Movie Censorship and American Culture

Download Movie Censorship and American Culture PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Univ of Massachusetts Press
ISBN 13 : 9781558495753
Total Pages : 356 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (957 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Movie Censorship and American Culture by : Francis G. Couvares

Download or read book Movie Censorship and American Culture written by Francis G. Couvares and published by Univ of Massachusetts Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the earliest days of public outrage over "indecent" nickelodeon shows, Americans have worried about the power of the movies. The eleven essays in this book examine nearly a century of struggle over cinematic representations of sex, crime, violence, religion, race, and ethnicity, revealing that the effort to regulate the screen has reflected deep social and cultural schisms. In addition to the editor, contributors include Daniel Czitrom, Marybeth Hamilton, Garth Jowett, Charles Lyons, Richard Maltby, Charles Musser, Alison M. Parker, Charlene Regester, Ruth Vasey, and Stephen Vaughn. Together they make it clear that censoring the movies is more than just a reflex against "indecency," however defined. Whether censorship protects the vulnerable or suppresses the creative, it is part of a broader culture war that breaks out recurrently as Americans try to come to terms with the market, the state, and the plural society in which they live.

“The American public wants its movies passionate but pure”. The Question of Morality in American Film Censorship of the 1920s

Download “The American public wants its movies passionate but pure”. The Question of Morality in American Film Censorship of the 1920s PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : GRIN Verlag
ISBN 13 : 3346143570
Total Pages : 39 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (461 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis “The American public wants its movies passionate but pure”. The Question of Morality in American Film Censorship of the 1920s by : Amelie Meyer

Download or read book “The American public wants its movies passionate but pure”. The Question of Morality in American Film Censorship of the 1920s written by Amelie Meyer and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2020-04-07 with total page 39 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2012 in the subject History - America, grade: 1,0, University of Göttingen (Seminar für Mittlere und Neuere Geschichte), course: The "Roaring Twenties": Die Massenkultur der 1920er Jahre in transatlantischer Perspektive, language: English, abstract: For as long as there have been moving pictures, there have also been attempts to regulate their content. The first court case surrounding moving pictures has been recorded as early as 1897 and many more were to follow. While film was thus always subjected to scrutiny from various groups, the 1920s saw a more fervent battle for control over censorship which resulted in the formation of the 1930 Production Code remaining in effect until 1968. Lee Grieveson’s study Policing Cinema: Movies and Censorship in Early-Twentieth-Century America comprehensively describes long-lasting battles over movie content regulation and the discussion of the function of cinema. Yet, he is among many scholars who sees the 1915 Supreme Court decision in the case “Mutual Film Corporation v. Industrial Commission of Ohio” as the culmination of these struggles as it proved “the validity of state censorship.” Justice McKenna is quoted ruling that “the exhibition of moving picture is a business, pure and simple, originated and conducted for profit, like other spectacles, not to be regarded ... as part of the press of the country, or as organs of the public opinion.” This ruling was not only significant for the increased state and city censorship which followed, but it also fueled censorship demands by various parties including religious groups, social reformers, politicians, and journalists who all called for the elusive concept of morality. The road from this first ruling which titled the film industry as a business to be regulated towards a formal censorship with the aim of restoring morality manifested in the so-called Production Code in 1934 will be the focus of this paper. The first part will consist of an analysis of the various parties involved in the attempt to regulate movie content in order to expose the individual motives behind their requests as well as their practices to reach their goal of censorship. The following part will then deal with the question of how well the reformers were able to realize their goal of censoring the movies during the first years of the 1920s. The questions posed above will mainly be studied on the basis of guiding works written by Gregory D. Black, Francis G. Couvares, Stephen Vaughn, Lee Grieveson and Leonard J. Leff. Analyzed sources will include newspaper articles, state review board standards, studies on audience behavior, and an original text written by a direct participant of the 1920 censorship struggle, MPPDA president William Hays.

Film Censorship

Download Film Censorship PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231851138
Total Pages : 268 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (318 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Film Censorship by : Sheri Chinen Biesen

Download or read book Film Censorship written by Sheri Chinen Biesen and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2018-08-28 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Film Censorship is a concise overview of Hollywood censorship and efforts to regulate American films. It provides a lean introductory survey of U.S. cinema censorship from the pre-Code years and classic studio system Golden Age—in which film censorship thrived—to contemporary Hollywood. From the earliest days of cinema, movies faced controversy over screen images and threats of censorship. This volume draws extensively on primary research from motion picture archives to unveil the fascinating behind-the-scenes history of cinema censorship and explore how Hollywood responded to censorial constraints on screen content in a changing American cultural and industrial landscape. This primer on American film censorship considers the historical evolution of motion-picture censorship in the United States spanning the Jazz Age Prohibition era, lobbying by religious groups against Hollywood, industry self-censorship for the Hays Office, federal propaganda efforts during wartime, easing of regulation in the 1950s and 1960s, the MPAA ratings system, and the legacy of censorship in later years. Case studies include The Outlaw, The Postman Always Rings Twice, Scarface, Double Indemnity, Psycho, Bonnie and Clyde, Midnight Cowboy, and The Exorcist, among many others.

Film Censorship in America

Download Film Censorship in America PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : McFarland
ISBN 13 : 1476630127
Total Pages : 245 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (766 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Film Censorship in America by : Jeremy Geltzer

Download or read book Film Censorship in America written by Jeremy Geltzer and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2017-11-28 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the first films played in nickelodeons, controversial movies have been cut or banned across the United States. Far from Hollywood, regional productions such as Oscar Micheaux's provocative race films and Nell Shipman's wildlife adventures were censored by men like Major M.L.C. Funkhouser, the terror of Chicago's cinemas, and Myrtelle Snell, the Alabama administrator who made the slogan "Banned in Birmingham" famous. Censorship continues today, with Utah's case against Deadpool (2016) pending in federal court and Robert Rodriguez's Machete Kills (2013) versus the Texas Film Commission. This authoritative state-by-state account covers the history of film censorship and the battle for free speech in America.

Controlling Hollywood

Download Controlling Hollywood PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : A&C Black
ISBN 13 : 9780485300925
Total Pages : 314 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (9 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Controlling Hollywood by : Matthew Bernstein

Download or read book Controlling Hollywood written by Matthew Bernstein and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2000-01-01 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explaining the major forces at play behind the making of Hollywood films, this text assesses how changing values have influenced censorship in Hollywood. The text also analyses the major cultural, social, legal and religious changes and their effect on Hollywood.

The World According to Hollywood, 1918-1939

Download The World According to Hollywood, 1918-1939 PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Univ of Wisconsin Press
ISBN 13 : 9780299151942
Total Pages : 326 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (519 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The World According to Hollywood, 1918-1939 by : Ruth Vasey

Download or read book The World According to Hollywood, 1918-1939 written by Ruth Vasey and published by Univ of Wisconsin Press. This book was released on 1997 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The most visible cultural institution on earth between the World Wars, the Hollywood movie industry tried to satisfy worldwide audiences of vastly different cultural, religious, and political persuasions. The World According to Hollywood shows how the industry's self-regulation shaped the content of films to make them salable in as many markets as possible. In the process, Hollywood created an idiosyncratic vision of the world that was glamorous and exotic, but also oddly narrow. Ruth Vasey shows how the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA), by implementing such strategies as the industry's Production Code, ensured that domestic and foreign distribution took place with a minimum of censorship or consumer resistance. Drawing upon MPPDA archives, studio records, trade papers, and the records of the U.S. Department of Commerce, Vasey reveals the ways the MPPDA influenced the representation of sex, violence, religion, foreign and domestic politics, corporate capitalism, ethnic minorities, and the conduct of professional classes. Vasey is the first scholar to document fully how the demands of the global market frequently dictated film content and created the movies' homogenized picture of social and racial characteristics, in both urban America and the world beyond. She uncovers telling evidence of scripts and treatments that were abandoned before or during the course of production because of content that might offend foreign markets. Among the fascinating points she discusses is Hollywood's frequent use of imaginary countries as story locales, resulting from a deliberate business policy of avoiding realistic depictions of actual countries. She argues that foreign governments perceived movies not just as articles of trade, but as potential commercial and political emissaries of the United States. Just as Hollywood had to persuade its domestic audiences that its products were morally sound, its domination of world markets depended on its ability to create a culturally and politically acceptable product.

The Miracle Case

Download The Miracle Case PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.F/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Miracle Case by : Laura Wittern-Keller

Download or read book The Miracle Case written by Laura Wittern-Keller and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the Supreme Court's unanimous 1952 decision in favor of a film exhibitor who had been denied a license to show the controversial Italian film, Il Miracolo. The ruling was a watershed event in the history of film censorship, ushering in a new era of mature--and sophisticated--American filmmaking.

Movies, Censorship, and the Law

Download Movies, Censorship, and the Law PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780472750603
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (56 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Movies, Censorship, and the Law by : Ira Carmen

Download or read book Movies, Censorship, and the Law written by Ira Carmen and published by . This book was released on 2016-10-30 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Who decides what movies we should see? In some of the nation's largest cities motion pictures are screened by review boards meeting in secret. Their files are seldom open to inspection, and they often wield a nearly absolute power over what the public is shown. This is the story of motion-picture censorship in America. It begins in 1915 when the Supreme Court denied freedom of the press to movies. In a fast-moving account of court cases and behind-the-scenes skirmishes, Ira Carmen follows the history of movie censorship to the present day. He shows how very recent court decisions reflect new thinking on censorship and the nature of obscenity. Today, forty-seven states and countless cities and towns have obscenity laws on their statute books. Are the censors stout guardians of the public morality . . . or witch-hunters? In a series of dramatic interviews with film censors in major cities, Carmen captures the flavor of the struggle between censor and exhibitor. The interviews reveal how censors think--what kinds of films they suppress and for what reasons, how they feel about foreign films as opposed to American, how they are influenced by court decisions, and how well they abide by those decisions. This pioneering book reveals what effect court decisions really have at the grassroots level. It examines the role of the constitution in the censorship debate and asks how effective the American political and judicial systems have been in coping with the problem. Finally, it offers a challenging analysis of what kind of censorship, if any, is needed in a free society.

The New Censors

Download The New Censors PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Temple University Press
ISBN 13 : 9781566395120
Total Pages : 252 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (951 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The New Censors by : Charles Lyons

Download or read book The New Censors written by Charles Lyons and published by Temple University Press. This book was released on 1997 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Amid ongoing debates over a wide variety of art and how it should be regulated, Charles Lyons focuses on the movie industry and the role pressure groups and government has played in shaping contemporary images

Hollywood As Historian

Download Hollywood As Historian PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University Press of Kentucky
ISBN 13 : 0813160308
Total Pages : 459 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (131 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Hollywood As Historian by : Peter C. Rollins

Download or read book Hollywood As Historian written by Peter C. Rollins and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2021-03-17 with total page 459 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A commendably comprehensive analysis of the issue of Hollywood’s ability to shape our minds . . . invigorating reading.” ?Booklist Film has exerted a pervasive influence on the American mind, and in eras of economic instability and international conflict, the industry has not hesitated to use motion pictures for propaganda purposes. During less troubled times, citizens’ ability to deal with political and social issues may be enhanced or thwarted by images absorbed in theaters. Tracking the interaction of Americans with important movie productions, this book considers such topics as racial and sexual stereotyping; censorship of films; comedy as a tool for social criticism; the influence of “great men” and their screen images; and the use of film to interpret history. Hollywood As Historian benefits from a variety of approaches. Literary and historical influences are carefully related to The Birth of a Nation and Apocalypse Now, two highly tendentious epics of war and cultural change. How political beliefs of filmmakers affected cinematic styles is illuminated in a short survey of documentary films made during the Great Depression. Historical distance has helped analysts decode messages unintended by filmmakers in the study of The Snake Pit and Dr. Strangelove. Hollywood As Historian offers a versatile, thought-provoking text for students of popular culture, American studies, film history, or film as history. Films considered include: The Birth of a Nation (1915), The Plow that Broke the Plains (1936), The River (1937), March of Time (1935-1953), City Lights (1931), Modern Times (1936), The Great Dictator (1940), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), Native Land (1942), Wilson (1944), The Negro Soldier (1944), The Snake Pit (1948), On the Waterfront (1954), Dr. Strangelove (1964), Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), and Apocalypse Now (1979). “Recommended reading for anyone concerned with the influence of popular culture on the public perception of history.” ?American Journalism

Silencing Cinema

Download Silencing Cinema PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 1137061987
Total Pages : 321 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (37 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Silencing Cinema by : D. Biltereyst

Download or read book Silencing Cinema written by D. Biltereyst and published by Springer. This book was released on 2013-03-26 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Oppression by censorship affects the film industry far more frequently than any other mass media. Including essays by leading film historians, the book offers groundbreaking historical research on film censorship in major film production countries and explore such innovative themes as film censorship and authorship, religion, and colonialism.

Hollywood Censored

Download Hollywood Censored PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780521565929
Total Pages : 354 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (659 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Hollywood Censored by : Gregory D. Black

Download or read book Hollywood Censored written by Gregory D. Black and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1994 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After a series of sex scandals rocked the film industry in 1922, movie moguls hired Will Hays to clear the image of movies. Hays tried a variety of ways to regulate movies before adopting what became known as the production code. Written in 1930 by a St Louis priest, the code stipulated that movies stress proper behaviour, respect for government, and 'Christian values'. The Catholic Church reinforced these efforts by launching its Legion of Decency in 1934. Intended to force Hays and Hollywood to censor films, the Legion of Decency engineered the appointment of Joseph Breen as head of the Production Code Administration. For the next three decades, Breen, Hays, and the Catholic Legion of Decency virtually controlled the content of all Hollywood films.

The Remaking of Pittsburgh

Download The Remaking of Pittsburgh PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : State University of New York Press
ISBN 13 : 079149988X
Total Pages : 198 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (914 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Remaking of Pittsburgh by : Francis G. Couvares

Download or read book The Remaking of Pittsburgh written by Francis G. Couvares and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 1984-06-30 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What forces transformed a community in which industrial workers and other citizens exercised a real measure of power over their lives into a metropolis whose inhabitants were utterly dependent on Big Steel? How did a city that fervidly embraced the labor struggle of 1877 turn into the city which so fiercely repudiated the labor struggle of 1919? The Remaking of Pittsburgh is the history of this transformation. The cultural dimensions of industrialization come to life as Couvares calls upon labor history, urban history, and the history of popular culture to depict the demise of the "craftsman's empire" and the birth of a cosmopolitan bourgeois society. The book explores the impact of immigration on the shaping of modern Pittsburgh and the emergence of mass culture within the community. In the midst of these processes of transformation, the giant steel corporations were continually reshaping the life of the city.

The Wages of Sin

Download The Wages of Sin PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 9780520207905
Total Pages : 224 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (79 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Wages of Sin by : Lea Jacobs

Download or read book The Wages of Sin written by Lea Jacobs and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1997-06 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines how film censors and producers treated the "fallen woman" or "sex picture" subject.

Monitoring the Movies

Download Monitoring the Movies PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Texas Press
ISBN 13 : 1477313931
Total Pages : 213 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (773 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Monitoring the Movies by : Jennifer Fronc

Download or read book Monitoring the Movies written by Jennifer Fronc and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2017-11-15 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As movies took the country by storm in the early twentieth century, Americans argued fiercely about whether municipal or state authorities should step in to control what people could watch when they went to movie theaters, which seemed to be springing up on every corner. Many who opposed the governmental regulation of film conceded that some entity—boards populated by trusted civic leaders, for example—needed to safeguard the public good. The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures (NB), a civic group founded in New York City in 1909, emerged as a national cultural chaperon well suited to protect this emerging form of expression from state incursions. Using the National Board's extensive files, Monitoring the Movies offers the first full-length study of the NB and its campaign against motion-picture censorship. Jennifer Fronc traces the NB's Progressive-era founding in New York; its evolving set of "standards" for directors, producers, municipal officers, and citizens; its "city plan," which called on citizens to report screenings of condemned movies to local officials; and the spread of the NB's influence into the urban South. Ultimately, Monitoring the Movies shows how Americans grappled with the issues that arose alongside the powerful new medium of film: the extent of the right to produce and consume images and the proper scope of government control over what citizens can see and show.

Race, Gender, and Film Censorship in Virginia, 1922–1965

Download Race, Gender, and Film Censorship in Virginia, 1922–1965 PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Lexington Books
ISBN 13 : 073919030X
Total Pages : 220 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (391 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Race, Gender, and Film Censorship in Virginia, 1922–1965 by : Melissa Ooten

Download or read book Race, Gender, and Film Censorship in Virginia, 1922–1965 written by Melissa Ooten and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2014-12-18 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book chronicles the history of movie censorship in Virginia from the 1920s to 1960s. Ooten uses the contestations surrounding film censorship as a framework for more fully understanding the dominant political, economic, and cultural hierarchies that structured Virginia in the mid-twentieth century.

Freedom to Offend

Download Freedom to Offend PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University Press of Kentucky
ISBN 13 : 0813172152
Total Pages : 280 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (131 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Freedom to Offend by : Raymond Haberski

Download or read book Freedom to Offend written by Raymond Haberski and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2007-03-16 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the postwar era, the lure of controversy sold movie tickets as much as the promise of entertainment did. In Freedom to Offend, Raymond J. Haberski Jr. investigates the movie culture that emerged as official censorship declined and details how the struggle to free the screen has influenced our contemporary understanding of art and taste. These conflicts over film content were fought largely in the theaters and courts of New York City in the decades following World War II. Many of the regulators and religious leaders who sought to ensure that no questionable content invaded the public consciousness were headquartered in New York, as were the critics, exhibitors, and activists who sought to expand the options available to moviegoers. Despite Hollywood’s dominance of film production, New York proved to be not only the arena for struggles over film content but also the market where the financial fates of movies were sealed. Advocates for a wider range of cinematic expression eventually prevailed against the forces of censorship, but Freedom to Offend is no simple homily on the triumph of freedom from repression. In his analysis of controversies surrounding films from The Bicycle Thief to Deep Throat, Haberski offers a cautionary tale about the responsible use of the twin privileges of free choice and free expression. In the libertine 1970s, arguments in favor of the public’s right to see challenging and artistic films were twisted to provide intellectual cover for movies created solely to lure viewers with outrageous or titillating material. Social critics who stood against this emerging trend were lumped in with the earlier crusaders for censorship, though their criticism was usually rational rather than moralistic in nature. Freedom to Offend calls attention to what was lost as well as what was gained when movie culture freed itself from the restrictions of the early postwar years. Haberski exposes the unquestioning defense of the doctrine of free expression as a form of absolutism that mirrors the censorial impulse found among the postwar era’s restrictive moral guardians. Beginning in New York and spreading across America throughout the twentieth century, the battles between these opposing worldviews set the stage for debates on the social effects of the work of artists and filmmakers.