Censorship and Hollywood

Paper Summary:

This paper focuses on the documentary "Hollywood Censored: Movies, Morality and the Production Code" which illustrates the effects of censorship in the film industry. This paper examines the religious condemnation, societal expectations and financial insecurity that have plagued Hollywood and the film industry since the early 1900s. This paper discusses the profound effect the Catholic church had on Hollywood. The Legion of Decency was created in order to clean up to films that were being shown to society. The hold of the Catholic church in the major cities was massive and as long as Hollywood produced films the religious authorities felt were morally harmful to society, priests and parishioners would continue to ban films. The writer also examines the events that led up to the film industry being granted 1st amendment protection in 1952, in which films were finally viewed as an art form.

From the Paper:

"In 1952 movies were granted First Amendment protection and films were finally seen as an art form. This came about after the studios were deemed monopolies and forced to give up their movie palaces. Theaters were now free to show any type of film they pleased and were not held liable to the production code. This allowed directors and producers a freedom they had not seen in many years. Breen's theories and strict regulations became obsolete. The control Hollywood and the courts had given him had been relinquished. As the freedom of the theaters grew, the power of the production code fell and in 1962 the production code was officially done away with and replaced with the ratings systems we now have. One producer in the documentary quotes Robert Graves by saying that "It's impossible for any artist not to be a part of his society even if he is against it" (Hollywood). Simply put, this means that as an artist, producer or director, it would be impossible, whether intended or not, to not mirror the society from which the art was created."

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