For every country, there always comes a time when it goes through an authoritarian regime, at least once—that is, unless you live in a utopian exception. During such times, “authority figures” try to force-feed you their version of morality and ethics. In Hollywood, that propagandist endeavor was known as the Hays Code, which remained active from 1934 to 1968.Will H. Hays, originally a Republican politician and a member of Warren G. Harding’s cabinet, served as the first chairman of Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (which is now known as Motion Picture Association of America, or MPAA). In this capacity, he drafted and enforced a set of “self-censorship” guidelines that were meant to “protect the audience from corrupting influences.” In simple words, it translates to moral policing of sex, desire, violence, profanity—basically, anything that the censor deemed would be a bad influence on the viewers’ imagination.The Hays Code tried to shape everything from what and how characters spoke, behaved, and even thought. Something as small as a suggestive word could be a fair ground for debates, negotiations, or even legal fights. Mostly, movie studios tried to co-exist with the code by following the rules or, at best, writing and directing movies around its technicalities.But, like revolutionaries, some filmmakers refused to play along. Some did what they wanted and released their films with waivers, while others “smuggled in” their sensibilities through clever writing.These seven quotes from that era are indicative of how some Hollywood writers tested boundaries of the Hays...
Published By: NoFilmSchool - Today