Censorship of Howard Hawks’ Film, Scarface

An Examination into Howard Hawks’ Film Scarface (1932), and Whether This Film Was Truly Dangerous, Deeming the Necessity for Censorship

This paper discusses the controversial issue of censorship of Howard Hughes’ film Scarface (1932) while presenting the opinions of the proponents and opponents of the practice of censorship in Scarface. Although Scarface (1932), was thought to be a dangerous film during the 1930s, the film, in general, only portrayed the violence that already existed in the society at that time. The film wasn’t a “clear and present danger” to the public; therefore, the film shouldn’t have been censored. Changes that were made to the film at the behest of the Hays’ Office , may have been out of good intentions but were carried out poorly—the revisions to the film weren’t necessary and in a sense were more harmful to the film than beneficial. Being more harmful than beneficial, the changes made to the film violated the 1st Amendment, misrepresenting the film itself away from the artistic credibility of the original script while also disabling the creative process of the producer, Howard Hughes.

Although Scarface was a film that was ahead of its time in terms of vulgarity, pushing the boundaries of modern films during that time, the film itself in a realistic and logical sense was not dangerous. All audiences (adults and children, both male and female) know the difference between reality and film; therefore, there is no moral obligation for the film industry to consider censorship due to the preconceived ideas that crime films case audiences to imitate “immoral” behavior seen on screen.

Throughout history, censorship has been a significant issue of controversy. With the demands of popular entertainment,...

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...sad to say but it seems that there is no trust in the maturity and logical thinking of society or in the human race itself. As individuals of society we are given the choice, the freedom, to choose whether we want to view “inappropriate” films. After all, films are rated and we are to view with our own discretion.

Works Cited

Black, Gregory D. Hollywood Censored: Morality Codes, Catholics, and the Movies. Cambridge England: Cambridge UP, 1994. Print.

Dirks, Tim. "Scarface: The Shame of the Nation (1932)." Greatest Films - The Best Movies in Cinematic History. Web. 03 Feb. 2011. .

McCarthy, Todd. "Howard Hawks: The Grey Fox of Hollywood." Google Books. Web. 21 Mar. 2011. .

Scarface. Dir. Howard Hawks and Richard Rosson. Perf. Paul Muni, Ann Dvorak, Osgood Perkins. Universal, 1932. DVD.