Do films today or from the 1940’s depict the the reality or the time, or are they fiction that misrepresents the time period?
I would say that any film set in the time it was made represents a stylized impression of the era in which it is made. In the 1940s, the Hays Code enforced a sense of morality and mandated certain outcomes (crime never paid for example) that did not really comport with the reality of that era.
On the other hand, PC today enforces its own code, which for the most part distorts the reality of we see it every day and presents what the liberal mind wants us to see. Which is more real? It’s hard to say, although I would suggest that in days gone by, the reality was closer on screen, absent the more unsavory elements of human nature, reality for minorities, etc.
What is not depicted in any of those films is the vulgar reality of today’s society.
- and in that is the appeal.