Why Film's Golden Age Ended

Christian Post ^ | 05/02/2010 | Charles Colson

[SeekAndFind]

One of the best films ever made is Frank Capra’s It Happened One Night, starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert. The 1934 comedy features an heiress on the run from her father, and the reporter who joins forces with her. The two fall in love and, alone in hotel rooms, to guard against temptation, they hang a blanket between their beds. They call it “the walls of Jericho.” When the couple finally ties the knot, the “wall” comes tumbling down.

In the 1930s, a plotline that precluded premarital sex was a wise idea. Movie-makers who flouted the Motion Picture Production Code risked a backlash against their films.

As Peter Dans writes in his new book, Christians in the Movies: A Century of Saints and Sinners, the Code’s purpose was to protect filmgoers from films that “will lower the standards of [viewers.]”

In recent years, much fun has been poked at the Code, which went belly up in 1968. But as Dans points out, enforcement of the Code brought about the “Golden Age of Film.” Requiring moviemakers to exercise restraint “was, on balance, beneficial to the creative process,” he says.

Joseph Bottom explains why in the foreword. “Naked breasts are eye-catching, and well-sculpted nudes don’t need much dialogue,” he notes. “So what happens when you can’t show them? Turns out, you have to tell a story instead.”

For example, imagine the plotline of It Happened One Night if no Code had been in force. Nothing would have prevented Gable and Colbert from sleeping together the minute they fell in love-or prevented Capra from filming a steamy bedroom scene. But then, much of the film’s tension and humor would have been lost. After all, the couple constantly bickered because they were so attracted to one another-but couldn’t act on their attraction.

Maybe that’s why film expert Thomas Doherty, author of Pre-Code Hollywood, claimed that the “most vivid and compelling motion pictures” ever made were created “under the most severe and narrow-minded censorship.”

I think he’s right. After all we certainly don’t call the era of films made after 1968-the year the Code was banished-the Golden Age of Film. Or go and visit the website of the American Movie Classics, and take a look at its list of the 100 greatest films ever made. You’ll find only 20 of them from 1968 on.

If modern films are largely inferior, maybe it’s because filmmakers have lost the art of storytelling-along with their grounding in a view of life that fits with the structure of reality. Instead, they offer false claims of salvation-along with graphic sex and violence to titillate instead of challenging the imaginations of their viewers. That’s why Patty and I generally old classics from Netflix.

There’s no bringing back the Motion Picture Production Code for films. But there are plenty of organizations that review movies in ways to help you protect your family from sex-laden films-and point you to excellent films. Films that make us think, make us laugh, make us cry. And films that tell a great story.

[knarf]

I remember seeing that!

Am I THAT old?

BTW .. I remember it being a very entertaining and enjoyable flick.

[RobRoy]

Watch “the notebook”, Fried Green Tomatoes” or, my latest favorite, “The Time Traveler’s Wife”.

There are still great stories out there.

This is coming from a 56 year old that watched the original Star Wars 26 times in the theater. For me it is all about the story now. It is why I simply could not stomach the last three SW movies.

[SeekAndFind]

What would a modern remake look like ? What would a 21st century Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert do if they found themselves alone in a hotel room ?

[RobRoy]

And Big Fish. And Grand Torino. And Forest Gump.

Etc.

[Sans-Culotte]

At 53, I was brought up on the Golden Age of Hollywood. I have over 300 DVDs and over 70 Blu-rays and the majority are pre-1980 films. Interesting take by Colson on why movies are not as good after standards became more permissive.

That said, The Godfather rocks, and it does not fit his mold.

[Defiant]

Well, based on when the movie was made, it would make you at least 86, probably older unless you were very precocious. Unless you saw it on AMC, in which case you could be 10 for all we know.

[ConorMacNessa]

They just don't make them like this anymore:



Lamh Foistenach Abu!

[Cringing Negativism Network]

Mostly because just as McCarthy warned: Hollywood was taken over by near-communists. For the most part.

Now it’s just propaganda.

[Clock King]

It’s all special effects now.

[discostu]

The Code didn’t bring a golden age to movies. It brought a stupid age to movies. Just look at the lame ending they forced on Scarface.

Oh and It Happened One Night was filmed BEFORE the Hays Code was enforced, one of the last movies filmed before enforcement.

[jocon307]

I thought “The Sixth Sense” was a great movie. Very clean, and just a good story.

This to me is one of the best “modern” movies.

Also “the Sting” is very good, a bit older and one of hubby’s faves.

Also “Tombstone” is very good and Val Kilmer is THE BEST in it. His final scene is one of the best of all time.

[ReneeLynn]

I’d hardly call the 40’s and 50’s in film a ‘stupid age’. Wow, there were so many great films made then.

But I love the pre-code dvd’s they’ve got out too. Barbara Stanwyck in Sadie McKee having sex with the railroad guard to be able to stay in the boxcar and get outta town. BUT, there was no sex scene. It was clearly implied.

Red-Headed Woman. Three On A Match, etc.

Netflix has the pre-code series.

[Chode]

i think one of the sexiest scenes ever filmed was in In Harms Way when Patricia Neal slipped of her shoes when she and the Duke decided she was going to spend the night...

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***In recent years, much fun has been poked at the Code, which went belly up in 1968.***

When Bobby Kennedy was murdered, america went berzerk! The public and media placed the blame on ...guns, violence on TV, comic books, the Vietnam war, race riots, the NRA, and violnt movies.

So, comic books became less bold.

Tv shows dumbed down (Look at GUNSMOKE before and after the dumbing down in 1968).
The 1968 Gun Control Act became law (Today we make America safe by taking guns out of the hands of criminals!-LBJ when signing the act into law).

But the Movie industry’s Damage Control said they would police themselves! HOT DAMN! The Hays Code is dead Producem boys! And the most vile movies then began to be made as they all had a “rating” to ptotect children.
G-M-R-X!
then
G-GP-R-X.
Then
G-PG-R-X.

And now it is worse. Some 1969 “R” movies are now considered “PG”.

It is so bad that I don’t go to theaters anymore and I rarely watch new movies as the most vile language and way too much blood runs from the screen (compare THE TAKING OF PELLAM 1-2-3, 1974 version vs today’s version).

[discostu]

There were many great films made, but the ones that actually got effected by the Hays Code were damaged by it. Forced to do dumb things like send Scarface to trial instead of having him get shot, put married couples in separate beds, it even kept them from making anti-Nazi movies. The problem the Hays Code had was the same problem internet filters have, they were hooked on concepts without paying attention to context. The Code said bad guys had to face justice, but the people running the Code didn’t understand that getting gunned down WAS justice. They didn’t want sex on film, but they didn’t understand that if a married couple has kids we already know they do it, separate beds won’t change that. So they forced stupid changes.

[dighton]

“Excuse me, lady, but that upon which you sit is mine.”

[GOP Poet]

bookmark

[yarddog]

I saw “Big Fish” just the other day and was surprised I had never heard of it. A really good movie.

Also saw an oldie, “The Edge of the World” made in the 30’s and thought it was a great movie. Even in Black and White the scenery was beautiful.

[NavyCanDo]

The movies from the 1937 to 1948 period has always been my favorites and occupy over half of my 2400 DVD library. But most of the censorship imposed on the film industry hurt not helped the pictures IMO. Not the language, I was fine with that - but the dress code was ridiculous. If you wanted to see a Hollywood hottie like Lana Turner, Ava Gardner, or Carole Landis in a tight sweater or two piece bathing suit you would have to look up to see what was painted on the nose of a B-17 flying overhead.