Film Censorship In USA

1896 movie arrives in the U.S. and soon attracts large and enthusiastic audiences, critics assail them, including Thomas Edison's landmark 1896 film, The Kiss, as a threat to morality.

1907 Chicago deals the first film censorship law in America. Cities and states around the nation to create local censorship boards in the following years, resulting in a wide range of rules and standards.

The 1909 National Board of Censorship, which represents mainstream Protestantism, created following complaints about "obscene" movie theaters causes in New York City to close. By the 1920s, most Protestant critics of the film, calling for federal regulation of industry.

1914 Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), who in 1906 condemned the influence of films on health, welfare and morale impressionable young people begin to lobby aggressively for government regulation of film. The WCTU argue that movies are "addictive", which glorifies war and violence and that they cause crime, crime and immoral behavior.

1914 Margaret Sanger is indicted under federal obscenity laws for her book A Woman Rebel. After further indictments and arrests, she flees to Europe to return later and open the first birth control clinic in New York.

1915 in Mutual Film Corporation v. Ohio Industrial Commission, the Supreme Court that the film is not protected by the First Amendment. The decision gives the government and local councils to continue to censor films.

1915 NAACP and others protest against Birth of a Nation, DW Griffith's film about the Civil War and Reconstruction, which incites riots in Ohio, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Colorado. It will be the most banned film in U.S. history because of its controversial racist content.

1918 Sedition Act and the Espionage Act is adopted making it illegal for Americans to publicly criticize the U.S. government, the American flag, the U.S. military, and the

Constitution .

1919 Supreme Court confirms the conviction of Eugene V. Debs for publicly opposed U.S. participation in World War I. More than 10,000 suspected communists and anarchists are arrested in a series of attacks carried out by Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer and J. Edgar Hoover.

1922 The Motion Picture producers and distributors in the U.S. (MPPDA), which later became the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has been formed, led by former Postmaster General William H. Hays.

1925 WCTU decides that movies are the main cultural influence on youth and that MPPDA not doing enough to regulate their content. It gives a Motion Picture Department to press for government regulation.

1925 John T. Scopes goes to a court in Dayton, Tennessee courtroom, charged with violation of the law on educational development in his high school biology class. 

1927 Independent Film exhibitors, frustrated studio rules giving them little influence over which films they show, creating the Allied States Association, and join other critics in calling for government regulation.

1930 MPPDA create a code to preserve the social and EC values in the production of Silent, Synchronized and Talking Motion Pictures, also called the Production Code or Hays Code. It condemns the movie to "lower the moral standards" of viewers and promises to "sympathy for the audience should never be thrown to the side of crime, wrongdoing, evil or sin." Movie producers pay little attention to the code, however. 

1930 Mary Ware Dennett is convicted of obscenity for distributing "The Sex Side of Life", an educational booklet about sex and reproduction. The conviction is later reversed.

1934 The Catholic Legion of decency is formed. An estimated 10 million Catholics to sign a pledge "to abstain from all offensive to see movies or attend a theater that showed such a film." But Legion advocates self-regulation, not government regulation, because of concerns about separation of church and state. The risk of Catholic boycotts, however, provides an economic incentive to placate Catholic critics.

1934 Joseph I. Breen, head of the new Production Code Authority, which enforces the Hays Code. Under Breen, serving for 20 years, PSA is closely allied with the legion of decency. During this period, major film production companies' to join the PSA, and any company that releases a film without its approval is subject to a fine.

1934 Random House, publisher of Joyce's novel Ulysses, challenges ban on the book, and win a decision from the federal appeals court that the book is not obscene. 

1945 Hays will resign as leader of MPPDA and is replaced by the former head of the American Chamber of Commerce, Eric Johnston, who renamed the organization the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).

1945 in Thomas V. Collins, the Supreme Court overrules a Texas statute requiring union officials to obtain a license before the solution is organized, finding that the statute violates the First Amendment.

1946 Hannegan v. Esquire, Supreme Court rules that Esquire Magazine is distributed via email, rejects the U.S. postmaster general's assertion that it is indecent.

1950 in the first of many accusations, "said Senator Joe McCarthy a women's club in Wheeling, West Virginia, that he has a list of 205 communist sympathizers who work in the U.S. State Department. McCarthy hearings soon focus on Hollywood, and ultimately result in a "black list" of admitted or suspected Communist sympathizers or "fellow travelers."

In 1952, Burstyn v. Wilson, the Supreme Court proposed a ban on Roberto Rosselini's film, The Miracle of the New York Regents Board had found "sacrilegious." For the first time the Supreme Court that "motion pictures are an important medium for communication of ideas," entitled to some First Amendment protection.

1955 - 1956 The Legion of decency and MPAA begin to collide: The Legion Approves man with a Golden Arm, including a depiction of drug use, but the MPAA does not, while Elia Kazan's film Baby Doll is approved by the MPAA, but condemned by the Legion of erotic content .

1956 MPAA launches investigation of the Production Code, which results in loosening its ban on depictions of drug use, abortion, miscegenation, prostitution and abortion. The revised code adds a prohibition against blasphemy and ridiculing the clergy.

1957 in Roth vs. United States, Supreme Court rules that sexual content is protected by the First Amendment unless it lacks "redeeming social importance." 

In 1959 found that the film version of Lady Chatterly's Lover is entitled to First Amendment protection, the Supreme Court determines that its sympathetic portrayal of adultery is not obscene.

1961 in Times Film Corp v Chicago, Supreme Court says that Chicago's licensing scheme, which required film exhibitors to submit films to the police before the screening, not a prior restraint on speech, while the courts to decide in each case, the result is the Constitution.

1963 Comedian Lenny Bruce was repeatedly arrested for performances called obscene and blasphemous.

1961 - 1965 appellate courts in state and federal levels consistently rejecting efforts to censor films.

1966 Jack Valenti, former advisor to President Lyndon Johnson, head of the MPAA, and immediately begin to revise the Production Code. He creates the category "SMA - Proposal for Mature audiences" to "serious" material. Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf is the first film, designated SMA.

1966 Rather than cut nude scenes from Blow-Up, Michelangelo Antonioni chooses to release it without an MPAA seal.

1968 MPAA institutes a nationwide system of voluntary ratings based on the user's age, as a result of continued resistance Production Code and that rulings indicate that different First Amendment applicable to adults and minors. The initial reviews are G for general audiences, M for Mature audiences, R for 16 years and older, unless accompanied by a parent or guardian, and X, under 16 not admitted.

1969 I Street v. New York Supreme Court finds that the First Amendment protects the right to "cast contempt on the" flag.

1969 Midnight Cowboy wins three Oscars. It is the first and only X-rated film to receive an Oscar for best film.

1971 Pentagon Papers that describe U.S. involvement in Vietnam, published by The New York Times. The government imposes Times with violating the Espionage Act and seeks to enjoin further publication. Supreme Court rejects the Government's argument and argues that the injunction violates the First Amendment.

1972 in Miller v. California, Supreme Court defines obscenity, which is partly based on EC standards.

1978 in FCC v. Pacifica Foundation, Supreme Court upholds the FCC's ruling that George Carlin's "seven dirty words" monologue was indecent.

1970s - 1980s, the X-rating, which was trademarked by the MPAA will be equated with pornography. Newspapers and TV reject advertisements for X-rated movies, and some theaters refuse to screen X-rated movies.

1981 Students rally to challenge the book ban in their local school library in Island Trees, New York, and win reinstatement of many titles, including Slaughterhouse Five, Black Boy, Soul on Ice, and The Best Short Stories by Negro Writers.

1982 in NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware Co., Supreme Court rules that the NAACP's non-violent civil rights boycotts are protected by the First Amendment. 

1988 in Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that student journalists may be censored by school officials.

1989 The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) comes under attack. Senators Al D'Amato and Jesse Helms claims that taxpayers' money should not be used to support offensive art. In 1998, the Supreme Court maintains the NEA has the right to take "standards of decency" into account when making grants to artists. NEA phases out subsidies to individual artists shortly thereafter.

1990 X rating was replaced by NC-17 to distinguish art from pornography films. Nevertheless, religious activists pressure large video chains as Blockbuster and Wal-Mart, not to stock NC-17 titles.

1991 In Rust v. Sullivan, the Supreme Court upholds restrictions on information about abortion in federally financed family planning clinics.

1992 under pressure from police unions, Time Warner removes rapper Ice T's song "Cop Killer" from his album, Body Count.

1993 in Lamb's Chapel v. Center Moriches Sch. Dist., The Supreme Court finds that public schools must allow religious groups equal access to their facilities.

1996 in Reno vs. ACLU, the U.S. Supreme Court declares that online speech is protected by the First Amendment to the same extent as printed material.

2006 No movies rated NC-17 has been a huge box office success.

While the MPAA membership is voluntary, all the seven major Hollywood studios send their movies to its rating board. Most Cineplex chains, retail giants, and home-video chain only show films that have an MPAA rating. Films are not rated are not shown in any MPAA-affiliated theaters. In many markets, adults with little or no access to NC-17 or unrated movies.

Censored and challenged Films: A Selection

Monkey Business, 1931. The sexual innuendoes of Groucho Marx's film, with its suggestive delivery were often exposed to the censors.

She Done Him Wrong, 1933. Like Groucho Marx, Mae West's - racy dialogue, "Why do not you come up sometime and see me. I'm home every night" --- and cheeky delivery were often exposed to the censors. They were also partly responsible for a strengthening of morality-focused Hays Code in 1934.

Casablanca, 1942. Censors demanded changes in the history of the affair between Rick and Ilsa, which requires that Ilsa husband Victor is dead, instead of awayon business, to remove any suspicion of irregularities.

The African Queen, 1951. Among the many scenes and exchanges that censors objected to in this classic was an "immoral relationship" between a missionary and a hard boat captain during World War I, the "questionable taste" of the sound of stomach growling, and the film's depiction of "ridiculous missionaries "which might be offensive" to people with serious religious belief. "Moreover, the kiss is not to be" passionate, lustful, or open-mouthed. "

A Streetcar Named Desire, 1951. References to Blanche Dubois' infidelity was removed from the original 1951 version. Censors were also dealing with moral ambiguity of characters.

Les Amant (The Lovers) 1958th It was not so much the graphical representation of sex in this classic film by Malle shows only a glimpse of the protagonist's bare breast, but rather its celebration of marriage liaisons. Ohio implemented a law to ban indecency film, but in 1968 the Supreme Court overturned the obscenity conviction in Ohio Theater, which showed the film.

Bonnie and Clyde, 1967. This film, released shortly after the end of the Hays Code, was notable for its depiction of graphic violence. Critics and the public was concerned that the movie glamorized violence, because the main characters was very exciting and appealing. 

The Last Picture Show, 1971. This film contains a scene of Cybill Shepherd nude bathing was banned in Phoenix in 1973 for violating a state obscenity statute. A federal court later ruled that the film was not indecent.

Carnal Knowledge, 1971. Although the film explored very sophisticated themes and characters, censorship was blinded by the titillating title and the hint of sex. In 1972 the film was seized and a theater manager was arrested in Georgia. The Supreme Court eventually overturned conviction.

Salo or 120 days of Sodom, 1975. In 1994, owner and manager of the Pink Pyramid, a small gay and lesbian bookstore in Cincinnati for fines and prison sentences for obscenity, after undercover police rented a videotape of the movie. The case was finally settled when the prosecutor dropped six charges and the shop agreed to plead no contest and pay a $ 500 fine.

The Tin Drum, 1979. Oklahoma City Police confiscated the film from video stores, the public library, and private homes in June 1997, in response to complaints from Oklahomans for Children and Families (OLAF). A federal judge ruled that the film does not contain child pornography and that it is constitutionally protected because of its artistic value.

If you love this Planet, 1982. This Canadian documentary on the medical and social consequences of nuclear war triggered concern because the interruption of short clips from the Ronald Reagan film. After the U.S. Justice Department called the film "political propaganda," the movie notorious, ultimately leading to an Academy Award for best short documentary film director Terri Nash. In his acceptance speech, she thanked the U.S. government so effectively "advertising" her film.

Last Temptation of Christ, 1988. This film spurred boycotts over the portrayal of a sexual relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. Protests outside theaters, read: "Do not Crucify Christ Again", "Stop this attack on Christianity," and "Scripture Not Scripts." 

Natural Born Killers, 1994. This movie is a graph of seemingly random violence caused Blockbuster, K-Mart and Wal-Mart to refuse to stock the Director's Cut of the film.