The Hays Code - Particular Applications The second part of the Production code was a set of "particular applications" which was a stringent list of items which could not be depicted in a movie. The Preamble went on to emphasized the role of movies to ART. The Hays Code - Enforcement The Code to Govern the Making of Talking, Synchronized and Silent Motion Pictures was published in but not rigidly enforced until following more threats of censorship by the Federal Government and the widespread threats of Catholic boycotts of immoral movies.
Following the Hays Code, and its "no scenes of passion", also provided many headaches to the studios. David O. Selznick had huge problems convincing Will Hays and Joseph Breen that the words "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn" was kept in 'Gone with the Wind'. The Hays Code even extended to animated cartoon movies to such an extent that the 'career' of the famous cartoon character Betty Boop was ruined. Facts about the Hays Code for kids - Effect on American Movies Hays Code Fact 1: The Hays Code required that women, in love scenes, at all times have "at least one foot on the floor" in other words, no love scenes in bed.
Hays Code Fact 2: People could not be in a horizontal position if they were kissing. Her skirts were lengthened to the knee, her garter belt was replaced with leg-covering stockings and the necklines of her dress were raised, so as not to cause offence.
Betty Boop even lost some of her curls and her famous, trademark winks and shaking hips were deemed to be "suggestive of immorality". Betty Boop had to portray a demure image. The censorship of Betty Boop was probably the most extreme example of the rigidity of the Hays Code. The Hays Code was officially replaced in by the Motion Picture Association of America's film rating system MPAA , and it had four rating tiers: G for general exhibition all ages , M for mature audiences people over the age of 12 , R for restricted children under 16 must be accompanied by an adult , and X for extremely graphic only people 18 or over will be admitted.
And while the ratings system has changed slightly since then, the MPAA is still in charge of rating films.
United States. Type keyword s to search. Today's Top Stories. How to Eat Like Chris Hemsworth. Who created the Hays Code? Joseph Breen in Bettmann Getty Images.
This content is imported from YouTube. Even a classic like Rebel Without a Cause featured a barely-concealed gay character as a sympathetic character Bury Your Gays is enforced, but it's clearly treated as a tragedy. The major studios sold their theater chains, which meant they technically lost all say in what could be shown in those theaters. The new theater owners were no more eager to incur the wrath of the US government than the Big Five had been, though.
But the Supreme Court itself began to undercut the purpose of the Code to prevent federal government censorship of the film industry starting in The Italian film The Miracle by Roberto Rossellini featured controversial use of religious imagery; its American release provoked a severe outcry.
Film distributor Joseph Burstyn sued to have the short film's license reinstated in New York, and the Supreme Court did just that in what is now known as the "Miracle Decision", which helped give film First Amendment protections as an artistic medium. In the s, a wave of European films particularly British and Italian films like Alfie and Bicycle Thieves , none of which were subject to the Code, tackled gritty topics that American studios couldn't touch because of the Code.
American theaters could show these films without the MPAA's prior approval thanks to the Paramount Decision; when the MPAA tried to demand the censorship of those films, its efforts backfired and the Code ended up looking even more ridiculous.
Prior to the Court loosening the reins, domestic filmmakers mounted serious challenges to the Code in the s. Against the considerable critical acclaim of these films and overwhelming public sentiment, the Hays Code tried to bend—those films were considered "special exceptions"—but this opened the door for every daring filmmaker of the day to ask for similar consideration.
This change of criteria also encouraged film company executives to stop cooperating with the Code: it was one thing for the Code's censors to have objections about specific content that fell into agreed-upon criteria, but it was quite another for those censors to act as de facto film critics who could arbitrarily determine which films were of good enough quality to make them "exceptions". In , MGM released the film Blowup —which failed to gain Hays approval due to its relatively explicit erotic content—in direct defiance of the Code.
Other studios soon followed MGM's lead when it became clear that the public's opinion of the Code had changed. Also in , Jack Valenti was elected MPAA president with the specific promise to move from the Code to a ratings system, in theory based on the age-appropriateness of the film.
The fall of the Hays Code rid Hollywood of the last Golden Age relic and marked the beginning of the "New Hollywood" era of the late '60s and the '70s. Unfortunately, the transition to the rating system proved awkward with ugly incidents such as kids watching the first modern adult horror film, Night of the Living Dead , and a review by Roger Ebert 's is as much about how the kids were becoming genuinely traumatized seeing a high-intensity story definitely not made for them.
In the years since its creation, the MPAA rating system has itself been criticized by many people—notably film critic Roger Ebert and the filmmakers of This Film Is Not Yet Rated —for doling higher ratings based on depictions of sex, gay people, or other controversial topics and obscenity, to a certain extent than depictions of violence. Other complaints note the lack of transparency about exactly why certain films get the ratings they do for example, several films listed with "nothing offensive" as the whole MPAA content description have received PG ratings.
Film Censorship in the US. The US Ratings System.
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