CÓDIGO HAYS - A CENSURA NO CINEMA
O Código Hays foi escrito por um dos líderes do Partido Republicano (EUA), chamado William H. Hays, daí o seu apelido. Entrou em vigor em 1933 e sobreviveu até 1956, embora as mudanças fossem graduais até os meados dos anos de 1960, em razão dos vários movimentos que estavam aparecendo, como a liberação feminina e os hippies. Os cineastas passaram a ignorar as regras do código, fazendo filmes sem a aprovação da censura. Em 1968, o Código Hays cedeu lugar a uma tabela de classificação de filmes, levando em conta a idade do espectador.
BREVE RESUMO
Em 1924 todas as produções já passavam por seu crivo - e, em 1930, as regras de censura foram oficializadas no chamado Código Hays. A aplicação dessa espécie de cartilha conservadora atingiu o auge a partir de 1934, quando o departamento responsável pelo controle moral dos filmes caiu nas mãos do ativista religioso Joseph Breen.
O nome da lista de coisas proibidas era chamada de “The Don’ts and Be Carefuls” (Os não e tenha cuidado, numa tradução livre), e dividia-se em duas partes:
Já na lista de “be carefuls” (no qual indicava precisamente para ter cuidado quando fossem tratar de certos temas), havia: O uso da bandeira dos Estados Unidos; Relações internacionais (evitar falar sobre religião, história, cultura e cidadãos de outros países); Incêndio culposo; Uso de armas; Roubo, furto, etc; Brutalidade e violência; Assassinatos de qualquer método; Contrabando; Enforcamento, eletrocussão ou qualquer outra punição legal para crimes; Simpatia para criminosos; Pessoas e instituições públicas; Crueldade com crianças e animais; Venda de mulheres ou prostituição; Estupro ou tentativa de estupro; Homem e mulher na cama juntos; Sedução deliberada de meninas; A instituição do casamento; Operações cirúrgicas; Uso de drogas; Cenas contendo policiais; Cenas de beijos excessivos.
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| INFOGRÁFICO |
HISTÓRIAS
Apelidado de "o Hitler de Hollywood", Breen travou uma dura batalha contra o diretor e produtor Howard Hughes após assistir a uma exibição preliminar do filme O Proscrito (The Outlaw), de 1941. Sobre o filme, Breen escreveu: "Em mais de dez anos de analista crítico de filmes, eu nunca vi nada tão inaceitável quanto as tomadas do busto da personagem Rio (Jane Russell)". Breen mandou cortar 37 closes dos seios da atriz. Hughes, porém, recusou-se a modificar a obra e, desafiando o censor, lançou o filme em 1946 com uma publicidade provocadora: contratou aviões para escrever no céu o título do filme dentro de dois balões com um pequeno círculo no meio, numa clara referência aos atributos mamários de Jane Russell.
PRE-CODE
Alpinistas sociais protagonizaram clássicos como Serpentes de Luxo (Baby Face, 1933) e A Mulher Parisiense dos Cabelos de Fogo (Red-Headed Woman, 1932). Gangsteres em filmes como Inimigo Público (The Public Enemy, 1931); Scarface - A Vergonha de Uma Nação (Scarface, 1932) e Alma no Lado (Little Caesar, 1931), eram bastante glamourizados, quase retratados como heróis.
Obviamente, a Grande Depressão teve uma enorme influência nos filmes pre-code, tanto financeira como artisticamente. Como foi observado por F. Scott Fitzgerald em 1931, "Ao fim de dois anos a Era do Jazz parece tão distante quanto nos dias antes da guerra". A quebra da Bolsa de Nova York em 1929 fora um evento catalisador, pelo que no começo da década de 1930 os conceitos de moral - e os excessos da década anterior - foram muito discutidos.
O clima nos EUA não podia ser menos tenso, havia descrença e desilusão por toda parte, o pessimismo pairava sobre todas as cabeças. No âmbito cinematográfico, Hollywood nunca havia experimentado um grau de liberdade artística tão grande: não é à toa que havia o desafio de retratar temas ditos 'sórdidos', que depois seriam mantidos longe dos olhares do público por décadas.
Muitos astros e estrelas viram o nascimento de suas carreiras e o auge delas durante o período pre-code. Atores como Clark Gable, James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson, Warren William, e divas do calibre de Barbara Stanwyck, Norma Shearer, Mae West, Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich e Jean Harlow, foram provavelmente os que mais brilharam durante o Pre-Code Hollywood. Além dos já citados, filmes como Safe in Hell (1931); Almas Pecadoras (Laughing Sinners, 1931); Female (1933); A Divorciada (The Divorcee, 1930); Uma Alma Livre (A Free Soul, 1931), Rainha Christina (Queen Christina, 1933); Vias da Ruína (The Road to Ruin, 1934); Marrocos (Morocco, 1930), Assim Amam as Mulheres (Christopher Strong, 1933) e A Mulher Miraculosa (The Miracle Woman, 1931), eram extremamente provocativos, retratando temas ditos 'proibidos', como prostituição, triângulos amorosos, adultério, aborto, homossexualidade, suicídio e hipocrisia religiosa. O sexo e os problemas sociais eram os temas mais recorrentes dos filmes pre-code.
O FIM E O PRINCÍPIO
Como se não bastasse, Breen ainda tinha poderes ilimitados para censurar e alterar cenas, roteiros e muito mais. Muitos diretores e roteiristas de Hollywood se irritaram, todavia tiveram que se submeter às decisões dele. Um dos casos mais famosos da ação da censura foi justamente no filme Casablanca, de 1942. No filme de Michael Curtiz, Breen se opôs veementemente a que o roteiro refira de alguma forma que Rick (Humphrey Bogart) e Lisa (Ingrid Bergman) tenham dormido juntos antes em Paris. Até o final do filme teria sido descaradamente alterado conforme as exigências de Breen, que descartava um final feliz para o 'amor adúltero' dos dois, o que consequentemente originou a cena final - uma das mais famosas deste filme e da história do cinema. Até a atrevida personagem de desenho animado Betty Boop foi censurada e de sex-symbol passou a ser uma espécia de dona de casa.
Sobre O Proscrito, Breen escreveu: "Em mais de dez anos de analista crítico de filmes, eu nunca vi nada tão inaceitável quanto as tomadas do busto da personagem Rio (Jane Russell)". Breen mandou cortar 37 closes dos seios da atriz. O bilionário Hughes, porém, recusou-se a modificar a obra e conseguiu estreá-la em 1943; como retaliação, Hughes fez uma das maiores campanhas publicitárias da história do cinema, focada justamente nos seios da atriz Jane Russell (foto mais acima).
LISTA NEGRA
Eram 16 as principais proibições do Código Hays:
Sexo apresentado de maneira imprópria
Cenas românticas prolongadas e apaixonadas
Ridicularizar funcionários públicos
Retratar religiosos de maneira pejorativa ou cômica
Filmes com o tema da escravidão branca
Destacar o submundo
Ofender crenças religiosas
Referências a doenças venéreas
Tornar os vícios atraentes
Tornar o jogo e a bebida atraentes
Enfatizar a violência
Uso de drogas
Nudez
Exibir em detalhes métodos de ação criminosa
Retratar gestos e posturas vulgares
Miscigenação e alusão ao amor entre brancos e negros
HAYS DECAÍNDO...
Com cada vez mais contestações, com a crescente projeção do cinema europeu e seus cineastas e com o advento da televisão no país, o código foi perdendo força, poder e credibilidade, entrando em declínio já nos anos 50. Filmes densos e de temáticas pesadas, como Um Bonde Chamado Desejo (A Streetcar Named Desire, 1951); Juventude Transviada (Rebel Without a Case, 1955); Gata em Teto de Zinco Quente (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, 1958) e De Repente, No Último Verão (Suddenly, Last Summer, 1959) foram responsáveis por levar às telas uma nova linguagem cinematográfica, abordando assuntos 'espinhosos' que há muito tempo não eram vistos em Hollywood.
Aliado a isso, o bom desempenho dos cinemas francês e italiano a nível mundial chegou também em Hollywood. Filmes como o provocante E Deus Criou a Mulher (Et Dieu... Créa la Femme, 1956) provocavam frenesi nos Estados Unidos. A explosão da sex-symbol francesa Brigitte Bardot e o comportamento incendiário da sua personagem era uma espécie de prenúncio da revolução comportamental que irrompeu anos mais tarde.
Durante os anos 60, a aplicação tornou-se insustentável e o Código de Produção foi definitivamente abandonado em fins da década, quando já não significava mais nada. Oficialmente, a MPAA adotou o novo sistema de classificação por faixa etária (que perdura até hoje) em novembro de 1968. Curiosamente, aproximadamente um ano antes da adesão oficial, estreava Bonnie e Clyde - Uma Rajada de Balas (Bonnie and Clyde, 1967); filme responsável por 'inaugurar' um novo jeito de fazer cinema em Hollywood - e de quebra glamourizar criminosos, uma das principais proibições do ultrapassado Código Hays.
Quer conhecer o Código Hays original?
Veja abaixo, mas antes, vamos a uma dica de filmes do período:
OBRAS-PRIMAS DO CINEMA, lançou: CINEMA PRE-CODE, nesta coleção de 4 filmes restaurados e remasterizados, estão reunidos quatro filmes desse importante período da história da 7ª arte, que explorava assuntos como o uso de drogas, prostituição, homossexualidade, infidelidade, além da glamourização de gângsteres e de mulheres que usavam o sexo como ascensão social. Em digipak especial com 2 DVDs e 4 cards!
Disco 01:
O Cântico dos Cânticos
(The Song of Songs | 1933 |1.37:1 | Áudio: Inglês | Legendas: Português, Inglês| Colorido | 89 minutos)
Direção: Rouben Mamoulian. Elenco Principal: Marlene Dietrich, Brian Aherne, Lionel Atwill.
Após a morte de seu pai, Lily se muda para Berlim para morar com sua tia. Lá, ela se apaixona por um escultor que se interessa em esculpi-la para um Barão. Porém, quando o Barão conhece Lily, decide fazer de tudo para conquistá-la. Estrelado por Marlene Dietrich, é uma adaptação da obra do também alemão Hermann Sudermann, escritor de Aurora.
Santa Não Sou
(I'm No Angel | 1933 | 1.37:1 | Áudio: Inglês | Legendas: Português, Inglês| Preto e Branco | 87 minutos)
Direção: Wesley Ruggles. Elenco Principal: Mae West, Cary Grant, Gregory Ratoff.
Tira é uma artista de circo, e golpista, que busca uma vida melhor se envolvendo com homens ricos de Nova Iorque. Um drama romântico repleto de música, glamour e humor. Sucesso de público escrito e protagonizado por Mae West, a polêmica multiartista e sex-symbol norte-americana.
Disco 02:
Levada à Força
(The Story of Temple Drake | 1933 | 1.37:1 | Áudio: Inglês | Legendas: Português, Inglês| Preto e Branco | 71 minutos)
Direção: Stephen Roberts. Elenco Principal: Miriam Hopkins, William Gargan, Jack La Rue.
Temple Drake é uma bela e rica sulista, mas neurótica, que se vê presa no esconderijo de uma gangue de contrabandistas. O líder da gangue a deseja e está determinado a não permitir que nada o impeça de tê-la. Baseado em “Sanctuary”, uma das obras mais ousadas de William Faulkner.
Serpente de Luxo
(Baby Face | 1933 | 1.37:1 | Áudio: Inglês | Legendas: Português, Inglês| Preto e Branco | 76 minutos)
Direção: Alfred E. Green. Elenco Principal: Barbara Stanwyck, George Brent, Donald Cook.
Lily Powers é uma alpinista social que utiliza o sexo como arma. Explorada durante toda a vida, decide virar o jogo e explorar os infelizes homens de um grande banco da cidade. Sua escalada de andar a andar do edifício, até chegar ao topo, simboliza sua ascensão social. Um dos filmes mais representativos do período Pre-Code.
EXTRAS:
• Pre-Code vs. Código Hays (5 minutos)
• Discutindo Levada à Força (15 minutos)
• "Levada à Força" e Miriam Hopkins (20 minutos)
• Making of de Levada à Força (18 minutos)
MAIS INFORMAÇÕES DA EDIÇÃO:
Título: Cinema Pre-Code
País de Produção: Estados Unidos
Ano de Produção: escrever
Gênero: Drama | Romance | Comédia
Direção: Rouben Mamoulian, Wesley Ruggles, Stephen Roberts, Alfred E. Green.
Elenco: Barbara Stanwyck, Marlene Dietrich, Miriam Hopkins, Mae West, Cary Grant, George Brent, William Gargan, Brian Aherne, Lionel Atwill, Gregory Ratoff, Jack La Rue, Donald Cook.
Áudio: Dolby Digital 2.0
Idioma: Inglês
Legendas: Português - Inglês.
Duração Aproximada: 323 minutos.
Região: Aberto para todas as zonas (Livre)
Classificação Indicativa: Não recomendado para menores de 14 anos. Contém: Insinuação sexual, Consumo de drogas lícitas
Agora veja o...
CODIGO HAYS ORIGINAL
General Principles
1. No picture shall be produced that will lower the
moral standards of those who see it. Hence the sympathy of the audience should
never be thrown to the side of crime, wrongdoing, evil or sin.
2. Correct standards of life, subject only to the
requirements of drama and entertainment, shall be presented.
3. Law, natural or human, shall not be ridiculed, nor
shall sympathy be created for its violation.
Particular Applications
I. Crimes Against the Law
These shall never be presented in such a way as to
throw sympathy with the crime as against law and justice or to inspire others
with a desire for imitation.
1. Murder
a. The technique of murder must be presented in
a way that will not inspire imitation.
b. Brutal killings are not to be presented in
detail.
c. Revenge in modern times shall not be
justified.
2. Methods of Crime should not be explicitly
presented.
a. Theft, robbery, safe-cracking, and
dynamiting of trains, mines, buildings, etc., should not be detailed in method.
b. Arson must subject to the same safeguards.
c. The use of firearms should be restricted to
the essentials.
d. Methods of smuggling should not be
presented.
3. Illegal drug traffic must never be presented.
4. The use of liquor in American life, when not
required by the plot or for proper characterization, will not be shown.
II. Sex
The sanctity of the institution of marriage and the
home shall be upheld. Pictures shall not infer that low forms of sex
relationship are the accepted or common thing.
1. Adultery, sometimes necessary plot material, must
not be explicitly treated, or justified, or presented attractively.
2. Scenes of Passion
a. They should not be introduced when not
essential to the plot.
b. Excessive and lustful kissing, lustful
embraces, suggestive postures and gestures, are not to be shown.
c. In general passion should so be treated that
these scenes do not stimulate the lower and baser element.
3. Seduction or Rape
a. They should never be more than suggested,
and only when essential for the plot, and even then never shown by explicit
method.
b. They are never the proper subject for
comedy.
4. Sex perversion or any inference to it is forbidden.
5. White slavery shall not be treated.
6. Miscegenation (sex relationships between the white
and black races) is forbidden.
7. Sex hygiene and venereal diseases are not subjects
for motion pictures.
8. Scenes of actual child birth, in fact or in silhouette,
are never to be presented.
9. Children's sex organs are never to be exposed.
III. Vulgarity
The treatment of low, disgusting, unpleasant, though
not necessarily evil, subjects should always be subject to the dictates of good
taste and a regard for the sensibilities of the audience.
IV. Obscenity
Obscenity in word, gesture, reference, song, joke, or
by suggestion (even when likely to be understood only by part of the audience)
is forbidden.
V. Profanity
Pointed profanity (this includes the words, God, Lord,
Jesus, Christ - unless used reverently - Hell, S.O.B., damn, Gawd), or every
other profane or vulgar expression however used, is forbidden.
VI. Costume
1. Complete nudity is never permitted. This includes
nudity in fact or in silhouette, or any lecherous or licentious notice thereof
by other characters in the picture.
2. Undressing scenes should be avoided, and never used
save where essential to the plot.
3. Indecent or undue exposure is forbidden.
4. Dancing or costumes intended to permit undue
exposure or indecent movements in the dance are forbidden.
VII. Dances
1. Dances suggesting or representing sexual actions or
indecent passions are forbidden.
2. Dances which emphasize indecent movements are to be
regarded as obscene.
VIII. Religion
1. No film or episode may throw ridicule on any
religious faith.
2. Ministers of religion in their character as
ministers of religion should not be used as comic characters or as villains.
3. Ceremonies of any definite religion should be
carefully and respectfully handled.
IX. Locations
The treatment of bedrooms must be governed by good
taste and delicacy.
X. National Feelings
1. The use of the Flag shall be consistently
respectful.
2. The history, institutions, prominent people and
citizenry of other nations shall be represented fairly.
XI. Titles
Salacious, indecent, or obscene titles shall not be
used.
XII. Repellent Subjects
The following subjects must be treated within the
careful limits of good taste:
1. Actual hangings or electrocutions as legal
punishments for crime.
2. Third degree methods.
3. Brutality and possible gruesomeness.
4. Branding of people or animals.
5. Apparent cruelty to children or animals.
6. The sale of women, or a woman selling her virtue.
7. Surgical operations.
Reasons Supporting the Preamble of the Code
I. Theatrical motion pictures, that is, pictures
intended for the theatre as distinct from pictures intended for churches,
schools, lecture halls, educational movements, social reform movements, etc.,
are primarily to be regarded as ENTERTAINMENT.
Mankind has always recognized the importance of
entertainment and its value in rebuilding the bodies and souls of human beings.
But it has always recognized that entertainment can be
a character either HELPFUL or HARMFUL to the human race, and in consequence has
clearly distinguished between:
a. Entertainment which tends to improve the race, or
at least to re-create and rebuild human beings exhausted with the realities of
life; and
b. Entertainment which tends to degrade human beings,
or to lower their standards of life and living.
Hence the MORAL IMPORTANCE of entertainment is
something which has been universally recognized. It enters intimately into the
lives of men and women and affects them closely; it occupies their minds and
affections during leisure hours; and ultimately touches the whole of their
lives. A man may be judged by his standard of entertainment as easily as by the
standard of his work.
So correct entertainment raises the whole standard of
a nation.
Wrong entertainment lowers the whole living conditions
and moral ideals of a race.
Note, for example, the healthy reactions to healthful
sports, like baseball, golf; the unhealthy reactions to sports like
cockfighting, bullfighting, bear baiting, etc.
Note, too, the effect on ancient nations of
gladiatorial combats, the obscene plays of Roman times, etc.
II. Motion pictures are very important as ART.
Though a new art, possibly a combination art, it has
the same object as the other arts, the presentation of human thought, emotion,
and experience, in terms of an appeal to the soul through the senses.
Here, as in entertainment,
Art enters intimately into the lives of human beings.
Art can be morally good, lifting men to higher levels.
This has been done through good music, great painting, authentic fiction,
poetry, drama.
Art can be morally evil it its effects. This is the
case clearly enough with unclean art, indecent books, suggestive drama. The
effect on the lives of men and women are obvious.
Note: It has often been argued that art itself is
unmoral, neither good nor bad. This is true of the THING which is music,
painting, poetry, etc. But the THING is the PRODUCT of some person's mind, and
the intention of that mind was either good or bad morally when it produced the
thing. Besides, the thing has its EFFECT upon those who come into contact with it.
In both these ways, that is, as a product of a mind and as the cause of
definite effects, it has a deep moral significance and unmistakable moral
quality.
Hence: The motion pictures, which are the most popular
of modern arts for the masses, have their moral quality from the intention of
the minds which produce them and from their effects on the moral lives and
reactions of their audiences. This gives them a most important morality.
1. They reproduce the morality of the men who use the
pictures as a medium for the expression of their ideas and ideals.
2. They affect the moral standards of those who,
through the screen, take in these ideas and ideals.
In the case of motion pictures, the effect may be
particularly emphasized because no art has so quick and so widespread an appeal
to the masses. It has become in an incredibly short period the art of the
multitudes.
III. The motion picture, because of its importance as
entertainment and because of the trust placed in it by the peoples of the
world, has special MORAL OBLIGATIONS:
A. Most arts appeal to the mature. This art appeals at
once to every class, mature, immature, developed, undeveloped, law abiding,
criminal. Music has its grades for different classes; so has literature and
drama. This art of the motion picture, combining as it does the two fundamental
appeals of looking at a picture and listening to a story, at once reaches every
class of society.
B. By reason of the mobility of film and the ease of
picture distribution, and because the possibility of duplicating positives in
large quantities, this art reaches places unpenetrated by other forms of art.
C. Because of these two facts, it is difficult to
produce films intended for only certain classes of people. The exhibitors'
theatres are built for the masses, for the cultivated and the rude, the mature
and the immature, the self-respecting and the criminal. Films, unlike books and
music, can with difficulty be confined to certain selected groups.
D. The latitude given to film material cannot, in
consequence, be as wide as the latitude given to book material. In addition:
a. A book describes; a film vividly presents.
One presents on a cold page; the other by apparently living people.
b. A book reaches the mind through words
merely; a film reaches the eyes and ears through the reproduction of actual
events.
c. The reaction of a reader to a book depends
largely on the keenness of the reader's imagination; the reaction to a film
depends on the vividness of presentation.
Hence many things which might be described or
suggested in a book could not possibly be presented in a film.
E. This is also true when comparing the film with the
newspaper.
a. Newspapers present by description, films by
actual presentation.
b. Newspapers are after the fact and present
things as having taken place; the film gives the events in the process of
enactment and with apparent reality of life.
F. Everything possible in a play is not possible in a
film:
a. Because of the larger audience of the film,
and its consequential mixed character. Psychologically, the larger the
audience, the lower the moral mass resistance to suggestion.
b. Because through light, enlargement of
character, presentation, scenic emphasis, etc., the screen story is brought
closer to the audience than the play.
c. The enthusiasm for and interest in the film
actors and actresses, developed beyond anything of the sort in history, makes
the audience largely sympathetic toward the characters they portray and the
stories in which they figure. Hence the audience is more ready to confuse actor
and actress and the characters they portray, and it is most receptive of the emotions
and ideals presented by the favorite stars.
G. Small communities, remote from sophistication and
from the hardening process which often takes place in the ethical and moral
standards of larger cities, are easily and readily reached by any sort of film.
H. The grandeur of mass settings, large action,
spectacular features, etc., affects and arouses more intensely the emotional
side of the audience.
In general, the mobility, popularity, accessibility,
emotional appeal, vividness, straightforward presentation of fact in the film
make for more intimate contact with a larger audience and for greater emotional
appeal.
Hence the larger moral responsibilities of the motion
pictures.
Reasons Underlying the General Principles
I. No picture shall be produced which will lower the
moral standards of those who see it. Hence the sympathy of the audience should
never be thrown to the side of crime, wrong-doing, evil or sin.
This is done:
1. When evil is made to appear attractive and
alluring, and good is made to appear unattractive.
2. When the sympathy of the audience is thrown on the
side of crime, wrongdoing, evil, sin. The same is true of a film that would
thrown sympathy against goodness, honor, innocence, purity or honesty.
Note: Sympathy with a person who sins is not the same
as sympathy with the sin or crime of which he is guilty. We may feel sorry for
the plight of the murderer or even understand the circumstances which led him
to his crime: we may not feel sympathy with the wrong which he has done. The
presentation of evil is often essential for art or fiction or drama. This in
itself is not wrong provided:
a. That evil is not presented alluringly. Even
if later in the film the evil is condemned or punished, it must not be allowed
to appear so attractive that the audience's emotions are drawn to desire or
approve so strongly that later the condemnation is forgotten and only the
apparent joy of sin is remembered.
b. That throughout, the audience feels sure
that evil is wrong and good is right.
II. Correct standards of life shall, as far as
possible, be presented.
A wide knowledge of life and of living is made
possible through the film. When right standards are consistently presented, the
motion picture exercises the most powerful influences. It builds character,
develops right ideals, inculcates correct principles, and all this in
attractive story form.
If motion pictures consistently hold up for admiration
high types of characters and present stories that will affect lives for the
better, they can become the most powerful force for the improvement of mankind.
III. Law, natural or human, shall not be ridiculed,
nor shall sympathy be created for its violation.
By natural law is understood the law which is written
in the hearts of all mankind, the greater underlying principles of right and
justice dictated by conscience.
By human law is understood the law written by
civilized nations.
1. The presentation of crimes against the law is often
necessary for the carrying out of the plot. But the presentation must not throw
sympathy with the crime as against the law nor with the criminal as against
those who punish him.
2. The courts of the land should not be presented as
unjust. This does not mean that a single court may not be presented as unjust,
much less that a single court official must not be presented this way. But the
court system of the country must not suffer as a result of this presentation.
Reasons Underlying the Particular Applications
I. Sin and evil enter into the story of human beings
and hence in themselves are valid dramatic material.
II. In the use of this material, it must be
distinguished between sin which repels by it very nature, and sins which often
attract.
a. In the first class come murder, most theft,
many legal crimes, lying, hypocrisy, cruelty, etc.
b. In the second class come sex sins, sins and
crimes of apparent heroism, such as banditry, daring thefts, leadership in
evil, organized crime, revenge, etc.
The first class needs less care in treatment, as sins
and crimes of this class are naturally unattractive. The audience instinctively
condemns all such and is repelled.
Hence the important objective must be to avoid the
hardening of the audience, especially of those who are young and
impressionable, to the thought and fact of crime. People can become accustomed
even to murder, cruelty, brutality, and repellent crimes, if these are too
frequently repeated.
The second class needs great care in handling, as the
response of human nature to their appeal is obvious. This is treated more fully
below.
III. A careful distinction can be made between films
intended for general distribution, and films intended for use in theatres
restricted to a limited audience. Themes and plots quite appropriate for the
latter would be altogether out of place and dangerous in the former.
Note: The practice of using a general theatre and
limiting its patronage to "Adults Only" is not completely
satisfactory and is only partially effective.
However, maturer minds may easily understand and
accept without harm subject matter in plots which do younger people positive
harm.
Hence: If there should be created a special type of
theatre, catering exclusively to an adult audience, for plays of this character
(plays with problem themes, difficult discussions and maturer treatment) it
would seem to afford an outlet, which does not now exist, for pictures
unsuitable for general distribution but permissible for exhibitions to a
restricted audience.
I. Crimes Against the Law
The treatment of crimes against the law must not:
1. Teach methods of crime.
2. Inspire potential criminals with a desire for
imitation.
3. Make criminals seem heroic and justified.
Revenge in modern times shall not be justified. In
lands and ages of less developed civilization and moral principles, revenge may
sometimes be presented. This would be the case especially in places where no
law exists to cover the crime because of which revenge is committed.
Because of its evil consequences, the drug traffic
should not be presented in any form. The existence of the trade should not be
brought to the attention of audiences.
The use of liquor should never be excessively
presented. In scenes from American life, the necessities of plot and proper
characterization alone justify its use. And in this case, it should be shown
with moderation.
II. Sex
Out of a regard for the sanctity of marriage and the
home, the triangle, that is, the love of a third party for one already married,
needs careful handling. The treatment should not throw sympathy against
marriage as an institution.
Scenes of passion must be treated with an honest
acknowledgement of human nature and its normal reactions. Many scenes cannot be
presented without arousing dangerous emotions on the part of the immature, the
young or the criminal classes.
Even within the limits of pure love, certain facts
have been universally regarded by lawmakers as outside the limits of safe
presentation.
In the case of impure love, the love which society has
always regarded as wrong and which has been banned by divine law, the following
are important:
1. Impure love must not be presented as attractive and
beautiful.
2. It must not be the subject of comedy or farce, or
treated as material for laughter.
3. It must not be presented in such a way to arouse
passion or morbid curiosity on the part of the audience.
4. It must not be made to seem right and permissible.
5. It general, it must not be detailed in method and
manner.
III. Vulgarity; IV. Obscenity; V. Profanity; hardly
need further explanation than is contained in the Code.
VI. Costume
General Principles:
1. The effect of nudity or semi-nudity upon the normal
man or woman, and much more upon the young and upon immature persons, has been
honestly recognized by all lawmakers and moralists.
2. Hence the fact that the nude or semi-nude body may
be beautiful does not make its use in the films moral. For, in addition to its
beauty, the effect of the nude or semi-nude body on the normal individual must
be taken into consideration.
3. Nudity or semi-nudity used simply to put a
"punch" into a picture comes under the head of immoral actions. It is
immoral in its effect on the average audience.
4. Nudity can never be permitted as being necessary
for the plot. Semi-nudity must not result in undue or indecent exposures.
5. Transparent or translucent materials and silhouette
are frequently more suggestive than actual exposure.
VII. Dances
Dancing in general is recognized as an art and as a
beautiful form of expressing human emotions.
But dances which suggest or represent sexual actions,
whether performed solo or with two or more; dances intended to excite the
emotional reaction of an audience; dances with movement of the breasts,
excessive body movements while the feet are stationary, violate decency and are
wrong.
VIII. Religion
The reason why ministers of religion may not be comic
characters or villains is simply because the attitude taken toward them may
easily become the attitude taken toward religion in general. Religion is lowered
in the minds of the audience because of the lowering of the audience's respect
for a minister.
IX. Locations
Certain places are so closely and thoroughly
associated with sexual life or with sexual sin that their use must be carefully
limited.
X. National Feelings
The just rights, history, and feelings of any nation
are entitled to most careful consideration and respectful treatment.
XI. Titles
As the title of a picture is the brand on that
particular type of goods, it must conform to the ethical practices of all such
honest business.
XII. Repellent Subjects
Such subjects are occasionally necessary for the plot.
Their treatment must never offend good taste nor injure the sensibilities of an
audience.
