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Censorship in film and TV introduction
Toward censorship in art
Censorship in film and TV introduction
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The Motion Picture Code of the Great Depression
During the times of the Great Depression, film was viewed as a valuable importance to people. Film during this time of distress contributed to the maintenance of the national morale of America. During this time Hollywood played a valuable part, getting over eighty million Americans to attend theaters, but soon it would become a lot harder as America continued living in the Great Depression.
Everyone in America, even the most troubling of poverty families attended movies. With a movie to watch, Americans sought refuge in a fantasy world. Films during this time were a perfect distraction. Not only for audiences but also for the artist creating their work. It was extremely successful in accessing a world different from our own, but unfortunately because of the depression, movies were too expensive to pay for.
Even the most successfully hollywood production companies weren't depression proof. Just like the local diner in your town, they're not immune to success and poverty. Studio's began to triple in debt and by 1933 movie attendance dropped by forty percent. The industry began trimming salaries, production cost and closed the door to a third of the movie theaters in America. They began resorting to lowering admission prices by 25 cents.
One of the most successful marketing tools, theaters began to create prizes for audience members in attendance. In some theaters prizes were given out to audience members who participated in a raffle. Bank night prizes where the lucky number winner went home with a cash prize.
People during this time valued the escapism movie provided. More than that movies maintained the social reality at that time. Movies were realistic of the...
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...ction code like the depression was a thing of the past. Ratings such as NC-17, R, PG-13 and PG became the new regulating code for production companies.
From the description of both of these codes, it seems to only be used as a censorship for movies. A regulation code goes against the political and personal freedom of an artist. Either it be during the Great depression or our era now, movies should not have to adhere to the rules and regulation of a code. Movies are made to express the times in which we live in. No matter if its an outlet to access a different world from our own, movies should function as a source of expression and fantasy. More than ever movies should be allowed to comfort its audience rather than following a code, whether for our era now or during the depression, movies should still be one of the most valuable sources of comfort and information.
The overall appeal of the cinema to the masses was particularly evident during the interwar era. Audiences worldwide wanted to watch the variety of films, particularly American produced films, and they always went back. The visibly attractive and glamorous Hollywood movies often depicted the success of the underdog over unjust authority. Values of cash over culture were often a theme in the early American films and societies with restricted social mobility, such as those in Europe, could dream of such a triumph. The working class and unemployed could fantasise about wealth, fame and freedom which America as a country was portrayed as offering.
The 1930’s was dominated by the Great Depression. There was not much time of money for people to spend on entertainment, but there were a few pin pricks of light. People, especially kids, went to the movie theater. They could spend ...
The Great Depression is where the film industry boomed with new types of movies like: gangster films and musicals. It was a hard time for people in this era to get by. Most people spent their time watching movies like: gangster films, musicals and comedies, like Modern Times and The Public Enemy and get away from the bad times of the Great Depression. Each film showed the Great Depression in different ways but both ways worked will.
In 1968 Jack Valenti, the president of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), established the Classification and Ratings Administration (CARA) in an effort to reduce the amount of objectionable material in film. Before 1968, the MPAA required that all films follow the guidelines of the Production Code. The Production Code stipulated what was and was not appropriate to appear in films. In 1966, the MPAA elected Jack Valenti president and he changed the code to a rating system based on the amount of objectionable content in a film. The rating system went through several amendments until the current rating system. A controversy arose when The Weinstein Co. film Blue Valentine received an NC-17 rating for a sexually explicit scene involving the main characters in the film. The controversy over the rating of the film stirred up the question of the effectiveness of the MPAA rating system. Critics were already questioning the effectiveness of the MPAA, but the recent controversy helped to stimulate those questions. The rating system that the MPAA enforces on films is ineffective.
The roaring twenties would be nothing without the roar of the MGM Lion. “If Hollywood had no other studio than Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the town still would have been the movie capital of the world” (Fricke para 1). MGM enchanted audiences with its high-budgeted films and glamorous list of stars (Hanson para 1). Three failing movie companies came together in 1924 in hopes to make it big in the motion picture industry, and it did (Fricke para 3). Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer created spectacles of movies after its merging which made MGM one of the most prosperous motion picture companies in the 1920’s (Hanson para 2).
The change in the U.S. can be said to be a social revolution. People were growing sick of the same old movies, they wanted a change and Hollywood needed to deliver or else they would lose their audience to the TV. In the early 60's, the studios were still afraid of the blacklisting so the films were still very safe. An example of this is the film Sound of Music (1965). This was a film about a musical family that needed to escape the Nazi presence. Although the movie is based on a true story, they still follow the same old idea of a nice family, who must escape from the clutches of evil. Basically, the movie is saying good guys win and bad guys always lose. Sure this how most films are made but there is no sense of change, no differences in the style or way it was made. Since there was no change, the public was not interested. The TV was much more convenient and kept the publics interested.
In the early 1930’s entertainment started to become popular. The reason for that was due to the Great Depression. Entertainment took people’s minds off of the struggles that were being faced. Country and blues were forms of music that were introduced during this time, but the 1930’s was mainly a time of jazz. Broadway and movies became more advanced and more popular then too. “Movies, music, and Broadway all combined to provide as an escape from the dreary life of the depression.”(Walker n.pag.) Throughout the 1930's people would turn to entertainment to forget about the hard times.
The author does a good job of illustrating that the Great Depression was meant to have a light at the end of the tunnel. However, his writing is weakened by the presence of generalization and overuse of common knowledge. The author’s question would simply be: “how did the cultural shift (film, writings, art, and music) unknowingly change America’s perspective and outlook towards the Depression?” Dickstein was able to answer this clearly in the conclusion. He claims that during this economic crisis Franklin D Roosevelt wanted to promote “courage to face up to the social crisis, empathy for the sufferings of others, a break with past thinking about how we ought to live” (Dickstein 524). Dickstein believes that the films helped instill those attributes unknowingly in the American people. The most effective example referenced by Dickstein is The Wizard of Oz. The qualities that the Tin Man, Cowardly Lion, and Scarecrow demanded (a heart, courage, and a brain) were qualities that Americans needed to get through the eras economic crisis. The characters in the film undergo various trials as they follow the Yellow Brick Road to Emerald City; from the road of the Great Depression to the Promised Land. It was the explanation as to why the last few years of the 1930s were strangely optimistic. The author’s evidence at first felt some things were unaddressed, but as the book came to an end, it felt complete. The author’s conclusions makes sense because it connects to readers in the present. As he referenced The Wizard of Oz, he was able to show how Americans were able to find those optimistic traits in themselves. It’s by working together and using their own strengths to find their way home that encouraged people to keep their heads up. This will convince the reader because media in today’s society has the same effect on influencing people, whether it be
During this decade, the film industry went through massive changes that would completely change what movies were or stood for. After the Great War, more people began considering movies as a form of entertainment. This increased attention caused change in the industry, allowing the experience of the movie goer to massively change for the better. Many new genres, ideas and technologies emerged in the 1920s that would later dominate the industry. The 1920s saw massive changes happening in the movie industry that would help it to get one step closer to what it is today.
Largely influenced by the French New Wave and other international film movements, many American filmmakers in the late 1960s to 1970s sought to revolutionize Hollywood cinema in a similar way. The New Hollywood movement, also referred to as the “American New Wave” and the “Hollywood Renaissance,” defied traditional Hollywood standards and practices in countless ways, creating a more innovative and artistic style of filmmaking. Due to the advent and popularity of television, significant decrease in movie theater attendance, rising production costs, and changing tastes of American audiences, particularly in the younger generation, Hollywood studios were in a state of financial disaster. Many studios thus hired a host of young filmmakers to revitalize the business, and let them experiment and have almost complete creative control over their films. In addition, the abandonment of the restrictive Motion Picture Production Code in 1967 and the subsequent adoption of the MPAA’s rating system in 1968 opened the door to an era of increased artistic freedom and expression.
The arts played a significant role in the Great Depression- not only as a means of escapism for some people, but also a psychological and ideological role that provided inspiration and optimism in a time of severe doubt and fear. For example, film provided an escape for a couple of hours, but also portrayed success during this time period. Many films focused on social realities of the time period, so that people could relate to these films. Films gave images of hope and success because they portrayed ordinary people, such as a girl winning a role in a play, or a man and a woman randomly meeting and falling in love. Andrew Bergman explains the effect of these films in his article Hollywood and the Great Depressi...
Prior to the Great Depression the United States was flourishing with technology and consumer spending. The Roaring Twenties brought much cheer and prosperity to the economy. The invention of the automobile, radio and motion picture brought higher wages and more jobs. When families wanted to forget about their troubles for a little while, they would usually go see a movie. Some films were The Wizard of Oz, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and Gone with the Wind. Music was also an entertaining way to distract you from everyday life problems. Women were dressing differently and trying to gain a better place for themselves in the work force. Their views and mannerism were also changing.
The Great Depression is a time in the history of the United States that people have learned and gained knowledge from. Its harsh times and conflicts have been written about in books, seen in movies, talked about on radios, and told to families throughout the generations. Seeing how life was during the 1930s in the movie, The Cinderella Man, was a great eye opener to how the people of this time truly survived and kept their true humanity in times of havoc. The time of the 1930s should be an inspiration to the nation and cause many to do well and live life smart and prosperous.
Stanley, Robert H. The Movie Idiom: Film as a Popular Art Form. Illinois: Waveland Press, Inc. 2011. Print
Movies take us inside the skin of people quite different from ourselves and to places different from our routine surroundings. As humans, we always seek enlargement of our being and wanted to be more than ourselves. Each one of us, by nature, sees the world with a perspective and selectivity different from others. But, we want to see the world through other’s eyes; imagine with other’s imaginations; feel with other’s hearts, at a same time as with our own. Movies offer us a window onto the wider world, broadening our perspective and opening our eyes to new wonders.