The 1950’s marked many massive landmarks for film and one of the biggest transitions this decade provided was the termination of the Production Code. Seeing the code disappear was a big deal to American cinema as a whole, especially since this opened a floodgate that allowed films to show more and more taboo subject on the screen. the bug question though is why did the Production code become terminated? There are actually a large list of reasons why this happened, but perhaps the biggest factors include the Supreme Court’s ruling on the 1952 Miracle case, the pioneering directors that challenged the code and finally the box office results that allowed more taboo subjects to be shown on the screen. What really allowed the ball to start rolling toward the decline of the Production Code came in the year 1952, when an Italian film called The Miracle (1948) was being released in America. The problem arose when the state of New York attempted to bane the film from being shown on the grounds that the film was committing sacrilege. The distributer …show more content…
Director Otto Preminger started to challenge the code when he released tow movies, The Moon Is Blue (1953) and The Man with the Golden Arm (1955). Both of these films had content that the Production Code wouldn’t allow, including frank talk about sex and onscreen directions of herion use and addiction. Of course the films were not approved by the code and did not receive their seal of approval, but Preminger ignored this and United Artist released the film anyway. Major studios started to follow suit and decided to release more movies that ignored the seal of approval from the Production Code. Protesters were left powerless and very much lead to the end of the Production Code in the 1960’s and the introduction of the rating system we know
However, after the dust settled, it was widely accepted that the blacklist was unjust, which enabled many film workers to pursue the movie studios in civil courts through the 1950’s for unpaid contracts and wages (Lewis, 2008). While the studios were initially impacted by the Paramount decision, the breadth of competition and independent successes of smaller studios gave rise to the advancement of innovative filmmaking that may not have been possible if it were not for the Paramount decision. Filmmaking is one of the riskiest and most profitable ventures in modern day society, and without these events, the studios and the film workers may not share the successes that they do
Hollywood is a master of revisionist history, especially when that history is its own. One of the defining moments in the histories of both Hollywood and America was the series of Congressional hearings held by the House Un-American Activities Committee, or HUAC, and led by Senator Joseph McCarthy in the late 1940′s and early 1950′s in order to ostensibly eliminate Communism from the United States. Hollywood was intimately involved in the HUAC hearings, and one of those targeted most viciously in the controversy was acclaimed film and theater director Elia Kazan.
In the 1930s and 1940s many Hollywood writers, actors, producers, and directors were suspected for communist affiliations. During this time, communism was a popular political movement in the United States, especially among young liberals. There was a growing fear of communism invading American society. By the end of World War Two an event known as the Red Scare resulted in communism become increasingly feared and hated by many in the United States. The Hollywood blacklist caused the Hollywood industry a lot of harm in its business and reputation.
In Cold War, Cool Medium: Television, McCarthyism and American Culture, Thomas Doherty profiles the 1950's Red Scare, also known as McCarthyism, and its vast effect on American culture during that time. Doherty arms his audience with the revealing history behind the rise and fall of Senator Joe McCarthy, as well as the roots of the anti-communist attitude during the Cold War era that led to the rise of McCarthyism. He discusses the effects of McCarthyism on the entertainment world of the 1950's; the blacklisting of actors, actresses, and producers; many important trials, such as the Army-McCarthy Hearings; and, finally, the end of McCarthyism. An interesting section of the book titled I Love Lucy: The Redhead and the Blacklist demonstrates that in a time
Beginning the mid 1920s, Hollywood’s ostensibly all-powerful film studios controlled the American film industry, creating a period of film history now recognized as “Classical Hollywood”. Distinguished by a practical, workmanlike, “invisible” method of filmmaking- whose purpose was to demand as little attention to the camera as possible, Classical Hollywood cinema supported undeviating storylines (with the occasional flashback being an exception), an observance of a the three act structure, frontality, and visibly identified goals for the “hero” to work toward and well-defined conflict/story resolution, most commonly illustrated with the employment of the “happy ending”. Studios understood precisely what an audience desired, and accommodated their wants and needs, resulting in films that were generally all the same, starring similar (sometimes the same) actors, crafted in a similar manner. It became the principal style throughout the western world against which all other styles were judged. While there have been some deviations and experiments with the format in the past 50 plus ye...
The idea of Hollywood, before it was Hollywood as we know it seems foreign. However, it did exist and was known as "Pre-code." Pre-code Hollywood refers to the era in the American film industry between the introduction of sound in the late 1920's and the enforcement of the Hays Code censorship guidelines, which went into effect on June 13, 1934 (Association of Motion Picture Producers 1934). Durin...
Three tenets of the Production Code impact the film directly. The Hays Office states as follows:
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.
Television networks used these types of shows to protect themselves from any accusations that they were sending out “Communist messages”, but these shows subsequently influenced a generation into a new way of thinking and living. Families moved in rapid numbers to suburbia and wanted to be just like the Cleavers or the Andersons. The American public would never be the same, always reflecting on the perfection played out nightly on television and setting their goals to reach that level of traditionalism. The Hollywood Blacklisting that followed the Red Scare of the 1950’s forced the media to change in order to survive the scrutinizing committees of the HUAC and various congressional committees that pushed for the social “purging” of America in hopes of searching out the “Reds” which they believed were hiding among them. This change in media came at a time when the public had become extremely receptive to such influences due to the spread of the television and the growth of the middle class who had extra money to spend on luxuries such as going to the movie theatres.
First up and possibly the most prominent example of censorship in 1950s America is the House un-American Activities Committee. Basically, it was a massive effort to censor Communist Activities that stemmed from the Red Scare in America. After World War II, Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin struck fear into the hearts of Americans by claiming that 205 Communists had infiltrated the United States Government (Simkin). As he went around accusing many people of being communist, fear and hysteria reined America....
The fifties was a learning year and the 60's became the time to express everything that they learned. The 60's was a time for new and innovative ways to entertain the people. Since the blacklisting continued in Hollywood, the making or films became very difficult to express. The restrictions, such as the production codes, kept the big corporations to produce films that had no interesting subjects. These films also had to be films that show no signs of communistic values. The film industry was failing to bring in the audience to the theaters. With the TV making a big wave all over, the U.S. the film industry was losing it is money. Then in 1961 something big happened, 20th Century Fox took apart its lot. This act was one that led to a chain reaction. Studios were assuming the role of distributors. This would allow the independent companies to come in and add a new flavor to the silver screen. During this time films changed it's traditional film making ideas. Things started to get graphic, more violent, sexual and more expressive. Movies had found a new look and with the production codes now gone and the blacklisting ending, there was an explosion of ideas that would be presented to the United States.
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.
But there are several varieties of liberalism. Joseph McCarthy and other conservatives believed that Hollywood had been infiltrated by Communism and the Soviet Union. Conservatives were in a position of power at this point and abused it relentlessly. Any movie could now be seen as secret propaganda in support of the USSR. The fear of a black-list in Hollywood caused a bit of liberal outcry. But this was mainly among actors and other employees in the film sector. The most famous case was the Hollywood 10; who were charged with contempt. The fear of being labelled a Communist caused American movies stagnate and become similar stories. These movies were generally happy-go-lucky, pro-government or apolitical. Other forms of press faced a similar amount of danger but the main targets of the HUAC were Hollywood’s employees and government
...jective, then the parents also need to be subjective and judge whether or not their child should be able to see the film in question. However, with films, such as 2013’s raunchy The Wolf of Wall Street, containing record setting language, abundant amounts of nudity, and a gratuitous quantity of drug use, continuously pushing the limits and boundaries of what can be seen in a movie theatre, the MPAA has to not only classify what is in films, but make sure they are keeping kids safe and restricting the limits filmmakers can go to to make sure their motion picture can fit into the most financially suitable rating. The MPAA is not doing its job to keep the undeveloped minds of the youth of America from seeing the things that they are unable to handle and is creating a reality in which lives do not carry meaning, morals are not upheld, and life is just like the movies.
With women’s new found sexual independence came film’s focus on women’s sexuality. Even though the Motion Picture Production Code was created in 1927 and the Hays Office opened in 1930 for the purposes of self-censorship, it wasn’t strictly enforced until 1934 . The production code itself allowed more of a woman’s body to be seen than a man’s. The movie’s focus is on the beautiful chorus girls who wear shorts and dance around. During the casting scene, Julian Marsh wants to see the women’s legs so he can decide if they are beautiful enough to be in the chorus. In fact, one of the promotional posters for this movie highlights the legs of the chorus