The Hays Code: The Power Of Religion In Hollywood Film

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.

The Production Code attempted to censor sex and violence in film of the 1930's and 40's. Instead of impairing, it encouraged directors to use artistic ideas and integrity to surpass the viewers' expectations -- actively involving them in the film despite Hollywood's censorship. Howard Hawks is one such director who used the restrictions of the Production Code to his advantage. His screen adaptation of the Raymond Chandler novel The Big Sleep portrays the same amount of sexuality and violence apparent in the written word, using a distinctly subtle style, which develops broader themes. Comparisons with the extremely dull 70's remake by Michael Winner further suggest the superiority

Tyler Perry’s films frequently contain a Christian message, thus appealing a market that puts religious content and the target market and/or audience as whole ahead of influential people. Perry’s films, specifically those we watched in class, feature prostitutes, drug dealers, domestic violence disputes, and adulterers who happen to find their souls by coming to Jesus and those family members surrounding Christianity. One work that exemplifies this ideology, is Perry’s, Diary of a Mad Black Woman—Brian tells Helen that it isn’t good “to hold on to the things God is trying to tear apart,” but the most vivid reminder of Christianity for me was when Helen’s mother told her that, “God is a jealous God,” which took place during a conversation she and Helen had about Charles and how he was her entire life, rather than God being the center of Helen’s life.

This paper was prepared for Introduction to Film History, Module 1 Homework Assignment, taught by Professor Stephanie Sandifer.

     However, to often in Hollywood the city of glamour and glitz, fortune and fame, movie producers have a tendency and even feel at liberty to rewrite American history. In my opinion this is all done out of greed. The movie industry, is all about money, therefore producers are obligated to do whatever it takes to keep it rolling into theatre box offices across the country. Producers know that people

The Motion Picture Production Code, commonly known as the Hays Code, was adopted in March 1930, though it was not truly enforced until four years later in 1934. This set of rules had tremendously influenced the way Hollywood movies were made for a number of years. This code was based on the ethics and norms if that time. There were three main principals of the Hays Code. The first was no picture shall be produced that will lower the moral standard of those who see it. What was meant by this was that sympathy should not be portrayed towards crimes, wrongdoings, evil or sins. The second stated that only a correct standard of living could be presented that are only subject to the requirements of drama and

Porter had found inspiration from various European film makers and had studied in depth the effect it would have on is target market, when he finally released is first attempt, The life of an American Fireman (1903), he hadn’t polished it as well as he had hoped. However when he released The Great Train Robbery it was clear that he had introduced the west to a new style of film making and changed how narrative was expressed within film forever.

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

The transition from the era of silent films to the sound era in the mid 1920s was a big transformation for the American film industry and mass entertainment in general. This phase initially brought about much excitement for movie goers who were thrilled with the expectation of hearing the voices of their favorite actors for the first time. However, such expectations were met with much disappointment when the highly fancied actors had voices that did not much the preconceptions of the fans. The technical difficulties and various issues that the American film industry faced during this transition are actually captured in the 1952 movie, “Singing in the Rain”. In part, the film is actually about movie making during the silent-to-sound era as its

In 1930, the Hay's Production Code was introduced into the film industry to regulate films that were produced. It regulated several different aspects of movie scenes containing crimes against the law, vulgarity, sex, obscenity, profanity, costume, dances, religion, locations, national feelings, titles and repellent subjects. (History of the Motion Picture Rating System) When scenes in films dealt with crimes committed against the law, the Hays Production Code stated that the crimes could never be presented in such a way to throw sympathy with the crime as against law and justice or to inspire others with a desire for imitation. The code goes into specific detail on several different crimes and how they shouldn't be shown in the films.

While Hollywood’s prominent objective is to create a mockery through the portrayal of the “Black church”, Tyler Perry reinforces the religious views through his works by producing and broadcasting African American church culture in an authentic manner. Prior to Perry building a multimillion dollar empire within the entertainment industry, he was once an outcast to the Hollywood mainstream and dealt with personal experiences that only his faith got him through. Perry’s poor lifestyle before such a remarkable success in marketing movies, has allowed him to develop and share meaningful messages through his films.

Although gangster films were a hit with the mainstream audiences, it wasn't with the Protestant and Catholic religious groups. This sparked the beginning of the new movie code, that would be introduced. In 1934 with the Movie Industry still plummeting, the Motion Picture Production code was put into action. The Code was founded in 1930 and was made to censor films and create guidelines for production studios to adhere to. The code was never carried out until 1934, when the Production Code Administration was founded. They required all films and even scripts, be pre approved before going to theaters.

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 first film that showed early signs of a rise in the quality of technology was the Western “The Great Train Robbery.” When this film first came out the audience were so amazed at the fact that they could watch something on a TV or at the cinema. Although this film was very good for the 1900s it still lacked some key features that make films much easier to understand such as dialogue, sound and camera shots. The one feature of a film that developed the quickest over the period of time was sound. Sound was introduced in October 1927 in the film “The Jazz singer”, which had three song numbers and a few lines of spoken dialogue. Apart from these few songs and words, the rest of the movie was silent, but the audience still thought that it was amazing that words had been spoken in the film, they used to call it “the movie that talked”.

“If Georges Méliès was the first to ‘push the cinema toward the theatrical way,’ as he claimed, then Edwin S. Porter was the first to push the cinema