Reforming Hollywood

            I attended the Reforming Hollywood lecture given by Dr. William Romanowski, and I’m really glad I went.  I learned many interesting and surprising issues raised by censorship in film.  The majority of his lecture focused on the role that religion plays in the formation of censorship laws.  When there was no ratings system, anyone could walk into any movie, regardless of content.  Parents were worried that their children might see  nudity or violence on-screen, but there were no preventative measures to restrict members of the audiences.  However, movies had to make a profit, and it was unfair to ask them to cut certain scenes just to protect moral standards of parents and members of different churches.

            I have always found studio-era Hollywood fascinating, and this lecture touched on the corrupt nature of the first Hollywood studios.  The “Big Three”; Metro-Goldwyn, Famous Players-Lasky, and First National founded the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America.  This organization was led by William Hays, who also happened to be a Presbyterian deacon.   Hays ran into trouble in this position, especially after the “Big Three” were accused as acting as a trust, with Hays as a spokesperson.  However, the MPPDA conducted the “Hays code”, a system of film censorship from 1930 to 1968.

            The debate about movie censorship has always had tensions between social awareness and levels of artistic freedom.  An interesting portion of this lecture had to do with the censorship of two movies.  “The Pawnbroker” was praised and approved by the Board of Film Censors (BFC) because it had religious undertones and it described the human condition.  On the other hand, “The Greatest Story Ever Told”, a film about the life of Jesus, was not approved by the BFC because it was deemed too superficial to be appropriate for the story of Christ.  Most of the founding members of the BFC were Protestant.

            Jack Valenti, a Catholic Texan,  because the president of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).  He created the MPAA film rating system as a replacement for the Hays Code.  The Hays code was extremely out of date and no longer appropriate for the current film and culture environment.  The new systems of rating served as a safeguard for artistic freedom and also informed parents and viewers of suitability.  This is the ratings code that is still in use today.

            This lecture made me realize the diminishing scope of religious authority in the United States. Film censorship is now largely a matter of what is considered appropriate because of a ratings system, not because of religious authority.  It was a great lecture and I am curious to learn more about film censorship!