The war changed the views of the average American. Themes like betrayal, duplicity, and adventure became the success formula for Noir films. Two ingredients of success have to be mentioned here; one is the stereotypical sophisticated crook of the Noir films and the other is the femme fatale: the economically and sexually emancipated women of the post war period. The war changed everything, people were tired, they wanted a change, and the stark realities around them. Noir genre films such as “The Maltese Falcon,” and “The third man” offered them the opportunity because Noir narratives were mostly about the anti-hero’s adventurous tales. Another clever strategy that movie makers used was to employ women, not just as female leads and support actors, but also within their crews, for example Alma Reville, wife of Alfred Hitchcock, helped Hitchcock in many of

The topic of censorship in modern day movies, media, and video games is a long

The purpose of this research is to examine censorship on television, and films. Should these forms of entertainment be as censored as they are? The act of censoring is examining the work and suppressing the unacceptable parts of the film, show, or even books. Films, and television shows can lose their creativity and sensitize the movie or show to appeal to these censors. TV Shows, movies or any form of entertainment should not be censored or at least censor the correct things. Censorship can be carried out by the government as well as private pressure groups. It breaks the freedom of speech people in this country deserve to have by the First Amendment, it should be unlawful to change someone's work because certain people feel offended